This review contains minor spoilers.

INTRODUCTION

War has been a common theme as long as human art has existed, for war has also been with us for a long time; since the first conflicts between Neolithic tribes, be it for the domination of land, for food, for procreation or really for any reason whatsoever. This topic, from its deep and visceral nature, is a radical subject, one that is difficult to represent in art in an adequate way and with substance, just like other topics such as bullying, sexual abuse, racism, and so on. They are radical issues that touch the deepest part of the human psyche, morals, health, which are often rooted in very deep cultural issues, they are intricate, swampy and confusing issues. As I write this, the world is engulfed in wars on the European continent and in the Middle East, with many organizations involved, rancid politics and millions of deaths, Multiple geopolitical interests are intersecting in ways that few can really understand. What I want to get at: War is COMPLICATED, it is a difficult subject to depict, and many times it is a sensitive topic that must be treated with strength and dedication in art. For such occasions, provocateur and a proper vision is needed.

Many artists, then, have taken unique perspectives or taken advantage of the medium in which their stories are told to best represent these kinds of themes, such as Yoko Taro (and pardon me for being a Yoko Taro fangirl slut) did by depicting human conflict, despair and war in the downward spiral of lunacy that is Drakengard 1 and Drakengard 3 (D3 being one of my personal favorite games ever) where you kill hundreds of thousands of soldiers (including child soldiers, women and older people) with Zero (D3) or Caim (D1) tinging these two games with a hopeless madness and oppressive bloodlust, a normalization of the unthinkable, absolute disdain for life and pure dehumanization; monotony, lust, greed and insanity alike, a meaningless conflict, all with an INCREDIBLE atmosphere, soundtrack, characters (in D3) and tone; achieving a sense of ludonarrative harmony by implementing the themes well with what the player experiences—and, on the other side, revenge, determination against adversity, revenge, conflict, humanity and resistance in NieR. The DrakeNieR saga succeeds because they achieve this sense of harmony between the themes presented and what is presented on screen, plus they have SOMETHING to say or do. Beyond video games, films such as the cult classic Russian film "Come and See" have treated war from a "Coming of Age" perspective where we accompany a young boy, Florya Gaishun, who is forced to fight against soldiers invading his land, all tinted with oppressive surreality, viscerality and psychological horror, powerful emotion confined within the human body, leaving nothing behind and going all in. There is ATTITUDE, a sense of spice and ambition.

Instead: What does Eighty-Six accomplish? I think that's the true hamartias of 86, and that is... it doesn't achieve a single thing, it doesn't attempt to do anything original, mature, provocative or express anything new or exciting; it is, in essence, a soap opera, just diet coke war media and air-flavoured racism. Eighty-Six, in comparison to the examples I posted at the start of this review, is implausible and boring, many times I found myself lacking immersion, looking away or reading Twitter or whatever, the episodes are hard to digest EVEN when I made some coffee to chug the chapters down. In some ways, Eighty-Six ALSO reminds me of Shingeki no Kyojin's Final Season and how it falters in several aspects, leading to a weak and emotionless installment.

I feel like SingleH, in his MAL review, described it best when he said that Eighty-Six was a CHILDISH anime, with a tone-jarring progression and paper-thin elements. What Eighty-Six tries to address in its confines is supremely flaccid and without merit, with an execution of core themes lacking in attitude, substance and perseverance, using childish analogies that are repeated ad nauseam—down a shot everytime someone says “pig”—without much originality or intelligence and with the subtleness and care of using a butcher knife to perform brain surgery.

Eighty Six is sophomoric drama and thin themes elevated to the elysium, instead of being tragic it ends up being FUNNY, its the mark of a bad drama, I've felt more tension and emotions while figuring out why my Creeper farm or Iron farm in Minecraft didnt work than anything I ever felt in 86. One thing that would happen, occasionally, is that I'd be watching an 86 episode, get distracted with something else, and then suddenly remember "holy shit I was watching 86" after like one hour of being distracted, its just sooooo boooring like wow. I outright slogged throughout the entirety of Cour 1 and 2.

