Tag: Eighty Six

Welcome all to the penultimate episode of Eighty Six! For this season at least. This is an interesting week as from what I have been told this episode is almost entirely anime original. And yet despite basically being filler, its good. Like really good. So without further ado lets dive in! Oh and before I begin a reminder that I will be away on a business trip until Thursday, so no Nomad post until then. Sorry.

Anyways, on with the show! And what better place to start than with the production? Once again Eighty Six has some of the best editing and shot composition I have seen in ages. The way it takes everything from dull shot-reverse-shot dialogue scenes or simple travel montages and makes them visually engaging is a treat. From the way it emphasized the emotional distance between Shin and Raiden despite their physical closeness or the way Shin’s head turn and the water hitting the leaf were cut to the music. I shouldn’t be surprised by it anymore, Eighty Six has done this consistently from episode 1. However I can’t help but smile when I see editing like this. Toshimasa Ishii is doing a fantastic job with his full series directorial debut and I can’t wait to see more from him. Absolutely Kino.

Continue reading “86: Eighty Six – 10 [Thank You]” →

What an episode. Eighty Six has come a long way from classroom politics and shitty lakeside ecchi. While the other writers on this site might disagree, might thing Eighty Six weak, I can’t help but enjoy what its trying to do. So without further ado how about we dive in to that?

Now in an effort to be fair lets start with the only real negative I have this week: The CGI. Eighty Six tries really had to avoid the showing the CGI. It does everything in it’s power, from clever editing and shot composition to after effects like smoke, to avoid it. And most of the time this works! The Legion looks… fine in motion because the CGI sheen gives them an otherworldly/inhuman feel. That works to their benefit! Meanwhile the 86ers are largely stationary which makes compositing them into the shot much easier. But sometimes a crack slips through and when it does… it doesn’t look good. I’m of course talking about Undertaker’s big fight in the first half of the episode. Narratively I enjoyed it, and we’ll talk about that in a moment, but the mech fight felt like the worst part of the scene.

Continue reading “86: Eighty Six – 9 [Goodbye]” →

I’m late I’m late for a very important date, that’s right the Eighty Six post is here! Only… 2 days late but the show must go on. So without further ado lets dive into another episode of Eighty Six!

To start I want to pose to you a question: What the hell was that opening? Did I skip an episode? How much happened off screen between 7 and 8? I understand wanting to start in-media-res but this was to much. The opening felt out of place and I barely understood what they were talking about. It took me rewatching the scene a few time to understand that it was basically a quick time-skip of deaths off-screen, widdling us down to 5. While this was interesting in its brevity I can’t help but feel confused and annoyed as a viewer. It’s not like I don’t understand why they did it either! Without this we would be repeating similar storylines, similar deaths, for the rest of the cour. But Eighty Six took its discontinuous narrative approach that I mentioned last week to far this time.

Continue reading “86: Eighty Six – 8 [Let’s Go]” →

Welcome back to another episode of Eighty Six, now with 100% more tragic revelations! Is that statistic legitimate? Probably not but you’ll have to read on to find out. So without further ado lets dive into this weeks episode!

And what do you know, Eighty Six is once again one of the best edited/directed show of the season. Tomohiko Ito, the man behind some of the best episodes of their respective shows, did great work this week. The way the fireworks were intercut between the mortar shells, Lena’s balcony shots, Shuga’s speech, it all looked good! And you know that. So instead I want to take a moment to talk about the one thing that’s bothered me with them: Continuity. Eighty Six has this obsession with shifting around shots so that they are discontinuous. Showing scenes earlier in the episode that happen later in the timespan. Sometimes this works to great effect! But I’ve found it can also be very confusing as to the order of events. Especially without proper indication of the order between the two main areas, the 86ers and the Albas.

Still my production gripes aside, however minor they are, lets talk narrative below the break!

Continue reading “86 Eighty Six – 7 [Will You Remember Me?]” →

This is it ladies and gentleman, this where Eighty Six redeems itself. Forget all of the Starbucks Philosophers and Liberal Arts jokes, Eighty Six is taking its shot. And I couldn’t be happier. So lets dive right in shall we?

Immediately before we get into all the politics, the narrative and all that jazz I want to talk production. Eighty Six is not the most well animated show of the season. That’s simply a fact. The CGI robots are fine and are used minimally however this is primarily a talking heads show. But what talking heads they are. Some of the shot composition, lighting and scene transitions were absolutely kino this week. Whether it be Undertaker and Lena’s moonlit conversation, the broken mirror, Lena’s reflection in the window or the bleeding fountain pen. Eighty Six was absolutely packed with clever shots. Connecting themes and events with physical objects that brought out the most in every single scene. Credit to Director Toshimasa Ishii and his team for this one. As for the actual politics and narrative of the scenes themselves? Well that was pretty good to.

Continue reading “86: Eighty Six – 5 [I’m With You]” →