Manga 104039 86 Reviews

This "Review Contains Spoilers" (This review will always be reissued over time)


86 has everything like to read, for example: Mecha, Action, Romance The story deals with very interesting subjects, such as: racism, authoritarianism, fascism, discrimination and reference to what happened in the Second World War.

The 86-District / are any other minority considered inferior by the Republic were systematically grouped, exploited to exhaustion and then summarily executed or forcibly sent to the battlefield to fight “The unmanned‘ Legion ’army of the Empire. Eighty Six, It was the last outpost that the Republic (the humans) stayed in when the “Legion” swept the continent - Only ... pigs that look like humans remained in the non-human area (area eighty-six) behind the eighty-five legislated areas . “Colorata”, this is the derogatory term used for people who are not citizens of the Republic (Albas), they lived as citizens of the Republic, but are considered inferior to humans by their own countries, they live outside the shelters, outside the Grand Mur and are always on the front lines.

Nine years ago. Year 358 of the Republic calendar, Year 2139 of the Anno Astrum. The northern country of the continent, the Gead Empire, which borders the eastern part of the Republic, declared war. The first wave of completely unmanned combat drones started the invasion. Faced with the overwhelming force of the military superpower Geade, the Orthodox Army of the Republic collapsed in just half a month. At that time, the military brought together all its men, and started with the tactic of demoralizing and delaying the enemy army, in the meantime the government of the Republic made two decisions. The first: Evacuate all citizens of the Republic to the eighty-five legislated areas. The other was to initiate presidential order 6609, the special wartime security law. This law meant that all Coloratas (Jews) (those who were not Albas = Nazis) residing in the Republic were considered as enemies allied to the Empire. So they lost their citizenship, and then they were sent to concentration camps outside the eighty-five areas where they are always monitored, that is, only those who live in area 86. Eighty-six. -That was certainly a betrayal of the legislation and the very meaning of the five-color flag that the Republic is so proud of. Any and all Colorata born in the Empire, except the Albas, began to be treated like animals and to be arrested, this was a very blatant form of discrimination and prejudice. Naturally, the Coloratas protested. However, the government silenced them using force. There were also some Albas who protested. However, most Albas supported this idea. They said that the Coloratas were not satisfied with the resources, land or positions they had. The rumors that the Coloratas were spies were much easier to accept than the sad reality that the country was left behind in terms of military technology. And with enemy forces increasingly leaving the Republic with no way out, humans needed scapegoats to discount their anger and resentment. And so then, racial supremacy instantly gained recognition and justification. The noble and humane first modern Republic in the world, ended up recognizing only the Albas as human, while all the Coloratas of the old-fashioned and inhuman Empire were considered inferior, were considered foolish and barbaric animals that only had the appearance similar to that of humans, but that failed to evolve to the human stage. All the Coloratas were sent to concentration camps and were forced to serve in the army, they who built the walls of the fortress. All the assets and properties of the Coloratas were confiscated and appropriated by the government of the Republic, meanwhile citizens praised the human government for letting them not go into the army, nor having to work or pay additional taxes even in times of war.

Discrimination against the Coloratas and the Eighty Sixers (considered inferior) began to occur among the Albas two years after it started. The soldiers were all composed of Eighty Sixers members, and all of those soldiers who were active were sent to the battlefields inside drones. -The Eighty Sixers joined the army because they and their families would receive Republican citizenship. Due to the great racism in all eighty-five areas, in the past nine years, since the beginning of the war it has never been revealed where they lived. However, probably many of them have returned to their old homes, where they spend all their days. -The Geade Empire, being a military and technological power, abused this philosophy and developed advanced technologies, and with that, created devastating weapons and incredible drones. They developed an artificial intelligence superior to any created in their time, an intelligence that would never be tired, irritated or terrified, since there was no human piloting them. No matter how many were destroyed, the factories were fully automated and located in hard-to-reach places on the land, the factories spit machines over and over, forming a large swarm of drones.

In the case of Jews / lower races in Germany, the first moment of this whole extermination process was through hate speech. The rhetoric against them was strengthened in the post-First World War when Germany was embarrassed and made them the scapegoats for German defeat. All sorts of conspiracy theory came to be distilled against the Jews, and when the Nazis came to power, the speech became action.
So the Jews were expelled from public service, then their stores were boycotted and attacked.

