NOTICE: Including Part 1 and Part 2 of Season 1
Overview:
Condensing both parts into a single review… since it is one season. Do not see much reason to split.
Child labor, human experimentations, war, AI, gundamgundamgundam ~~mechs~~, and an entire country that takes advantage of it while being on the brink of destruction to lose it all. That is one way to summarize up the overarching theme of 86.
A lot of history and such to lay down first that paves the way for how and why the story progresses in the way it does. First being that the entire story revolves around something called the Legion war. Legion being a name for the enemy units that are AI/automated military units set with one quest… destroy all surrounding nations and world domination. The Legion were created by the Empire of Giad. These military units were created with a partial joint venture alongside United Kingdom of Roa Gracia and Alliance of Walds tech. Joint venture is used very loosely as the creation was anything but a spunky and encouraging situation. It was more of using those nations technology, combining them together and crafting something even more powerful to be used for their own reasoning, that reasoning being destruction of all around them.
After they had created the legion and sent them to invade all the surrounding countries, well their internal situation of royalty, kings and queen’s monarch… was not doing so well. It was already in shambles and put into question for their histories past 200 years. However, a short 5 years after the war had started, an internal revolution of its people had decided to say no more. The deeds and acts of what the war is doing they could not stand behind, ultimately destroying what little structure the country had left. Simply put, there were 2 wars going on at the same time, one with its people and one with outside people. Only able to have this happen due to the military not being armed by its people. A situation that is uniquely designated to the events that had met at just the right time.
However, this overthrow take down the guvment was not something they had thought clearly through to the end. As now with a new Giad rising from the ashes of its peoples doing, The Federal Republic of Giad… well they had no idea or way to stop the Legion. The legion was now assumed to just be on the never ending last order of kill kill kill. Which, mind you, the legion was very good at. Due to them being AI, only compounding the problem since they have a sort of sentience. Where they continue to learn, adapt, and grow. To the point the Legion is now harvesting the brains of the dead soldiers they kill on the battlefield, yknow, to further strengthen and grow in power. So, the old Legion is only a shadow of what it is now. The longer they go on for, the harder they are to win and beat. A very large oversight on the Giads people who decided to overthrow and take down the ones in power, the only people who had a way to stop such a thing from happening.
Jumping over to The Republic of San Magnolia, one of the nations that Giad has sent the Legon on. A primary race of superiority complex people called Alba. Their beliefs are simple, they are the best and only the best, every other race is below them. However, this did not stop them from enacting regulations and law that has the outward appearance of the complete opposite. They welcomed other races and people to come to their nation under the guise that they are all equal, mind you this is all a underlying ideology of the Alba. How the day to day went was probably normal interactions and say a person did something wrong, instead of blaming the problem on the situation, it would likely had been along the lines of well of course you did it wrong, you are not an Alba, like I, after all. So they were racist and discriminatory, but not in an absolute form, moreso in ideology where it wouldn’t effect their normal day to day life and interactions with others. Think of old monarchs and elites of medieval times, they just were built different so to speak, but instead of a few it was an entire race like that lol. Their beliefs are not entirely without warrant though as they were believing themselves to be the most technologically advanced ect ect.
With the open immigration laws and regulations in place, many other races and people from various countries would go to the Republic, they had better standards of living and were generally a better place to live than most other places of the time. Things were sort of a pseudo golden era one could say. Where everything was peaceful and joyful… unlike the Giads empire 200 years of oppression that was currently going on and the start of the war.
Speaking of the start of the legion war, well that is something to talk about. The legions attacks on Republic were entirely one sided. Within a couple weeks the Republic was forced to release and fold land left and right. They made the call to hold up within 85 districts that centered around their Capital, making defense of their remaining land and nation easier. This is due to how powerful and outmatched the Republic was. There was no winning with the power discrepancy.
With this happening, all the people not Alba, are dubbed Colorata, more political drama ensues given the circumstances and losing so greatly in their war against the legion. Their elitist superiority ideology was forced to an extreme during these times. Where they were not outwardly racist, they are now just saying fuck it, lets throw down. With some changes in their government, a bit of push here and a agenda there, next thing to happen is all the Colorata are shafted and hard. By that I mean they are forced out of the Capital, with any outside the 85 districts also forced to do their bidding. There would be no pushback on these atrocities as it is only what the people ~~Alba~~ of the nation want. Similar to how Hitler was put into power and all that happened. The people and ideology push for an extremist action, and it happens, doesn’t matter who was in charge since everything happening in the country would have led to that point regardless of the face in charge. As one could guess, with such political drama occurring, this severely dampened and essentially halted the scientific improvement compared to the other nations. Their once supreme nation is now subpar, but that can’t be in the mind of the Alba, they are superior to all after all.
