FINALLY, been waiting for the Morpho to finally show up in the flesh (steel?), and it is GLORIOUS!

Kiriya's plan to use the damaged Morpho unit as bait while uploading his consciousness to the backup unit that was lying in ambush at the last second was pretty genius, ngl. Shin's ability cannot detect a Legion unit that is in a powered down state, so that was basically the perfect strategy to counter his ability (yes, the Legion is already aware of Shin's existence and his ability at this point).

Sadly, another break next week due to special programming. :(

FINALLY, we got the episode after harsh delays....well tbh it was worth the wait. And idk why but Morpho is creepy. xD

Kiriya playing Brain Games, ngl....My brain cells had a hard time comprehending all that, lmao.

Btw another delay is there to Rip us off our happiness T^T

Jabaited them lol

Shin keeps smiling at this episode and forgot to answer his teammates

It too late to be getting excited… we have another break next week :( lol

Normaly i hate the breaks and half episodes but this show earned every right to do it... I skipped the show last season and watched all of it last week in one sitting... What an absolute feast and rollercoaster ride it was. This short break is fine with me ^^

.5 episode again next week oh man this is gonna be a long week

again? fffffffff are we gonna get recaps in between every episode?

The morpho laying out a trap like that you know things will get serious haha

This episode is just really good and we get some delicious actions shin still smiling while the guy no face keeps saying I'll kill you lol

Btw another delay is there to Rip us off our happiness T^T

better way to think about it is they are trying to tease us a little. some of us can't take the teasing tho

the delay this time is because of some sort of holiday though

This was probably the best 86 episode to date. Putting a face behind the enemy and making it so there’s an antagonist that has a history with the MC has made this anime much more exciting.

So sad we have to wait 2 weeks (again) as soon as it starts getting good

Finally we get to see the enemy and no face kinda reminds me of shin's big brother because same situation kinda

Ngl I forgot what happened in season 1 but now that you mention it, that did happen didn't it lol

Love it's design reminds me of a morpho....wait lol

our boy shin slapped the legion so hard for the past 5 years that they had to come up with a codename for him and counter strategies as well xD
A Real Menace for the Legion

Yep. Finally indeed but we must prepare again for another delay T^T

Pain is eternal and life is not Daijobu T^T

(Pointing a Gun behind you)

Always has been, my good Tomodachi

And the no face calling was sick he had to manually stop him ;-;

So no face is the guard or knight of Frederica and lol he has red eyes

Kiriya Nouzen was Frederica's knight before his death, he resides within the Morpho and his Legion callsign is Pale Rider. No Face is somewhere above Pale Rider in the chain of command (I think he's in charge of that entire part of the Legion's army) and his original identity is as of yet unknown, though it's speculated to be Vaclav Milize, as they have the same VA.

It took me a while to realise what happened. That was a genius move lol

bro should have become a mathematician with that level of problem solving skill

Noooo!!! Another break next week!!! Dang recap-kuns lol

Welp, let’s enjoy this episode as much as we can then!!

Didn't realise that happen 💀

Lmao, reminds me of GLORIOUS EVOLUTION

this is why you wait for the season to end. MARATHONING S1 AND S2 IN A DAY WOOOOO

Wait. I just saw the same comment in reddit 86 discussion thread. Are you the same person?

No. If you saw the same comment anywhere else, that means the person stole my comment.

And we we like a word from our sponsor raid shadow legends

Wait what? How is he the MVP of the mission? lol did you commented without even watching the ep

Stowaway loli ✖
Stowaway cat ✖
Stowaway mascot ✔✔✔ lol

A unit does not simply move without its mascot!

Mascot Supremacy 🛐

🛐🛐🛐🛐🛐🛐🛐🛐🛐

Nyaaa(^=◕ᴥ◕=^)

Cat Empress

All of the above: ✓

86 Part 2 episode 19, Stay This Way Forever

EDIT: This episode was supposed to drop an hour later than it did! I got done typing this up, went to take a small nap, and what do I wake up to but notifications that 86 dropped an hour earlier.

Rude. truly rude.

-

(got my video up for episode 18. A great deal of symbolism and metaphors were in 18, so I would recommend it)

AND WE'RE BACK!...

Only to be met with yet another delay! Don't worry ladies and gentlemen! This will be the last delay. The week of December 11th was meant to be a non-86 episode, so once we get back next week, WE CAN CONTINUE THE ACTION PACKED FINALE TO NOVEL 3!

Thank you guys for being so patient with 3 weeks of on-and-off episodes. I have to imagine that really kills momentum to have to wait 2 weeks at a time to get back to a series you love.

