86

I'm gonna be straight with you. After completing the 2 seasons, I can gladly say that this thing is one of the best anime of all time. The writing, story, themes, such as freedom, AOT vibes coursing through my veins. CHARACTERS, Shin & Lena, that smooth CGI, and last but not least the SOUNDTRACK, both S1 ED are my favorite anime ED of all time. From none but the LEGENDARY AOT Ost composers themselves, Hiroyuki Sawano & Kohta Yamamoto. Their involvement alone makes this show incredible. It piqued my interest in this 'cause of them, tbh. And I do not regret watching this. Such an underrated masterpiece. My recommendation is 11/10.

The story will be great in future. Absolutely recommended. Watch it or you will miss a very good story line. One of the good anime series that I will recommend for you to watch.

What an emotional ride that was. It might as well have been series finale. A bit sad at the end really with a flicker of hope for the squad.

Eighty Six was the anime that many people bet their coins on, coming from a very well rated Light Novel. This anime promises to deliver high-level political, ethical and social conflicts, which many didn't know was if these would be worked in a cohesive way. And not biased.

That said, I must say that the anime fails to deliver such a debate, writer Asato, perhaps out of inexperience or lack of grounding, delivers the obvious that is said in most current works that carry these themes, "hey, fascism is wrong and racism is a bad thing!", having said that, don't expect complex dialogues and debates about these themes, because one of the flaws of this one is not having a design that facilitates the difference of ethnicities, since the characters follow the line of "generic anime character design" (search Google Images if you don't understand), of course we have exceptions, for example those who live in the republic are all white (almost albino) and have the same hair color, one of the characters that is shown in battlefield is black, the rest has the same skin color, so it's up to us to find out what their races are, one of the tips I give is to see the origin of their names.

But for all that reason, what was delivered by the anime is bad? By no means does he work very well with what he has and, as simplistic as it is, the message is catchable.

Of course those who expected more due to your proposal may be disappointed with the delivery, but I must say that at no time did I bother with what the anime discussed, as much as it doesn't raise the debate to grandiose levels, it doesn't offend, and it can to put the most lay people to reflect on something bigger.

The anime can also divide viewers on the issue of empathy for the characters, it goes well when putting together short scenes and small moments for each of the secondary characters so that we have an appreciation for them, however, which for some can be seen as sad for others it will be just generic montage to catch us in the fragile part of our feelings. I'm particularly torn between both situations, in some moments I was moved, but in others I don't care.

The soundtrack is also something to highlight, Sawano once again did well, and alongside the singer Laco created striking themes, the same cannot be said for the responsible for sound design, Jin Aketagawa is great for creating ambient sound (sound from the breeze in the trees, raindrops, burning wood), but the same cannot be said in battle sounds, where the noise of trucks and machines, in addition to muffling the soundtrack, hinders the concentration of the dialogues.

86 is a good anime, which entertains and raises debates that need care, despite its mistakes I believe it's better than a lot we've had recently on the market, it's worth being seen and discussed, I'm looking forward to the continuation.

I'll need to update this review in the future, but so far this is becoming the product that I wish Code Geass had been. Imagine the most wasted Code Geass character, Monica Krushevsky, who canonically held no prejudices but was still murdered by her own comrade Suzaku for awfully-written shock value, gets transported to an alternate universe to finally get proper characterization on-screen. Heading a troupe of discriminated teenage soldiers who are fighting a war that they were forced into because of a restructuring of borders and caste systems thanks to an AI invasion from an opposing country, Lena faces the ironic hypocrisy of her beliefs that all "Numbers"--in this case called "86"--are equal to her race when she only needs to passively observe the battles on the sidelines of the war and not face the consequences firsthand. Unlike Code Geass, the story remains tight and focused without throwing in any annoying fanservice or diverging into a dumb subplot about a school festival. Deaths actually carry weight since we get to know the characters and their comrades actually get time to grieve. It's an emotional, smartly-written tale that shows just how far anime has come from the plethora of tropes or comically bad overdramatic "plot twists" that plague its fakely smart counterpart Code Geass.

I hope to see more truly introspective writing like this in the future with more anime and that "86" will consistently hit those strong emotional notes while staying true to what it originally set out to do.