Life continues at the base as people come and go amidst the myriad number of battles.
What They Say:
Only the Strong Survive In every life there comes a moment when skill is pushed to the limit when the only thing that stands in the path of death is the strength of the spirit and the sheer will to survive. Outnumbered and overpowered, Shin is forced to ditch his plane and parachute into the barren, unforgiving desert where he is haunted by memories of his past as he struggles to survive. Back on base, a new pilot is turning heads, and she – yes, she – has the skill of an ace and the beauty to match. But Shin is oblivious to her obvious advances as he impatiently waits for his new plane to arrive. Amid thoughts of the life, and love, he left behind, Shin is confronted with the face of the friend who took it all away, and in the last place, he would expect it, in the cockpit of the 747 barreling toward him through the clouds. Truly innovative animation and heart-pounding suspense transport you to a world where every breath could be your last. At area 88, theres no such thing as a normal day.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The return of Area 88 to the current generation of fans is something that I’m certainly enjoying since it’s helping to fill a woefully underserved genre out there and that’s the realism area of fighter jets. With so many shows today simply centered around either fantastic science fiction events or high school-related material, something like this where adults are dealing with a variety of situations both in the air and on the ground has pretty much disappeared in the last decade. While some of the OVAs and series from that time period aren’t worth the material they were animated on, there were more than enough that helped to provide a lot of diversity to the overall market.
This round of episodes of Area 88 moves things along nicely both in the present and in the past as we get to explore what drives Shin the way it does. With the three episodes, it all goes by surprisingly fast as it mixes both the dramatic sequences and the action sequences quite well. It opens quickly with the premise that Shin’s about to go out on a mission that he won’t return from as Gustav just knows this by the sound of things he hears as Shin heads off. Prescient or simply lucky, Shin does find himself overwhelmed and shot down on this mission and even worse he manages to eject into a massive sandstorm that’s sweeping through the area.
This provides an excellent opportunity for a flashback sequence and we start to finally see what put Shin in the situation he’s in. We see when he and his friend Kanzaki are finishing out their airline pilot training in Paris and the talk about their childhood at home in Japan at the orphanage. Shin talks about going back to visit but we get an insight into Kanzaki’s motivations as he doesn’t want to go back until he’s wealthy and powerful and can buy a brand new place to replace what he grew up in. They have very different attitudes about things but Kanzaki is the type to do whatever he can to get what he wants.
The path for him with this is something that happened before they went to school to fly the big airliners and that was a chance meeting with the president of Yamato Airlines. Kanzaki went right on to deal with him but Shin ended up taking his daughter up for a plane ride and the two ended up in love. As time passed, Kanzaki sees this not only as an obstacle but an avenue and he pulls of the most despicable of tricks. Before heading home to Japan from Paris, he gets Shin drunk and has him sign up for the Aslan mercenary force for a three-year contract. His shock at what happened and his resignation is what starts him off but what keeps him going is his promise that no matter what or where, he will return to Ryoko no matter what.
This is strung across the episodes here so we learn what’s going on with him and it parallels nicely as he makes his way back to the base and has to deal with being grounded while having no fighter craft of his own. To provide some balance to his being grounded, a new character is brought into play named Kitri, a female pilot who is actually Saki’s cousin. She’s not exactly a hotshot pilot but she’s finagled things to come out to fly with this group and get more experience. The arrival of a female at the base is comical in itself as all the guys fall over her and Saki has issues with her being there. She definitely brings something new to the show and the dynamic of the previously all-male complement.
Coincidence figures heavily into the last episode on the disc though but it’s a priceless piece. Seeing things in the present for both of the men that the series is actually about brought things into focus, as does seeing Ryoko and how she’s dealing with the missing Shin. The arrival of Shin’s new fighter gives us a good shakedown piece which is enjoyable but it’s still not as good as the action scenes in the two previous episodes. There’s a lot of fighter action which is very well played here with the Avex music, continuing to give it that “Initial D” of jets feel. It may be cheap and corny to call it that, but it describes it so aptly for me since I enjoy Initial D just as much as this for a lot of the same reasons.
In Summary:
Though in a way there really isn’t much new here since I’m long familiar with this property and its previous OVA release, this updated version plays out beautifully here with crisp clean animation, excellent acting, and some very well done CG scenes for the aircraft. While it may not have the same kind of feel and allure of the old traditional animated shows when it comes to seeing the jets fly about, the added realism we get here combined with the detail and speed more than makes up for it. This show is going by far too fast already and I’m excited to revisit more.
Grade: B+