CHARACTERS

Eighty Six has a pretty bad character cast with weak character moments.

Lena might be the most circlejerked character in this show, but I really dont get why; apart from her terrible screen presence, her dialogue is boring, her dynamic with other characters is irritating, she has nothing going on, and her characterization, design and personality are also unappealing. As I said, Eighty-Six begins with the introduction of Milizé (or as I jokingly call her, the "good nazi") being one of the few inhabitants of the Kingdom of San Magnolia—if not the only person in the entire place—to have sympathy for the Eighty-Sixers. From the very first chapter, it's already infuriating, EVERYONE is portrayed as either conscious ignorants or just plain bastards who don't give a shit about what happens to the Eighty-Sixers... except for Vladilena Milizé, the righteous messiah, whom the anime feels compelled to use constantly to make sad or shocked faces at the expressions of hate or ignorance (or both) from the Albas.

This show doesn't really do much more with Lena, beyond having certain characters present her faults to her face, something that doesn't accomplish much as Lena's character is fundamentally weak, her character arc happens outside the confines of the series, without much intrapersonal conflict or consequence, her connection to the Eighty-Sixers is built up so absurdly early in the series and thus the impact isn't very effective, and her connection with them doesnt go beyond "uuuuu he talked to me about their dog!!!" "ohhhhhh holy shit hes so sexy n badass!!!" and "oooh holy shittt he offered me chocolate!!!" or similarly dumb things like that. The show constantly gushes on these shallow and derivative character moments to show how actually 2deep4me their relationship is.

The character of Vladilena and her connection to the Eighty-Sixers would be more effective if it were better built over the course of the series instead of blandly shoehorning it, and if Vladilena were more influenced by her surroundings and questioned things more; however, the protagonist exists on the outside of her environment, not on the inside, Vladilena emerges from the start with an implacable raison d'etre and empathy for people who, since childhood, have been inculcated as undesirable and inhuman—EVEN with the shoehorned explanation that the anime tries to do, its very silly; considering that brainwashing is the best tool of dictatorial regimes, transcending any barriers of logic or reason, yet that tough upbringing doesnt seem very present here.

Vladilena's character and presence are very unnatural, and that unorganic feeling is amplified to the heavens when the anime wants to make me feel emotional, since I just realize that... I dont give a shit about any of these characters or this world in general!! And this was ESPECIALLY noticeable as I was playing the STEINS;GATE visual novel while I watched this, S;G is a piece of media where I ACTUALLY care about the characters and world lol. Vladilena Milizé is just tiring, has a boring screen presence (I was always waiting for her shallow dialogue and uninspired moments to end) and she doesnt have an interesting characterization or character dilemma, her personality is just SO exhausting and unlikeable too, just so fucking bland, her battle strategies and moments are really fucking dumb too. DEY ARE HOOMANS TOO!!!! Such an uninspired and frustrating character. Her biggest change and character moment is having a red bang on her hair.

Shin, also known as Shadow the Hedgehog, is a piece of bread who has some generic trauma that the anime forcefeds down your throat. His presence is a complete sleeper dose, and the symbolism on his mech and character are just laughably infantile. Not much else to say about him, he can be either the brooding Lonely Sigma Werewolf "holy shit I am literally him" meme-character where male viewers self-insert as Shin or the guy which makes heterosexual female viewers wet their panties. "Holy shit its the Grim Ripa Undateika Sigma-male himself... hes so cool and brooding waowaoo holy shitee..." pointing soyjak face

I'm convinced that 86 is no-more than a simulator of white bread meeting other pieces of white bread, dramatizing petty shit and getting to know each other to their "last grain" because, otherwise, I don't know how to understand this character cast; it has to be one of the most flavorless, artificial casts I've seen on an anime, just monotonous walking tables with no intelligent conflicts, nuance, comradery or depth whatsoever, when the melodramatic Episode 9 resolved a big issue in the series I couldnt help but WINCE in cringe at the pure cornyness of this section, especially when the fucking Epic Anime Song™ kicked in and Sasuke started to cry. You know you have failed in depicting character drama and climactic moments when the scenes that has a character MERCYKILLING someone hits as complete Parmesan cheese and utter teenager 2emotional4me shit instead, Shin is so cringe, his entire character just feels like this:

