Funny / 86 EIGHTY-SIX

Not exactly the epic Giad Federacy Welcome they expected.

Despite how bleak the setting is, 86 EIGHTY-SIX has managed to shoe in many funny moments. Still, per wiki policy, spoilers for the the Light Novel and its many adaptations are unmarked by default. You have been warned.

---

Volume 1

• During the novel an officer delivering supplies to Spearhead's base insults Lena by implying that she was only helping them because Shin had seduced her. Shin responds to this insult by offering to do the same thing to the officer's wife, who was probably "bored stiff at night anyway". Sadly the anime skips this bit of dialogue. However, it does include a scene where Lena gets flustered after speaking with Shin, which implies that he did unknowingly "seduce" Lena over the Para-RAID.
• "Fuckin Glory to the Spearhead Squadron"
  • Spearhead's unofficial motto speaks for itself.
• During the anime-original scene in Episode 5 when Lena witnesses the couple in HQ kissing on the staircase, she gets extremely flustered when Shin asks "Major?" According to a radio talk between Shoya Chiba and Ikumi Hasegawa, the voice director kept making Chiba redo that line over and over again to ensure that Shin had the perfect sexy effect on Lena!

Volume 2

• Kiri's habit of blowing up his own forces results in one Legion drone submitting a request for him to be "recalibrated" after a particularly destructive friendly fire incident. It's rather telling that even the mindless drones of the Legion recognize how batshit insane that Shepherd is.
• Frederica's attempt to appear imposing during her first meeting with the Spearhead survivors is undercut by the fact that she's standing on a stepstool in order to hide her short stature. Her grandstanding seems to have had little impact on them, especially Shin, who proceeded to ignore most of her monologue.
  • Even better in the anime (as seen in the sidepic above), where she's almost late in placing her stepstool in the house' entrance. Or rather, a full-sized table. And two small spotlights. Ernst can only observe the scene Facepalming the whole time.
• Frederica's attempt to ingratiate herself to the Spearhead survivors as a "little sister" results in her getting her head violently ruffled by "older brother" Shin, followed by a hilarious Cry into Chest by Frederica into Theresa's chest, wailing that she's getting bullied.

