86 – Eighty Six | Episode 7 Review

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Episode Seven Thoughts

Whenever I see these timestamps throughout the episode, for example “August 25th, Stellar Year 2148” I cannot help but think of the first season of Sword Art Online, when everyone was blitzing through the floors to fight the eventual ‘final’ boss. While I understand that these timestamps are there to simulate days/months etc past, I cannot help but wonder if we’re missing out on information that would have filled in the various gaps in time of if these time jumps were intentional.

What’s frustrating for me is that 86 – Eighty Six (the first season) is only eleven episodes long and that’s what bothers me. Episode seven should be the reason why there should be more than eleven episodes because of the whole new level of detail given to us as watchers of the anime. We learned a lot about the Republic of San Magnolia and their atrocities. It also confirms to me that the ‘republic’ is fueling their own demise. If we remember from episodes past, the Legion is replacing their loses and are evolving with the dead 86. The Republic, however, is sending the 86 to their death by having them fight the Legion because they believe that the Legion will ‘expire’ in two years and because they also want to get rid of all the 86. This is effectively systematic execution.

Those who last longer than a year are sent to the “Spearhead” which is Lena’s division. Where they’re sent by the Republics high command on missions that will overwhelm them and force causalities within the division. In the hopes of killing off the 86 who lived longer than a year, and those who are smart enough to avoid death. Long story short, Lena’s division is an execution squad, where the capable 86 are sent to fight until every single one of them die. That is one terrible way to suppress and eliminate any sort of rebellion amongst the 86, by killing off those who many of them look to as heroes.

This tells me a few things. Everyone who are a part of the Spearhead, or those who are to join the spearhead know that this is their fate. It also shows me how far the republic will go to keep this a secret from the public but also from Lena. Who we know is a supporter of the 86. The fact that Lena didn’t know that she’s commanding an execution squad where regardless of how much she pleads for support, she’ll never get it. If only the High Command knew what they were fighting the Legion, if only they knew the information that Lena knew, that the Legion was replenishing their ranks with the dead of the 86.

That the main question for me. Lena knows that the Legion is replenishing their ranks with the dead, with the processors the Republic sends out to fight the war for them. Why doesn’t she just tell them this? Obviously that’s something we’d all think to do because it’s the logical thing to do. However, it’ll probably come down to the High Command not believing Lena because they’re stuck in their own ways and beliefs and probably because she lacks physical evidence to back this up. However, considering that Lena was able to convince her Uncle to give her squad supplies, I’m sure she could have got her Uncle to authorize an investigation to see whether there is truth to Lena’s claims. That the Legion is using the dead to replenish themselves and to keep fighting.

Anyway, it looks like the next few episodes are going to be eventful, in that regard that’s something I am looking forward to. The whole human aspect of the story has definitely been interesting and I think it’s been a better watch than the action because we haven’t seen much of that as of late. Anyway, overall, B+ from me.