Of course, this recommendation did not come out of nowhere. The idea actually came from anime voice actor Suzy Yung, who pointed fans on X/Twitter towards an audiobook narrated by her and fellow voice actor Alejandro Saab. Not as a consolation prize, but as an option for fans who wanted to experience the story. Taking him up on it, I Bought the first volume and listened to it from time to time throughout my week-long walks in the park after work. grocery shopping. Basically, whenever I had free time, I listened to the book. After finishing the first volume (and immediately downloading the second), I was faced with an experience that arguably felt more fitting than rewatching the show’s first season.
86 eighty sixAsato, written by Asato and illustrated by Shirabi, unfolds in a dystopian world where a naively optimistic young woman, Vladilena Milizh (Yeng), dispatches a squadron of mechs from the safety of her empire’s fortified walls. To the privileged public, consisting of 85 diverse nations, this war is a proxy war in which mechs fight other evil mechs, playing like battleship It’s no big deal via Zoom. In fact, it could end any day now without any fanfare. But in reality, those drones are piloted by a separate group of child soldiers known as the Eighty-Six, who are forced into an internment camp and treated as inhumane loopholes for their war crimes. Their leader, the fanatic Shinya Nouzen, aka Undertaker (Saab), commands them through countless battles as the rest of the world either ignores or refuses to acknowledge their obvious war crimes, expecting they will all eventually die.
What happens next is a serendipitous, deeply intimate story where Miliez, Nauzen and the rest of the eighty-six people form a bond through a neural chip voice-call (with one Pacific Rim(Like the ability to dive into each other’s memories, should their bond prove so strong) that the audiobook drops you right into the middle, capturing the awkwardness and closeness of their growing relationship in a way that, for all of A-1 Pictures’ strengths, the anime could never match.
One of the biggest obstacles to getting into audiobooks is the Goldilocks problem of finding the right narrator. Sometimes the vibe isn’t vibing. But 86 eighty six Clears that bar with free space. In chapters alternating between Nauzen and Millie’s point of view, Yung and Saab go so far as to make you feel as if you’re listening to their calls as a member of the crew goes about their day. Likewise, both actors display their incredible vocal range, seamlessly mirroring each other’s cadences and the rest of the cast, creating a rakugo-esque experience inside my headphones. Saab’s performance as Nauzen in particular was incredibly heartwarmingServing as another worthy successor to the late Billy Kametz’s portrayal of the hero, Handled with utmost care.
As someone who’s hot and cold on audiobooks, I was especially amazed at how hard both actors were working in the booth, delivering blood-curdling, full-on screams (when it called for it at the time). When I was scanning groceries in the self-checkout aisle or watching the ducks in the park, listening to those performances made me feel like I was one of the oblivious civilians in Asato’s light novel, going about my day while soldiers died.
Experience 86 eighty six It also had the benefit of intense world-building and rich access to the lives of its characters through the eight-and-a-half-hour audiobook. And beyond Yung and Saab’s performances, I was really tickled by how Asato’s occasionally Tumblr-reminiscent purple prose comes off when spoken out loud. Every chapter guarantees a colorful simile – a dry look “like a witch who lived a hundred years and is tired of the world,” silence “like an icy pond still,” or, my personal favorite, Knuzan’s dry monotone answer after being compared with an entire arsenal of sword metaphors. Out of context, this may seem odd, but it soon becomes an endearing part of the novel’s charm.
As far as anime options go, Yen Press’s audiobook is a more than adequate option. Indeed, the audiobook’s narration, prose, and the emotional immediacy of its vocal performances filled out the tapestry of Asato’s world in a way that the show only sketched. I’m already deeply immersed in the second volume and have every intention of finishing the series via its audiobook before going back to the show. Hopefully, as long as I get a hold of the series, 86 eighty six A new streamer home will be found.
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