Volume 3

• Frederica stows away on the mission to defeat the Morpho, and her attempts to go undetected are as pitiful as they are hilarious. The adaptation of this scene in Episode 19 of the Anime has her hiding in one of Fido's storage cars:
  (Frederica making cat noises to throw off the group from her presence...)
  Kurena: A cat?
  Raiden and Theo: Are you stupid?
  Anju: She's in heat.
  Shin: Open it, Fido. Quickly.
  (Fido hesitates, prompting Shin to kick it hard in one of its legs...)
  Shin: That's an order! Open it.
  Frederica: No, Fido! Don't open the door!
  (Fido opens the storage door, revealing Frederica inside who was sporting an appropriate expression...)
• This ditter from Ernst and Shin after the Morpho mission, regarding...
  Ernst: Oh, and Frederica? You're in for one hell of a punishment when you get home.
  (Cue Frederica's Oh, Crap! face as she faces Shin, hoping to get saved...)
  Shin: I'll throw her in a container and send her back.
  (Cue Frederica in even greater shock at what Shin is willing to do to her...)
  Ernst: Hahaha~! Thanks, big brother; you're a good guy.
  Frederica: AAARGH~! Shinei?! Are you seriously betraying me?!
• Frederica uses her powers to look into Shin's past and see exactly what Lena means to him. She takes a moment to tease him about it.
  Frederica: After all that, you didn't want to give her your name? During your entire time in the Republic, she was your Commander, wasn't she?
  Shin: I never told you anything about the Major, though.
  Frederica: Did you already forget what my power is?
  Shin: ...You eavesdropped?
  Frederica: (giggles) When she gave you her name, the shock and surprise in your voice... I had to say it was fun, even sort of sweet.
  (Shin lets out a sigh in annoyance...)
  Frederica: There must be a deep connection between you. (Cue her eyes sparkle) Could it be love?!
• Days after the Joint Operation, Shin enters the briefing room to submit his report. Cue Grethe replaying Lena's emotional conversation with him on her tablet, while approaching to take his report and leave. She even lets out a smirk, just as the door closes.
  • While the abovementioned conversation was playing, the rest of Spearhead were struggling to contain their amusement. Raiden was uncharacteristically Corpsing all throughout, while Theo and Anju had their sheepish grins. As for Kurena, she later bawled into her own Tears of Joy over what happened.
  • When Shin was asked by his team about his encounter with Lena: "Sorry; I only heard her voice..."
  • Anju offered her own observation over the situation:
    Anju: Interesting. I don't remember any of us telling her not to forget.^*Probably in reference to the fireworks scene in the first cour, where Shin personally asked Lena to not forget them even if they died.
  • Just the fact that Shin's conversation with Lena ended up becoming the Giad Federacy's very first communication with the remnants of the San Magnolia Republic, ever since the war with the Legion began ten years ago.
• As much as the Anime-original Episode 23 epilogue was a full-on heartwarming moment, it has thrown in a few funny bits:
  • Fido's "interviews" with the members of Spearhead Squadron prior to their meeting with Lena, was rather somber, much like what he did in Episode 10; Raiden, Anju, and Shin gave their nostalgic responses. And then there were the rest:
    • Theo reveals to Fido the sketches of Lena he made prior to this moment: The first is a redesign of his humanoid pig drawing of her during her first sync with the squadron; the second shows a chibi Lena and Shin charging towards the battle, with her riding a pig this time around; and the third is essentially a ShinxLena fanart, complete with Shin having Blush Stickers and a slight Nosebleed. His shit-eating grin AND Fido's immediate reaction are what sells it. Cue Kurena chasing Theo down and throwing the sketchbook at his head, which hit him so hard that he was knocked unconscious.
    • A Freeze-Frame Bonus bit on Theo's sketches: each of them has marks on the background; the first had 8, the second had 15, and the last one had the most number of marks at 40. Makes one wonder if Theo went around their base looking for more ShinxLena shippers among the Federacy personnel...
    • Kurena's interview immediately after the chase above has her fixing her hair up, still in complete denial of the possibility that Shin and Lena are an item. A part of her hair springs back up as she declared "victory" over Lena, just before Fido cuts to the next interview. Meanwhile, Raiden was briefly seen tending to a still-unconscious Theo.
    • Ernst kneeling on the grass, finger-framing what he described as the "perfect boy-meets-girl fairy tale".
    • Willem communicating to Fido with "pi"s. The fact that Fido seems to be responding means that either Willem can actually understand and speak Fido's language or Fido is just playing along, similar to how humans try to imitate their pets' sounds. Neither Grethe nor Richard next to him are amused.
    • Frederica tries to be part of the reunion only to be immediately picked up by Fido's claw arm from behind.
  • Then, in an amusing inversion of their appearances minutes before Spearhead reunited with Lena, the fact that Raiden, Anju and Kurena were struggling to contain their amusement over Shin and Lena's first true meeting.
  • Just before it got even more emotional between Shin and Lena, TP pops out of the bag and runs towards the group. Cue Fido intercepting the cat, also nearly hitting Lena were it not for Shin getting her out of Fido's path.
  • While the group photo of Lena and Spearhead Squadron was a touching cap-off to the Anime (for the time being), the fact that Federica took the picture while still dangling from Fido's claw arm is rather amusing in itself. And the fact that her face in the final picture is hilariously off-focus on the top right corner.
  • The fact that several of Giad's high-ranking military officers, and even the president himself, took the time and effort to set this meeting up by not telling Lena that her former squadron is still alive is worth a chuckle. And all of the first half of the above-mentioned were happening... while Lena is visiting the 86 memorial off-screen.
    • Considering that they may have heard of the conversation between Lena and Shin from the previous episode (see above), their presence there may also count as a humorous case of Fridge Brilliance.

