86 EIGHTY-SIX : Episode 1

Well ok than, I have many questions about this show based on just this first episode. But lets not start with the questions. Visually the show looks really good, got that pretty gritty visual style that you would expect from a war show. And they aren’t afraid to give us some blood and gory, making things feel a bit more serious. I’m liking the characters thus far, though we haven’t seen much from Undertaker and the 86 group. One thing I will have some trouble with is the hard cuts between dates, I always get kinda lost when shows do that. Might need to pull out a notepad to keep track of the time changes.

Now, some of the questions and observations that I have. I separation between those in the city and the districts, and those in 86. This feels like an odd development, and I want to know the backstory of how this came to be. How did the people living inside the walls end up with mostly artificial food sources while the soldiers have the better quality food, that is severely backwards to how it normally happens. What is with everyone inside having the same hair color, are they clones or artificial humans of some kind? While the soldiers outside are the actual humans that live and grow up. Talking about growing up, I hope to learn a bit about the population centers in 86, with the amount of soldiers I feel like they go through they must have a rather large and thriving population outside the walls. Or they would quickly run out soldiers. What is all this talk about the war being over in two years, this gives me some serious WWI vibes, yeah the war will definitely be over by Christmas. The technology imbalance is incredibly odd, and makes me feel there is a lot more going on in the background. You have spider-mechs powered by futuristic fuel sources, mind meld technology in some form, advanced headquarters with badge readers and research labs. And yet you step outside and you have power lines for electric trams and old fashioned cars driving around the streets. But above you is a large television with high quality visuals.

Now I have some high hopes for this show I feel like. The source Light Novel has high rating and positive reviews it seems. So I am hoping that this can work well, and doesn’t fall apart later. But I am worried, I’m always worried. I have watched too many shows that start off positive that just fall apart half-way through. I am hoping I can get some questions answered as it goes. This has already gotten pretty long, so I think I will hold off on any predictions for the next episode though.