Anime: 86 (2021) 2l2d6g

Not seeing a point for Season 2 551a2i

Biggest fail is the story

Season 1 was great. I thought there would be an OVA showing the ending and the show would be complete, but then there was season 2. Yet 2 filler episodes happened, big bummer. Decided to check out the book and see what will happen.

It's not any better. I fail to see the premise of the eighty-six to continue fighting. It's repeatedly stressed in the book that it is a sense of pride, in that fighting is all they have left. People in the Federacy try to persuade them to return to civilian life, and it's perceived by the eight-six as a form of being pitied and discriminated.

For me this doesn't paint the MCs in a positive light. It's as if they've given up on happiness and just intent on dwelling in their previous lives of misery, resorting to cynicism - giving up is never good. If continued discrimination is the point the story is trying to tell, this theme has faded greatly in comparison to what the MCs experienced in the republic. And so the whole story in S2 kinda builds upon this shaky premise, which makes the whole thing seems weak. The story lacks a grand purpose, a direction, a fundamental conflict it tries to tell - very much unlike season 1. Sure the anime can change some story telling, and it seems they did try to gloss over this part, but the anime did not give the story a new purpose. This seems to me the biggest fail of season 2. It's not really the anime, but the original story.

It shouldn't be too hard to work out a better reason for them to continue fighting - after all, humans are struggling for survival; happy lives can wait after the machines are defeated. Or switch to the romance part where Shin realizes his feeling for Lena and decides fight to re-unite with her. I'm sure that can be heartwarming/heart-wrenching as well. Or one of infinite other better reasons than mine which great literacy creativity can come up with.

The mecha action is still very good in the anime, so if it's to "turn off brain and just watch the action", that's very much doable. Character wise, the great focus is on Shin and not much on the other guys. It might've helped to give the other eight-sixes some narrative to paint a better bigger picture. And what's the point of Frederica the loli mascot?? If she's just comedic relief, she shouldn't have such a heavy history which makes her not so fun; if she does play a role in the bigger story, her character should be more mature. Also:

"The mascots were nothing more than a burden on the battlefield, but they still weren't permitted to return. These girls were held hostage, to serve as daughters or little sisters for the soldiers as a means of preventing them from fleeing the warzone.They came from varied backgrounds. Some were orphans without relatives. Others were sold off by their parents to reduce the number of mouths they had to feed. And there were those who were illegitimate children of noble families, given up in favor of legitimate heirs under the guise of national loyalty." - From Vol. 3 of the book

Are they some sort of "comfort women"?