When we think of light novel series 86 we think of a wartorn world where the cast fights desperately against the Legion which threatens to wipe out humanity for good. However, what if the Republic of San Magnolia had never been threatened by the Legion? How would Shin, Lena and the others have spent their days then? Well, the spin-off manga Operation High School is here to answer that question for us.
Set in an alternate universe to the one we’re familiar with, here Shin and the rest of the cast spend their days peacefully attending high school. The biggest threat to their everyday existence is Lena, who is the student council president and a stickler for making sure the students follow the rules (including the dress code!).
While more unruly students like Raiden and Theo often find themselves in trouble with Lena, it’s the slightly airheaded Shin who begins to soften her feelings toward the group. Lena can’t help but dote on Shin, even if he happens to be making trouble and the closer they get to one another, the more she realises she wishes to remain by his side. She even finds the courage to attend the local summer festival with him…
Of course, 86 is a series with a large cast and thankfully Shin and Lena aren’t the only ones given focus here. Fan favourites like Frederica, Viktor and Lerche also have storylines of their own as do the others whom we’re used to seeing fight alongside Shin and Lena. Because of the fact the war never happened in this universe, we also get to spend time with Kiriya and Shourei, two characters who met an untimely end in the original series and are important to Shin and Frederica. As someone who has always wondered what those relationships would look like in a peaceful world, I’m really glad that mangaka Suzume Somemiya chose to include them.
Somemiya has worked on several light novel spin-offs throughout their career so far, including two for KonoSuba and another for 86 (all currently unlicensed). Perhaps because of that, they’ve managed to narrow down what makes these fun to read for existing fans of the franchises. I wouldn’t say anything particularly original happens in Operation High School, it’s largely ‘by the books’ school life events like culture festivals, club activities and study sessions. But what makes it fun is seeing our favourite characters experience something entirely new in a way that doesn’t distort their personalities. How the characters are presented here is exactly how you’d imagine they’d be and the fun in seeing that often makes up for a lack of substance in the story.
It’s not just how the cast is written that works so well, the artwork also faithfully captures Shirabii’s original character designs and brings them to life convincingly here in the manga. While backgrounds are usually quite bland, Somemiya instead puts emphasis on the expressions of the cast and their interactions which works well, given how cute the art is.
If you’re reading the original light novels and looking to pick this up, I’d recommend holding off until you’ve read Volume 5 simply due to the inclusion of characters like Viktor and Lerche who came into the series then. It’s not a big deal if you aren’t familiar with them as they play smaller roles in the stories here overall, but I think the further into the main series you are, the more you’ll appreciate the chemistry between the cast here. That does make it more difficult for anime-only viewers though, given the anime has only adapted the first two volumes.
86: Eighty-Six – Operation High School comes to the West thanks to Yen Press and has been translated by Roman Lempert (who also handles the original series) with lettering by Brandon Bovia. The release reads well with no problems. This was originally released in Japan as two separate volumes, but Yen has opted for an omnibus instead which comes complete with colour pages from both volumes and some translation notes at the end. Notably, there is also a character list at the beginning of the book to help familiarise readers with the cast at a glance.
Overall, 86: Eighty-Six – Operation High School is an entertaining spin-off manga that does a good job of offering something for everyone no matter who your favourite character is. While it does feel like it’s trying to hit all of the usual school tropes at times, there’s still enough charm here to keep you engaged through to the end, particularly given its in a single complete edition.
Our review copy from Yen Press was supplied by Diamond Book Distributors UK.