Alright, enough rambling, you're here for words, so let me get them assembled for you!

-

-

Before we start, I need to forewarn you: I am unsure as to how far this episode will stretch in terms of what we will cover. We have episodes 19-23 to conclude the remaining events of Novel 3 (and possibly the end of epilogue we get in Novel 1)

From the start of episode 19, we are on page 90, and the end of Novel 3 is 230 total pages (English Novel page numbers), so if we split that up into 4 episodes (140 pages), that is about 35 pages per episode, a perfectly reasonable amount, bar any anime-original changes. If we combine the events of Novel 1's epilogue, it would add about 10 pages of content at most, so we are well on track to finish with breathing room.

What I will tell you is that we are about to crank up the Animations to 11. We've got battles on a grand scale to cover, and honestly? If the studio said "hey fam, we need 2 weeks instead of 1 to cover what is to come", I would grit my teeth and say "ok, but I want to be crying by the end of these events, your animation was so good."

-

-

Alright, here's ya topics! I will only cover the events at the end of Chapter 7 "Something to Die For" and halfway into Chapter 8 "Run through the Battlefront" (pages 90-130). Again, I want to stress it is not my intention to spoil anything, as I am guessing the coverage based on past episodes' progression.

-

.5 Where we would be in the Light Novel
1. The Trap is Sprung on Báleygr, and the Weakness of Shin.
2. Kiri's thoughts drift to Frederica.
3. The Flame-Drake is unleashed.
4. The 86 counterattack begins, and the Morpho retreats.
5. The Black Widow survives.
6. Fido's secret exposed.
7. Dinner, a Show, and Shin.

-

-

.5 Where we would be in the Light Novel

With the start of episode 19, the LandKraft has taken off (I ain't using that name in the book, I can barely spell English words to begin with). Unfortunately, the Legion have caught onto their plan, and have set forces upon the Landkraft in hopes of downing it.

The following has occurred:
The Nordlicht Squadron are ejected from the LandKraft.
Grethe has ejected from the LandKraft inside a Juggernaut.
The Squadron has begun the march towards the Morpho's location,
and are fighting against the Legion Guards.

All seems to be going smoothly. The 86 are proceeding as planned, though fighting is fierce.

-

-

1. The Trap is Sprung on Báleygr, and the Weakness of Shin.

Everything is going as planned, and Shin and company are approaching the Morpho based on the voices of the Legion, when we get this moment in the Novel (I am skipping the description of the Morpho. You can look up the picture on the 86 wiki):

"Suddenly, the voices of the Legion around them receded like a retreating wave. Before Shin could even question why, the answer became evident. The Morpho looking down at them, on the other side of the locked gazes. Its voice was...

The voices of the Shepards who served as the Legion's commanders range especially clearly, standing out even among a large group. That was how Shin perceived them. And the cries and curse of the Morpho, which drowned out the countless moans of the Legion... ITs countless screams of resentment...

...all disappeared

And at the same time, the same screams swelled up somewhere in the distance. Roars of hatred and murderous intent toward all humankind, toward the world itself. the blind, enraged voice of his blood relative. The knight he'd never met in his lifetime."

"Get down, Shinei!"
Frederica's voice joined the Para-RAID.
"That thing you are looking at right now isn't Kiri anymore!"

-

You see, during the battle against Shourei, the Legion noticed a weakness in Shin's vision:
Until Shourei had transferred to his spare unit, Shin could not detect Legion units that were in a state of stasis.

It only makes sense that the Legion would prepare a counter for the single thorn in their side that had beaten the odds for 5 years.
Báleygr, the codename given to Shin by the Legion, has links to the Norse God Odin. Odin was known for having an "All Seeing Eye", just like Shin. But Odin could be fooled, the same as Shin was.

-

-

2. Kiri's thoughts drift to Frederica.

After Kiri fires upon the 86, we get a brief moment inside his head (you get to see a brief moment between him and Frederica in the Opening Theme):

Kiri

The now-distant voice of his young mistress surfaced in his mind. He could no longer recall the face of his one and only empress. She would cry when her handkerchief would get caught in the courtyard's trees, badger him about wanting to see the bird nests resting on their branches, and sneak past the watchful eyes of her attendants to climb the tree, only for her dress to get snagged by the twigs, leaving her stuck up there. Every time, climbing to get her down was his duty.

but he would never do so again.
Not with this mechanical body.
Not in this world without her.
As he turned around to leave, he stopped and turned his back to his former homeland.
He had to hurry and raze this accursed world once and for all.