Persecution in the streets increased considerably, and cases of physical violence began to happen. Afterwards they were forbidden to marry non-Jews, citizenship requests for foreign Jews were denied, and German Jews were stripped of their citizenship.
Jews were deprived of their freedom and all rights as citizens. When the war started, the Nazis intensified the theft of their property and began to group it in ghettos.

The acts of the Republicans are very similar to those of authoritarian governments and today we can see that there are still those types of governments / countries in which they still have the same racist thinking and we see that humanity has not evolved at all, and that there are still people who idolize such ideas. 86 is a criticism of how governments like that are a mere idiocy of the human being and who suffers is the population of good who is at the mercy and without freedom to express themselves, not only the population but other races.




86 is undoubtedly one of the best or if not the best thing I have read during these years, and I always wanted to do something like that [write about].

Volume 1 is super well written with wonderful plots and not counting the main characters Shin / Lena, but it still ends up sinning even if it is a little in the secondary characters (although they are charismatic), I know they had a little development up to the volume current [V6]. But I still think that they were little explored until that time of the championship or it could be that in the next volumes [7,8 and 9] they may have an extra highlight.


"No country will mind giving human rights to pigs. Therefore: As long as language, skin color and ancestors are considered different, they will be treated only as pigs that look like humans; to repress and kill them with certainty will not be treated as a violation of human rights in itself."

M.Vladilena- (Memories)

Gundam meets Ann Frank.

86 is my ideal story. It has everything that you could want. Action, drama, mystery, thrills, romance(budding at this point, but it's obvious, it's Japan), etc. What I love particularly about the story is how damn real it feels. It does not feel like you're reading a future anime or a light novel, but that you're reading a genuine war memoir.

The story is heavily influenced by World War 2 and it shows, the author even mentions it in the afterword. It relies heavily on the themes of racism, discrimination and ethnic cleansing, things that I feel would make a future ... anime adaption pretty controversial. However, this is a very realistic topic that we have had in our history very recently and must never forget.

The protagonist Shin is very reminiscent of some of the classic Mecha MC's, but he still is extremely well written with a solid backstory, good character motivation, character growth and a very realistic way of dealing with things.

Lena, the future love interest is also extremely well written and is sympathetic to the plight of Shin and the rest of the 86's(basically Jews), over the course of volume 1, we see their relationship grow from more of a commander/subordinate to genuine friendship and concern. Can't wait to get deeper in the story.

The side characters are also very well written and make you feel attached to them from the very beginning. Everyone is unique and offers diversity in terms of personality, characterisation and dialogue. No one is just a cardboard cutout like in many other LN's.

Pacing is great, story is original and well written and this first volume at least, has enough action to keep you satisfied and well entertained. Got volumes 2-6 and now off to binge them in Japanese.

TL;DR Check out this series, it's worth it.

As a person who loves military works the truth I appreciate having known this novel.

Which is not yet well known and hopefully it will earn the value it deserves once the anime adaptation comes out and hopefully it lives up to it. 86, a work that shows us racial discrimination, cruelty and human stupidity at its best.

The 86 a group abandoned by their own country "the republic", stripped of their human rights, treated like cattle and being forced and sent to go to war against "the legion", machines created by the destroyed empire programmed with the sole objective to destroy the enemy.

As ... protagonists ?, a republican who repudiates the treatment given to the 86, and an 86.

The story behind them as you get deeper into the story is simply amazing.

After reading 3 volumes the story seems incredible to me, well explained, without fanservice, or meaningless powerups, or script benefits, well-written characters, literally all the points I ask for in a play.

Being a mecha work I thought they would have cliche aspects that usually accompany the genre, however it perfectly completes the military role combining action scenes and spoken scenes quite pleasant and well accomplished.

I will look forward to the anime adaptation in the hope that A1 Pictures will not disappoint us.

"Valkyria Chronicles 3: Mecha Warfare"







86 is a lightnovel that ... revolves around a certain group of individuals, filled with different backgrounds, all fighting in the battlefield, in the hopes of being granted amnesty and freedom. Sounds familiar?

Well yes, but actually no.