All the Colorata with this new enactment are the problem, pushing the entire blame onto them. It could not have been the Albas fault, there had to be a group to take the fall. As such, by then being forced to do the Republics bidding, that basically means… any scientific experimentation, child labor, or horrific thing that the nation needed done. They are the 86th district. All their rights are void and gone, civil rights, nope, internment camps yes.
With some of the 86 trying to fight back, it wouldn’t last long, the nation and its people’s ideology has spoken. What little resistance there could have been, it is quickly shunted. Upon the initial happening of this event, any and all 86 are forced to build what is dubbed as the Gran Mur. The Gran Mur being a great wall to surround the 85 districts that the Republic is holding up around, hoping to defend until they can win the war. It was shortly after the wall was built that the scientific advancement had been made where they created the Juggernaut. This was 4 years after the war had officially begun. At which time the Empire had intercepted a message stating the Empire had fallen alongside the life of the legion was just 6 years. Knowing and assuming the legion was only 6 years until they couldn’t work any longer, a new strategy of defend and hold out until their time was finally at an end had immerged. With the public now thinking that its just 2 years away before things can be back to normal, the war will be over, and everything is perfectly fine. The nation is supposedly holding out and strong so there is nothing to worry about. The same public that is told the Juggernauts that the country had created were controlled by processors and there is no human life being lost. When in reality a processor was an 86 human. Not that the public knowing would have made a difference though, they would have likely just dubbed it as a get what they deserve situation.
However, the country higher ups know that the Juggernaut is manned and crewed by people, and that their actions of using them until they are dead is inexcusable to others, they basically assign a death timer to all 86. If they are all wiped out, problem adverted once the war is over right… lol. How did the government and military convince the 86 to do this? Well, besides that they are locked in internment camps forced to do their bidding regardless, simple, they offered a pseudo declaration that any 86 could get their citizenship and national rights reinstated. All they had to do was serve a short 6 years in the military. A bit confusing on timeline wise, this was happening before the nation received official notice that Empire had fallen, lots of political situations happening and overlapping one another. This is after the Colorata are branded 86 and Gran Mur was built around the 85 sectors.
With the 86 believing at first, they could regain their rights after the short 6 years of war, well the Republic knew better than to let that happen. Their war crimes would not be tolerated by other nations and the knowledge of such could not be let out of what the country had done to these people. So it was entirely a death assignment covered by the promise of freedom. Say a 86 was nearing the end of their service, just about to reclaim their citizenship, they would be sent on a death mission. If they survived, another and another until their death was secured. The start of service would be harsh but as time went on the enlistees would be transferred around based on their service time, the longer time being thrown into harder and harsher squads that would latently have a higher casualty rate in hopes they would die before their time is up. Which worked wonders, none ever could get to the 6 year mark due to how the Republic would work it to never happen.
That’s not all though, remember that claim of the best by date the Legion had? Ya the legion are AI and well, found that taking the dead bodies from the battlefield and harvesting their brains would circumvent this entirely. They figured out how to preserve themselves and push the past towards their one goal of world domination. After the main suicide squad learned of this, well it was reported to the higher ups, yet there was no acceptance of such talk. Simply ignored and brushed aside. The higher ups were not about to listen and decided that pushing and forward attacks wouldn’t be worth it, the nation would suffer too much, even though not doing so would also cost the nation. It was then that their demise was ensured. A demise they voluntarily waited and took rather than could have potentially stopped.
How the Legion finally ended them, well they pushed hard, broke through the Gran Mur and used a measly 800mm round railgun to, ugh, for lack of better words, decimated the nation with ease. Killing an estimated 10 million Alba, which at this point in time was a majority of them, a very large percentage of the countries people.
Skipping the remaining history of the Republic for now, lets get back to the new Giad, that was built off of the revolting empires people. Now called Federal Republic of Giad. This new Federacy is built upon equality and justice, with justice being their defining trait. They would be most similar to a modern society where there are no longer monarchs and hierarchies of old. Every person is given equal opportunity… not that equal opportunity means equality as a whole. Money is needed instead of blood line. Very capitalistic. Better than the empire of old in most regards.
