“I don’t want to die.”
What they say:
Lena continues warming up to the Spearhead unit, which she now commands. However, her battles both with enemies and her own subconscious prejudices continue to be obstacles in the way of her ideals. How will she cope when a life is lost?
The Review:
Content (Please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
86 is the kind of anime that hasn’t tied itself down to a particular narrative so far. It’s more about the message. It’s basically a lot of heavy action with poignant dialogue between them serving as a lull between all the explosions. Of course, emotional reckonings still need to happen even after the battles are over, and that’s what happened these last two episodes.
Of course, things start out with some classic fanservice with a nice “secret river” scene where the girls need to be stripped down and the boys need to peep. Though that’s about where all the pleasantness ends. Lena continues her daily conversations with the members of Spearhead before their next big battle and works behind the scenes to get better maps so she can more accurately lead the crew, and Spearhead continues their daily lives. They live separate lives when they’re not communicating, and this is illustrated by the episodes replaying the same conversations from different points of view. We get the same event from Lena’s perspective in the Republic and then again from the soldiers in the 86th district. All to reinforce that they are not close at all. To a lot of people on both ends, this is the way it should be, and one member of Spearhead, Kaie, warns Lena not to get too close. The resentment each side feels for each other has been so baked into society that it’s the “normal.” To venture outside that, as Lena attempts, is to be reckless. At the end of the day, the Alba need someone to discriminate against and the 86 need a safe place to be away from that discrimination. Of course, it’s deeply unfair to the 86, but they’re so disadvantaged by the normal, they can’t do anything about it. They have every reason to be distrustful of the Alba, including the ones who say they want to help make equality.
All of this comes to a boil when Kaie is killed in battle at the end of episode three. Lena apologizes for not being a better leader but one of the members, Theoto, lashes out in anger. While they’re out fighting and dying, Lena is sitting behind the scenes in comfort and safety and he points out that she never even bothered to ask their real names. It’s all too much for her and she breaks down in despair.
It’s a different kind of racism than you might see in other fiction stories. It’s not the kind of hammy in-your-face racism that exists among cartoonish bad guys to show how bad racism is. Rather the focus is on how we all carry some prejudices that we may not be aware of. We say we want to help create an equal society, but the unequal-ness is internalized within us. Racism doesn’t just exist as tasteless jokes or slurs. It’s a system that clearly advantages one group of people (in this case the Alba), and that group of people are often ignorant of those advantages. Such is the case with Lena.
It can be a take that strike a nerve and I commend the series for attempting to tread it. However, it has to be done delicately. There are obvious real-world allegories here and if it tries to be too on-the-nose, it can cause more headache than help. It also needs to make clear that this system is wrong and that’s going to be tough when characters on both sides need to justify its existence (or at the very least condemn efforts to bring it down) to illustrate how we have all internalized its effects. So far it’s doing well. Although this back-and-forth with the different locations can make the subject stale, it seems we have a narrative building going into episode five.
Before that, though, Lena needs to learn how to cope with her ignorance. Episode four is basically the “patch things up” episode. First, Lena is reminded by her uncle and friend that the system is set in place and trying to change it can lead to dire consequences. Lena’s father was like her. He wanted to observe the 86 in their own world, only for their aircraft to suffer a crash which led to his death. Her uncle reminds her that her father was ignorant of the violence that exists outside the Republic because he was in a bubble his whole life. He believed it was safe and that he would be fine because his ideals were just. Lena, though, wants to press on like the protagonist she is.
After talking with Undertaker, she calls the group and formally apologizes, and asks for all their real names. They make clear that while Theoto was out of line in the way he said what he ranted about, they don’t disagree with what he said, and they don’t intend on accepting her as one of them any time soon. Their realities are just too different. That said, it does seem like the crew accepted her apology and are on better terms than before. There’s a slight ray of hope in there that maybe Lena can pull this off. The episode ends with our first real narrative hook. Lena asks Undertake for his real name, which he says is Shinei Nouzen. A shocked Lena asks if he knows a Shourei Nozen, and after an unsettling bit of flashback, Shinei replies that is his brother.
How much this will be followed up on is unknown right now, and it’s taken a while but we’re finally getting into some thick of the story. I wonder if this theme of ignorant prejudice will continue as well or if the series will move away from it as it heads into its first real story arc. I hope there are at least bits and pieces of it here and there. It would be a shame for the series to leave it behind for all action and drama. If there is one thing that could have helped, it’s that the episodes are rather uneventful and should have been less so until now. It’s hard to remember much from these first four episodes and it’s mostly been repetitive flips between action and dialogue (crafty as those transitions and cool those scenes are). However, if the series starts improving for real beyond this point, that will be but a minor criticism.
The animation and soundtrack also provide consistent entertainment. Mostly with the music. Hiroyuki Sawano and Kohta Yamamoto have been dropping some great tunes in the series so far. My expectations are high it stays that way.
In summary:
86 continues to send a strong and unique message about unequal societies in times of war. While the episodes up until now have mostly been uneventful aside from pure action and Lena getting some harsh reality about herself knocked into her, the series is starting to provide us with our first real hook. We have a mystery character in Undertaker’s brother. And now that terms are better between Lena and spearhead, the true story is about to begin. True, it’s a bit slow getting there, but sometimes slow and steady wins the race. I’m looking forward to seeing what the story has in store.
Grade: A
Streamed by: Crunchyroll
