Well, I guess we’re doing this, huh? After storming through 86’s ninth and tenth episodes in a flash, I’ve been putting off the season’s final episode for a solid month now. The reason for that is simple: this episode looks like an absolute horror show, and I’m not exactly eager to see Spearhead’s remaining members get torn to pieces. The team has suffered enough, the unconscionable inhumanity of war has been made undeniably clear, and I’d be perfectly happy to let our heroes just ride off into the sunset.

I kid, but only to a certain extent. 86 is not a story that should conclude with a pat, happy resolution, because the conflicts it has articulated are too imposing and too substantive to be conveniently resolved. By positioning itself in the grand tradition of stories like All Quiet on the Western Front, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and Catch-22, 86 has essentially guaranteed its conclusion will either be suitably tragic, or else embrace enough feel-good escapism to risk undercutting its core themes.

And that, more than anything else, is what I’m afraid of. Can you actually tell a substantive war story in a light novel context, where stories are designed for infinite sequential replication, and main characters are often treated more like brand ambassadors than human beings? The narrative variables 86 began with have largely been resolved, but this is only the show’s first of an unknown number of seasons, which to some extent gives me my answer. I’m thusly steeling myself for some awkward sequel hooks, but if this episode can tie a neat bow on the season’s drama, linking Lena and Shin’s experience one final time, I’ll be plenty satisfied. Let’s dive into the last episode of 86!

Continue reading →

So what’s the plan now, Lena? 86 has arrived at the end of the known world, whether you’re looking at it geographically or narratively. The show has been propelled by twin narratives: Shin’s journey towards reuniting with his brother, and Lena’s slow separation from Republic protocol. With the events of episode nine, both of these threads have reached their conclusion, as Lena took matters into her own hands in order to ensure Shin’s victory. With the dust having settled and Spearhead passing beyond the reach of Lena’s communications, 86’s narrative as originally conceived is over. Truly overthrowing the Republic was impossible within the confines of this narrative’s original variables, but our leads managed to overcome their entrenched suspicion of each other, and rise to become the Republic’s feared symbols of hope.

If this were a traditional novel, this would likely be where the story ends. All of the dramatic variables as initially introduced have been expended, the key characters have completed their emotional arcs, and the conclusion found a clever way to “defeat” the Republic philosophically without indulging in the fanciful impossibility of truly overthrowing it. Cohesive, self-contained, complete. That said, light novels tend to keep going until they can no longer pay to keep the lights on, so I’m guessing we’re on the cusp of some new antagonistic variable, introduced just in time to provide a season two hook. The intersection of art and commerce is a thorny venue, but I’m sure we can navigate it together, as we explore the tenth episode of 86!

Continue reading →

Hello everyone, and welcome to Wrong Every Time. Today we stand on the precipice of battle, with Shin and his few remaining squadmates having been assigned an impossible task. They are intended to fail this mission; as we’ve recently learned, Spearhead is actually a dumping ground for all those 86 who’ve survived too long, and risk putting the lie to the Republic’s promises of freedom. There will be no freedom for the 86; their persecuted existence is a stain on the honor of the Republic, and thus they must be wiped out so completely that even their memory will cease to exist.

Lena may not have the power to halt the Republic’s campaign of genocide, but at the very least she is no longer blind to it. She has seen the true face of former friends like Henrietta and her uncle, and understands that they are not simply blind to injustice, but willfully complicit in its continuation. Willful tyranny will not dissipate merely by being exposed to the light – it must be challenged, and will fight tooth and nail to preserve itself. Tyranny may dress itself in justice, but appeals to justice will never depose it; those who believe in the primacy of power will never answer to anything else. Lena’s high social position and frankly unmerited faith in human nature make her one of the few people that could answer the Republic’s challenge in its own language; as the final battle approaches, I’m eager to see how she at last makes her stand.

Continue reading →

At last, the awful truth has been revealed. After working for months to improve the conditions of Spearhead’s lives, and assuring them that reinforcements must surely be on the way, Lena’s subordinates finally informed her of her unit’s true nature. Spearhead isn’t just the most dangerous combat unit: it is explicitly designed as a death sentence, where soldiers endure unending frontline action until they ultimately expire. Lena’s attention is well-meant, but ultimately meaningless; in the end, every soldier she is commanding is going to die.