Valkyr-I mean 86, weaves a story of racism and social discrimination in the form of "man vs machine" kind of setting, where the last hope for humanity, rests in the form of kids going all "neon genesis evangelion" on everything. Honestly, if that weren't enough to pique your interest then I don't know what will. Well, despite the decent theme of the story, the series is not without it's own fair share of problems. One thing that really stuck out to me, was the Para-RAID system. I mean, I get that the author wanted to incorporate the link between the handler and the operator in deep way, but still. Looking at it objectively, I really don't see it as something to write home about (It's literally just radio communication!). Nitpicking aside, I personally liked the way the characters were written. And while you might not feel a deep connection with the characters, as much as you did while playing danganronpa, the series still manages to do a decent job at delivering that warm fuzzy feeling we all know and love. /s

So with that biased opinion out of the way, here's the point-based tldr:

Story: 9/10
Art: 9/10
Characters: 10/10

Enjoyment: 8.6



As a note, if you're into lightnovels with serious plot elements like world-building and garterbelts :) then this book is for you. But if you're into "battle-shounen" esque lightnovels, and light-hearted fun, then you might want to skip this one out.

Eighty-Six is not a grand story about standing up against oppression or uprooting the system. It is not trying to tell us anything substantial about racism or war aside from things we as humans should already know.

Eighty-Six is much simpler, it's a story of children making the best of their fucked up situation, and how these children react once they are finally given an out. Racism and war are merely tools, the setting, to a boy-meets-girl story.

The series rides on the struggle of these two characters, the boy who only knew of the battlefield and the girl constantly yearning to be by his ... side. All I can say is their struggle touched me, as frustrating as the both of them were at times. But hey, they're teens, they're supposed to be frustrating, especially since neither seems to be fully right in the head.

Shin is not someone who wants to be off the battlefield, and Lena is not someone who wants to be left behind as others fight on her behalf. These two deserve a peaceful life after what the world has put them through, but their pride and idealism won't allow it. The series' main struggle is these two characters finding meaning in each other, and by extension, finding meaning in a world without combat.

Once the series nailed the MCs, the rest is merely icing on the cake to me. The world is interesting enough, far more than other Light Novels care to build nowadays. You don't really reed LNs for their prose, but the translation is great and often doesn't actually feel like an LN. My only gripe with the series would be its criminally underdeveloped side cast, especially since I like them already and want to know more.

10/10 would cry to Theo's rant again.

86 Eighty Six (86 for short) is a light novel that has surprised me in quite a few ways.

Minor Spoilers ahead (updates will happen throughout)

Story 9
The story is very simplistic, humanity is against an army of mechs created by humans that are rapidly produced. The story will not blow you away but the way it is told is what makes the rating higher than the normal simplistic humans vs enemy story. The first book really does a great job of creating this world with little to no hope and slowly progresses to show that their is a chance humanity can still win. Yes it does ... what most of these stories do, kill a lot of characters at the start then slowly build up a main cast, this is done fine but it is the smaller details that you may miss which makes this story worth reading through.

Characters 8
I would give characters a 10 but the side characters lack the depth which makes the main characters so damn good. Shin and Lena carry this story by a mile, Shin's growth is one of the best I have seen dealt with and Lena is the complete opposite of him which has this amazing contrast between the two. Side characters no doubt help build the two naturally in a way it makes sense and not to say that some side characters get the meaningful development they need but compared to some of the best in the light novel genre like Re Zero the side characters lack meaningful development. I won't talk much about the villain Legion but I am very intrigued to see in what way their development goes, they can be one of the best villains or one of the most generic villains.

Art 10
Not much to say about the art, all Light Novels have amazing art and thankfully 86 is no exception.

Enjoyment 9
My enjoyment for this light novel is put down a little bit by the first 2-3 volumes action sequences, they bombard you with information dumps on this and that type of legion or ally unit and it can become somewhat of a mess. It gets much better as the series continues hence the rating of 9. All currently released novels have great in between missions sections of dialogue and meaningful development making sure you are always invested.

Overall 9
86 Eighty six is up there with some of the better of the mech genre, its dark tone and amazing main characters really help this a really enjoyable read, hopefully before the series ends (because it is suppose to be about 12 volumes long) they can give some development to the lesser focused side characters and wrap the series up in a satisfying manner.

I think its safe to say that im not a big fun of mechas (you can watch my anime list i dont watch mechas) but when i heard this light novel gets an anime adaption and i read the synopsis i was hooked. I always wanted an anime about ww2 and yea i know its not a ww anime but the setting is resembles a WW2 world but in the future so yea i was very happy to see it. After i watched the first episode i wanted more of it and im not a big fun of reading books, i like reading manga but ... i dont like reading books but i made and exception with this novel and man i made a right choice first i read it on a site but after the first 2 volume i was soo hooked i wanted to help the author so i bought pyhsical copys and now i have all the translated one (9 volume) and im waiting for the next one.

