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In the everlasting debate of which animation studio is the best we often hear the names KyoAni, MAPPA, ufotable, but with the release of Bubble, I think Wit Studio has taken the top spot for now.

Just from the production standpoint, this is a perfect masterpiece and there is no denying it objectively. Plain backgrounds, lackluster animation, background characters not moving? Yeah, no, not with Wit Studio.
Bubble always shows a colorful and dynamic background in every scene. The amount of details is beyond insane. And you can see the sheer effort in literally every frame. You can pause this movie at any second and spend ... minutes just looking at all the details.
But the animations might be even better. At this point, Wit Studio was just flexing their abilities. Moving camera shots with even more movement of the characters while also providing an dynamic background. The parkour scenes might be the best thing of this movie. There is so much movement on the screen and still you can't spot something that does not scream effort and detail.
This is as close to an orgasmn for your eyes as it gets.

The soundtrack was made by Sawano Hiroyuki, nothing really more to add. The music is perfect, the sound effects themselves are gorgeous, simply an amazing package in terms of sound.
As for the voice acting, I was really impressed by the performance of the main duo (Japanese), especially for their first pure dubbing roles. Those two really embraced their roles and I hope to hear more from them in future anime. And on a personal note, I just love anime movies with "rather unexperienced" voice actors in the main roles, surrounded my veterans of the industry (in this case Kaji Yuki, Miyano Mamoru etc.), another plus for me :D

The story might be the weakest point of the entire movie, but with such an amazing production it's really hard to surpass that. BUT, that doesn't mean the story is bad. I personally loved the story, which I won't spoil here, I loved how the characters interacted, I loved how the set up this world of bubbles (who would have thought that a movie called "Bubble" had a lot of bubbles), how they built up Uta and Hibiki and especially the conclusion.
(I must add, the backstory of Hibiki had me a little teary for whatever reason, he is sooo cute and innocent :c)

Overall, Bubble is a masterpiece when it comes to production, animation, sound (design), voice acting, everything is absolutely stunning. But it also comes with a great story, so at the end of the day, I must really recommend it to everybody, just for its production. And I highly recommend it to people that like beautiful stories with a slight emotional touch!

What is 86 - 76? I don't know, I'm not good at Math, but it should be something around "Masterpiece".

Disclaimer, this will not be a long and objective and well-written review, simply because there is so much going on inside of my head right now after finishing the first season of 86.

I will skip the synopsis and just straight to my point.
Once upon a time I was a person that said "I don't like mecha". Why? Well, I don't know, it just did not look appealing to me, maybe. I'm glad that I'm not looking at genres anymore, because 86 is simply great.
If I had ... to pick something that stands out about 86 I would have to say: Everything.

The overall package 86 brings to the table is perfect. Beautiful art style, great animations, outstanding voice acting, GORGEOUS soundtrack and the best CGI animations I've ever seen- and on top of that a very well-written plot and dynamic, also well-written characters.

All of the above is something you could also tell from an objective point of view, because it is undeniable that 86 offers a very good overall package. It just comes down to enjoyment and personal preference.
And that's where it really got me.
I don't know if I will have some spoilers further down, so please be careful about that.

Starting of with the plot itself, it is nothing really unique. Basically two "races" (I hate that terms for humans, even virtual ones), one is oppressing the other and basically forcing them into death. But the way it is presented is rather unique, I really like how they started the first episode with Lena walking into the "office" and you could already tell that probably close to everybody in the Army are disgusting people. You can feel the racism already within the first few minutes of the anime. The display of people that feel superior is nothing new, but the way A1-picture presents it made me feel disgusted from the very beginning and that is something not every story is able to make me feel that way.

And though Lena is doing her best to support the 86ers, she is not perfectly unbiased and makes mistakes and I love it. Though she kind of is a pure Saint in this world, she makes mistakes and has to learn. Learn how to interact with her squadron, learn how to support them, learn how to fight and most importantly, learn how to bear psychological pain and terror.
Her struggles seem so realistic and the reaction of the first division members as well. In this futuristic world the characters stay super realistic and sadly still represent parts of our society that are just wrong.

In my mind, every human being should be able to recognize that human is human, no matter their origin, color of skin, or whatever. So of course most of the Albas trigger me, but when I thought about how I would act if I was Lena, I got reminded that racism objectively does not follow any logic and that's the same in 86. And it is presented so good. Better than in many other anime that tackle racism, better in terms of realism that is.

But not only Lena is well-built, also the first division members are also very interesting and while many of them do not get as much screen time as some others (obvious reasons), they still leave an lasting impact. The ones not treated like humans are the most human in this show. They are no Saints that just forgive the Alba for what they did to them, and though they would love getting some revenge (what I can totally understand), they don't. Because they do not want to repeat the mistakes others did.

Death plays a big role in this show. And while all the first division members know that they will die eventually and are prepared for it, they aren't.
"I will stand tall till the end and fight"
"I don't want to die"
No matter how driven somebody is, in the face of death, you are not prepared.
This is also something this show catches really good.

86 does not come with the biggest plot twist ever á la Shingeki no Kyojin, but still managed to surprise me at times, like with the reveal behind the airstrike scene.
The start of the first divisions "new adventure".

Talking about that point, I have to talk about the soundtrack. I have listened to some really great soundtracks before, 86 definitely has a top tier soundtrack, as to be expected by Sawano Hiroyuki. But not only the soundtrack itself is good, its usage within the episodes is basically perfect. They chose the right soundtracks for the right scenes and thus made the enjoyment even nicer and made me shed a lot of tear from episode 9 onwards.

With that being said, I come to a negative point about this show:
Their choice of music is perfect, so WHO chose the opening and WHO approved it? I don't understand. From the first episode on you could feel the tension and drama in the air. Why go with a rather happy and funky OP song? Why did they not choose a more emotional song, or even simply a calmer? In my mind there is no worse choice for the OP than they did. I really don't get it, it just does not fit and for me almost ruined the moment at some points. If you ask me, the OP must be skipped.
The ED is perfect again though. Please, someone explain to me why this song was chosen as the OP.

But back to some positive stuff again.
Why do letters in anime always hit different? When Lena picked up the letter in the final episode, I lost it. I just lost it and turned into a waterfall of tears. I don't know what happend to the five of the first division, I don't know what will happen, but this letter was so beautiful and sad at the same time and for me was the perfect ending of the first season.
That's also something really good in this show, the pacing. The pacing never feels off, even with these re-occuring jumps in time they never lose the touch for the pacing.

So, asides from the OP I loved everything about this show and makes me eager to watch the second season. I will have to wait a bit though, because after this first season I have that feeling that I will want to binge the second season as well.
I can highly recommend 86 to every action, mecha, drama, sci-fi and military fan out there. No, I can recommend it to every anime fan out there, because 86 is a (painful) joy to watch and is a modern example on how to adapt its source material and how to tell a great story.

I hope you can enjoy 86 as much as I did, and maybe grab some tissues, just in case you easily shed tears... like me.

I've seen that there are no reviews out for this yet so I decided to write one on my own.

So basically Koori Zokusei Danshi to Cool na Douryou Joshi follows the lives of co-workers Fuyutsuki and Himuro. They have a really cute relationship, that made me go "awww" quite some times so far. It's just super wholesome. Sadly the chapters are pretty short, but that does not change the fact that this manga is a great read, especially for in between.
Also the further you get into the manga, the more characters appear and we get to get a deeper insight into their relationships.
The ... art is pretty good too in my opinion, some panels really make my heart melt (read it to get this reference :3)

Overall, if you are looking for a light-hearted, cute and wholesome short manga this is a must-read for you!