I added 86 – Eighty-Six to my To Watch list this season because a few of the Discord servers I’m in kept ranting and raving about both the light novel and the manga. I’ve been asked a few times by a couple of different people if I had read any of the series and when I said “no, I haven’t,” they told me I was seriously missing out. I was about to pick up the manga (since I barely have time to devote to reading light novels) when I saw that this series had an anime coming out… and it was coming out this season!
How convenient, right?
So, I decided to pick it up and I checked out the first episode. Was I right in doing so? Was all of the hype my friends have been giving it justified?
Let’s Go!
First Episode Synopsis
The Republic of San Magnolia and the Giadian Empire are at war. They are using these mechanical spider-like devices to wage wars on the battlefield call the Legion. The government is touting the fact that blood-filled wars are over as everything can be fought with unmanned drones. Vladilena “Lena” Mirize is our main character and a “Handler” or someone who commands the unarmed drones from a control room at their headquarters.
Lena is a bit special because she has a “human” connection to the drones. Even though the drones are armed with artificial intelligence, Lena feels that they are people just like everyone else. The Legion drones she commands are even thankful for her treating them as people rather than as machines. Lena even tries to argue that the Legion are not just some throwaway toys like the military sees them as but her words simply fall on deaf ears.
All of that changes when her uncle reassigns her to the 86th unit. Here, we learn that you should never trust the government because they all love to tell lies… especially about how the Legion are unmanned machines. While this is probably true for the other 85 divisions, Division 86 is a forsaken division that is often the afterthought of the military. Here, men and women pilot the Legion meaning that they are not exactly unmanned as the government likes to claim. Lena is now their new Handler and Commander and that is where our first episode ends.
Worth Watching?
YES – Okay, so the hype is pretty real with this. While the first episode was a little hard to follow, once you stick with it… you come to understand exactly what is happening. While the reasons for the 86th division are not yet revealed, we do know that the government doesn’t care about them, they are kind of an “off-the-books” operation and Lena is their new commander.
Right away you can tell that Lena’s care and compassion for the Legion is going to spill over into the 86. Given the fact that she was warned that past commanders/handlers had committed suicide after learning the truth, she still takes on the assignment… even if she is reluctant to do so.
There’s a lot of compelling storytelling being set up here but even I can see where this is going to go. Given the fact that the 86 have very little respect for their commanders, I can see Lena and the 86 mixing like oil and water at first. Then, once they see and understand (or, perhaps even question) Lena’s compassion for the Legion and, therefore, compassion for them, they’ll probably bond and band together… but it’s not going to be an easy journey.
At least, that’s how I would write if I were in charge of this story. I could be wrong and this show could go in a completely different direction but, either way, I am hooked and I want to see more of it. Plus, Lena is cute as hell and a good candidate for waifu of the season!
