86 Eighty Six

What an emotional ride that was. It might as well have been series finale. A bit sad at the end really with a flicker of hope for the squad.

I'm gonna be straight with you. After completing the 2 seasons, I can gladly say that this thing is one of the best anime of all time. The writing, story, themes, such as freedom, AOT vibes coursing through my veins. CHARACTERS, Shin & Lena, that smooth CGI, and last but not least the SOUNDTRACK, both S1 ED are my favorite anime ED of all time. From none but the LEGENDARY AOT Ost composers themselves, Hiroyuki Sawano & Kohta Yamamoto. Their involvement alone makes this show incredible. It piqued my interest in this 'cause of them, tbh. And I do not regret watching this. Such an underrated masterpiece. My recommendation is 11/10.

I'll need to update this review in the future, but so far this is becoming the product that I wish Code Geass had been. Imagine the most wasted Code Geass character, Monica Krushevsky, who canonically held no prejudices but was still murdered by her own comrade Suzaku for awfully-written shock value, gets transported to an alternate universe to finally get proper characterization on-screen. Heading a troupe of discriminated teenage soldiers who are fighting a war that they were forced into because of a restructuring of borders and caste systems thanks to an AI invasion from an opposing country, Lena faces the ironic hypocrisy of her beliefs that all "Numbers"--in this case called "86"--are equal to her race when she only needs to passively observe the battles on the sidelines of the war and not face the consequences firsthand. Unlike Code Geass, the story remains tight and focused without throwing in any annoying fanservice or diverging into a dumb subplot about a school festival. Deaths actually carry weight since we get to know the characters and their comrades actually get time to grieve. It's an emotional, smartly-written tale that shows just how far anime has come from the plethora of tropes or comically bad overdramatic "plot twists" that plague its fakely smart counterpart Code Geass.

I hope to see more truly introspective writing like this in the future with more anime and that "86" will consistently hit those strong emotional notes while staying true to what it originally set out to do.

The story will be great in future. Absolutely recommended. Watch it or you will miss a very good story line. One of the good anime series that I will recommend for you to watch.

A very well adapted LN series 86 certainly made an impact in its season 1. If you love military action packed anime along with emotional moments (for instance ep 9 was an absolute banger) and a touch of mysterious world then 86 will certainly amaze you. The closest thing to the world of 86 is the universe of AOT, in terms of disagreement among the races of people. So I recommend you watching it, it's a short anime which will continue its journey in the fall of this year.