-

We are not given much in the way Kiri's time with Frederica, but it is clear from this passage that while she was very much an troublesome child, Kiri enjoyed his time with her. Like allowing a kid to splash in a mud puddle despite knowing you will have to clean up the mess, the innocent actions of children are just so adorable sometimes you gotta throw up your hands and say "*uck it, I'll get the insulin shots".

-

-

3. The Flame-Drake is unleashed.

Of course, the Federacy are monitoring the situation with Nordlicht Squadron... when they detect the Morpho has fired a round...

Panic spreads through the Federacy, as the assume that the Squadron has been wiped out.

And what do they decide? deploy the cruise missiles.

Ernst? He ain't having it. He shoots down the idea (pun intended), saying that unlike the first cruise missiles they deployed, they don't have the Morpho's exact position, as the attack has destroyed all of the observation units deployed by the United Kingdom of Roa Gracia.

Here is the exchange (page 104):

Staff: We can still destroy the rails to prevent its movements.
Ernst: It will still be capable of shooting down most of the bases on the western front.
And rails are much easier to repair than a railgun.

Staff: But now that the Nordlicht squadron failed, we don't have any other plans! The entire western front exposed right now; we have to break this deadlock somehow!
Ernst: What would enduring a bit longer this time give us? What will we do, send another unit at it? This time without any chance of opening a way back for them?

Looking around the information center, Ernst smiled.

Ernst: Did you think I would allow you to do something as shameful as abandoning soldiers we've sent out to enemy territory and trash our plan just for fear of your own lives? That I, the Federacy's stand-in president and supreme commander of its military, would allow that? That doesn't coincide with the Federacy's ideals. And if we can't protect and abide by that,

we may as well be destroyed here and now

-

If you remember in episode 18, there was a moment when Ernst is walking to the command room, and the background changes to a LEGION BLUE, as Ernst says OR ELSE I WILL DESTROY THIS WORLD.

Ernst held an ideal from his dead wife and unborn child. His wife believed in the following (page 76):

"A country that wouldn't save wounded children... A country where children aren't allowed to be happy... A world that doesn't hesitate to send children to their deaths just to meet its own ends... is as distant as can be from the vision of humankind SHE believed in."

You see, Ernst's ideals toward the world are not his own, but as he said, he will destroy the Federacy rather than let the ideals of his wife be sullied. Oh you want buy yourself a few days by abandoning my adopted sons and daughters?

Oh would you look at that! There's a communication for you from Ernst!
"*uck you, signed, your dear leader"

-

Continuing on page 104:

The firedrake smiled, seated on the commander's seat. This irrational monster, capable of trampling human life in the name of those slogans, of ideals that should be nothing but lip service, laughed as it made a show of the madness inhabiting it.

^Oh wow, that sounds like the opposite of what the Republic of San Magnolia would do!

Ernst: That's your responsibility, since you're the ones who chose me as your president time and again. If you say we have no other way but to go against humane values... you will have to die, embracing my ideals.

-

-

4. The 86 counterattack begins, and the Morpho retreats.

So of course, if our little 86 soldiers died to that attack, that would have been awkward to explain Novel 4...

They start fighting back against the Morpho, but of course its armor is too thick to penetrate from far away, but if they get closer, they will have no cover from another possible shot.

We then get this moment from Kiri when he spots a very particular juggernaut (page 107):

When he saw its personal mark, Kiriya felt his nonexistent breath catch in the throat he didn't have. A headless skeleton carrying a shovel. A headless skeletal knight was the crest of the Nouzen line's founder. And the family head had once sent the picture book themed after his story... to his grandchildren, born in the Republic.

^this is a reference to Shin's mother and father, who emigrated to the Republic because the old Nouzen Hierarchy had forbidden the "mixing" of bloodlines, with the father being an Oynx, and his mother being a Pyrope (Shin gets his telepathic powers from his mother).

-

A dark elation the likes of which he never knew surged up from within Kiriya.
He was alive... No...
He had somehow survived in that state.

Unfortunately, No Face, Supreme Commander of the Legion, sends a command to Kiri, AKA Pale Rider to retreat.

The reason? If he engaged Shin in his current state, he would destroy him. Of course the Legion desire a Black Shepard on the level of Shin, and you can't collect a brain from someone When you hit them with a railgun. <--- citation needed on this. Have never been hit by a railgun in the face.

Kiri complies with this order, but he is very much not on board with this order, and retreats.
But as he is leaving, we get the following inner thoughts from Kiri:

Even though you're the same. The same as me. Even though you have nowhere to go but to the field of battle.
... I'll show you.
Come after me.
I'll burn it all to the ground. The comrades who follow you, the land you mean to return to, everything that makes you human.

