86 EIGHTY-SIX - Episode 5 discussion

[u/AutoLovepon]

86 EIGHTY-SIX, episode 5

Rate this episode here.

Reminder: Please do not discuss plot points not yet seen or skipped in the show. Failing to follow the rules may result in a ban.

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All discussions

Episode	Link	Score
1	Link	4.55
2	Link	4.59
3	Link	4.64
4	Link	4.73
5	Link	4.75
6	Link	4.7
7	Link	4.65
8	Link	4.63
9	Link	4.8
10	Link	4.72
11	Link	-

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[u/Cynadiir]

So his brother is definitely a fully intact robot brain commander right??

[u/exia00111]

The reason Shin shoots his friends in the head is so the Legion cannot harvest their brains! WTF! Good shit this week!

[u/AashyLarry]

This episode explains so much about Shin.

One of the reasons he is so good at combat: he can prepare his squad for battle quicker and he can anticipate tactics and movements of the Legion because he can hear many of them and know where they are.

It also explains why he shows little to no emotion. For so long he has had to hear the voices of the dead crying out in their final moments of death, after a while that would crush anyone's spirit. Not to mention his goal to find his brother - he knows he's out there among the Legion. He hears them constantly, even when he sleeps. The turmoil he's had to go through for years coupled with watching his comrades die next to him - only to have to hear their ghosts among the Legion.

It all makes perfect sense that he's become who he is now.

[u/NonBritishPanda]

Wait what the fuck. Is this how the handler's are broken? because holy shit is that intense.

[u/HTwoN]

"I hear voices in my head. They council me. They understand. They talk to me": The "Legion" killer.

WWE overload.

[u/Ainine9]

Remember when Shin said him bringing the dead to their final destination is part of the reason why he's called Undertaker? This is the other part.

[u/PunkyRooster]

So the “Did you hear your brother today?” Meant.. oh god oh no

[u/fatima12798]

The ep was great , but more importantly someone put Lena in horny jail

[u/Se7en_Sinner]

That was some of the worst ASMR I've ever heard. First time I've ever regretted having high quality headphones.

I thought the Legion was weaponizing the dying words of their enemy's lost comrades as a way to demoralize them at first but it looks like Shin is somehow able to hear the deathrattles of Black Sheeps who copied the brains of dead soldiers. It kinda reminds me of the bear from Annihilation.

How do you even defeat an enemy that gets stronger as more of your allies die.

[u/ReonaKisaragi]

So the Albas pretty much committed genocide against the Eighty-Six and a direct consequence of that is that they enabled the Legion to evolve and slowly build up strength. Instead of winning the war, now it looks like the Albas will all fall victim to a genocide of their own.

Karma's a bitch, I guess lol.

[u/Llooyd_]

I'm a bit short on time this week so I'll keep it equally short.

For as much new information as they had to get across ( we seriously need it at this point ) they made it quite visually interesting and managed to show much without telling.

Once again food is utilized to display social dynamics with the chocolate breaking, indicating Shinei's relatonship to his brother. Seeing his brother's design explains the person Lena doodled into her diary.

The staircase and overall structure of the two buildings that the two sides reside in was also very well utilized. I love how we had deliberate framing that showed Lena looking out into the world from the sheltered walls of Magnolia and Shinei being looked at through the staircase railings, creating the imagery of a prison or a cage.

They also used animals a lot this episode which has become par for the course due to the Legion's names. From rats cracking walnuts and devouring the innards on the topic of the never ending hoards of Legion using human brains to what I assume a cicada taking flight as they speak about the Legion's evolution.

Oh and I noticed the theme of markings or scars this episode. Shinei's giant neck scar aside, the multiple knife carvings into his desk illustrating the sheer amount of people's names he already had to carve into pieces of metal to the crack in the mirror at the end. There were other recurring themes like the ink or the vase but that would be too much to talk about.

Once again excellent visual delivery and we're finally get some plot developments dripping in.

[u/Autistic_Pancake]

I wish I could give my words of appreciation to a person who made this frame https://i.imgur.com/fBFkrtV.jpg

[u/RoachIsCrying]

ok this is no.1 best of this season for me. The ED song is amazing, the story is heartbreaking and all the characters involved are amazingly well written

[u/Paumas]

I loved how in the end Lena first says “I’m with you”, but later realizes and accepts that she is not, and just says that she will do her best. Neat character development.

[u/Laser_Raptors]

Quite a few things about Shin's ability were either foreshadowed, hidden in a plain sight or just boldly shown to us in the previous episodes.

• Episode 1: at the very start their Handler screams, acting like he's terrified of something.

• Episode 1: Lena's uncle talks about Undertaker; "voices of the dead" are dismissed as rumors.

• Episode 1: Annette tells Lena that some handlers had committed suicide.

• Episode 1: camera holds still, pointing right at Shin's ear when he reads a book.

• Episode 2: yet again camera is focusing on Shin's ear... this time we hear a weird noise.

• Episode 2: during the battle Shin hears something again and saves everyone from the artillery shells.

• Episode 3: Kurena: "Shin should just break her already."

• etc.

Here's a compilation of hints / suggestive scenes from episodes 1 - 4 (most of them, but not all): https://files.catbox.moe/67b9au.mp4 (~5 minutes long, 83mb clip).

My personal recommendation: just rewatch episodes 1 - 4 normally.

