86 (S2) - 22: Shin

Title:	86 (S2)
Episode:	22: Shin
Comments
After being knocked unconscious by the self-destruction of Morpho, Shin has a sort of near death experience in which he recalls all the people who have heaped blame on him over the course of his life. If asked to explain his psychological problems, I would guess that he has a sort of survivor's guilt because, being as awesome a mecha pilot as he is, he has managed to come back alive time after time while his comrades have not. But that's my guess, not something which is made clear in this episode or 86 as a whole. Since his mental state is as ill-defined as it is, it was hard to feel sorry for him. He is, after all, the best mecha pilot the world has ever known. You could almost say that his skill as a pilot is his personality. Maybe he has never really developed enough of a personality for us to make sense of his issues (perhaps the light novels did a better job of this). I found myself thinking 'Please don't let this entire episode, which I have waited so long for, be taken up by this inscrutable stuff'. Fortunately he awakens before too long. He is almost done in by one last Legion mecha (was that Kiri's mind controlling it?), but gets an unlikely savior. How the F---- did Lena show up here? I can only surmise that she and the reformed Spearhead unit blasted their way out of doomed San Magnolia, and by a fantastic coincidence showed up at just the right place and the right time to save Shin. Even more aggravating was the inexplicable decision by Shin to hide his identity, and the fact that he and his four comrades are still alive, from Lena. He offers some sort explanation for his choice but it made no sense whatsoever. I guess the author just wanted to save their reuniting for later. Still, it was sort of cathartic to see all the characters reunite after pulling off this seemingly hopeless mission, even though I never had any doubt that they would. It seems that destroying Morpho has completely changed the tide of the war, and from now on Giad and its allies will be on the offensive, even attempting to liberate San Magnolia. It seems (based on commenters at ANN) that in fact Lena has been working with the Giad military for a good while and caught notice of this odd unit of foreigners and wanted to take a look at it. Apparently this would have been obvious if one had caught every hint that was dropped at one point or another, but that was out of the question for me. Shin's hiding his identity from Lena supposedly makes perfect sense as well, but I did not catch why. Either I am not swift wnough to keep track of everything important that is going on, or this show reveals it in a manner which is too cryptic for the average viewer.

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