This reveal colors Shin’s reputation as the “Reaper” in a new light. He mentioned early on that he’s been the last survivor in the past, but given the nature of Spearhead, it’s likely he’s survived through multiple iterations of this execution-by-combat, carrying the hopes of his companions with him. The Republic established this unit specifically so the 86 could not build heroes and legends; through Shin’s work, he is quietly rebelling against that desire, and insisting his friends be remembered.

This knowledge will also undoubtedly impact Lena’s perspective, dashing any lingering faith in the righteousness of her homeland. The Republic is not blind to the conditions of the 86; in fact, it established Spearhead specifically to “address” those conditions, by executing any 86 who stretch too close to freedom. The Republic explicitly designed this system, and having learned its true nature, I can’t imagine Lena will be able to sit comfortably in her gilded palace. The Rubicon has been crossed, and I’m eager to see Lena’s next moves as we return to 86!

Continue reading →

Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today you will have to forgive me, as we’re stepping back into the world of 86, and almost certainly have a tragic journey ahead of us. 86’s last episode certainly didn’t pull any punches; a momentary tactical error resulted in Daiya’s senseless death, while even before the fresh tragedy, flashbacks to our unit’s first deployment offered a melancholy reminder of all that we’ve lost.

That episode exemplified 86’s thoughtful, compassionate approach towards portraying the horrors of war. While many stories use the depiction of graphic violence as their central markers of horror and tragedy, 86 understands that how these characters die is only noteworthy in how pointless it is, not how graphic. Rather than laboring over gore, 86 celebrates its characters for how they lived, focusing chiefly on the vibrant characters we’ve lost and the empty spaces they leave in their communities. It can be difficult to convey violence without in some way glamorizing it, particularly since the excitement of high-stakes action is one of anime’s chief exports. But 86 is determined to celebrate its characters as multifaceted people, not simply effective warriors, and thus both its lack of glamorous action and resultantly mournful tone are intentional and essential to its purpose.

Last episode also served as an aesthetic high water mark for the series so far, proving that young director Kuniyasu Nishina is a talent to look out for. I’m looking forward to seeing more of their work in a few episodes, but for now, I’m eager to see how Spearhead handle their doomed current assignment. Let’s return to the world of 86!

Continue reading →

Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m immensely eager to dive back into 86, given how its last episode upended everything we thought we knew. First off, we at last learned the full truth regarding what happened to Lena’s father, as well as her connection with Shin’s brother Rei. The consequences of Lena’s childhood journey to the front lines basically set the course of her life until now – having lost her father, but gained a lift debt to the 86, it seems only natural that she’d attempt to live up to Rei’s example.

But as it turns out, Rei is also still guiding Shin’s actions, in the most morbid way possible. As the episode’s second half revealed, the Legion have been using the brains of dead soldiers to replace their mechs’ aging processing units, and thus prolonging their fighting capacity. As a result, the Alba’s confidence in the Legion’s obsolescence is entirely unfounded, and they’re quite likely on track to lose this war. And on a more personal level, it seems clear that Shin’s brother is serving as one of the “Shepherds” with fully working brains, directing the battle against his own former teammates.

At the moment, Shin seems determined to live only long enough to ensure his brother can rest in peace. He has no unrealistic pretensions of escaping his fate as a soldier, and no hope of this war ever ending. Shin’s perspective is frankly reasonable – but in a situation like this, you sometimes need an unreasonable person like Lena to keep you going. Her entirely unwarranted optimism and idealism are a precious resource, a hope flowering in the most inhospitable soil. With so much of their past now revealed, I’m eager to see how Lena and Shin’s relationship develops from here!

Continue reading →

Well Lena, you’ve done it. You’ve learned the actual names of the 86 serving under you, and have taken one more step towards recognizing them as fully human. As nearly everyone has pointed out, this is mostly a symbolic gesture, and hasn’t really changed the fundamental nature of your relationship – but even symbolic gestures can be meaningful, and by starting with the things she can change, Lena is still pushing back against the forces that determined these class relations.