▶

I cant, for the life of me, remember any other names beyond Shin and Vladilena—and only because these two, Shadow the Hedgehog and Amy Rose, are the main characters—and much less their superficial conflicts and personalities. It's seriously impossible for me. The anime wastes no time in shoving you these HIDEOUS (like, seriously) CGI pieces constantly on screen, yet strangely it doesnt invest any moment in adding more nuance to the overall cast which is as deep as a puddle, or justifying the drama with more maturity; and EVERY SINGLE motivation for these characters is just so laughable, like Vladilena has a single memory and thats ENOUGH to just feed this entire journey where shes the "good Nazi" to the Eighty-Six. Anytime the show struck me with things like "Holy shit!! Oh no!! Jessica died!!" or "Holy shit!! Holy fuck!! Chris died!!" I couldnt help but laugh, because who in the hell are these people??? Am I just not paying attention, missing something or is each character in this show absolutely forgettable, cringe and unlikeable???

Like, the anime treats these events and character moments as The End of the Fucking World or The Huge Revelation, everyone is sad or amazed, holy shit this is dramatic, yet I could not care LESS about who has just died, or why these characters are paying tribute to, or why these characters are so hyped up or shit I dont care about the one-dimensional personality of these characters; the attempts in tragedy and emotion from this show are so hilariously lukewarm and weak, there isnt even a semblance of care put into these relationships, their deaths, character dynamics or personalities, so the entire drama feels fabricated and faux; it is all like petty teenager conflicts elevated to the Heavens, and any opportunity that Eighty-Six has to change this it epically wastes. 86's cast is more akin to something like Akame ga Kill, but at least Esdeath was hot and had some sadomasochistic fanservice going on, along with Akame as a kuudere—it's all trashy, but ITS TRASHY FUN at least.

The comradery in this show feels so utterly artificial and milquetoast, it might seem strange but I will bring STEINS;GATE again, as I recently played the VN and I really enjoyed it: S;G has a great sense of friendship and brotherhood where you TRULY feel like these characters know each other, you can fuck around with them as if they were your friend group, you REALLY feel like you are there with the lab members when they start to fiddle around with time machines, you get to sympathize with Kurisu and her family issues, or Okabe's struggle against Heideggerian fate and determinism, even Mayuri's vision of death, Suzuha's tragedy and determination, Faris' duality between her alter ego and her real self, Moeka's complicated life and upbringings, etc. THERE IS an organic connection between these characters and between the cast WITH the viewer... there isnt such a thing in 86.

Every single character in 86 feels like they are there to... fill space, rather than to establish a meaningful connection, dynamic or to do ANYTHING interesting, and they all have gigantic death flags so its kinda impossible for me to care. In STEINS;GATE you can appreciate the banter and SoL scenes between these characters, you get to know them, their quirks, humour, its pretty effective and when shit hits the fan you REALLY get to feel for them and worry for them; however, when 86 tries to something similar it strikes as so... forced??? Eighty-Six tries to have a life-or-death drama, but the "drama" part falls apart completely when you realize just how utterly artificial, unlikeable and dumb these characters, their edgy stock trauma and their connections are. So, each character is personally weak, they have no valuable drama or intriguing conflict and philosophy, their moments are infantile and sparce, so what does Eighty Six have in favour? Character design?A good design can sometimes salvage a character, does this happen in 86? Not really, either, every design is as forgettable and sloppy as you could imagine. Cliché military uniforms, black-haired guy, white long-haired girl, white long-haired girl BUT with a red bang, white long-haired girl number two, lolibait who appears out of nowhere, blonde guy, etc. Each design blends together to the point where I genuinely thought that the main cast, at moments, were just random bystanders; they mash together in my head and I just see a blurred mess in the screen. It is all soporific. No character is good, no tension is good either. Horrendous villains and antagonists too, so 86 cant even salvage that.

