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EP. REVIEW: 86

Speaking of which, this could be a way for the timeline that was mentioned on the first page (the first cour to run the first novel) to work. They are extending it, but I don't mind the way they're doing it. I would like them to get through the fourth by the end of the second season, but at this pace, I kind of doubt it.

When you have a propaganda system that can dehumanize people why not use it to recruit soldier and dehumanize your enemy like every army in the world: here they dehumanize their own soldier and fancy a 0 death lie... It look completely absurd, in my opinion, when the war is not an option. I'm still curious to see what ideology they used to dehumanize them.

The 86 obey orders but I cannot understand why. They talk about protecting their land and the following episode, they say the war is lost and they will die so, in my opinion, they should desert.

Lena got critical intelligence about the legion but don't do anything with it... I cannot understand that either. The military from Magnolia, are just looking like cosplayers because they don't seems to have any value in this war.

The wall protecting the city is useless like every wall since the invention of artillery when you don't have air supremacy. Here the legion has moving artillery so i don't understand what is the plan at all.

In the perspective they choose the war of attrition because the legion was superior, that doesn't explain why they would sacrifice the 86 troops and equipment by blatant incompetence and would stop gathering intelligence about the enemy strategies and unit specs. For example: not reading the reports from the 86...

Dehumanizing the enemy is pointless because the enemy is inhuman. The humans on the other side have been wiped out by their own autonomous forces. (I'm pretty sure this has been mentioned in the anime, though off the top of my head I can't point to exactly where.)

As for the ideology used to dehumanize the 86s, the source material never goes into much detail about this, either, but there are strong historical parallels in Nazi propaganda towards Jews and gypsies. Build on existing suspicions towards, and resentments of, immigrants (which all of the non-Alba are) and it's (sadly) not that hard to accomplish.

The problem is that they have nowhere to desert to. This way they at least get supplies and the hope for regaining citizenship.

Who would believe her, especially given that the source is an 86 who knows about this primarily through the use of supernatural/psychic powers? How would that look on a report to superiors? And you're right, the military has little value in this war because they believe that they can just sit behind their wall for a couple more years and it'll be over.

You're missing the point here: this is the Republic's way of exterminating the 86s. It's the functional equivalent to working them to death in work camps, so sacrificing the 86s in battle is the goal, not the means. Yes, the Republic has gotten very complacent about all of this, but they hardly have the market cornered on using complacency to dodge grim realities.

That's the problem i have to take it seriously : a democracy has gone full genocide without ideological material. The nazi use conspiracy theories (insider enemy), fake-science (race hierarchy and blood purity), mythology (aryan supremacy), economical situation (jews as scapegoat for all problems) to launch their propaganda based on the existing and already powerful racism.

The other problem is, if propaganda is this powerful, why do they care about a 0 death war to begin with: dying at war could be shown as the most honorable thing to do.

If they are not human, they cannot become citizens because it will contradict the propaganda. I would have understood if they were considered lower-class citizens and more expendable than the Alba soldiers, but, there is no Alba soldier.

For the desertion: they can all regroup on one side of Magnolia and let the legion reach the other side. Why spread your force on a vast territory if there is no need to protect all sides because the wall is perfect ?

But she knows the 2 years rule is untrue, she should do something or she doesn't care about everyone dying ? The source of information doesn't really matter, only its strategical value. They could retrieve black sheep for analysis, show analysis of legion's tactical evolution, the communications can be registered...

So their objective is exterminating the 86 even if it means reducing their chance to win this war and increasing their chance to die themselves. Why not increase the 86 survival rate and try to win the war then exterminate the remaining 86 instead ? And return to the initial point : why do they want to exterminate them if at the end of the war, everything has to be rebuild and they will need a workforce they can exploit to do it ?

The novel goes into a little more detail, but even there the story felt like it was expecting readers to draw allusions to history and real-world situations to fill in the gaps. That doesn't bother me, but I can see how it might be too indirect for others.

Do we consider dying in a war to be an honorable death these days? Keeping friendly casualties to a minimum is more the current point of emphasis.

Keep watching. This point is at the core of an upcoming plot development, so it will be dealt with.

The books are very vague on this (the author is, annoyingly, not fond of providing maps), but the implication is that there is no "other side." The Republic is dealing with multiple battlefronts; Spearhead Squadron is just on the one most directly facing the former Empire.

So Lena's doing the analysis on her own.

Simple: they're convinced that they're going to be fine if they just wait it out and use the 86s as a buffer. Is that irrational confidence? Definitely, but when has that ever stopped a country?

Key wrote:

The novel goes into a little more detail, but even there the story felt like it was expecting readers to draw allusions to history and real-world situations to fill in the gaps. That doesn't bother me, but I can see how it might be too indirect for others.