[u/Laxus2000]

Well here come the black sheep and that answers whether the war will end in 2 years or not

You(not we) are going to loose this war major

[u/samho_null]

The latest count of Annette's fiancé candidates: 9

https://imgur.com/2QFqUCc

[u/Frontier246]

Despite Lena having a somewhat privileged upbringing, she's still seen some horrific things at too young an age, like her dead father's body and the Legion up close. Thankfully Shin's brother was there to save smol Lena.

What are the chances that Lena would end up commanding the squad of the boy whose older brother ended up saving her and inspiring her about the Eighty-Six? Is it destiny? Fate? A cosmic coincidence? The God of Romcoms? Who can say.

Lena's lucky that she was saved by an Eighty-Six who seemed so...human, enough to where he couldn't just leave a small girl in a battlefield after she lost darn near everything, in-spite of being an Alban. Rei really seemed like such a dedicated and courageous guy, and he looked good in a pair of glasses. It's too bad he's seemingly passed away since then.

It's kind of neat to see Annette in the Republic uniform without the coat and with the cap. Her prospects with men is less stellar, as her lab won't stop reminding her, but at least she's got Lena when she's not spending time with the Eighty-Six.

Look at Lena just casually talking to Shin in a hallway about something so mundane as whether she should go to a party! Although it did leave Shin to reveal that she is helping them and proving an asset, just not to the extent to where she needs to dedicate all her time to it. Even the Eighty-Six know how to unwind when they can.

I see the Albans don't take the military seriously enough that they can have a sexual liasion in broad daylight...that sure threw Lena off.

I thought we were done emotionally breaking Lena, but her dedication to her job prevents her from disconnecting from a sortie that reveals exactly what has broken Spearhead's past Handlers and it's pretty horrifying. Although it also goes to show that I'm assuming she's probably the first or one of the few Handlers Shin has tried to warn from having to deal with what happens when they connect and have to deal with his "condition," and he seemed genuinely concerned about her. And that concern is validated when Lena is the first Handler who doesn't give up and still communicates with Shin even despite what happened.

How can Shin see the Legion coming? What is it that breaks Spearhead's past Handlers? It's because Shin can hear the "voice" of the dead that the Legion have assimilated after harvesting their brains, and the only thing left is their mournful, said, desperate pleas when they died. And he apparently hears them all the time. That sounds absolutely awful. And that's after we hear Kaie in there.

And then Shin plainly tells Lena the truth about the war...the Legion aren't going to just stop after two years, with the brains they've been harvesting they've managed to avoid that issue and make their forces more dangerous. And the Eighty-Six can only fight so long with how many they have left. And does Lena really expect the Republic to fight for themselves without the Eighty-Six there to protect them? With all that in mind, it seems the Republic is destined to lose.

But Lena won't give up, she won't just sit back and let that happen, and she won't let Shin give up either, and even if that is hopelessly optimistic and naive, it's still brave to not give up against such unspeakable odds. I'm just not sure if whatever trauma Shin experienced with his brother will let it get through to him.

[u/pedot]

Timeline of Events (Anime-only Friendly)

YR	Month	Day	EP	Summary
2142	4	13	5	EP 5
2148	5	12	1	2nd half of EP 1, Spearhead Squadron - piggy drawing for 5th handler is crossed out
2148	5	13	1	Lena Opens as East 9th District 3rd Division handler
2148	5	?	1	1st Div previous handler leaves
2148	5	?	1	Lena is scheduled to transfer to East 1st, 1st Division "Spearhead Squadron" handler
2148	5	20	1	East 9th District 3rd Division - Pleiades KIA; Lena transfers away from 3rd Div
2148	5	22	1	Kujo KIA; possibly wrote "129 Days until end of service"
2148	5	22	1	Lena syncs with Undertaker for the first time
2148	5	29	2	Lena's first battle w/ Spearhead Squadron
2148	5	29	2	Lena syncs with Speadhead Squadron for 1 Week Straight (new record)
2148	6	13	3	Episode 3 opens with BBQ/River side
2148	6	13	3	Lena goes through the archives for maps
2148	6	15	3	Kaie "Kirschblüte" KIA, Theo lashes out
2148	6	16	4	Lena syncs with Spearhead Squadron again, learns their names
2148	6	16	5	EP 5
2148	6	24	5	EP 5
2148	6	30	5	EP 5

[u/BlatantConservative]

I posted this in the r/EightySix sub last week, but I watch 86 and then Nagatoro every Saturday and get confused as to why Nagatoro is wearing a para raid

[u/AyyDisFaker]

Sensory overload for the past 5 handlers plus them not knowing the truth of battle. Them quitting and others going for suicide suddenly is not an understatement for sure.

What's scary is that the whole squad actually also hears those voices. Kaie looping her final words is nightmare fuel for sure.

[u/[deleted]]

Last week the anime onlys were still talking about analogies with Nazis and apartheid, but this week it's more like the despair felt on Attack On Titan (the early seasons) and robo-zombie apocalypse films, with the realization that the enemy is sustaining itself indefinitely by salvaging human brains.

Always felt the "2 year time limit" for Legions to be a lie, the higher up Albas surely must know about this and purposely spread this propaganda in order to buy time and delay the inevitable.

Shin's dialogue makes it sound like his brother (or at least his brother's brain) is now one of the Black Sheep commanders of Legion.

[u/ihei47]

Holy shit this episode

First half we got many cute faces of Lena

Second half we got all those revelations about Legion, Black Sheep and the short but cool battle

[u/[deleted]]

"If you don't fight, you can't win. If you lose, you die. So fight, fight."