86 (Eighty-Six): War Without Witnesses

A war with “no casualties” should never feel this grim. We dig into 86 Eighty-Six, a military sci-fi mecha anime where the Republic of San Magnolia sells the public a lie: the Juggernauts are “autonomous,” and the fighting is just machines versus machines. The reality is uglier. Human pilots are forced into those cockpits, labeled “86,” stripped of rights, and treated as disposable so everyone else can keep pretending the war is clean.

I walk through the core setup, then zoom in on the characters that make the story stick. Lena Milizé is an Alba officer who refuses to treat the 86 like objects, and Shin “Undertaker” Nouzen carries the kind of reputation that drives handlers to the edge. We talk about how prejudice and propaganda shape the battlefield, why the political conflict grabs you fast, and what the show does well from an anime review standpoint, including solid animation, music that matches the mood, and emotional beats that actually land.

We also step back and talk Mecha Monday bigger picture: what I’m aiming for with these thicker reviews, what I won’t bother covering if it’s a five or lower unless there’s a lot to unpack, and what’s coming next on the mecha anime list. If you want a starter mecha series that brings action and meaning, I rate 86 a 9/10 and I’m telling you straight: give it a chance.

If you’re enjoying Mecha Monday, subscribe to The ZONE Podcast, share this with a friend who “doesn’t watch mecha,” and leave a review so more people find the show. What’s your rating for 86, and what mecha anime should I hit next?

