The 86 Eighty-Six anime adaptation deserves all the recognition in the world. With Season 1 officially over with, right now is the perfect time to catch up on the series! So instead of writing a feature-length article on why you should watch the series, let’s do this differently and have some fun. So here are 86 reasons why you should watch 86 Eighty-Six.
Enjoy!
86 Eighty-Six ranked sixth on our “Most Anticipated Anime of the Fall” poll. It was the only series to dethrone Attack on Titan: The Final Season Part 2 of its #1 spot in our Winter 2022 weekly polls. And the series also has over 800,000 members on MyAnimeList between both “86” and “86 Part 2” titles.
Throughout the series, viewers will start connecting the dots and understanding how World War 2 had an influence on the series. Author, Asato Asato, also admitted this in volume one of the light novel series.
For a dialogue-heavy series, the anime actually has beautiful animations, especially during battle scenes. Some of the explosions during the battles look almost too real.
The studio is one of the most prestigious in the entire industry. With titles like Sword Art Online, Your Lie in April, Kaguya-Sama: Love is War, Erased, and Anohana, 86 Eighty-Six is already one of the best-known series from the studio.
The studio announced that the anime will have two cours right away. Despite going back and forth between calling it “season two” and “cour two”, the fact the studio already planned a second cour so early on is a very good sign for future seasons.
If we’re not counting movies, 86 Eighty-Six is already one of the highest-rated series for the studio. And that’s huge given the stacked lineup the studio has, which includes many sequels.
Seems like a weird reason but it’s true. Every room and setting has incredible color palettes depending on the situation. 86 Eighty-Six does a phenomenal job of relating the mood with its incredible use of colors.
86 Eighty-Six has a wide variety of characters consisting of multiple races and genders.
I’d go as far as to say that 86-Eighty Six has some of the best character development out of all to be released in the past five years. A lot of the people you know in episode one are incredibly different in many ways now that the first season is officially over.
Asato herself approved of the character designs drawn up for the anime. She admitted they look fantastic and they simply are. They follow the light novel designs almost to a T, which sometimes isn’t always the case.
The Para-Raid devices are definitely the prime target of popularity when it comes to technology in 86 Eighty-Six. While its use and purpose have been brought into question during the series, the concept of it and how it works with the human brain is interesting, to say the least.
Soldiers in 86-Eighty Six do have standard pistols, rifles, etc. And they even have standard land mines and mortars. Then in comes stuff like the Juggernauts, a four-legged piloted drone equipped with weapons galore. And this is just the tip of the sci-fi weaponry throughout the series.
It’s actually pretty cool how strategies are conducted before battles between soldiers and their commanders. While it’s looked at as wrong given the technology being used, and other deeper, darker reasons, the series definitely introduces a new spin on how to command troops.
Fido is the Spearhead Squadron’s personal scavenger drone. He will resupply those who need ammunition, find any parts that may be needed after a battle is over, etc. That may not sound like much but Fido actually plays a very important role in the series. So go watch the series and find out for yourself!
War-torn countries in the future that have weapons and technology beyond our years definitely make 86 Eighty-Six a sci-fi series and it’s glorious. Very few popular sci-fi series have come to the forefront this year (Dr. Stone, Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song) and 86 Eighty-Six is definitely on that short, but must-watch, list.
It’s actually hard to think of reasons to not call 86 Eighty-Six a drama. A plethora of conflicts. A plot-driven story. And a bunch of emotionally driven characters. How could this series not be a drama?
It’s not a romance anime, yet, but 86-Eighty Six definitely has its tiny moments hinting towards it. It’s not unwarranted either nor does it immediately rush into anything. The little moments don’t deter the pacing and it creates some fan-favorite moments. It’s not much, but it’s there for sure.