Welcome back everyone to Eighty Six! The shows been having a rough time recently, what with all the delays. In fact we won’t even be getting the last two episodes this year! What that says for the production I can’t say but odds are it isn’t very good. Anywanys, how about we hope into the episode.
Starting off, for all that the delays concern me Eighty Six gave us some good shots. From the time-lapse of the dragonfly corpse or Shin and Raiden’s talk on the bridge to the open vista’s and waving grass. The long panning shot of the mechs showing just how far away Shin was, mentally and physically, or Raiden and Shin’s shadows showing how he is alone only to reveal another person, etc. Eighty Six looked pretty this week. Of course there wasn’t much in the way of movement, the actual animation of Eighty Six seems to have taken a back seat. But if you ask me that’s fine! Fast paced action was never the main draw of the series, not visually nor narratively. So if we have to sacrifice it to get the snappy editing and scenic views back, I’ll gladly take that deal.
Getting into the actual episode, this week was all about Shin, his headspace, and the people around him. And you know what? Thats a pretty good topic. Shin has been acting out recently, taking larger risks and generally not caring about his own safety. It makes sense that those around him would begin to reevaluate their relationships with him. To start wondering how much they really know about him, how close they really are and what he’s really like. So far it seems like only Raiden has a good idea of whats going on. Considering their time together, that makes sense. But I expect the others, with the help of the omniscient Frederica, to figure it out eventually.
As for Shin himself I don’t want to say he’s realizing it, he was clearly already aware of what was happening. Rather it seems like he’s coming to terms with it. He’s accepting and vocalizing that unlike his friends, despite his best efforts, he can’t find a reason to live. He has no goal. And you know what? I like how Eighty Six handled this. For awhile I’ve found this arc to just be a rehash of season 1, and it still is to be frank, but there’s a purpose to. Last time they wandered these fields Shin did so expecting to die. His last few days of paradise before his death, that’s why he could smile about it. But now he has to face the very real possibility that there will be a tomorrow. And that his friends, with their own futures, will leave him behind. It works!
Hello everyone. This is the part of the post where Lenlo got really sick and no longer had the energy to write coherent sentences but wanted to finish the post anyways. As such, you now get the super special segment I call: “Lenlo rambles about Eighty Six without checking his draft”. Mondays suck yo, sorry.
So yeah, Frederica. I honestly still don’t care about her and find her inclusion in Eighty Six to be a joke. Her entire thing with Shin at the end was just… She didn’t need to be there. That scene could have managed just fine without her and even as it is now, Shin basically carried the whole thing solo. Yeah we get this whole thing like “I’m not your knight” and “My existence just causes strife” yada yada. But Shin doesn’t need a whiny 12 year old to connect with to get across how he lacks a purpose in life. Especially not with Lena still out there, completely untouched and unused as a character. Like… Imagine this character arc for Shin if instead of chasing some bullshit Morpho they were looking to save and relieve San Magnolia, to truly learn if Lena is alive or not.
The same could be said for the nature scenes. I like this kind of theme. The whole “Nature is better off without humans” is a good shtick and Eighty Six has the scenery to pull it off. But I don’t need a 12 year old to tell me in a squeaky voice what the point of the scene is. It’s like Eighty Six doesn’t trust its audience to figure things out, to come to their own conclusions, and so has a loli spell it out for them. I find this to be a damn shame because it’s severely impacting my enjoyment of what would otherwise me an acceptable, if unremarkable, sci-fi war drama. (Credit where its due though, her joke with Kurena was amusing)
So yeah all in all it was a fine episode. I just… If it wasn’t obvious by the slow pace of its post, combined with being sick of course, I find my interest in Eighty Six decreasing as the weeks go on. Part of this is due to the delays every other week keeping us from watching it. But another part is that the show simply isn’t playing to its strengths, instead intent on rehashing the one plot it has and ignoring one of its main characters for an entire season. Maybe that’s alright for some people. Maybe you buy that Lena is dead in San Magnolia and that she won’t magically survive at the start of next season just like our leads did between 1st and 2nd. But for me, and everyone else? Eighty Six is starting to stall.
