#THIS REVIEW WILL INCLUDE BOTH COUR 1 AND COUR 2

Adapting a novel to a visual form such as an anime is not just about presenting events as they happen in the story, its also about altering, removing and adding certain elements which enhance the viewing experience and make the story appropriate for the TV screen. The way a novel and a show are experienced are drastically different, and so its only natural that the way they're written and directed have to be different.

A-1 have masterfully proved this in their latest project. Not only does 86 manage to add certain scenes that increase the emotional impact of future scenes, aided by masterful direction and symbolism, beautiful animation and an amazing soundtrack, it manages to do so without straying from the source material.

Toshimasa Ishii, along with the author Asato Asato (who, by the way, was present at every script meeting), and of course, Kohta Yamamato and Hiroyuki Sawano with their ungodly soundtrack have made this anime what I feel is the best light novel adaptation of all time and an industry standard that future light novel adaptations should strive to achieve. I've read and watched Mushoku Tensei, Spice and Wolf - and IMO, none of them come close to the absolute monster 86 is at adapting the source material. It's simple - taking time with the story (cour 1 only adapts 1 volume) and having the author present at every step of the way is instrumental to making a good adaptation.

Onto the show itself, 86 is what I feel a misunderstood story. While it does deal with racism, oppression and the irony of a nation that preaches the ideals of equality and justice, at its core, 86 is an anti-war story. It moreso deals with how war can utterly and completely destroy a person and any sense of individuality they have. Survivor's guilt, PTSD and having no hopes for the future are the main things many of the main cast deals with. In episode 2 of cour 2, this was shown perfectly - the 86 are presented with an opportunity to finally live a normal life in the rear, doing things that normal teenagers do; having friends, pursuing their hobbies, working a job - but its shown that they constantly feel in the back of their mind that something's off. They never truly left the battlefield. They can't even envision what a future without war would look like. They don't have anything to look forward to or anything to fight for, but their pride as 86, the warriors of the battlefield, won't allow them to rest easily. And that's why they fight, to uphold their pride, the only thing the Republic left them with.

A lot of criticism also comes from people who believe 86 is too overly preachy with its message of "racism bad" - but that's not the point - at all. Yes, Lena does indeed keep spouting her naive ideals over and over without actually doing anything substantial to help the 86 she cares so much about - but that's the point; she's naive person with a white saviour complex. She doesn't truly understand what it what it means to actually hold those ideals and carry them out to make a change in society; and this hypocrisy of hers is pointed out, multiple times, by different characters. Annette repeatedly points out that nothing she's doing is actually helping the 86, and nothing she does will ever actually make any change in the 86's lives. Jerome, her uncle, points out the same flaw in her, and snaps at her to make her realize that the Republic is truly well beyond saving and is headed on an unstoppable course to its own destruction. Theo after the credits of episode 3 digs into her and exposes her naivete to her without filter. And for this, I'd like to add some choice dialogue from the him in the novels that were cut or changed in the anime;

“I mean, sure, when we have nothing better to do, maybe we can play along with your little game of pretend. You get to say you never discriminate, never treat us like pigs, that you’re a pure, noble, virtuous person, that it’s all a misunderstanding, and you’re a goddamn saint. Sure, when nothing’s going on, we can stroke your stupid ego, but read the fucking mood! One of our friends just fucking died. We don’t have the time to indulge your bullshit right now, so get a goddamn clue already, you hypocrite.”

and

"You’re the one safe and sound inside the walls, kicking back while you watch us do all the fighting after your people threw us into this hellhole! You’re blatantly accepting what’s being done to us by sitting there like you’re entitled to comfort! If that’s not treating us like pigs, then what would you call it?!”

and

"You never called us Eighty-Six? Not calling us that was the only thing you did do! Protecting the state is a citizen’s duty? Answering those feelings? Screw that! Do you think we're fighting out here because we want to?! You're the ones who trapped us here! You forced us to fight! You’ve let millions of us die these past nine years, haven’t you?! And you do nothing to stop that and think that if you talk to us all Goody Two-shoes every night it'll make it all better?!"