Let your solitude consume you.
Come after me.

-

It is at the point that Shin realizes the Morpho means to retreat, and orders the Nordlicht Squadron to pursue... but the Legion Wails that had fallen silent from the ambush are now back... and they are slowly being surrounded.

So Bernholdt makes a choice. He will stay behind with the Vargas units, as the 86 children pursue the Morpho.

-

-

5. The Black Widow survives.

The 86 report to the communication staff in the Command Room that they will pursue the Morpho, even though the Staff tell them they have to option to retreat. The logic being that if they march too far into Legion Territory, the chances of linking up with the advancing armies decreases with the additional distance.

Cut to the advancing army, and it turns out we have found Grethe!
If you remember the Western Front Commander named Richard, he was really worried about her.
We then get a little bit of backstory on Grethe's codename Black Widow!

no she did not eat her lover, you degenerates.

page 117:

"I see your skills haven't diminished one bit, Spider Woman... The Legion-Slaying Black Widow, was it?"
"Cut that out, Killer Mantis. You know how I got that nickname, after all."
"Of course I do. I was the one who made it up, by the way. Brides who have to put on mourning dresses before they even have the chance to wear their wedding dresses are rare.

^This is a reference to episode 18, where Grethe pulls out a Wedding Ring during her talk with Richard (where she gets permission to use the Landkraft).

"I did it out of respect for the idiot who died, leaving behind the woman who turned me down a month before she became his bride. Especially when the major general and I were getting ready to pick on both of you by covering the church with roses, you know?"

Out of anger for said idiot, they instead stuffed his coffin --- which didn't even contain his remains, for there was nothing left to collect full of the damn petals.

"...I feel nothing for that monster. But I hate the idea of seeing you cry again because of him. So in that regard, I don't particularly want him to die in battle" <--this is a reference to Shin.

-

From what I could gather, it appears that Grethe had a fiancée with a similar mentality to Shin. She remarks in episode 18 of "making a gamble and winning" in regards to this individual, though this individual would later die by the Legion's hands. This gamble can be assumed to be Grethe being able to turn this Fiancée away from being a "War-Stained Blade" similar to Shin, though this is merely speculation on my part.

-

-

6. Fido's secret exposed.

So once Shin and company get a little distance from Bernholdt, and under the cover of some buildings... they address the metaphorical "elephant in the room", or in this case... perhaps a literal elephant when you look at Fido.

So how did Frederica manage to warn Shin about the Kiri ambush when she was all the way back in the base?

...let's look at page 119:

"All their gazes gathered on Fido... Or rather, on the container it was towing. Before they'd deployed, they'd been so caught up with the briefing and checking their rigs that they hadn't had the chance to check it. And sure enough, they hadn't seen her that morning. Feeling everyone's glare on it, Fido beeped a feeble "Pi" and stirred with guilt. The container lacked windows, and yet someone inside felt their gazes and reacted in a panic.

"M-meow... Meow..."
"""ARE YOU A MORON!?"""
(Anju had said "Are you and idiot?")

"Fido"
"...Pi"

Swiveling its optical sensor aside in a needless display of shame, Fido kicked its front legs against the ground.

"Open the container. That's an order."
"...Pi"
"You mustn't, Fido, do not open... Ah"

-

Of course, No one is happy Frederica is here, but Frederica uses her status as a hostage and says "You have a mission to return alive".

When Shin asks Raiden if he could return Frederica:

"Don't ask me for the *uckin' moon, man. The only one who could possibly pull that off is you".
-

As Frederica is getting into Raiden's Juggernaut, Shin gives her something.
his pistol

Shin: "You know how to use it, right? If we get wiped out, or you can't link up with the main force, use it to end yourself. The Legion don't toy with their prey, but they don't finish off those who failed, either"

(we are then informed that Frederica had kept her "eyes" open and witnessed Shin's memories associated with the pistol that ended Eugene and all his 86 comrade's lives.)

Frederica: "I will gladly hang on to it, then... But my small hands cannot handle such a heavy device. I shall force it back into your hands once we return to base... so we must return together.

-

-

7. Dinner, a Show, and Shin.

So with any march to your death, you cannot do it on an empty stomach. So we gotta open up some MREs!

...but our pampered princess is having some issues with the current selection. Turns out Charred human flesh does not exactly stir the stomach to want to eat meat!.

Frederica says "I am surprised you can still eat meat", and regrets those words.
The 86? nah, not that bothered (page 124):

"Eh. We're used to it. Having to eat after carrying the wounded away wasn't unusual, after all. We don't really mind, and our stomachs growl all the same. At first, you don't even want to see meat, but you forget about that after a while."