Remember that with the founding of this new Federacy, there were no longer any people from the old Giad Empire that would be able to stop the Legion. The Legion are on their own devices now. With the squad that discovered the legions advancements now inside this new nation… it helped them in recovering the Empires land and also allowed access to a communication line between 2 other nations. The United Kingdom and Alliance of Wald. Quite a coincidence, might I add. Anyways, these two nations are in a military alliance compliance as the situation is now quite clear with how devastating and powerful the Legion are becoming. One nation could not take them on alone. Also, that both nations are happy and glad, sort of, that they are not the only ones left alive given how strong the legion are fighting every other nation at the same time.
Shortly after communications are made, there is a necessary assault on the weapon called a 800mm round firing mech rail gun that has range to target each and every nation remaining from deep within the Legions territory. As one would guess, this furthers cooperation between these 3 nations with a clear goal in mind, stop the Legion.
As this is all unfolding, the assault on the Republic is happening and their fall is certain. Had they heeded the warnings of such a large scale attack and weapon, things might and likely would have been different. Quickly a squad and mission to destroy this powerful mech was initiated and started. Each of the 3 military alliance nations involved and doing their best to assist where applicable.
A quick side note for why the nations lost contact in an era of mechs and high tech, the Legion said no more of that and had created a way to disrupt their old ways of long distance communication. They sort of mass produced a butterfly like unit that would stay in the air around nations, cutting any cell and radio waves, thus preventing communication between them. The Republic did counter this in their nation with an invention but that is quickly shown and realized as the show goes on. The Republic tech was shared, and reverse engineered by the Federacy via the squad that made it out and into the Federacy during their last mission which they were proclaimed dead.
With the success of the large scale attack, the Federacy was able to make contact and found what little remains of the Republic had left. They offered and supported the Republic in any way they were able. Although met with disdain from the populus that leads back into their superiority ideology of the nation.
However, the Republic does send a strategist to help in the war, who is then met with an unexpected reunion of sorts that ends the split first season of the show.
Visuals/Music:
A1 did the animation of 86 and they honestly have stepped up their game once again. Not quite on par with SAO: Alicization but it is definitely close. When they need or want, they can truly deliver top tier animation. Very few times were things not feeling right. A few times the necks of the characters when looking or at certain angles would be off. Only reason they are standout is due to how clean and well the rest is done. This is the BD release and could have done a tad bit more polishing on some areas, but again it is all minor complaints that when watching don’t detract much if at all from the rest.
There is CG and a lot of it, like jumping crawling and parkour mechs type of CG, yet the way it is incorporated and blended in, its up there with the better CG. It is not bad even though very noticeable. The animation as worked around it and is done to an exceptional level. It is there, it works.
Audio, oh, the audio is something else. Then again, what can one expect from Hiroyuki Sawano. That man just knows how to touch the OST cords in all the right spots. Every track is like the rest of the shows he has made them for, top tier. Cant get better than them, only on par. Tag that with the proper placements done by A1 knowing just how and when to place each track, makes for quite the viewing experience. Silence when needed to better impact a emotional scene, sound effects that match and there are no complaints only praise once again for a job well done. Add it to the list one might say lol.
Might as well mention the opening and endings. First part opening, its good, Hitorie makes a nice song, although not the best and is skippable without much question. Ending though, its hard to see why or how a person could simply go past it if it is not to get to the next episode. It is also a Sawano track and damn, guess this is just a wankfest for him at this point lmao. Mizuki voacals though, simply beautiful voice to cover on top of a Sawano track. As for the second opening, Amazarashi comes out to do it. First time listening I skipped through but quickly after the first couple eps I found myself just letting it go, the song became a favorite quite quickly, even if it gave off a lot of MHA vibes due to how perfect that song he made for there was, Sora ni Utaeba . None of the background girls chimes this time, although they are not needed. Noth great in their own respect. Last and second ending done by Regal Lily was fine, certain parts of the song really hit but others are a miss, she has a similar feeling and mix of a Eureka seven and Dororo song. It is interesting to say the least.
Final Thoughts:
Well to say this anime is anything but highly recommended would be a disservice. Anybody that wants a very involved story should check it out.
The characters, coming of age, emotional aspect and more is all omitted from this as it would be wrong to take from the experience of knowing and getting attached to them. They are not the best written and clearly had faults, in both the main and sub characters. That honestly does not detract from them though, they are done great like all the other aspects of it.
Lena is bae, white hair supremacy, they knew it hence their superiority complex towards other races lol. Alongside the red highlight, damn they knew just where the kinks were hehe. And got that yknow what type of personality, damn they really know what they doing. I would say stop but we all know that means moar!
Characters (main) – 4/5
Characters (sub) – 4/5
Enjoyment – 5/5
Visuals – 5/5
Music – 5/5
Story – 4/5
`<code>Overall Ratings - Rec: 4/5 Raw: 90%</code>`
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