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The power of friendship – racism is bad and war is sad edition.

86 is an anime that wants to be taken seriously but simply doesn’t deserve it. If you can turn off your brain and manage to get lulled in by the emotional drama presented in smooth animation, then you stand a chance of having a good time. If you set your expectations any higher, you will be disappointed. In a nutshell, 86 is a bit like Code Geass with less intrigue and more tearjerker drama.

For the rest of the review, I will assume you’ve read the synopsis. There won’t be any major story spoilers, ... but I will take some examples from things that happen in the first few episodes. I can’t fully avoid giving some things away, however, so if you haven’t watched the series and are still interested, you can stop reading and come back later. Before talking about the story, characters, or other particular aspects of the show in isolation, though, let’s spell out what seem to be the themes present in 86. In my interpretation, these are:
- authoritarianism, nationalism, and (lack of) freedom of expression
- racial hatred, dehumanization, and genocide
- the cruelty of war and the fear of dying
- the moral struggle of being part of a corrupt system that you are unable to change
You could add to these points, or you could summarize them differently, but this is what everything in 86 revolves around. Unfortunately, 86 simply falls short of delivering anything worth watching in connection to any of these themes. At its best, 86 treats them only very superficially. At its worst, the show manages to even contradict its already flimsy take-aways. It casts away all this potential to tell a story marred with glaring plot holes and filled with a set of cliché characters.

Fundamentally speaking, the depiction of war and death in 86 is weak. In the show, each time the Spearhead unit (which contains the protagonists minus Lena) go for out on a mission, at least someone of them is killed by the enemy. The respective scenes and the ones following often attempt to make the loss of comrades seem impactful by showing both how someone died and how their friends later deal with their death afterwards. There’s lots of crying and there’s lots of pathos. Meanwhile, Lena is constantly guilt-stricken for her supposed responsibility as an Alba, i.e., part of the oppressors’ race. While some of these moments may be memorable on their own, in the grand scheme of things, 86 is much more concerned with being an inoffensive slice-of-life / mild drama series than it is committed to being a gritty war anime.

First, consider the psychological state of an average 86. Picture yourself as a teenager, suddenly ostracized by all your neighbors, enslaved and imprisoned by your own country, your parents and siblings killed, you forced to work as an underage soldier, and also witnessing countless of your fellow child soldiers die in battle. After all this, what do you think your mental health would look like? What do you think your personality would be like? The short answer: definitely not normal. The long answer: Well, this would have been 86’s job to show us, wouldn’t it. Instead, we have a cast of completely ordinary and—in the generic sense of the word—likeable characters. Some of them have a defined personality, which is usually a copy-paste trope like cool guy Shinei, badass dude Raiden, or clumsy-cute girl Kurena. The rest of them simply don’t get enough screen time to leave any sort of impression. These completely standard anime characters also end up doing completely standard anime things most of the time. There’s a few innocent love interests, there’s firework and shooting star scenes, there’s the “somebody makes a joke, everybody laughs and the scene cuts out” situations, heck, there’s even a time when the guys comedically peep on the girls. Meanwhile, as part of the main “story progress” in 86, despite some initial reservations, the friendly troupe slowly but surely builds up a bond with Lena thanks to their nightly phone calls. This is, really, the ultimate goal of the story, to make Lena and the 86 buddies and show us that the power of friendship can beat even racism and war.

Both racism and war only become selectively relevant when the show needs to fabricate an emotional moment, like someone dying, or Lena feeling guilty and powerless. It is also mentioned that not absolutely all 86 are good people (big surprise, huh), but conveniently, none of the characters in the Spearhead squad are like that. In reality, child soldiers are often some of the cruelest, sociopathic persons because of how desensitized they are to violence and their inability to make their own decisions. Yet we never see Shinei acting sadistically, he doesn’t even yell at his own subordinates. We also don’t see the 86 ever having nightmares. Or being traumatized by loud noises (like, wink, fireworks, wink). We never see 86 who are crippled from war or someone having to treat a grisly gunshot wound. We never ever get to see an Alba directly commit violence to an 86, let alone killing them. We also don’t see 86 making terrorist attacks on San Magnolia (they certainly have the weapons to do so). The only person who shows truly anti-social behavior due to the effects of the war on his psyche is Shinei’s brother. Crucially, however, he is both the exception and an outsider to the main cast. Last but not least, Lena can freely criticize the regime in public without facing any sort of consequences.

The writing certainly also doesn’t lift up what is already a very mediocre package. The first episode is especially bad because it seems like everything somebody says on screen is said for your convenience as the viewer. Basically, the introduction to the story is anything but organic. More importantly, though, even past episode one, are many instances where the creators seemingly were just too lazy to compose actual dialog and instead have characters directly say what they think and/or spell out plot details for the convenience of the viewer. Raiden says it more succinctly than I ever could in episode 7: “Just because scum treats you like scum, you’re the same scum if you return the favor”. 86 is definitely a lot more “tell” than “show”.

