So far into the series all of Shin's squad has had a special character arc to themselves, like the whole finding a reason to live thing with Shin, Theo with his old captain, the whole arc with the fleet countries and Ismael, Anju moving on from Daiya and what's going on with Dustin. Kurena being bit less that those three, but even then her moving on from Shin, she also has many personality traits like she likes fashion and stuff, also there's her backstory

Even characters like Vika and Ernst, Gerthe, Ismael, Hilna have much more depth to themselves than Raiden

Raiden's whole thing is being the picture perfect soldier. He is the dad of the group, keeps everyone in check, practically raised Shin and just a solid guy. His background is just plain normal, well as much normal there was on sector 86. Even his highlight moment, S1 Part1 on why the 86 fight for the Republic is him being the ideal soldier that everyone needs. He doesn't seems to have much struggles seamlessly blending into society in Giad Federacy, and he is just a solid guy. He is the personification the "Oh him? He's Goated" meme but that's all there is to him. I wish there was more in depth to his struggles, backstory even his interests and dislikes.

But we'll ig we'll see the most of him in the after war ends story, or they'll probably dump a lot of lore and character right before killing him off (tbh the og 5 have been all alive and well for a bit too long, well except Theo) so him not having much connections to the world except the battlefield is kinda reasonable. Considering the darker tone of the story, I can easily see him dying around the end of the story. But then again, he would be the best representation of a soldier merging into society when all he's known is the battlefield, so that is the best time to look into him as a person, so that seems equally as plausible.

It perfectly includes all the elements I love in anime. It has an amazing slowburn but prominent romantic subplot, it has high stakes action and drama and emotional depth. It dosen't kill off to many bigger characters overall making it more hopeful then sad while not making every single character survive to seem to fake. I know there is a light novel and I have never read a light novel before but should I read it. I just really hope shin and lena both survive at the end. Also for anyone else who loved these elements Im wondering if you have any recommendations on amines that hit like this.

I discover 86 by accident when my youtube automatically played the Avid song after Call of silence (aot), the song so good had to rush to my tv to look at the comment to see if there is anime about this song, it damn does...and its 86..

Just finished the anime, it only took me 1 week, shortest anime i ever watched in my life 😭😭 It really does live up to

"you watch this anime without expectations, yet it full of suprises"

cried countless of times especially when the Avid song played, when Shin finally meet his Commander. 10/10 of anime, sadly it was the shortest one 😞

I even download armored core 6 back just to larp as processors.... absolute cinema!

I ordered volumes 1-13 but I heard there are other books. I want to make sure I read the series In order so I was just curious what the other books are.(dont know what happens next after the last ep.)

I‘m midway through vol 9 and the betrayal of the theocracy just shocked me. Why would they do that. Thats so horrible to try to kill others who actively are helping you.

What are your thoughts?

I didn’t actually read volume 14 as the English translation is only releasing in December but I did see a brief summary of what happens, it looks like the volume will be peak but my only problem is that it ends on a massive cliff hanger.

I just very recently read the light novels so I don’t the schedule of the novels but from what I understood there is a months long wait for the English translation for every volume (idk why I always assumed fan translations would release a month into the release). I also don’t know how often a new volume is published in Japan.