86: Eighty Six “Thank You” Review
86: Eighty Six “Thank You” is the tenth episode of the 86 anime. And unlike episode 9 this episode follows what’s left of the 86. Their adventures into Legion territory and their pasts. As well as their plans for the future.
Finding Freedom
As Shin, Raiden, Anju, Kurena and Theo make their way across Legion territories. They finally get a small sense of the freedom they’ve never known. They play in grass fields, fish for food as Shin listens out for any Legion enemy voices. It’s all lovely, they find an old town and Shin is drawn in almost to a mysterious tunnel we later learn leads to an old zoo. He’s stopped at first by Raiden, who is getting increasingly worried about Shin’s behaviour. Shin is laughing more and whilst that may seem like a good thing, Raiden knows better, he says Shin has lost something. Most likely his reason for surviving this long, which is a disaster when you’re a soldier in enemy territory.
One day, the rest of the crew awake to find Shin gone. They follow him to the aforementioned zoo and he is found staring down a Legion leader. But it’s brain belongs to an 86 member who’s last words were “I want to go home.” Shin uses his pistol to finally give it peace. This leads into the biggest plot twist I did not see coming.
Fido
Fido, the yellow helper droid that everyone is friends with, is also a type of mech that used to be human. Shin found him as a child and could hear his voice and they’ve been inseparable ever since. Only Shin could talk to him because only Shin knew he used to be human. We see flashbacks of moments in the 86’s memory through Fido’s eyes and it’s heart shattering. Almost all of the people talking to him thinking he’s just a machine are dead. They reveal their hopes and dreams, laugh and cry in front of Fido. With a final video recording of Shin making a dog tag for his brother.
The Scene suddenly shifts and Fido is seen on the battlefield days later burning and eventually blown up by enemy missiles.
Review
Wow. Maybe I should’ve seen the Fido thing coming as it is strongly hinted at during the other episodes. I just took him to be a normal robot though. His “death” means the memories of 86, all of them, have gone with him and it’s likely Shin won’t be around for long either (if he hasn’t already left.)
The fact that it was a bomb that blew him up means they’re fighting and almost certainly getting their butts handed to them which is something I just don’t want to think about. The imagery of the zoo skeletons dead behind bars forgotten and abandoned isn’t exactly subtle but it’s a good non-subtle. It smacks you in the face with the reality of their situation. They’re physically free but they’ll never actually be. They’ll likely die like that no matter their resolve and it dawns on all of them. It’s impactful and no-nonsense and it will almost certainly make you cry.
This episode really showed just how strong it’s characterisation and direction is. For a good 15 minutes it was just the survivors messing about in new found freedom and yet you find yourself enthralled.
I cannot wait to see what happens in episode 11, though I suspect it’ll wait out everything right until the bitter end.
I’ve never cried over a robot before but now I have. Thanks eighty-six lol
