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5 | 80% (163 votes) |
4 | 8% (16 votes) |
3 | 5% (10 votes) |
2 | 4% (9 votes) |
1 | 2% (5 votes) |
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Weekly Rank: #9377Monthly Rank: #9325
All Time Rank: #3783
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On 4784 Reading Lists
Monthly Rank: #8052
All Time Rank: #1469
Description
Links are NOT allowed. Format your description nicely so people can easily read them. Please use proper spacing and paragraphs.A War Without Casualties.
The Republic of San Magnolia has long been under attack from the neighbouring Giadian Empire’s army of unmanned drones known as the Legion. After years of painstaking research, the Republic finally developed autonomous drones of their own, turning the one-sided struggle into a war without casualties-or at least, that’s what the government claims.
In truth, there is no such thing as a bloodless war. Beyond the fortified walls protecting the eighty-five Republic territories lies the “nonexistent” Eighty-Sixth Sector. The young men and women of this forsaken land are branded the Eighty-Six and, stripped of their humanity, pilot the “unmanned” weapons into battle…
Shin is the leader of a squadron of eighty-sixers. Lena is a “handler” who commands the detachment from the remote rear with the help of special communication technology.
The farewell story of the severe and sad struggle of these two begins!
Associated Names
One entry per line86 -เอทตี้ซิกซ์-
86: Eighty Six
86―EIGHTY-SIX
86―エイティシックス―
86―不存在的戰區―
Related Series
N/ARecommendations
Shuumatsu Nani Shitemasu ka? Isogashii desu ka? Sukutte Moratte Ii desu ka? (3)Fate/Zero (1)
Shuumatsu Nani Shitemasuka? Mou Ichido Dake, Aemasuka? (1)
Recommendation Lists
Latest Release
Date | Group | Release |
---|---|---|
03/03/24 | Dynasty Translations | v13c1 |
03/02/24 | Dynasty Translations | v13c0 |
12/25/20 | Hellping | school if:merry... |
08/24/20 | Hellping | raiden's birthday |
07/18/20 | Hellping | theo's birthday |
07/18/20 | Hellping | kurena's birthday |
07/18/20 | Hellping | school if: c2 |
07/18/20 | Hellping | triage part2 |
07/18/20 | Hellping | triage part1 |
07/18/20 | Hellping | shin's birthday... |
07/18/20 | Hellping | lena's birthday... |
04/16/20 | Hellping | school if: c6 |
08/12/19 | Hellping | lena's birthday |
05/20/19 | Hellping | shin's birthday... |
05/20/19 | Hellping | shin's birthday |
Thinly veiled American-bashing genre, but ok read otherwise.
EDIT: There was a recent anime adaptation and its outsized popularity made me think I missed something. The anime was so-so, but re-reading the novel now makes the novel seem even worse, since some inconsistences, illogical plotlines and dialogue were left out in the show. SUMMARY
Angsty teenagers set in a war between countries, ideological factions, etc, while trying to survive and work their way through social discrimination. While Code Gaess was about colonization, 86 is a reflection of the WWII US internment of all Japanese-Americans in concentration camps, with the additional step of military conscription. Author tried to be topical by adding in a layer of "drones" (humans "controlling" other humans remotely), since mentioning drones/UAVs was all the rage in the 2010s but it's otherwise irrelevant.
Especially since that concept hasn't aged very well given how commonplace smart weaponry and AI advances are post-2020. CHARACTERS
Somewhat believable ML & FL, both from different social stratas. ML is effectively a minority military s*ave forced to fight on the front lines to regain his citizenship, while the FL is from a privileged noble class directing the war effort from the rear. ISSUES
(1) Illogical America/German-bashing?
Internment, conscription and racism are believable concepts if taken separately, since it's happened in both US and German history.
But just like Code Geass, it takes it a step too far by pulling in other atrocities and nonsensically linking it all together.
It's now internment + conscription + racism against ALL races (except those with white skin and silver hair), all while being the 1st democracy in the world and espousing democratic values. So that implies that majority of the democracy's citizens are hypocrites.
The author seems to be using a lazy, tired trope of making out one particular person/group to be cartoonishly evil. You know the kind... the one where there's a bad guy laughing maniacally while he pointlessly mu*ders an entire family, just so you can hate on him more until they finally get their comeuppance presumably down the road. Really??? Sure there's a cathartic effect when comeuppance happens, especially if you're a 14-yr old reading this for the first time. But for what's supposed to be a serious war novel, this world building appears really trite and implausible. It draws parallels to the annoying CN novel baddies that the author randomly created, just to be face-slapped by the MC. It's amazing that this novel actually won an award in Japan.