What the 86 DO TAKE OFFENSE TO is the taste of their rations:

Bernholdt compared the old rations to starch.
The 86 compared the old rations to... plastic explosives.

-

So after our little dinner, we hop into the juggernauts for a little marching, and with that, Frederica is in Raiden's seat...

...and she doesn't like the auxiliary seat, so we have a tiny loli sitting in Raiden's lap.

Awkward as it is, Frederica is enjoying the scenery (page 127):
But as she said that, she kept getting distracted by the outside view of the optical screens, getting excited just as a child would. She may have tried to hide it, but her eyes were glittering with curiosity and excitement.
"Oh, those were deer! Raiden, there are deer over there!"
"Yep..."

Glancing to his side, he spotted two deer in the distance, their black eyes locked onto the unusual intruders in their midst. Realizing that his feelings about how tasty they looked probably wouldn't go over well, Raiden kept those thoughts to himself.

Run BAMBIE! RAIDEN IS ABOUT TO LET YOU MEET YOUR MOTHER!

-

Frederica then strikes up a conversation about Shin.
Turns out that Shin had not informed Raiden and the others that the Republic had fallen, but Frederica of course knew because of her "looking" for Shin during the Large Scale Legion Offensive.

"That moron knew and kept it bottled up, didn't he? Raiden thought bitterly. Shin could discern the movements of the Legion, even from far away, so there was no way he wouldn't know if the Republic was destroyed. And while Shin didn't care for the indulgent white pigs slacking off in the Republic...
We're off, Major

He did care about their final Handler to an unusual extent."

Frederica replies: "But he would not answer me. At that time, Shinei was... He was the same as Kiriya at the end of his days."
This was way worse than Raiden had anticipated.
"It was the first time he had lost sight of the fact that we were even there."

No, there was one other time that had happened. It was back in the Eighty-Sixth Sector, during their final battle in the first ward, when they faced off against the lost head Shin had been seeking for five years: the ghost of his brother. he'd said he would do it on his own, and he'd forgotten they were there...

So that's what this is
"Frederica, if...if you were told to go back and leave this moron behind, would you stay here anyway?"
Her crimson gaze didn't wave in the slightest as she nodded.

-

We then cut to another part of the battlefield. We get small update on the battle, but a VERY SPECIFIC COUNTRY has joined the fray (page 130):

"The Federacy Esper leading the pursuit after the Morpho reports that the dragon seems to have stopped at the southern territories, atop Eaglebloom. The Federacy military and the Alliance's army have begun advancing, gradually gaining control of the route. Our military's working with another detachment of the REPUBLIC'S forces to suppress the northern side of Eaglebloom.

Who could be leading this detachment? That's a mystery, now isn't it!

-

The United Kingdom plans to use an anti-radar weapon to blind the Legion Air Units, even briefly over the southern territories. If the world is gonna end if the Morpho isn't defeated, best not to leave anything to chance right?

We then get a very scathing judgement from the United Kingdom:

"They sent out child soldiers on a suicide mission aboard a prototype aircraft that can't fly on its own... They condemn the Republic's manned drone but don't seem to care for appearances, either.

"Your little songbirds are just as abominable as that... Things are only going to get tougher from here on out. think of a countermeasure for that, too."

^What could these songbirds possibly be that would make them as monstrous as the 86? You will have to start reading Novels 5 and 6 to find out!

-

-

And with that, I am done! Been getting a little rusty on these essays. Gonna have another 2 weeks off, and then we get to the REAL ENDGAME of the Novel! A battle with the Morpho seems inevitable, but Who will be around to survive such a monster of a Legion unit?.

See you on December 18th!

I have a feeling you'll have edited your essay by the time I post this, but you went a BIT beyond the episode. :P

The scene with Fido was cute. Not because of Frederica. No, Fido is cute all on his own. ♥

ofc they foreshadow the United Kingdom, It's always the United Kingdom!

All hail Britannia! Oh wait, wrong UK.
Ahem, God save the queen!
Ah, that's better.

There's no wrong UK
We know it has the queen
We know it has the gentleman culture
We know it has tea
And we all know they somehow comes on top

with shin and co. wandering beyond the territory on their own, this certain setting gives me heavy S1 vibes xD when they were on their own although they're still alone but not technically

Exactly! Those suicide missions are really common for these 86!

Things to look up to every update:
1. New Episode
2. Essay-kun's detailed explanations of what's happening and where we are at the novel so that if we want to read, well know where to start. ALL HAIL ESSAY-KUN!

I am here until Arifureta season 2 drops. So I got another 3 episodes in me at least.