Area 88

Area 88 stands out as a top-tier OVA series, featuring distinctive hand-drawn animation and character designs that evoke the essence of the 1980s. The series' visuals reflect the artistic style of the era, adding to its nostalgic appeal. Each character is portrayed in a compelling manner, with unique appearances and personalities that contribute to the series' allure. Alongside captivating characters, thrilling action sequences, and a compelling storyline, Area 88 is elevated by a remarkable soundtrack that intensifies the viewing experience, particularly during its adrenaline-fueled aerial combat scenes. Moreover, it explores various subplots, further developing characters and providing insight into their motivations and decisions. Area 88 ... undeniably stands the test of time and rightfully earns its place as a classic, offering an immersive and unforgettable viewing experience.

Area 88 is a 3 part OVA that adapts the manga Area 88, written by Kaoru Shintani that was published between 1979 and 1986. The OVA released between Feb 5 1985 and Jun 15 1986, and produced by Studio Pierrot. It was directed by Hisayuki Toriumi (Tekkaman)

Area 88 follows Shin Kazama, a pilot working for Yamato Airlines. Shin gets tricked by his best friend into signing a contract that ties him to the foreign legion of a remote country called Aslan, where he gets stationed at Area 88. The foreign legion are almost like hired mercenaries. Aslan has been split into two sides and a ... civil war has broken out, and both sides are doing everything they can to win this war. Shin just wants to get out of this hell and get back to his normal life and his girlfriend, but there are only three ways to do that. One way is two serve his three years, another is two earn 1,5 million dollars to pay himself out, and the third way is to desert.

I have to say, the story in this OVA series sounded fairly interesting going in to the show. However, after a while I realized that it wasn't quite as interesting as I thought it would be. The dogfights were cool and all, and I liked seeing Shin struggle with having to kill people just to buy his own freedom, however, when we first meet Shin he has already killed quite a lot of people, so I also feel this disconnect from him since he's already turned into a very capable killer. I feel like one of the things this show is going for is trying to sympathy towards Shin and his situation, cause it is a very shitty situation for him, but ultimately it just felt kinda cheap to me. Especially when his "friend" who tricked him into signing the contract is portrayed as such a one dimensional villain.

The characters in this show felt very standard in my opinion. You have our protagonist Shin Kazama who's the unlucky soul who got tricked into fighting in a war he wants nothing to do with, and all he wants to do now is go home. Then you have Micky Simon, who ends up becoming one of Shin's friends at Area 88, but again there is not really that much to him apart for a little backstory that explains why he's there. You also have Shin's girlfriend Ryoko Tsugumo who's the daughter of the owner of Yamato Airlines. Her entire role in this is basically just to worry about Shin and eventually trying to bring him back from Area 88 when she realizes that he has been tricked and sent there. The last character I wanna touch on is Satoru Kanzaki. He has been Shin's best friend since they were at the orphanage, and together with Shin they both became pilots working for Yamato Airlines. Satoru is very jealous of Shin though, cause he is a better pilot than him and he got the daughter of the company, and Satoru just hates people who are more successful than him in general, so he plots to send Shin away, take over Yamato Airlines and steal Ryoko away from Shin.

The animation in this series is something I have to give credit. It looks really good, and no, I am not just talking about Shin's fantastic hair. The movement is very smooth and the attention to detail in the fights were extremely cool to look at. It made me very immersed in the aerial combat which is a huge part of the OVAs.

The music in this show was pretty decent in my opinion. While nothing I would listen to outside of the show, it did complement the series fairly well. But at the same time, there is not a single piece of music that I felt stood out in the series.

Overall I have to say that I'm disappointed in this series. I was expecting something a little better than what I got. We basically got two stories wrapped up in one. One story was about a man who had been unwillingly drafted into the millitary to fight in a war that he has nothing to do with, and the other story was that of a long distance relationship and believing and trusting the other. However, I do not think that any of those things were handled all that well. I will even go so far as to say that if it were not for those fantastic dogfights on display I would not have liked this at all. That more or less saved this series for me and made it an ok watch, since it is such a big portion of the series. But when they were diving into backstory or trying to explain why things had worked out the way they did for everyone, I just felt like it was lacking all the way through. I wish I could be more positive on this show, but sadly I just feel like it has a few too many problems when it came to telling it's story, and I think it would have been way better as simply a series about millitary pilots with cool dogfights.