A gritty mecha, drama that shows just how xenophobic the masses can be, where they have sectioned off a portion of the population and refer to them by a numeric value. Where have I heard this before?

My review is going to solely be based on the first volume, as that is all I have read.

The author handles the story very well with great world building, the first chapter alone is spent explaining the history of the country where the main characters reside and the differences in social class between the citizens of the republic and those who are referred to as 86.

The pacing is hit ... and miss, it keeps a very high pace which is great at times because the volume covers so much but it often relies on tell don't show, it felt very lazy at times were important events were told through dialogue. Speaking of dialogue it's not great, maybe because the author forced the average age of the cast to be 16 to pander to the audience, the dialogue is extremely jarring compared to the seriousness of the story and when anyone but the main characters spoke I was eagerly awaiting for it to stop. There are two main characters who equally fleshed out but the rest of the cast are abysmal, apart from Raider, if you have a name in this series you are deemed somewhat important, but most of the cast is still limited to one character trait. Characters die off screen and I don't know if it was because the author was trying to cram this all into one volume or because he wanted to stress how easy it was to die on the battlefield but it felt cheap and none of the characters seemed to care say apart from one odd line.

The first volume, if you remove the very last chapter, is a complete story and I think it is a problem of light novels that every story needs to be tediously long. The final chapter, and the rest of the ending, is extremely contrived for the sake of prolonging the series.



What was immediately captivating about 86 was the highly detailed sketches of the mechs, these pages are spread out and when a new type of mech is introduced it is normally accompanied by one of these pages. You can really get a sense of how menacing these hunks of metal are. They also give descriptions on different types of weapons which had me looking back to these pages during fight scenes to see what the weapon being used was. I wish I could say the character art was equally as good but it wasn't, it was basic and lacked a lot of weight in combat scenes.

Whilst 86 does have a lot of good aspects it is ultimately weighed down by a one dimensional cast and a rushed 2nd half, it did show signs of great things I would be interested in reading more from the author and more from the series but I will need to temper my expectations.

Check it out if you have no other good novels to read.

Anne Frank meets mecha sci-fi genre.

86 is a book that deals with very interesting subjects such as fascism, racism and all kinds of discrimination combined with aspects of the usual mecha genre, full of action, friendship and even romance to a certain degree.

The story is heavily influenced by world war 2, which is even said by the author herself. Right from the start we're thrown into, at the first glance, perfect highly developed country called the Republic, which is inhabited only by pure people with white hair (Alba). Our main character, Lena, a republican soldier with a strong sense of justice is assigned as a ... handler to the Spearhead Squadron. She represents a teen girl learning the truth of the sad world she lives in, learning about the pain of the so called Eighty-Six who have been dehumanized to the point where their own country (the Republic) treats them as pigs whose only job is to fight the Legion, machines created by the fallen Empire, with the sole mission to destroy the enemy. The other main character, Shin is an Eighty-Six that used to live in the First sector of the Republic but eventually, like everyone else who was unfortunate enough to be different from Alba, ends up in the military. And "somehow", he managed to survive longer than everyone else, eventually becoming the captain of the Spearhead Squadron.


"Therefore, if you were to define someone speaking a different tongue, someone of a different color, someone of a different heritage as a pig in human form, any oppression, persecution, or atrocity you might inflict upon them would never be regarded as cruel or inhumane."
- Vladilena Milize, Memoirs

This quote is something that is really interesting to look at because, even though this book is heavily inspired by world war two and position of jews at the time (the Eighty-Six from the book) it's also a story that feels rather modern. Discrimination that is shown is also part of the modern world. Topics such as racism, discrimination are presented in a way that feels applicable, relevant to modern world, and some authoritarian governments today.


Now, as for the minor problems I found within the novel:

There are plot holes in the story, some things don't exactly make sense.
Side characters are sometimes hard to understand, not as memorable and somewhat badly written.
Tech used in this world isn't explained the best and it is kind of hard to understand how all these things function.