Volume 4

• Shin and Lena have only just met, yet there are already characters like Theo teasing them about their closeness.
• Shin expresses a mischievous side to him by messing with Lena the first chance he gets, teasing her about her dislike of insects.
• Lena prepares to have Shin guide her around her new base of operations, and even she can't help but feel like a schoolgirl about to go on her first date. She understandably becomes flustered about this, much to Shin's confusion.
  • Shin himself is not exempt from this particular feeling. Lena attempts to talk to him over the Para-RAID about a fairly serious matter, but the fact that she does so while in the shower causes him to cut the connection immediately (despite having had no issue doing the exact same thing in Volume 1). He says it's because Lena herself is not comfortable with it, but it's clear afterwards that he's not completely unaffected by the whole scenario.
  • He gets this again a little later after he and Lena conclude their tour. She decides to pay him back for all the teasing he's done to her up to that point, and Shin finds himself at a loss for how to respond to her sudden coyness.

Volume 5

• This volume introduces the Cicada, and all of the implications that come with it.
  • Shiden takes an instant disliking to it just from hearing what it does (or more accurately, how it looks).
  • In the same scene, Lerche finally catches on to the fact that Shin harbors feelings for Lena, prompting Shiden and Vika to scold her for both her lack of tact and the fact that she took so long to figure it out.
  • Lena is forced by circumstances to wear the Cicada in public (more specifically, a room consisting almost entirely of men). Rather than the expected, the personnel do everything in their power not to look at her. Marcel all but states that they do this out of fear of retribution from Shin.
• Dustin worries for Anju's well-being, prompting her to jokingly ask if he has a crush on her. She is very taken aback when he freely admits to it.
  • Shin, it turns out, was listening in on their conversation the whole time, and makes a show of threatening harm to Dustin should he ever break Anju's heart.

Volume 6

• Shin and Lena go for a stroll through the palace gardens, and have a deep heart-to-heart...until Lena slips on a chunk of ice, spurring Shin to try and catch her, only he fails to do so properly and the two end up in a rather intimate position because of it.
• At the end of the volume, Lena scolds Shin for being reckless and risking his life again, only for him to use her own words against her and say that she did nearly the same thing earlier in trying to draw the Phönix away. Lena has no effective response to this, and Shin is highly amused.
  Shin: Didn't you tell me you were waiting?
  Lena: ....
  Shin: And you risked your life carelessly even after saying that?
  Lena: ...Jerk.

Volume 7

• The entire main cast put their heads together and brainstorm ways to push Shin and Lena into admitting their feelings for one another (some more eagerly than others). They aren't entirely the Leave the Two Lovebirds Alone type, though, as they still gather to watch and listen in on Lena's near-confession. Raiden is actually disappointed in Shin for letting Lena beat him to it, not that it mattered in the end.
  • Poor Dustin ends up being the Moment Killer to the above scene, drawing the ire of everyone watching; Raiden himself barely manages to keep from strangling him. It isn't some one-off scene, either: Anju lightly chides Dustin over his mishap later, and apparently even Michihi and Shana had chewed him out after leaving the cave. And naturally, Shin himself was decidedly less-than-pleased with Dustin for some time.
• Lena mistakes Olivier for a woman, and spends much of the volume fearing that he is trying to make moves on Shin. She apologizes for the misunderstanding after discovering the truth, and fortunately Olivier is more amused than anything.
• Moved by his confession to her, Lena gets caught up in the moment and finally kisses Shin...only to come to her senses and run for the hills immediately afterward. To say Shin is left feeling confused would be an understatement.

Volume 8

• By the time the volume begins (about a month later), everyone has heard about Lena's (over)reaction to Shin's Love Confession, and many are quite exasperated with the whole affair. Shiden goes so far as to tell Lena that just going to Shin's room that night would have made things much simpler.
• Shin decides to focus on the upcoming mission and not mope about what happened with Lena anymore, unaware that he is already doing exactly that. Olivier picks up on it, though.
  Olivier: I still need to handle training for the 2nd Armored Division, so I won't be able to join you on your next dispatch. But for the love of God, do something about this by the time you get back.
  Shin: If I may, Captain? Shut up.

Side Stories

Meta