86: Eighty Six “I’m With You” Review
86: Eighty Six “I’m With You” is the fifth episode of the 86 anime. Unlike episode 4 this episode begins with a flashback. A flashback showing how Lena knew Shin’s brother. But that’s not the only shocking revelation.
Fighting no matter what
As mentioned before the episode begins by showing the day Lena’s father died as the day she met Rei, Shin’s brother. Whilst even as a child she acknowledges that her father taught her that her people were doing horrible things to 86, alot of this just seems like backstory until we get deeper into the episode.
Lena and Annette have a heart to heart as Annette once again warns Lena to not make 86 a priority in her life. Whilst Lena is thankful to her friend she’s stubborn and doesn’t want to leave them to it alone. Whilst talking to Shin later on, he makes a similar remark. And also confides in her that he used to live in sector 1. Shin senses the Legion making their way to the battlefield. How? All will be revealed. Lena joins them in battle as usual but she’s a little put off by what seems like static voices, soon it’s pretty clear they’re not static as Lena once again hears Kaie’s last words. Lena has a breakdown and Shin cuts communication off. But not before Lena has a hallucination in her room.
The Black Sheep
Seeing scenes of the battlefield from 86’s perspective. The voices are clearly coming from what they call “Black Sheep.” 86 are triumphant and it’s up to Shin to explain to Lena what’s going on. He explains that the voices she heard were the copied brains of dead 86 soldiers, because the brains aren’t pure and are copies they can’t be reasoned with and they only ever repeat the same thing: their last words. Shin finally explains too why he can sense or hear them. He died once, or came close to it and since then has been able to hear their voices. Meaning he can hear them coming way before they’re on the radar.
Giving Lena a speech about how there’s no way the republic will win this war with the Black Sheep working for the Legion. He also tells her about “Shepherds” a legion commander who’s brain is undamaged and can think and plan as normal. Making them and the armies they command extremely dangerous. It’s very heavily hinted at that his brother who he’s looking for is one of them.
The episode ends with Lena giving Shin and 86 her full support. It clearly bothers her but she’s sticking by them regardless.
Review
Wow! What an episode! Maybe it’s because of all the “using brains as power” thing but I’m getting Psycho Pass vibes from this particular episode. The show in general too, though it’s more obvious here than anywhere. They both tackle the question of stripping someone’s humanity away and convincing the public that it’s perfectly justified.
I think judging by what Lena has seen, done and said this episode she’ll probably end up going to 86 and fighting with them at some point but the question is when. With every revelation this show gets better and better. The themes explored are relevant and serious and the characters are likeable. I’m pretty certain there’s not a single character I hate yet, but that obviously remains to be seen.
