After a string of delays, the popular sci-fi battle anime 86 announced its return schedule for March of next year. The mecha series, based on the award-winning light novel series of the same name by Asato Asato, features a dystopian army of soldiers treated like drones in a story that explores themes of oppression and marginalization. Yen Press publishes the light novels in English.
Produced by the Sony owned studio A-1 Pictures (Your Lie In April, Sword Art Online, Erased) and directed by Toshimasa Ishii (his first credit as a lead director), the show found immense popularity when it was released split-cour this spring after initial delays. 86 Part 2, initially released on Oct. 3, is currently rated the fifth-highest airing series on MyAnimeList and comes in as the site’s 95th most popular anime of all time currently.
The series saw further delays in November as the series 18th and 19th episodes were each delayed by a week due to “production issues.” It greatly affected the schedule and ended up scrapping entirely the all-so ominous recap episode already planned to alleviate the production schedule.
It all echoes another popular anime of the year plagued by production woes, Wonder Egg Priority, which quickly lost its favor as an anime of the year contender when a strained production obviously hampered its conclusion.
Crunchyroll is simulcasting and simuldubbing the series, due to air its final two episodes on Japanese television on March 12 and March 19. As one redditor pointed out, that means the show is coincidentally 86 days away.
