Returning to one rather enjoyable manga series for far too many years ago, Area 88 is given a new lease on life with a twelve-episode TV series.
What They Say:
It seemed that the sky was the limit for ace pilot Shin Kazama. His career with a wealthy commercial airliner was on the horizon, and he was ready to settle down to a comfortable life with his true love. Little did he know that he would soon be tricked into joining a motley crew of mercenary fighter pilots in the deadly skies of Area 88. Now the only way to get home is to complete the three-year term or pay $1.5 million to break the contract.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Area 88 hasn’t had one of the best histories when it comes to its releases here. Viz attempted the manga series many, many years ago, and only made it through three volumes before dropping it, leaving the other twenty unreleased. CPM fared a bit better by having the show come out on VHS in full with the OVA series that was done in 1985 and even managed to get it out on laserdisc in full. Their attempts at a DVD release was less than spectacular however when only the first episode was released back in 1998 at the dawn of DVD. So when a new TV series was announced and came out in 2004, I certainly had strong hopes for it but the weight of history was seemingly against it.
With the first three episodes, it’s something that brings back a lot of the really good memories and feelings retained from those previous releases. The show is nicely updated in the visuals department but is kept firmly in its original time and style, which means we get things like Shin with a near 70’s hairstyle, the simpler clothes, and the more varied designs for the characters. On the insert that I had years ago, lead voice actor Takehito Koyasu talks about being a fan of this show when it was first a manga series and mentions how the focus has shifted slightly in this version to that of the photographer who sees the world of Area 88 through different eyes than the manga which saw things through Shin’s eyes. Each of these complements each other nicely and still keeps the story focused on what we’ve seen before. What’s most interesting is that the real plot behind things, which is introduced fairly early on in the other versions, barely surfaces in these three episodes.
We’re introduced to a photographer named Makoto who through various connections and some press credentials has come out to the Kingdom of Aslan which is undergoing a civil war. Ostensibly, he’s there to find the perfect shot that every battlefield photographer looks for in order to cement what they see and their vision of their works. When there though, the reality of what’s going on slowly starts to get to him and we do see some threads of another purpose but it’s kept mostly to a few minor lines and certain expressions. What attracts Makoto even more to this place called Area 88 that he arrives in is that one of the pilots there is a Japanese man named Shin Kazama.
In order to fight the civil war, the Kingdom of Aslan has decided that to do so requires the use of mercenaries. These pilots are brought in from all sources and sign three-year contracts that they will fight for the Kingdom on missions that they are assigned to. The mercenaries are generally used for the more dangerous missions and to handle softening up the enemy before the Kingdom’s own forces swoop in and deal with the rest later. The coordination of all of this is done by a man named Saki who commands the Area 88 airstrip and base out in the desert. The pilots there are a varied breed and each of them has their own motivations both for being there and in how they fight.
A pilot can get out of their contract early though but it requires paying a 1.5 million dollar fine. The pilots do earn money from their work here as each target it assigned a monetary value and some missions are worth more than others, such as enemy aircraft being worth more than ground targets. The downside is that the pilots have to pay for practically everything along the way, from their planes, fuel, weapons, food, cigarettes, and so forth. It’s easy to make money if you’ve got some skill but the maintenance and upkeep of the aircraft requires that you put a lot of it back into flying. This is what leads to some of the pilots doing more daring and reckless endeavors in order to get more money in order to get free if they’ve been swindled into the contract.
The series focuses heavily on Shin as it is his series, even though the angle has changed a bit, and we get to see battles from various people’s perspectives but it’s all the more focused when Shin takes to the air. The cast of mercenaries is nicely wide enough and changing fairly frequently due to various deaths and their designs reflect their different origins as well as can be expected. Just as varied is the aircraft used by the pilots and a lot of energy went into making them as right as possible, which only makes the numerous air battles all the more engaging to watch. This series really is just an expanded and better-animated version of the OVA series with some tweaks done to the plot, so the first batch of episodes had plenty of expected material in terms of the battles and events. But even with the familiarity, it was intriguing to see the changes, such as the “desert fangs” being updated in their design from the original works. Based on what’s come so far, I can’t wait to see the rest of it to see what they can flesh out more since there’s more time to cover new material.
In Summary:
Area 88 survives on nostalgia in some ways for me since it’s something from when I was learning the ropes for both manga and anime and they made a huge impression on me. This updated version retains much of what made the original so much fun and does a good job of using more modern storytelling methods and animation to smooth out things. Much of the designs for the characters is retained as well and this helps it to really stand out against many of the bland designs of male characters today. For the most part, this is s very male-centric show and the first batch of episodes has barely an image of women in general but there are some key interactions still to come.
Grade: B+