If this is supposed to be a reference to failed wars in the real world and how soldiers often feel abandoned by their own country, shouldn't the emphasis be on the politicians and policy makers who made that happen? Of course there's usually some culpability from an unwitting populace who voted (if at all) for those in power, but in this novel it's like saying all Germans were bad in WWII. I tried reading through the various 86-wiki and Reddit threads about the different countries foundational history to see if all this was possible. It still doesn't make much sense to me. Maybe give 14-yr olds some credit and that their skills of comprehension are better than we think? Write something more coherent and realistic they can better appreciate? They don't need to be fed a diet of silly tropes to get them entertained. I get that Japan had a recent revival of old grievances against the US when this novel was written (some of which are legit), but this is kinda absurd. (2) Weird military doctrine
I'm not certain the author has military experience or extensively researched enough military history before writing this novel. A lot has been hyped about how accurately the novel/anime portrayed war. I think that's true... but maybe only on the ground level.
Military technology, geography, strategic capabilities have always had an impact on doctrine, and adoption is fairly quick when any of these change.
Yet 9 YEARS after the Republic (the ML and FL's home country) was invaded, when they are fighting against extinction (not loss of their country since it's a take-no-prisoners situation against robots), they still act as if all lives are completely expendable.
The spider tanks are really "Tachikomas" from Ghost in the Shell, but despite advanced weaponry they still fight close combat style. The "handlers"/"drone pilots" act like they are playing video games, even though the "drones" are real humans. Even if it's sacrificing conscripted minorities, it makes absolutely no sense that the country hasn't reformed their war plans or government.
Worse, the govt is actively deceiving the populace that they are winning the war. And the populace actually believes it! How delusional can people be when they are eating scraps? Even a certain, real world, Dictator Kim could only hold sway over his country because he reminded them of historical war atrocities committed against his people (and also the militaristic govt he happens to wield). But at least his country isn't being actively invaded for 9 YEARS!
And how hard can it be to form an alliance with all the other affected countries? The Empire is basically Germany in WWII. It's said the Empire shut down communications by sending out jamming signals. But the Republic can walk over to neighboring countries right? Maybe there'll be reason down the line about the lack of communication, but you'd expect this to be explained at the beginning. I'm also really struggling to think of real world examples where a majority of a country's fighting force is a marginalized group. How would that even work? How do you instil/ensure loyalty through 9 YEARS of war, while still having confidence in winning said war? Sure there were African Americans serving in the US War of Independence. There were also a number of Japanese-Americans serving in the US during WWII. There were even Jews serving in H*tler's army. But none of them ever formed the backbone fighting force. The novel chalks up this lengthy futile war to sheer military brass idiocy, incompetence, and
a half-assed attempt at genocide of the Colorata.
The author supposedly drew on N*zi Germany for source material. But would H*tler trust and staff the J*ws throughout his army, even if faced with an existential threat?
Probably not. And he didn't. There were only a couple of thousand of J*ws allowed into the German army fighting alongside the majority Aryans, and were eventually purged from the ranks. Most were career soldiers and served either thinking they were helping their families, or more often, thought themselves German and not J*ws.
A whole bunch of nonsensical sesquipedalian military terms are used. It's like the author found a military dictionary and threw in whatever she could.
The sentences don't make sense, the conversations between military personal jumps about and don't make sense. The pacing, flow of emotions and character interactions are incredibly awkward.
Example:
"If used over a long time, who knows the effect it will have... one or two Eighty Sixers dead won't matter, but what will happen if something bad happens to you?"
Lena instinctively gave a displeased look. She knew Arnett was simply worried about her, but she could not help herself.
"Don't do that... that's sleazy of you."
Arnett finally waved her hand impatiently.
"Okay okay. You're a curious one."
An awkward silence soon filled both sides of the glass wall.
Suddenly, Arnett gave a smile, as though to purge the silence.
"Speaking of curiosity, Lena, want some Chiffon cake? Something new I made from eggs."
What??? What's sleazy? Why wave your hand impatiently? Why the awkward silence? What does curiosity have to do with cake? Lost in translation... WTF.
It could just be a bad translation, but I doubt it. (4) Massive info dump, convoluted plot and exposition
Borrows too many useless tropes.
Besides Code Geass + Valkyrie Chronicles + Gundam Iron Blooded Orphans, we also have hints of The Matrix (robots/AI taking over on the enemy side), a collective "internet" consciousness (Ghost in the Shell/Star Trek Borg).
And that's just Chapter 1!!