86: Eighty-Six

[KrayZ33]

"The Republic of San Magnolia has been at war with the Empire of Giad for nine years. Though it initially suffered devastating losses to the Empire's autonomous mechanized Legions, The Republic has since developed its own autonomous units, called Juggernauts, which are directed remotely by a Handler. While on the surface the public believes the war is being fought between machines, in reality, the Juggernauts are being piloted by humans and all of them are 86s, the designation given to the Colorata minority of San Magnolia who originally had equal rights as the dominant Alba race but were persecuted and scapegoated by the racist-led Alba government to the point the Colorata were considered not human, not allowed to have names and forced to live in internment camps in the 86th Ward while being forced to fight in the Republic's war with the Empire to get betterment.

Major Vladilena "Lena" Mirizé is an Alba noble and military officer in the Republic's Military who is assigned as a Handler of the Spearhead squadron of the eastern front, an elite unit composed entirely of 86s veterans who have earned names. Led by their squad leader, Shinei "The Undertaker" Nōzen, Spearhead squadron are infamous due to many Handlers who have commanded the squad having gone insane and some even committed suicide. As Lena gets to know Shinei and the rest of the Spearhead squadron, she becomes sympathetic to his people's plight and tries to help them. At same time, Lena and Shinei learn a dark secret: the Republic and the war with the Empire is not what it seems. "

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/86_(novel_series)

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That first episode was much better than I initially thought this show would be.
Only one gripe so far because it doesn't really made much sense to me from what little we got to know about the whole thing in 1 episode:

Why were they fighting without a Handler (the combat scene right before the end). I didn't expect them to be able to fight autonomously like that, without anyone watching/ordering them around.

Other stuff:

The art is cool, the female lead is pretty hot (for those that care), the mechas look well made.
It's interesting to see that the District 86 humans are seeing the 1-85 disctrict "humans" as "pigs" too.
I kinda wonder how exactly it came to be that everyone has the same hair and eye color.
It'd be weird for them to be clones... and not the other way around. But I guess that's the whole deal about this show, isn't it. The synopsis mentions the "Alba race" (which means "white race" - go figure) but... that's just some kind of human subspecies or an ethnic group of some kind, since they call themselves human either way.