As for the positive things,

main characters are very likeable although Lena is annoying at some points; they are well written with a good backstory, world building is good, action is nicely done, up to the smallest details of mecha vehicles, guns etc.
It's a really interesting story that you can't help but keep reading, I mean how could you not when you see the art of a beautiful Vladilena in her uniform and her garter-belts that our author herself seems to like a lot.
Questions just keep appearing in your head and with every chapter you just want to learn more about the world, to figure it all out.
But the absolute best thing about the novel is the way it sends us a strong message about the cruel world everyone lived in during world war 2, during the war between the Republic and the Legion and what's the most important thing it even applies to the somewhat corrupted society that is as it is today.

"Freedom and Equality are ideals far too premature for us, Lena. For us, for all of humankind... And perhaps they will always be"

I'll end the review with the quote that could sum up the main thing this novel wants us to realize and change, something that is very much seen in the modern world, something that has to be fixed, something that people unfortunately have to experience even today, something all of us see in everyday lives but mostly ignore.

I am about to commit blasphemy; 86 isn't that great.

The first volume is definitely the best volume imo; it might not be the deepest, but it felt succinct and impactful, with a fascinating setting to explore, pacing that felt slow but appropriate, some nice action scenes, themes of racism that didn't feel overbearing or preachy, and an ending that felt bittersweet and hopeful. The introduction was so strong, that I was convinced 86 was deserving of the high reviews it has gotten.

Well, nope. 86 definitely isn't bad by any means, in fact it is still a rather fun and somewhat entertaining ride. However, it hasn't ... gotten to the same heights as volume 1.

PLOT:
The plot after volume 1 is... alright I guess. It didn't hook me as much as volume 1, since now the scale was far wider and there was more focus on military operations and missions. I'm definitely a sucker for mechs and warfare, but the military operations that the 86 undertake later on do feel less punchy as it did in volume 1. The mystery of the world isn't very compelling either. Compared to Attack on Titan, which intentionally kept the world shrouded in mystery, 86 tells you everything you need to know about the Legion in the first volume. This definitely makes the Legion less intimidating and mysterious, which is kind of a pity personally. There are other mysteries later on in the series, but they aren't the most captivating of hooks. The pacing in volumes 2 and 3 definitely suffers, but after that it picks up and maintains a reasonably quick pace throughout the next few volumes.

CHARACTERS:
Shin's honestly the only one worth discussing. Shin slaps, he is best boy, and heads and shoulders the greatest character in this entire series.
After the first volume, I was very excited to see how Lena would develop, but she felt rather same-y even after that. It's not like I'd expected Lena to suddenly become a ruthless, cold general, but I really wanted her to at least feel much more matured and seasoned. Yes, the light novel did state that her tactical knowledge and the like did improve after volume 1, but what I was looking for was her leadership qualities, because not gonna lie she doesn't have the charisma I would have wanted a leader to have.
Everyone else is rather one note and forgettable honestly. Raiden, Anju, Theo and Kurena fall flat as side characters, something that can be fixed if Asato Asato decide to allocate arcs for each of them, but as for now I do not give a damn on the three of them. Frederica had potential, but currently speaking she's just the mascot loli character who occasionally says wise things and does cute loli things, with the exception of the brief insight into her character in vol 2 and 3. Vika is pretty interesting, but again so far other than his shtick of not understanding human emotions he's quite a flat character.
The Legion also do get pretty boring after time. They're kind of like Stormtroopers for the most part, though a hell lot more competent. The big bosses the 86 meet do tie back to the themes of the series and at times help develop Shin's character, but they lack any memorability or charisma a good villain should have. Though I do understand that asking a drone to be charming is a paradox, there are ways to at least strike a impression into readers' minds.

The minor characters exist. That is all I can say about them.

THEMES:
After the first volume tackled racism, the other volumes stopped really focusing on them, and for good measure. It would get rather repetitive if they kept honing in onto a singular theme the entire time... oh god.

You see, 86 after volume1 seems to only focus on one singular theme. The psychology of soldiers in war, and how that affects them mentally in every part of their lives. Sounds interesting, no? Yeah, it was fascinating for the first volume. Somewhat repetitive in the next, but still interesting.

