Blair Loveday
86 -Eighty Six was an anime I had never even heard of despite releasing a couple of years ago.
A brief look at what it was about and I was curious. Well now I have watched it, and hoo boy, it’s one to add to the collection.
86 – Eighty Six is set in a world where the Republic of San Magnolia has been at war with the Empire of Giad for nine years. The Empire built autonomous killing robots which, you know, gives them the edge. The Republic built their own ones to fight back and without soldiers dying, the people of the republic sleep a little better at night. Now just a handler needs to control where these robots go and fight.
We are introduced to a handler called Lena who has done a great job of getting promoted. We quickly are shown that the handler isn’t really controlling machines, so much as talking to humans. The Republics autonomous machines turns out to be mech like machines, with people in them. Those people are from the 86th district, hence the name, and they fight and die to keep the republic safe.
Lena keeps trying to tell people that the zero humans lost figures being spouted isn’t true. One of the really good scene setters early on has her explain this to cadetes, that actually there are people in the mechs who are dying. When faced with this new information, a student argues back that the 86 aren’t actually humans. Immediately we are faced with awful segregation in this world, the brown haired people aren;t seen as humans by these white haired superiors. To the point they literally don’t count them as deaths in the war.
And this is all super early in the series.
I am not going to spoil more of it because if you liked the sound of what I wrote above, you deserve to enjoy this show with as little info as possible. This really builds an interesting world, with a society with a messed up world view. The themes involved are all solid and fascinating to unfold. But it is a series based around a mech war, so you may expect some action. Well there is, and heaps of it. The whole show is beautifully animated, but the action sequences are intense and next level. It really makes the series so well rounded to have the good action to help land home the darker scenes.
86 – Eighty Six is a show I can’t believe I was missing. Great action, an interesting story, and a much better journey than I was expecting. If you haven’t checked this one out then correct that now and add it to your collection.
