The show follows Lena who is of the Celena race and is very privileged. She is an officer in the army with her uncle as the leader and she takes on the position of Handler One of the Spearhead Unit. The series takes many twists and turns as it progresses and is extremely intriguing with how it portrays the "86" who are another race of people who are treated as livestock and sent off to fight in the war against the Legion until they die. Let's just say, in simpler terms, that this anime made me cry A LOT of times so be prepared about that if you are planning to watch it.

Characterisation:
The characters are all very fun- especially all of the characters in the Spearhead Unit and Lena. The other members of the Celena race are very irritating and I wanted to punch them whenever they spoke about the 86 and called them inhuman and that they deserved to die. Lena is the best girl by far as she fights against her entire race just to try and defend the Spearhead Unit. Another one of my favourite characters is Nouzen aka "The Undertaker" who is the classic badass character. He does show emotions outside that but he is quite a basic character who simply follows the formula of badass guy but that by no means makes him a bad character. Overall, the characters in this show are 9/10. (also did I mention that there is a cute cat? Now you need to watch it just for the cat :p)

Character Dynamics:
The character dynamics are interesting and I love seeing how the 86 communicate together and how they all treat Lena differently. One of the best dynamic in my opinion is that between Lena and her best friend. It is by no means a good dynamic but it is still portrayed really well. In the first couple of episodes, Lena's best friend seems ok but slowly her true self comes through with how she treats Lena's worry for her unit as unneeded as the "86 aren't people" and their dynamic together is so intriguing and capsizes in a beautiful climax between the two characters as their separate viewpoints clash. There are lots of other great character dynamics but that was the one that stood out to me the most. Overall, the character dynamics are a 9/10.

Visuals:
The visuals and animation quality in this show are spectacular. How the fight against the Legion and the other lesser scenes are portrayed really pushed this show above other series like it. It doesn't have exactly Fate series level animation but it is still really good. Therefore, the visuals are a 9.5/10.

Voice Acting:
The voice acting in this series is extremely good and it conveys the emotions it is trying to put across perfectly. I found myself coming to tears at multiple points due to the raw emotion the voice actors managed to put across and it is some of the best voice acting I've heard in anime. Overall, the voice acting is a 9.5/10.

Music/Soundtrack:
86 is one of the very lucky shows to have Sawano Hiroyuki composing music for it. The ending is incredible although the visuals in it are quite lacking but I don't mind as I usually don't look at the visuals for the ending too much and just like listening to the music instead. The opening is also really good but it isn't my favourite and I have been tempted to skip it on many occasions. The other soundtrack in the series also helps in emphasising the emotions of the show so overall the music/soundtrack are 9/10.

Fight Choreography/Pacing:
The fight choreography for this series is very good. Especially with Nouzen's fighting as he flawlessly launches from one Legion enemy to the other and it is always very satisfying to watch. The fighting in the anime follows a military format however it feels slightly unrealistic in some places especially with how easy it is for them to destroy the enemy- mainly with Nouzen easily defeating the enemy but I guess that is used as part of his badass persona. The pacing in this series is a bit strange to me, however. It was fine in the beginning but just after the halfway point, I felt the series fell a bit flat and seemed to be unsure of what it was trying to do as I felt myself get lost. Spoilers below:

Spoiler, click to view

when Nouzen and the other 4 remaining members of the Spearhead Unit run away from battle I was really confused but then they didn't actually run away and were still fighting and then it cut to them all supposedly dying? The pacing here really confused me as well as the overall story and it made me lower the score by quite a bit than I would've given it.

Asides from that the pacing was consistently good so I would give it a 7.5/10.

Genre Mixing:
This series managed to handle comedy and serious elements very well with how the 86 react to each other being quite funny but with a sad undertone as you know as you watch the show that these funny moments won't last and therefore the comedy elements are almost enhanced by the fact that soon they may no longer have these moments again. Overall, the genre mixing in this is a 9/10.

Conclusion:
To conclude, this series started off great but began to lose its footing towards the end and ended quite confusingly. I'm hoping that the second series will improve on this somehow but I'm not really sure where the story can go from here. Overall, I give this series an 8.5/10 as it had many amazing parts to it but the ending just fell a bit flat for me.