86 realizes the big flaw with Lena, and its not afraid to comment on it. The entire point of her character development is going from a naive girl who does nothing but preach about equality and humanity while never actually doing anything for those ideals to a woman who faces reality head on and fights for herself and the 86 without being affected by nay-sayers or depending on others for validation. Honestly, after's Theo's rant in episode 3 I have zero clue how anyone could say that 86 is too preachy about its message. Its not.

Shin is one of the best main characters to come out of the light novel medium, and it shows. Cour 2 was a perfect display of 86's overall themes, and an amazing character analysis for Shin. It showed how discrimination, not just from the Alba but his fellow 86 as well, him being the last person to stay alive in all of his squadrons, the war, losing his mother, father at such a young age and even his own brother nearly choking him to death completely destroyed him as an individual and stripped down his mind to its core - him having no hopes and no dreams for the future, even when presented with the opportunity to escape the battlefield, him convincing himself he was all alone because he'll always be the last one left behind, even with Raiden present, who had managed to stick with him for 4 years; and his survivor guilt, his belief that he's a stain in other people's lives, that it would be better if he was dead, everything destroyed this sixteen year old boy (even if he does turn 17 or 18 when he joins back the army, that doesn't matter) to his bare minimum. And this is one of the strongest parts of 86; Shin's story, shared by all of the 86 - broken kids with nothing to define them; nation, ancestry or family, except their pride, the pride to fight to their last breaths as inhabitants of the Eighty-Sixth sector.

The rest of the cast who were just as great although had less focus and exposure than Shin and Lena – firstly, the survivors of Spearhead; Raiden, Shin’s right hand man and his brother in arms who’s been with him the longest (apart from Fido) and wasn’t afraid to give him a wake-up call to his face; Theo, the budding artist and a character who realized that he’d never truly left the Republic at all; Anju, the cool beauty who may in fact be the most emotionally vulnerable out of all of them, never truly moving beyond the death of someone she loved; and Kurena, the cute little sister who’s very obviously frustrated she can’t do more for Shin. Apart from them, Frederica, who served as an excellent parallel to Shin and an amazing character on her own alike, struggling to come to terms with her past and letting go of her knight, who really was more like an elder brother to her. Fido, the extremely precious dog, best boi, and Shin’s best friend who’d been there since the very beginning, even before the 86th sector existed, and last but not least, Annette.

She’s a character I feel is greatly overlooked by both the readers and the viewers alike, and as a big fan of her, I really appreciate her presence and what it means for the story. In cour 1, she played a big role, showing that racism in San Magnolia went beyond just “86 bad lol” – she presented the second group of opinions; people who knew what was going on was wrong, but chose to quietly stand by and do nothing as they felt nothing they would do would change anything. The reason for her outburst at Lena was because of this; she’d spent her entire life convincing herself she couldn’t do anything, and when her very own best friend unintentionally proved her wrong, she couldn’t help but get angry and lash out at her.

86’s strength undoubtedly lies in its characters and the themes they represent, more than its plot. And thankfully, it does an amazing job at that. None of these characters feel like colorless, background characters; they're all their own individuals, each one equally complex with their own stories, their own struggles, just waiting to be discovered.

As someone who holds the novels very close to their heart, I really couldn’t have asked for anything more than what A-1 has done for this story. Every single part of this anime, from the added anime-only content to the genius symbolism littered in every single frame and the amazing voice acting done both by the Japanese and English VAs is beautiful, and I really want to thank Asato Asato, Shirabii for his amazing art and character designs, Toshimasa Ishii, Sawano and Yamamato and of course, the amazing animators, Shirogumi for their beautiful CGI scenes and everyone else involved with the production for giving us this anime.

Wrapping this up, all I want to say is, 86 is an anime everyone must give a try at least once. It won’t disappoint, ever. 10/10, please give me more.