86: Eighty-Six
Jul 22, 2021Pretty colours, racism, war with CG robots and lots of feelings. I could end review right there, because that is pretty much all I’ve taken from the series except the feelings. I felt nothing. Pretty much every thing the show throwed at me bounced off me like nothing. Why should I care, when in the end even the 86s’ didn’t care? They already resigned to their fate. In fact, even the republic did give up any serious effort to win the war, with preposterous story of war ending by default presuming machines seize to function after their operational time is exceeded. The next issue is how a majority population of the republic were sent to the frontline in the first place. Why wasn’t there any rebellion, opposition, etc.?
I’ve forced myself to finish the show, despite utter boredom it radiated from every episode. Initially the premise and theme were a bit promising. It could be interesting show, but around the fourth episode I just naturally stalled until the end of the season, because it is meh in terms of story. It’s the series, which tries to establish characters, but it does in very slow and boring manner. It isn’t wrong to have some slice-of-life elements to make contrast with harsh war and death, but it is just too much in this case. I didn’t like the ending, because it made the whole thing even more pointless. There is supposed to be second season so I don’t know how the story is going to continue [1].
Animation and visual side of things are ok despite heavy use of CG. Soundtrack is ok. As usual I don’t care for OP and ED.
My finger was itching to skip whenever characters started drag and talk about things of no interest. It was almost all the time. Am I going even to watch the second season? Maybe, I honestly don’t know. Anyway, I don’t recommend the series unless you prefer very dry drama.
Spoilers
[1] In the last episodes the remaining handful of 86s’ are killed. So, either they are going to be turn into the machines or it’s just a troll and they somehow survived.
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I agree. I felt absolutely nothing towards any of the characters.
Better than aot.
Heavy SPOILERS:
I agree about the "no feeling part". But in my opinion, that made it better. It shows how cruel their world is. We don't have *time* to get to love them, they just die randomly because that's how war is. It's ruthless and the first time I watched it I didn't even know their names. It's a social commentary because that's literally the point - we don't remember like half of their names or more, because they aren't important, they die anyway, so it doesn't matter, right? That's what the show wants to say. They *are* important. Maybe not the characters necessarily, since they are just characters, but we forget and don't care about people who gave their lives in the wars of the world. Those people literally gave their lives to make our lives better now, but we don't care, remember, or feel anything towards them. That's what the show wants to say. I do understand why it can be annoying or boring, but it's a very realistic way of showing how we meet new people every day, and we might never see them again. Death just happens, especially in war. The reason it ended that fast was because they didn't have time to say their last goodbye, didn't have time for a dramatic last speech.
The reason why the characters talked about random things was to show how they live their daily lives. This IS supposed to be a very much slice-of-life show with some war sprinkled in it. It's supposed to show the characters and their thoughts and make them known as people (before they kill them off). It's so we feel bad, but I think it's more about knowing that they aren't just random emotionless/lifeless people like the Republic of San Magnolia makes their citizens think. It's to show that both the 86 and the citizens are as human as us. Of course, the republic is seen as ignorant and maybe a little evil, but so are we as humans. We tend to believe what we're told and not care about actually trying to check if it's true or not, and cause harm to others because of it. This show is also about trying to understand that all humans are pretty much the same, everyone is good and evil in their own way. Also, we didn't learn everyone's backstory, or at least not the full ones. That's also on purpose. You want to get to know them but they are gone before you can. Not many shows are bold like this because of the reason that that's not how media works. It's supposed to be dreamy and dramatic. I think this show did a very good job of making it as realistic as possible with lots of fantasy elements.
I loved the ending because of how fast it was. It made me sad *because* of how fast it was. Becayse they couldn't actually be sad for each other or say goodbye or anything. They just died. If they do survive I'll be a little disappointed, but at least they were good characters so it won't bother me too much.
It's 8/10 for me because it's not the most genius show of course, but I think they did a good job with what they had.
Also, as a youtuber said, when they killed off that big robot that was recording them and went everywhere they did, it was like the show killed off a dog. Not many shows will make you care about a pet and then kill them. I think they did it very well too.