Transcript

Mecha Monday Kickoff

SPEAKER_00 0:00

What up, gang? It's JB, and it's another Mecha Monday on the Zone podcast. It is April, so I'm gonna get a little thicker with these reviews. So let's start off with 86, the anime. The Republic of Sam Magnolia has been at war with the Empire of Gia for nine years, though it initially suffered devastating losses to the Empire's autonomous mechanized legions. The Republic has since developed its own autonomous units called Juggernauts, which are directed remotely by Hanler. While on the surface, the public believes the war is being fought between machines. In reality, the Juggernauts are being piloted by humans, all of whom are 86, the designation given to the Corrata, the Corata minority in San Manuel. The 86 originally had equal rights, but were persecuted and scapegoated by the dominant Alba race and the Aba supremacist Republic government to the point where Colorado. It kind of sounded like Colorado. That's why it's kind of throwing me off. We're both officially designated and properly considered subhuman. The 86 were not permitted to have personal names and were immune, immured, excuse me, to internment camps in the 86th district, their namesake, all the while being forced to fight in the Republic's war with the Empire to receive better treatment. We have Major Guadalina or Lena for sure, uh milise, an Alba Noble and military officer in the San Matinoan military, speaks out against the grave mistreatment of the nation's Colorado minority in the will for deception of the general public by the public uh government. She is assigned as the handler of the spearhead squadron of the Eastern Front, an elite unit composed of entirely 86 veterans who have earned names in the form of call signs, led by their leader, squad leader, Shine Nozen, the Undertaker. The Spearhead Squadron is infamous among the military officials. Its notoriety stems from the state in which its commanding officers are left. Handlers presiding over the squad have descended into the sanity and some have gone as far as committing suicide. Lena, an avowed 86 sympathizer, gets to know the spearhead squadron in her time as head of the contingent. At the same time, Lena and Shine learn a dark secret that the Republic and the war with the Empire are not what they seem. Alright, time for how I feel about this series. Sin is nicknamed the Reaper for his habit of keeping a box full of makeshift dog tests crafted out of a small piece of Eat Dead Comrade's Juggernaut, which he plans to bury when the war is over. He's known for ruthlessness against both enemies and allies. It's rumored that previous handlers who have dealt with him have gone insane and left the unit retired or even committed suicide for unknown reasons. He developed romantic feelings for Alina throughout the series, and seemed to me feels like the antithesis of Aaron Yeager and Attack on Titan in the sense of not caring for freedom, but instead he also kind of reminds me of Mr. Meeseeks from Rick and Morty in the sense that he did not expect to live as long as he did. But it's the survivor skill talking for most part. Lena, an officer who got promoted as major at 16 years old, mind you, thanks to a mixture of her skills and family connections. You know, because you know that nepotism and I'm just not surprised. She has a habit of treating her A6's borders like humans, unlike other handlers who treat their A6 as disposable objects. Lena is the newly assigned handler of this uh squadron. Not gonna lie, I didn't care for the Alba Raves in synth uh because them having silver whitish hair, uh, even if there's intention to it, because it just feels like I just don't like the idea of how they look like they shouldn't have a sense of individuality. I guess that's the main thing. Like I'm I'm big on individuality and the fact that everybody looks the same. It's like something's wrong. Something's very wrong here. Aside from that, the artwork and animation is fairly good, the music matches the tone of the series, which is always good. I like the opening theme, and I like that the ending theme changes depending on the note that the episode leaves off. So, bonus points for that. There's a realistic range of emotions being conveyed between the gross prejudice that the aces endured and the friend that they lost on the battlefield. I really like how this anime has the kind of political conflicts that gripped me immediately. I swear, I think Rhapsod Petty could potentially make a hood dub series with this show. I was fucking losing it when the album started calling the 86 colors. So I get where they were coming from, but at the same time, like that is way more racist than it need to be. Uh mecha anime starter pack. Highly recommend it for those who want a series mecha anime to set the tone for what you're gonna expect in 50% of these mecha shows because you people either die off and it gets really heavy and grim and whatnot, like military action and whatnot. Either that or it gets really weird. But hey, I'm kind of down for both. It it just really depends, like if anything, trust me when I say that if I give anything a vibe and lower, I'm probably not gonna even bother to review it unless there's a lot to unpack with why I don't like it. I think the closest I did was I think it was Madam Web, where I was like, it was literally dead. Like I I I gave it, I think I gave it like a five out of ten just to be generous because okay, at least uh Sydney Sweeney's character was the only one that was making fucking sense in that one. So I was like, okay, well, there's a saving grace there, but oh yeah, it was uh Julia Cornwall, because I can't say Julia Carpenter because you know they're uh Tony Marvel their bullshit going on, so they can't really say Julia Carpenter, so they had to go to a Cornwall. So uh yeah, like I probably won't review anything that's a five or lower. You you won't catch me unless I got a whole lot to say about it. That's the only exception. Otherwise, that's why I was kind of debating doing Velma