Indeed, I'm quite interested in history but i don't have enough element to fill the gap yet. The city looks too utopic to make supposition for such hate and without some twisted ideology to explain it, it's hard to understand. Maybe there wasn't enough space in the capital and they decide to let them outside but why label them as "not human" at the same time, just revoking their citizenship was enough to discriminate them. At least, the racism of the 86 is understandable because they are discriminated and let to die outside.

The narrow scope of the series, focusing on one Alban and 1 squad of 86, has made me question the larger societal structure of the Republic as well. The fact that there has been nobody else speaking out for the 86 feels pretty unrealistic as, and I mentioned this before, even in the most brutal dictatorships there were always partisans and opposition.

However, the series has hinted at sympathetic Albans already (The Fox Commander for example who fought alongside 86 troops and has evoked some very mixed feelings from members of Spearhead) and I'm hopeful that as the series looks more into Shin and Shourei's past we'll get a more complete view of how the current situation came to be.

Agree with the reviewer, the battles have been very well done.

It was a bit annoying though having the tropey set up putting extra focus on that guy and the girl with the long purple hair (names escape me) to then follow with one of them getting killed. I hope this doesn't continue as a trend =/

Agree with the reviewer, the battles have been very well done. Seeing that girl take her self out first was pretty terrible, but understandable considering everything going on :/
It was a bit annoying though having the tropey set up putting extra focus on that guy and the girl with the long purple hair (names escape me) to then follow with one of them getting killed. I hope this doesn't continue as a trend =/

Electric Wooloo wrote:

The narrow scope of the series, focusing on one Alban and 1 squad of 86, has made me question the larger societal structure of the Republic as well. The fact that there has been nobody else speaking out for the 86 feels pretty unrealistic as, and I mentioned this before, even in the most brutal dictatorships there were always partisans and opposition. However, the series has hinted at sympathetic Albans already (The Fox Commander for example who fought alongside 86 troops and has evoked some very mixed feelings from members of Spearhead) and I'm hopeful that as the series looks more into Shin and Shourei's past we'll get a more complete view of how the current situation came to be.

I got the impression from the conversations between Lena and her uncle (among other interactions) that being publicly supportive of the 86s is a great to end up in serious trouble. I don't know if this nation would put someone to death over it (though that might not be a stretch), but this seems like the type of environment where very few, if any, would be publicly speaking out about it.
There may be people quietly against what is going on and even underground groups being more active against it, but unless they find out about Lena and move to contact her, it's likely we wouldn't her about it until they arrive on the scene on their own in some fashion.

The narrow scope of the series, focusing on one Alban and 1 squad of 86, has made me question the larger societal structure of the Republic as well. The fact that there has been nobody else speaking out for the 86 feels pretty unrealistic as, and I mentioned this before, even in the most brutal dictatorships there were always partisans and opposition.

Covnam wrote:

Agree with the reviewer, the battles have been very well done. Seeing that girl take her self out first was pretty terrible, but understandable considering everything going on :/ It was a bit annoying though having the tropey set up putting extra focus on that guy and the girl with the long purple hair (names escape me) to then follow with one of them getting killed. I hope this doesn't continue as a trend =/ Electric Wooloo wrote: The narrow scope of the series, focusing on one Alban and 1 squad of 86, has made me question the larger societal structure of the Republic as well. The fact that there has been nobody else speaking out for the 86 feels pretty unrealistic as, and I mentioned this before, even in the most brutal dictatorships there were always partisans and opposition. However, the series has hinted at sympathetic Albans already (The Fox Commander for example who fought alongside 86 troops and has evoked some very mixed feelings from members of Spearhead) and I'm hopeful that as the series looks more into Shin and Shourei's past we'll get a more complete view of how the current situation came to be. I got the impression from the conversations between Lena and her uncle (among other interactions) that being publicly supportive of the 86s is a great to end up in serious trouble. I don't know if this nation would put someone to death over it (though that might not be a stretch), but this seems like the type of environment where very few, if any, would be publicly speaking out about it. There may be people quietly against what is going on and even underground groups being more active against it, but unless they find out about Lena and move to contact her, it's likely we wouldn't her about it until they arrive on the scene on their own in some fashion.

The thing is that's the exact opposite impression I got from the "speech" in episode 2. Lena says "My Uncle's a big deal" and that's all we hear about that. I understand that scene was anime original to "infodump things from the novel the anime wouldn't have time for" but considering the pace of the anime apparently there would have been time to fit those things in naturally if they're only going to volume 3.

Did Anju (the long-haired girl) and Daiya really get extra attention in this episode, though? They've been getting about that level of attention on a regular basis since episode 1.

(And fun fact: the scenes of Daiya getting mortally wounded and then finished off by Shin are anime-original. The novel just off-handedly mentions his death happening "off screen," so in this sense the anime is an improvement.)

The thing is that's the exact opposite impression I got from the "speech" in episode 2. Lena says "My Uncle's a big deal" and that's all we hear about that. I understand that scene was anime original to "infodump things from the novel the anime wouldn't have time for" but considering the pace of the anime apparently there would have been time to fit those things in naturally if they're only going to volume 3.