To 86’s immense credit, no one except for Lena thinks her efforts are either smart or meaningful. Both Lena’s own family and the 86 are clear in their belief that Lena is not cut out for this work – she is too sensitive and too idealistic, and will eventually either be run into the ground by disappointment, or officially sanctioned by her superiors. Fiction has a tendency to simplify structural conflicts and amplify the power of individual agency; after all, stories cannot compress the vastness of society’s functions into a clean narrative, and individual heroes are easy and satisfying to follow. But in truth, the ability of any one person like Lena to alter the course of her entire nation is limited, and if she starts to gain any actual traction, she might end up drawing more attention than she was ready for. In her heart of hearts, Lena still seems to believe that her nation’s crimes are unintentional oversights, not conscious choices. Before she can fight alongside the 86, she must recognize her country’s true face.

Continue reading →

Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m eager to return to 86, where Lena has at last received the violent comeuppance she’s been approaching all season. After three episodes of ingratiating herself with the 86, and attempting to prove she is fundamentally unlike her privileged compatriots, the death of Kirschblute made the distance between her and her subordinates undeniably clear.

The 86 don’t need her paternalistic sympathy. Does she want a medal just for acknowledging them as human? Regardless of her lofty rhetoric, Lena still enjoys the full safety of her position, guarded even from political sanction by her powerful friends. And as her subordinates bitterly point out, though Lena pats herself on the back for her kindness, she hasn’t even learned their real names. She is a tourist in their world, her sympathy more a vehicle for her own satisfaction than genuine political change.

So then, the question becomes: what does Lena do when confronted with the truth? Will she retreat into the privilege of her position, and give up on connecting with the 86? That wouldn’t make for a particularly satisfying narrative, so I’m guessing we’re going the other route: Lena must prove she is a genuine political ally, and put her own life on the line the way her subordinates are perpetually forced to. Either way, the reckoning has arrived, and I’m eager to see how Lena faces it!

Continue reading →

Hello all, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re returning to last season’s 86, which had a bit of a rocky start script-wise, but then proceeded to impress me with an all-around excellent second episode. I’m still not sold on the larger strokes of this show’s worldbuilding, but it’s more than made up for that with the character moments so far, which have convincingly illustrated the human bonds between the 86, as well as Lena’s distinct perspective. 

Lena is absurdly naïve about the nature of her own country, and basically everyone around her knows it. But at the same time, her optimism, good intentions, and high competency as an operator still seem destined to win over Undertaker’s crew, even if they know too much to echo her feelings. My biggest concern now is what will happen when Lena’s optimism slams into the brick wall of her government’s perspective. The 86 have been intentionally dehumanized in order to provide a steady source of disposable soldiers – by walking around saying shit like “we all look up at the same stars,” Lena is deliberately undercutting her country’s propaganda efforts. In 1984, the response to such a threat to the class system was “reprogram the irritant” – I doubt 86 is going that route, but it also seems hard to believe they’ll just let her do what she wants. Whether her reckoning comes through learning the truth about her nation or being outright sanctioned by it, I’m eager to see where her story goes. Let’s get to it!

Continue reading →

Hello all, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’ll be returning to the spring production 86, a war drama about a world where the citizens of the eighty-five known districts are supported by the suffering of the eighty-six, an underclass that they don’t even really see as humans. So far, my feelings on the production are somewhat mixed. The direction is generally excellent, and seems far more ambitious in terms of its visual storytelling than most productions; unfortunately, the writing so far has been pretty simplistic, with both the worldbuilding and the individual line-to-line dialogue lacking in much nuance or voice.

The show’s vision of prejudice feels too abstracted into fantasy to really bite as human drama; but there’s obviously plenty of time to get to know these characters as people, such that their conditions might cut with the sharp edge of emotional investment. The finale of the first episode was able to evoke a sense of personal tragedy with a remarkable economy of scene-setting, so I’m hoping things continue to improve throughout the second episode. Let’s get to it!

Continue reading →