afterwards, like not afterwards, but you know, at some point after all, because you know, I was so pissed off at the execution of it that I was not having fun trying to write up a script for the review to explain how bad it was for me. But I'm trying not to go off too much, you know. I'm trying to wrap it up and whatnot. Actually, I did say that um these reviews are gonna get a little thicker than usual, but this one was not so much. I wanna say between I'll know a zero, where I'm like, uh not a whole lot, but it'll be better if I explained everything based on the three main characters, because that's mainly what the series wraps around, and everybody else is like, okay, they're there, they're serving purpose, but you know, trust me, when I get there, you'll understand why I'm like technically it didn't do anything wrong per se, but uh god, it bore the shit out of me. Back arrow, first of all, it was one of those shows where uh I've been wanting to watch it, but I just never got around to it. But when I finally did, I was like, oh yes, I am so glad I gave this one a chance. So I'm gonna be excited about that one. Uh, what else I got going on? I might as well. Okay, Buddy Complex. Okay, now we're back to the bullshit to where I'm like, this feels like homework watching this shit. Or, like, okay, maybe if I talk about some of the characters they'll kind of give me an idea of what I'm gonna say about this uh series, but uh yeah, so you could say that April is gonna be a mixture of heat, but also kind of lukewarm. But hey, that kind of it's the overall tone of spring, like the beginning of spring. You know, it's gonna be kind of warm, but also it's gonna be kind of chilly, maybe a little bit of rain. So not always hot, but it's getting warmer, it's getting warmer. Oh man, when I get to May, it's gonna be centered around Mecca, but also it's gonna be school related to an extent, you know, kind of celebrating um people who's graduating high school, college, whatnot. Maybe they're just going on some vacation, and I'm like, hey yo, so before you go off on summer vacation, like here's four more Mecca anime that's kind of related to school. Uh but yeah, I feel good about that 9910 for 86 because it had me kind of feeling some type of way here and there. And I guess the juggernaut units, I didn't expect them to kind of look like those robots from Ghost and Shell, was crazy enough because of them, and also with Major Kusunagi being an android, I think you know what? That's why I'm doing the review so I can like clarify and correct myself, am I wrong? But ghost and shell is a mecha anime, really? Like, yeah, at this point, me doing mecha Monday by now, if you're even keeping up with this, but by the way, I thank you for tuning in to Mecha Monday. I I really thank you because like it was kind of a challenge for me trying to figure out 52 mecha anime that I want to review and some of the really good ones I already did, and I don't want to do Mobusu Gunam because that's a whole extreme review right there. That's like that's gonna be one of the biggest extreme reviews I ever did. So that's just gonna be a project on its own. But thank you for tuning in for Mecca Monday. I kind of lost track, I'm not gonna lie. Damn it, but uh yeah, I'm trying to bring the heat as far as more better mecha anime that it's worth talking about. Back era for sure. Uh let me scroll down a little bit because oh yeah, full man of panic. I've been waiting to talk about full man of panic. What else I got going on in May? Like, I don't know why I'm kind of uh spoiling it for y'all, but I'm like, whatever, right? Guilty crown, yeah. I I'm excited for that one. Although I will admit, I I as soon as I started watching, I'm like, wait a minute, there's something about this female that I don't like. Like, why do I don't like this female for some reason? And then I remember, oh shit, uh hundred. That's an anime technically, and um you know, it's alright. It's like infinite stratos. Oh my god, I remember liking this anime back in the day, but now I'm like, I can't stand this protagonist, I swear to god, but yeah, I I guess you could say that's the plan for both the spring. Uh, I'm I'm gonna try to bring some heat, but also there's gonna be some more on my hand lukewarm at that point. So I'm going ahead and wrap this up. Uh give 86 a chance. Very good mecha anime outside of Mobes Who Dunedom or the typical ones in the mecha anime starter pad that I would suggest, anyways. You know, like Kogia, Scarilla Gone, uh Evangelion. I still haven't reviewed Evangelion. That's that's November, by the way. That's in November. But I'm like, damn. We never got around to Evangelion. Well, we'll get around to it though. We will. But you know, the typical makeup anime that's not mobile subgun, right? You already review those. And I might redo Girl and Gong. I don't know, because we got some people who's like new to the podcast that didn't talk about Gorilla Gong with us when we did it. And I might think, okay, we might do a Redux. I don't know. You have to hold me on that, but I'm considering it. I'm considering it. Yeah, let me go ahead and jump off because I got other reviews to work on. Uh uh Anime Lightning might be coming out around this time by the time I put this out. So oh yeah, definitely. It should be. It should be out by then. If not, it'll it'll definitely be out by April 11th. For sure. But once again, I'm JB. This has been another Mecca Monday on the zone podcast. Go ahead and have yourself uh good morning, good afternoon, good evening, good night. But ultimately, do take it easy and remember to stay nerdy and that great things are coming. I'm gonna go ahead and zone up out of here. And oh, one more one more thing. Give mecha anime a chance. If if I gotta copy Talos for a minute, if I can copy as well as like, hey, come on, dog. We got cookies, we got pizza, we got soda. Come on, dog. Like, it ain't that bad. It is not that bad. Come on. Please. Just just please. All right, take it easy, y'all.

SPEAKER_01 16:38

Hey, Rick.