Area 88 is a manga that ran from '79 to '86. So, this is even older than I am. In 1985 it got a three episode OVA from Pierrot. That's right. The studio behind Ayashi no Ceres, Hikaru no Go & The Choujo. But not everything they've done is mediocre at best. They also did Yu Yu Hakusho and a few other good anime. But most of the anime I've reviewed from them don't inspire confidence.

Story:

The basic story is that a Japanese commercial pilot named Kazama Shin is tricked into signing up for a mercenary force in war torn Aslan, not the lion. In ... order to be released from his contract he has to either accumulate enough credits or serve out his three year contract. Meanwhile, the man he was tricked by is climbing the ranks of the airline and plotting to take the highest position within it.

There are multiple story issues with this. First off, we're told that Shin has full control over which missions he takes. Meaning that he could literally do nothing for three years and then go home. But instead he spends a bunch of time angsting about how he doesn't want to kill anyone but he has no choice. It's also worth mentioning that his girlfriend comes from a very wealthy family. Meaning he could sit back, send her a message asking for the money he needs to nullify the contract and she'd absolutely get it to him. And we know that the pilots on this base can send messages out of the country because we see it happen in later episodes. It just feels like he resigns himself to his "horrible fate" without actually trying to do anything about it.

Another issue is with one of the themes. The OVA tries to push this idea that if you go to war and kill other people you can't return to civilian life. We see multiple characters who come to Area 88 because they just couldn't go back to normal after being in the military service and the ending gives us another big example. Which is kind of insulting to all those people who served in the military and then returned home to lead perfectly normal lives. Is it difficult for some people, yes. But it's not nearly as dire as this story portrays it. And, honestly, if I wanted to see an interesting story about an old soldier who couldn't reintegrate into society, I'd watch Next Generation's The Wounded, yet again.

Another issue I have is with the politics surrounding the airline company. They're honestly incredibly boring and the only thing they contribute is giving the audience a sense of urgency for Kazama to return home. The problem is that he doesn't know about the problems with the company. So, there's no actual sense of urgency. Hell it takes so long for the problems to come to a head that he could have gotten home before anything happened if he'd bothered sending a single message or making a phone call. And this isn't the only conflict within the OVA that's incredibly under-developed and boring. The whole Aslan civil war is also just dull. We get some very basic details about why it's being fought but there's never any reason to give a shit and those few details are incredibly generic.

Characters:

The characters are pretty much complete rubbish. We have a lot of random Area 88 pilots with no real personalities and no memorable features whatsoever who constantly die and we're supposed to be upset and see it as the tragedy of war but we barely spend any time with any of them so it really doesn't work. I feel worse for Stormtrooper #6 than I do for any of these people. For major, named characters that get enough screen time to be somewhat memorable, we have Kazuma who's a complete toolbox. Ryoko, the completely generic love interest. Kanzaki, the antagonist who has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Micky, who may as well be a cardboard cutout. And Saki, the leader of Area 88. His only distinguishing feature is his scar. I could bite off my toe nails and they'd be more interesting to watch than this group of "characters."

Art:

The style of this OVA is dated but that's not the problem with it. The big problem with it is that the aerial dogfights are slow and uninteresting. Yes, the parts that should be fast-paced and provide some spectacle are about as uninspired as action sequences get and they did it without hiring Michael Bay to direct. I wouldn't have thought another director could make action sequences that dull.

Sound:

The acting is fine. Shiozawa Kaneto, Yasuhara Yoshito, Tamagawa Sakiko and the rest give acceptable performances. They just don't have much to work with in terms of character complexity and it definitely shows. The music is almost as boring as the OVA itself. Which does make it suitable aesthetically.

Ho-yay:

There isn't any.

Areas of Improvement:

The OVA would really benefit from picking one thing to focus on. Either the civil war or the airline drama. Clearly it couldn't handle splitting the focus between them.

We need to see the reason that Shin doesn't just send a message home asking for help. As is it just seems like he's a complete moron.

We need interesting characters. Especially if you're going to try and get us invested in their deaths. You can't just tell us Siegfried died and expect us to feel something when we've only heard Siegfried's name once and seen him for five seconds of screen time.

Final Thoughts:

This OVA is pretty bad. Is it the worst I've ever seen? Not even close. Hell, I've seen a lot worse from Pierrot. It just has nothing to recommend it. Boring characters, a half-baked plot, dull aircraft combat. My rating is going to be a 3/10.