86 EIGHTY-SIX

## 86 EIGHTY-SIX **86 EIGHTY-SIX** is a 2021 anime television series produced by A-1 Pictures, adapted from the light novel series by Asato Asato with illustrations by Shirabii. The series ran across two consecutive cours (Part 1: spring 2021, Part 2: autumn 2021) and was received as one of the most emotionally devastating and thematically serious war anime in years, praised for its unflinching depiction of systemic racism, the human cost of dehumanization, and the bonds formed between people the world has discarded. The Republic of San Magnolia has been at war with the Legion — an army of autonomous military drones — for nine years. The Republic proudly claims that its own forces suffer zero casualties, because its weapons are also fully automated. This is a lie. The "drones" are actually piloted by the Eighty-Six: people of the Colorata minority, stripped of their citizenship and humanity, forced into combat under the designation of "weapons" rather than soldiers. Vladilena "Lena" Milizé is a young Handler — an officer from the privileged Alba majority who communicates with the Eighty-Six through radio while they fight and die. Lena is unusual: she actually wants to know the names of the people she commands. Her counterpart is Shinei "Shin" Nouzen, the stoic and legendary squadron leader of Spearhead, a unit reserved for the Eighty-Six the Republic considers most dangerous — where pilots are sent to die quietly. What begins as a fragile connection between a handler who wants to care and soldiers who have stopped expecting it becomes one of the most searing anti-war narratives in anime: a story about whose humanity is considered real, who is allowed to grieve, and what it means to fight for people who consider your death a convenience.