So far, 86 is just a sci-fi war anime with low ambitions. What makes it go from bad to insulting is its pretentiousness. Shinei, the male protagonist, has “All Quiet on the Western Front” in a drawer and proposed to name the squad’s cat (yes, they are child soldier slaves, but they have a cat) “Remarque”. I can’t begin to tell you how hard my eyes rolled at this. Not only does the show nothing to deserve making this reference, as I explained above. It also actively works against being an anti-war anime. The J-rock opening and the flashy fight scenes, particularly in episode 2, are clearly focused on showing the stylishness of war, not highlight its brutality and much less its meaninglessness. We are also encouraged to like Shinei for the cool, handsome super soldier that he represents, rather than being alienated by the killing machine he is. It’s not immoral to make an anime where fighting is cool or where war is engaging. But it is disingenuous to do so and then make lazy references to anti-war literature to get points for being “deep”.

I have not touched on the actual story much so far because I think there really is not much to go on about. The course the events took were utterly predictable and the few story elements that aren’t, like Shinei’s backstory, felt uninspired or, in the case of the “secret” behind the Legion, felt like a pure sci-fi contrivance. There is some modicum of character development, but again, it’s completely predictable and doesn’t add to or downright competes with the themes of the story. None of the characters actually overcome war or racism in any significant or meaningful way. If we take the yardstick “did character X do/say/think/feel something at the end of the series that they did not do/say/think/feel in the beginning”, then it’s clear that really not much happened to anyone.

Ultimately, Lena’s sense of responsibility and guilt makes for an interesting and strong character blueprint, but the show does absolutely nothing with it. 86 does not live up to its lofty ambitions of being an anime on war and racism that you can take seriously because it wants to deliver run-off-the-mill kitsch and drama first and have a believable story only second. I’ll briefly mention that the art and sound are both above average, although that does not salvage the experience.

If you agree or disagree with this review or if you found it helpful, feel free to let me know!

This review contains medium SPOILERS: I will give away the premise that is established after about two volumes. Basically, I am going to tell you what "Shiki" means. No less and no more.
However, I think that this being a mystery manga, you may enjoy going into it as blind as you will. If that's the case for you then do avoid reading this review (any sort of information on the manga for that matter); go ahead and give it a try!


Shiki is one of those works which demonstrate beautifully how a concept that seems old and uninteresting can be revived to make for a refreshing ... setting. When the village of "Sotoba" is haunted by mysterious deaths everybody seems clueless concerning the origin of the proclaimed epidemic. Only a few individuals have the bravery and recklessness to dare think it could be the "Okiagari" - later named Shiki - causing the calamity. These so-called Okiagari are people who were once dead but have risen and are thereon blessed to live forever but cursed to feed on human blood.

This premise alongside with each characters motivations is what drives the plot. What keeps the story so lively is the excellent writing. Each chapter will focus on one particular character. And although these tales appear to exist independently of each other, they slowly begin to intertwine. Another good feature of the storytelling is that, as a reader you are never given the complete picture. Leaving you in the dark for most of its duration the manga makes for a very suspenseful read.

The concept which this manga is centred around (vampirism) comes across as ever so fresh. That's because Shiki takes a surprisingly serious approach to the theme having its characters deal with many of its social and moral consequences. As the Okiagari are not simply used as a setup for an action or a horror story but are treated like the dilemma that they really represent, everything becomes that much more believable as well as thought-provoking. The story is rich in allegories and all sorts of symbolisms relating to questions of justice, ethics, human nature and many more.

In this turmoil of justice and injustice, compassion and instincts, survivability and principles, each (main) character has his or her own point of view. Some of them more clear-cut than others.
The good thing about the cast is that it's big and it's rather diverse.
But while it is the convictions of the key characters that push the plot, these lead characters themselves do not undergo as much development as one could have expected. Especially considering the complete 180° (or is it 360°?) shift that the plot with its various twists achieves.
Even though the themes and topics are all there, sometimes one might wish that a particular point of view (say the moralist's, the nihilist's, the speciesism's) be a little more openly expressed by a specific character. It's oftentimes you contemplating, not the characters.

If their contentual expression may be lacking at times, the characters' visual appearance certainly doesn't. The art style is something to get used to with very spikey hair and largely exaggerated facial and bodily traits. I think that the general art style is probably subject to taste but if you keep an open mind I definitely think you too will appreciate the great variety that it offers. If anything, I think it adds to the feeling of the manga.


In the end, what sets Shiki apart from other series of the supernatural genre is the commitment to explore the actual implications of a pop fiction topic. This story is executed candidly, brutely and without any sort of melodrama whatsoever. There are next to no comedic moments in Shiki, instead numerous shocking, moving and memorable ones.
Although in my opnion the (very) end makes the symbolism a bit too amiguous the rest of the series is an absolute treat. Even if you will be left alone to do so don't miss the chance to ponder over what is means to be a Okiagari, or a human being or both.