THEMES

There is a fundamental, and severe, lack of cohesion, care and dynamicism in 86's cast, which not only affects the impact of characterization, death of characters, drama and immersion, but it also defiles the core theme of dehumanization against the Eighty Six and how humans fare in war, how the Eighty-Six are treated as cannon fodder and soldiers, nothing more than that and... I mean, to be honest? Yeah! These darn nasty Albas are right!!!! These arent characters or people, they are WHITE BREAD!!! Pieces of white bread without any butter or anything to improve the flavour!! Not characters, but mere stock pieces without any nuance or fun! So their entire emo drama just falls flat!! It is impossible to care about them, as simple as that. The Eighty-Six have a non-existing synergy, a forced comradery that is not convincing at all, and they are completely disposable characters who meander and wander around the base. They are no-more than a forced attempt at making the non-human seem relatable. "I am human!" 86 exclaims, yet it doesnt feel like it. The white bread has gained a mouth. In 86 there is a constant exposition of the obvious.

We are in Cour two, the Eighty Six are now a totally different place, what did we learn about San Magnolia? It is the Third Reich... that's about it. Now, we oughta watch these PIECES OF BREAD reminisce about their fallen comrades—who the viewer barely establishes a link with, so this entire section falls flat—as the author demands they execute the command of "Now, live a normal life" to establish the theme that... soldiers also have normal lives? That dehumanized victims of systematical racism and oppresion are also worthy of living mundanity and to not be obliged to fight in war? What did the author meant by this? OBVIOUSLY all of this is true, but 86 does nothing of worth with these statements; these things work exclusively as a base to flesh out and not as a deep theme. You have A. "These soldiers deserve a mundane life" B. "Soldiers are first people, and then, they are soldiers who cant leave behind war" and C. "Fascism is bad" these are drafts you can elaborate upon as an author, but 86 does this strange thing where it just hammers those points CONSTANTLY and never goes beyond that. This show presents a lot of concepts, elements and themes in the table, but never truly comes to town with them, it ends up being a soapy mess that insists upon itself. War is vaguely treated in 86 with no hint of elegance or ambition, in similar fashion to what happens in Attack on Titan Final Season, it has no nuance or prospect of maturity. 86 tries to take itself (and present itself) as a serious product, tackling PTSD, guilt and a nuanced vision of war, but it ends up being more Marvel Avengers action flick and less genuinely nuanced war-related media like it aspires to be.

The very same thing happens with the topic of racism, mere simple drafts and prospects with no substance, all toppled by cheap melodrama and goofyness. Racism, historically, is supported by techniques such as cherrypicking news to generalize an entire collective—notably, the Der Stürmer which was an antisemitic newspaper; or modern ones like the far-right circus REDUXX (or the sister publication "ThePublica") which has degrading trans people and immigrants, hatred, bigotry, the promotion of pseudoscience and pure idiocy as their maxim—demeriting victims by treating them as subhuman and a mere monolith without nuance, this is done through using biased statistics and pseudoscience (such as phrenology being used to denote "barbarism" in different "races" which, by itself, is also a term drenched in cruelty) to aid this perspective, or stunting science, education and literacy, but apart from the very small classroom moment in Cour 1 which goes nowhere, there is... nothing of sorts in Eighty-Six? The historical context is vague, barely explored; one could argue that this is more of an adaptation fault rather than of the story itself, but I think that leaving this behind is a huge mistake if you want to really delve into the theme of racism and how it affects victims. Here, it ends up being unfounded and just weak as a core theme, painting San Magnolia as a mere prop or background for racism and nothing more. Vladilena is the center of this theme, her characterization is already bad but the theme of racism being so weak makes her even worse, one of the Eighty Six fighting for "le good albas" (lmao) or Lena just being the same character without much thought or reflection, as the criticism leaned against her ceases to exist later on. The Eighty Six are just perfect victims, who do not make any interesting cases or questions, etc. It's all very shallow. It is also, then, shoehorned into Cour 2, with Eugene as a very bland case who barely gets a speck of development and characterization. Racism isnt used as an intriguing topic to handle in 86, it is used in the same vein as an anime like Akame ga Kill, just purely cartoonish. 86 is kinda like the Detroit Become Human of anime when you think about it. That is absolute dogshit. Like Holy Shit I Get It the Eighty Six are victims of racism and Shin is edgy and whatever the anime can STOP hammering and nudging me about it by now