And the next, and the next, and the- AAAAAAAAAAA

Now I have no idea if it's a translation issue, but it keeps on repeating the same idea multiple times. "The 86 are broken people, they have no idea how to live their lives, how to be happy, we are born for the battlefield, we will live and die on the battlefield". I'm obviously paraphrasing here, but this paragraph is hammered multiple times in the series, and it gets absolutely irritating. Everytime a scene that implies the 86's broken way of living appears, instead of following the "show, not tell" mantra and letting the readers discover the symbolism for themselves, the series just tells you, for the billionth time, how broken these soldiers are. Something like the Monogatari Series explores multiple themes in a single arc, so that it ensures that the exploration of themes feel fresh, but 86 just keeps beating the same old horse. Which is a pity, because if these paragraphs were trimmed, it is definitely a theme worth exploring. It's not the idea that is wrong, but the presentation and execution of the theme that makes it insufferable.

ROMANCE:
Another missed opportunity. What could have been an emotionally poignant and wholesome relationship between a broken boy and a girl filled with hopes and dreams became... a typical shojo romance? I don't know, that was how it struck me at least. It was way too cute for my liking. But maybe that's just me. It isn't bad, but there are definitely times when I rolled my eyes.

SETTING:
The best part of 86 honestly. A dystopian setting filled with unmanned drones attacking the last vestiges of humanity, the child soldiers sent to war in order to defend humanity, all of these were excellent. It was fresh and striking, with a very clear vibe and feel to it.

OVERALL:
A 6/10. It's fine, and if you love mechs probably give it a shot. The concept is amazing, and it's quite fun. My problem is the at times amateurish writing, and lack of a solid hook at times. I have not watched the anime, but I think the anime has the opportunity to fix these issues. Because if these issues were addressed, then maybe 86 could finally become what the fanbase had insisted it was; the face of a new wave of quality mecha anime.

This shit is the greatest novel to exist. I did not even know books are able to bring this much emotion out of me. Go read this right now please I'm telling you you will not regret it. Legit changed my life. Big W if you do read this. This shit is the greatest novel to exist. I did not even know books are able to bring this much emotion out of me. Go read this right now please I'm telling you you will not regret it. Legit changed my life. Big W if you do read this. This shit is the greatest novel to ... exist. I did not even know books are able to bring this much emotion out of me. Go read this right now please I'm telling you you will not regret it. Legit changed my life. Big W if you do read this. This shit is the greatest novel to exist. I did not even know books are able to bring this much emotion out of me. Go read this right now please I'm telling you you will not regret it. Legit changed my life. Big W if you do read this.

This is a spoiler-free review of the first volume.

Should you read this novel? Sure, but I think there are better novels you could read. I don't regret the time I put into reading this novel and I actually enjoyed reading it!

The novel has many issues such as its pacing, its lack of a compelling antagonist, and mediocre world-building. That isn't to say that the story is bad though.

This story isn't balls to the walls packed with action (while there is it isn't the focus) but rather a story of atonement, goodbyes, and how apathy can lead to atrocities. What the story does well is ... that characters feel authentic in their setting. The emotional moments don't feel heavy-handed and the struggles and motivations that the characters have feel genuine which lead to a believable three-dimensional character you care about.

The story tackles discrimination and genocide in a mature manner that makes you reflect on true historical atrocities that were committed in the past. It's interesting in a way that makes you consider things you haven't considered before in your history class and how it can feel to be apart of the oppressed. It doesn't feel edgy or preachy or guilts you for being privileged but rather shows how if we remove these labels, if we ask for their names and actually take the time to get to know the people of voices we never hear we can slowly remove these prejudices and improve our relations and ultimately progress as a society.

As for the action sequences, I'll have to preface this by saying that I'm not a mecha fan so take what I say with a grain of salt. The detailed drawings of the mecha's look really cool but honestly I'm not that into mechas fighting so as for the action scenes I wasn't really that hooked. I was left confused most of the time about what was happening and couldn't remember what the purpose and abilities of each mecha were. It wasn't all that satisfying to read except for the last action scene at the end of the novel which raised the stakes further.

As a one-shot, the ending feels satisfying. It doesn't feel like they ass-pulled anything and most relevant characters had a satisfying completed character arc. The emotional moments made me tear up at times while reading towards the end and made me feel glad I finished it.

My biggest gripe with the story however is the pacing. The pacing at the start is incredibly slow with boring exposition that introduces characters that are either not fully-fleshed out or never visited again. It honestly felt like a chore reading through the first two chapters. However, it does pick up speed during its final act. The antagonist of the story is human nature or to be specific - the Republic of San Magnolia. The problem with this is that it feels too simple and uninspired. For a military drama, you'd expect political intrigue or in my case, I expected a high-ranking military official with complex motivations but instead, all we get is "the true enemy is human nature" which is a theme you'd hear from a middle school literature class.

