86

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.