Theres a dumb moment where the anime tries to argue that the act of not allowing the Eighty-Six to fight in war is equally as bad as what San Magnolia is doing, I guess for #symbolismpoints (like the anime wants you know that they, the Eighty Six, should be free of choosing their fate) and it's like. What the fuck. What do you mean letting them live here, peacefully, is equally as hurtful as the acts done by the Empire of San Magnolia???? Is Frederica drinking stupid juice?????????? One involves HATING MINORITIES in generational and systematical racism + using the victims as cannon fodder AND a FASCIST REGIME and the other is giving home to war veterans and aiding them. How is comparing both of these acts a valid equivalence???? The act of going to war or having to avenge their dead allies, by itself, isnt a choice THEY MADE, this isnt freedom, this is merely robotics, an implanted choice of what they must do by the regime, and the entire cast goes like ":pout: we must avenge le fallen comrades...." This "yea we accept you, its okay (Hitler who made murderous mechs) it was the regime that did all of this after all so its a-okay :)" is so kitsch-ey and corny I cantttttttttttttt. You have an opportunity for your cast to develop A SPINE or some spice on their blood, but there is nothingg I am going insane holy shit. Helping and saving war veterans isnt treating them like children, it's giving them the charity they deserve, the pathological pacifism of the Federation's leader is not good, but its definitely NOT a valid equivalence when levied against the fascist regime of the Republic.

TONE, WORLD AND ATMOSPHERE

I think this is where Eighty-Six, as a show, also fails a lot. There are weird situations where the show wants to establish a certain tone, usually one of intrigue or danger, and it proceeds to absolutely ruin it with idiotic decisions or just... strange things. Like there is this one moment where Lena is talking to the Alba Chief in charge, Vladilena is all in "hooman rights are being infringed!!" mode as she hears, from the Chief, that "we shouldnt count the dead in these reports since they arent human" and Lena retorts with "what do you MEAN they arent humans????" with an angry expression, justifiably enough; then, the chief says "you look like your dad, Vladilena" and her mood instantly changes to a happy expression???? And nothing results out of this?? It is such a weird moment, all toppled with a bizarre choice for soundtrack in this scene; I am aware that its supposed to show how Lena idolizes her father, maybe? But its executed and shoehorned in such a weird way, instead of making me think about Lena's character, it made me muster "What?"

Or how the scene of the Eighty-Six reminiscing their fallen allies and other war victims, seeing the remnants of their Juggernauts and belongings, is interrupted by clumsy lolibait humour? So strange, it's like 86 wants to take itself seriously and then, suddenly, it gains a bit of self-awareness and its like "No, I shouldnt take myself seriously" and then it goes back to "Incredibly Serious Mode" without a break. Obviously, humour and sillyness have a place in serious stories, its just a matter of knowing how to properly set the stage for them. Since the drama, character relationships and characterization are uneffective, the SoL sections in both cours end up being pretty weak too. Or Lena wetting her panties over the Brooding Sigma Werewolf in weird contrast to the death-or-life drama and "muh sadness" scenes that had went on like some moments ago. These tone dissonances also include inserting epicity and grandiosity where it doesnt really belong, turning more into Avengers capeshit and less into the nuanced, wandering work it wants to be.