The side characters introduced that are NOT the Eighty-Six are very scarce and don't feel as developed as the crew in the Eighty-Six. They feel boring and uninspired and you can pretty much guess what they're going to say next. Lastly, another glaring issue I found was the mediocre world-building. The world outside of the republic (perhaps intentionally) feels bleak and uninteresting. The novel does get into the origins of the Republic but does not go into very much detail about the Giadin Empire who you don't see mentioned again until the very end. As a result, it doesn't make me care much about the world outside of San Magnolia.

These concerns I have brought up may be addressed in further volumes since I believe the first volume was supposed to be a one-shot and the author left a thread hanging so he could later address these criticisms. It does feel unfair for having such high expectations of it and expecting it to meet all those criteria while also being at around 250 pages.

I don't think I'll be continuing with volume 2 immediately since I wasn't that hooked and apparently volume 2 isn't a direct continuation of the events in volume 1. Maybe I'll come back to it in the future but it's good enough for me to consider reading the rest of the series which is why I give it the following rating:

86 - Eighty-Six - gets a 7.5/10 from me.

Edit: Forgot to mention that there's an anime coming out soon for this so you may want to check that out.

I listened to the audio-book, which currently has six volumes out and is narrated by Lena's VA in addition to others. In terms of their performance, they did a great job and I would recommend it to those who like this light novel.

I definitely think that the anime medium is a far better way to tell this story, largely due to the fact that we can visualize the epic battles more clearly (and their stakes), as well as the legendary Sawano soundtrack. It also adds a little bit extra that shapes the supporting cast, which is necessary as the light novels only seem concerned with ... Lena and Shin's development (if you can even call it development :/).

In terms of the author's writing style, it's irritating because its engaging but a slog to get through. She brings up very interesting moral dilemmas (usually tied with a sci-fi theme, such as converting dead soldiers' minds into ai fighters), and typically that is the most interesting and engaging component of each volume's arc. Characters like Uncle Jerome and later Vika are especially interesting because they serve as a necessary foil to Lena's idealism and overall are very complex characters. However, at the same time the author uses the same internal-struggles and character-arcs over and over again in her volumes, giving the impression that her characters aren't actually improving (or at least changing), despite claiming otherwise.

I wanted to like Lena, but she is an example of the most annoying form of SJW you could have. She insists on embracing a savior complex and freeing the 86 from what is effectively institutional racism. She continues to do this even when the 86 ask her not to act on their behalf repeatedly, and instead perseveres anyway to solidify some sort of moral high ground that not even she understands. To add to the ridiculousness of this, she is always baffled and upset in EVERY. SINGLE. VOLUME. when the 86 don't want to talk to her or open up because of her oppressive savior complex, and despite promising to change her demeanor constantly, she never actually does. To the light novel's credit, it actually touches on this point briefly, and Lena does reflect on her hypocritical nature. However, that plot point doesn't go anywhere, and is instead replaced in later volumes with Shin's cumbersome personal journey that takes up the entire volume.

Shin isn't as much of an issue to me as Lena is. Yeah he's extremely edgy and refuses to progress as a character, but given his effed up background I'll give him a pass. Obviously, trauma isn't something that is healed over night, and given Shin's circumstances it probably never will be. I only wish that the author didn't try to remind us in every other chapter that he and the other 86 are battle-hardened combat veterans that want to stay on the field no matter what the outside world thinks of them, because this is the only life they know and that it is their purpose in existing. It's badass and cutthroat and sexy and all, but for ffs we get it already. Move on to something else!

That brings me to my final major critique, which is really a summary of everything that's already in this review. As established, the writing style of the author is very long-winded and repetitive, and what that means is she doesn't have the time or space to develop any other characters that aren't Lena or Shin. Sure, some characters like Anjou, Raiden and Frederica have their moments, but their impact is typically restricted to a chapter per volume, and that's being generous. I think that's unfortunate because 86 has very strong world-building and has the opportunity to be a profound science-fiction story. Not to mention the "mecha genre revival" that it is effectively spearheading in the 2020s (pun intended). I see the potential in this IP as not only a modern sci-fi staple but also as a comprehensive commentary on select social and psychological issues. It's just that, in my opinion, the author's writing skills are holding this story back. I hope to see more seasons to the anime and what they can accomplish with this template.