86 Season 2

Episode 20

Biweekly series no more! At least for now.

This week saw the characters finally addressing Shin's battle trances, with Raiden in particular confronting him and voicing aloud many of my frustrations with his character as of late. His arc essentially concluded when he killed his brother, and clearly Shin has felt his absence of purpose just as much as I have. In his later conversation with Frederica, he worries that his lack of a dream makes him less than human, and I hope this isn't just lampshading; I really want him to find some meaning to fighting (or even retiring). Their upbeat march to their deaths at the end of the first cour were some of 86's best episodes, but they can't just keep playing the same tune.

That said, it's great to see them back on the road again. 86 employs some brilliant background artists, but there wasn't really much they could do with a bland military base. Now, they're finally able to stretch those muscles. The backgrounds even become a part of the plot here, with Frederica commenting on how they're so beautiful that she can understand why Spearhead aren't too interested in saving the human cities. That narrative point makes more sense to the viewers given how stunning this week's vistas look.

I had a strong feeling throughout that whoever the director of Episode 20 was, they would be a familiar name. Welcome back, Tomohiko Ito! Back in Episode 15, he did a great job at cutting around the show's production issues to show a bunch of imagery around a closed room that would foreshadow the events we're seeing today. Notably, he was the one who put the moth in a spiderweb in the corner of Frederica's dormitory. We now know that was alluding to the design of the Morpho, a cross between a butterfly, a moth, and a train. This week, as Spearhead chases down the mechanical monstrosity, we see flashes of a bunch of ants steadily devouring a dead butterfly. Hopefully that's a good sign, huh?

I've always said that the cast of 86 is best when they're out and about doing things, so hopefully this is the last time we'll spend a significant amount of time just talking about Shin. Honestly, one of the best (and best-animated) scenes was when the team were making fun of Kurena. Let's remember that there are other characters in this show too! Although with that said, I still personally couldn't care less about the forgettable Federacy characters that the camera keeps zipping back to. They seem to be here just to remind us of the bigger picture as well as introduce some new technology, but so much of that conversation is shown through still images of their backs. It's not exactly compelling.

Rating:

86 Season 2 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Callum is the host and creator of the YouTube channel The Canipa Effect where he explores topics within the anime industry. You can also find him talking nonsense on Twitter.