Apart from all that, there is no proper intrigue in the strategy, like I'm not sure why the AI doesn't simply attack one country at a time with their entire forces or why, despite the vast technology, there is a convenient jamming and static that impedes proper communication between countries, or Frederica being like "holy shit Shin is a numb battle machine now!!!" but... you asked him to fight... along with you and your cause... What did you expect? I don't know, it is all so contrived and lazy. Later on, the anime starts to insert a lot of new technobabble developed by the Federation.

DIALOGUE

It is generally forgettable, usually related to the matters at hand, from A to Z and between characters with zero charisma or intrigue, who exposit obvious symbolism, characterization, lore and themes. There are many moments that made me laugh, made me roll my eyes (or both at the same time) and I'll put some examples here. To set the scene: Two characters, from the Spearhead squadron, they are talking about the name and drawings painted on their Juggernauts, one is like "well yeah my codename is based on the futility of these flowers' lifetime..." then, one of them sees Shin, and then proceeds to talk to him "yours has to mean something too, right?" Yeah I wonder WHAT A HEADLESS SKELETON WITH A SHOVEL MEANS. Apart from these dumb pieces where the obvious is exposited or where characters say nothing of value, conversations tend to regard their one-note personality and a "camaraderie" that reeks of falsity, I've talked about this before but HOLY SHIT is the solidarity between the Eighty-Six so... fake, like something out of The Truman Show, so unconvincing and manipulative. Or Lena saying "ohhhh so thats why you're called the Undateika, cuz you carry on the deaths of the other processors" and its like... yeah... of course holy shit!!! Characters in 86 do NOT talk, they exposit OR they have discussions surrounding their one-note trait (likes to draw, likes to protect others, likes astronomy, etc) which flanderizes their entire personality. Very cheesy overall, absurdly expository and extremely forgettable.

__REMEMBER SHIN
WE—THE BREADGHTY-SIX—ARE NOT WANTED ANYWHERE
WERE THE WHITE PIGS ANNIHILATED?
WE ARE NOT GOING ANYWHERE
CUT MY LIFE INTO PIECES
THIS IS MY LAST RESORT__

SOUNDTRACK

Like the character designs, a good soundtrack can occasionally salvage and carry some media, Sawano is an acclaimed composer mostly known for his work in Attack on Titan, honestly? Yeah its good, his sound in Attack on Titan is able of instantly setting an atmosphere of life-or-death drama and war, songs like "YouSeeBIGGIRL/T:T" are amazing, definitely memorable... so, hows his work in 86? It is, frankly, overall forgettable, mostly covered up by the ear-raping sound design too. Definitely not good enough to carry this anime, it generally lacks identity.

ANIMATION

Apart from the abhorrent CGI that is overused everywhere, there are off-model characters (like in EP.14, minute 14:39 with Eugene's fumbly hand) and ugly in-betweens or like gross props being moved and fumbled around in the background (such as the Nachzehrer being destroyed) each scenery is absolutely uninspired and derivative and it gets worse with how nauseating the choreographies and action scenes are. Legions are supremely powerful EXCEPT when they fight against the five main characters, then they suddenly turn into sloggish machines that cant run or aim even if their life depended on it, the battles with Legions are just so horrendously boring and repetitive too. However, some very specific parts are okay, even though they get a bit let down by a lack of originality and personality in the art direction.

FINAL WORDS

This is some of the most infantile, filled with drivel and most unsubtle anime I've ever watched, even then Akame ga Kill at least had some trashy fun; 86 has a cast of just unlikeable characters with NO spice on their blood or any semblance of personality or good character moments, lots of contrivance, horrendous CGI and battle choreography, an annoying execution of themes, etc. Terrible all across the board, with nothing to say or do. I thought I'd never recommend AoT Final Season but please watch that instead of this, at least it's more fun. The only good thing in this show is Vladilena's huge bazoongers

__WE WILL REMEMBER OUR COMRADES IN HEAVEN
THE FINEST BREAD OF THE BUNCH
WE WILL FIGHT FOR THEM__