The 86 Episode 22 release date has been delayed to March 12, 2022. In addition, the 86 Episode 23 release date is scheduled for March 19, 2022.
The official website offered an apology for the large delay for the final two episodes of the 86 Season 2 anime TV series.
“It will take some time to broadcast in order to maintain the quality,” stated the official Twitter account on December 23, 2021. “We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused to everyone who enjoys it. Please check the official website for details.”
The 86 Season 2 Episode 11 release date and the 86 Season 2 Episode 12 release date were reportedly delayed by a combination of animation studio production problems and schedule conflicts with other TV shows in Winter 2022. (See below for more details.)
Crunchyroll starts streaming new episodes of the 86 Eighty-Six anime at midnight JST, but here’s the streaming schedule for most international anime fans:
- Pacific Time: 8:30 AM
- Central Time: 10:30 AM
- Eastern Time: 11:30 PM
- British Time: 5:30 PM
- Indian Time: 10:00 PM
The 86 Episode 21 release date is still confirmed for December 25, 2021 (or, after midnight JST on December 26th in Japan).
Here’s the 86 Episode 21 story summary
“Each country is bringing together all the technology it has to defeat Morpho. The boys and girls of the Eighty-Six are at the forefront of this effort. However, the path to Morpho is repeatedly blocked by attacks from the Legion. In order to advance as many people as possible, …… takes on the role of decoy, and their friends are dwindling one by one. Shin finally confronts Morpho at the end of the path they have risked their lives to carve out, but…”
86 Season 2 Episode 10 is titled “All That’s Left”.
- Updated December 23, 2021: Release dates confirmed for final two episodes.
This article provides everything that is known about 86 Episode 22 (86 Season 2 Episode 11) and 86 Episode 23 (86 Season 2 Episode 12) and all related news. As such, this article will be updated over time with news, rumors, and analysis. Meanwhile, let’s delve down into what is known for certain.
Why the 86 Episode 23 release date is delayed
The 86 Season 2 anime TV series has suffered from multiple delays in Fall 2021.
The problems begin to mount when 86 Episode 18 was delayed due to unspecified “production difficulties”. Then 86 Episode 20 was pushed back by special Japanese TV programming.
On December 18, 2021, anime news leaker Sugoi LITE claimed, “TV Anime 86 -Eighty Six- – Last two episodes (#22, #23) will be delayed due to the production problems and schedule conflict.”
Keep in mind this information was not substantiated by any official source until several days later. However, based on the way the Japanese TV broadcasters schedule anime it made perfect logical sense at the time.
The next week in the 86 anime TV schedule just happened to line up with the night of January 1, 2021, which typically has special programming due to New Year’s Day.
So, the earliest the 86 Episode 22 release date could have been was January 8, 2021. The problem is that other anime TV shows are already scheduled for that time slot by the Japanese broadcasters, so that’s a no-fly zone, as well.
The end result is a situation resembling the infamous Wonder Egg Priority Episode 13. That anime TV show also suffered from multiple delays and the finale was released three months – an entire season! – later.
The problem with the 86 anime is compounded by having two episodes left to air, not just one. Thus, it was very predictable that both the 86 Episode 22 and 86 Episode 23 release dates would be pushed back into late Winter 2022.
Is Aniplex to blame for the 86 anime delays, not Studio A-1 Pictures?
The anime industry has been growing rapidly in recent years, but it’s been at the cost of the studio contractors increasingly being overworked to the point that they can’t keep up with the grueling schedules. Added the COVID pandemic to the mix and the results have been catastrophic.
Anime production delays have become almost normal. Typically, any production issues are caught early and the anime production committee handles the situation by pushing back the entire season. For example, Mushoku Tensei Part 2 was delayed from Summer 2021 to Fall 2021.
In fact, the first season of the 86 anime TV series was originally intended to be released in 2020 but was delayed to Spring 2021 due to the COVID pandemic.
Then you have oddball cases like Wonder Egg Priority and World’s End Harem. The production of WEP was so bad that people were sent to the hospital multiple times. The World’s End Harem anime actually released its first episode in Fall 2021 only for the remainder of the World’s End Harem to be delayed until Winter 2022, but at least no one has been hospitalized… yet.
So, who is responsible for the current fiasco with the 86 anime? Notably, production company Aniplex also handled Wonder Egg Priority. And, so far, most of the fingers have been pointing at the producer, not animation Studio A-1 Pictures.
“Let me remind you [that the] “86” TV Anime was supposed to air at the end of last year and [despite] a three-month break [they were] unable to improve production. Aniplex is to blame for what’s happening,” Sugoi LITE claimed on November 20, 2021. “Blaming Covid here is to beat a dead horse and that’s not how anime planning works. Do you know how many projects Aniplex producing in 2020 and 2021 despite Covid? And how much time they gave the studio for both pre- and production stages?”
In order to understand the overall picture, I recommend checking out this excellent article on Sakuga Blog about anime production schedules. As they put it, “Smart management within studios themselves so that they don’t essentially self-sabotage … and committees being more flexible about release windows can be a whole lot more meaningful than the exact timespan of a production.”
And they’re quick to highlight Aniplex as being the “villain” for not being honest when production issues do arise.
“If that was all, though, this [Wonder Egg Priority] would simply be an unfortunate accident. But since this is the anime industry we’re talking about, there are outright villains, and no one has embodied that better than Aniplex. To put it simply, companies will shamelessly lie to you about the state of their productions. Now, it’s not as if they think that there’s a massive market in animation geeks and viewers concerned about the wellbeing of the workers, but rather that they don’t want their titles to be tainted by a poor reputation of messy behind the scenes situations. And so, rather than making sure that such things don’t happen, they will simply hide those problems behind a curtain of PR lies. … The companies responsible for situations like this refuse to own up to their mistakes, to the point of denying they happened in the first place. As viewers, it’s important to keep ourselves properly informed, listening to different people across the industry to get a more accurate read on the situation.”
Hopefully, the anime production committee gives Studio A-1 Pictures a much better production schedule in the future to ensure that the 86 Season 3 anime doesn’t suffer from similar issues. Stay tuned!