86 2nd Season | Episode 1 Review

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Wow, I always knew that Shin and company were still alive, I read it (sadly), but before I did take a gander at the wiki, I always knew deep down that they were all still alive. To see them together and not dead gives me a nice feeling because I’ve developed a connection with everyone single of the the characters who were part of the original spearhead. Anyway, the character Ernst Zimmerman came off as a strange individual, a person who seems to have an ulterior motives. That’s just the vibe I get given how he speaks and all the still shots we were given of him.

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Like come on now, you cannot look at this guy and say he doesn’t look like a villain. Furthermore, I find it hard to believe the the Legion was defeated by what would take its place as the Federal Republic of Giad. Just being told “Hey we defeated them, we’re just going after those who remain” doesn’t seem right and almost feels like a blatant lie. Similar to how the Republic of San Magnolia openly lies to its citizens about the Legion. I feel like the Federal Republic is doing the same thing, but unlike it’s counterpart, the Federal Republic seems more open to the concept of Freedom and are multinational unlike San Magnolia which only believes in one superior race. All that being said, from the few scenes we were able to see of the Federal Republic, it looks a lot brighter and a lot more lively than San Magnolia. So it could be that this new ‘nation’ is genuinely better in all aspects of life when compared to San Magnolia, or it could also be a facade for something more sinister hiding underneath. Only time will tell.

Something else that stood out from the first episode was Lena. She seems a lot colder and more ruthless. Which in itself is very interesting because, in the first season she was none of those things. While she still cares about the 86, you can definitely tell that ‘loss’ of Shin and everyone else really hurt her deeply. She doesn’t seem to be as close or connected to her new squadron as shown by her not wanting to call Shiden Iida (an 86) by her actual name, instead referring to her by processor name of ‘Cyclops’. Despite this hardened version of Lena, she still does everything possible to protect her squad and still continuously violates orders and breach protocol to get what she wants.

Lena also seems to be a lot more manipulative now. We saw a little bit of this start to creep up towards the end of the first season, but now she’s just going in head first. She understands the military hierarchy like the back of her hand and is fully aware of all the self interest and corruption that goes on within the military. All of this is something that Lena takes full advantage of and I love that. When she confronts her commanding officer after once again being berated by him for further authorized use of the country’s big weapons. Lena immediately backs him into a corner “It doesn’t matter because I’m the top handler, and if my kill rate goes down, then you’ll probably won’t ever get promoted so it’s best you let me continue what I’m doing”. I love that kind of stuff, Lena is flexing her muscles and no one can do anything about it.

I’m honestly, looking forward to the future episodes. It’ll be interesting to see how far Lena will go to get what she wants. She obviously carries the baggage and experience, as she’s still highly rated in the military despite being demoted for her continuous breaches of protocol and such. It’ll also be interesting to see what happens when Shin and company reunite with Lena, I assume the it’ll happen under wartime conditions out on the battlefield. It’ll also be interest to see what role this Frederica Rosenfort plays throughout the series. She definitely seems like someone who is important. However, nonetheless, it’s something I’m really looking forward to see. 7/10, B.