Ranked #1063

Area 88

Simply put, the Area 88 OVA is a highly underrated anime series that does nearly everything right.

Story: I don't need to explain the concept too much since it's already on the page. It has two parts to it, an anti-war story and a long-distance romance story. The war story aspect revolves around Shin Kazama's life at Area 88 doing whatever mission he feels like doing. He never wanted to be a soldier, but he got tricked into it by Kanzaki and his whole personality has changed for the worse because of it. He went from a pacifist who just wanted a normal life being an airline pilot and dating the boss's daughter Ryoko. to a man who's learned to accept that he has to kill for a living and has gotten used to his life on Area 88 as he earns his 1.5 million dollar ticket back home to Japan. This comes into play in part 3 in a heartbreaking, yet realistic way. A couple of the missions are unique as well, including the tunnel sequence which was done even better than in the TV series.

The second part of the story revolves around Ryoko trying to find out where Shin is located and bring him home. All the while, Kanzaki is putting his master scheme to take over Yamato Airlines and steal Ryoko into play. Shin cares deeply for Ryoko and she is the driving force that keeps him alive, but the Shin that Ryoko once knew was gone and she doesn't realize it. Kanzaki, on the other hand, is a shrewd businessman who will do anything with money and power. This section of the story provides the emotion behind the story and it works excellently.

The story is attention grabbing with Shin's detatchment with the war and his love for Ryoko, and it only gets better from there.

Characters: Shin is the opposite of the mega manly character that the 80's possessed. (Kenshiro and Goku, to provide examples). He's a caring soul who was hardened and changed by the experienced in the war. He despises the fact that he kills people to survive, but he's the best pilot at Area 88. Mickey Simon is another pilot who knows the effects of war all too well and he's the more lighthearted character foil to Shin. Kanzaki is easily one of the cruelist villians in any anime I've seen. He'll hurt anyone and everyone in the way of his goals. The other minor characters have personalities all their own, from the cocky weapon/other item salesman McCoy to the comic relief character Greg.

Art: Despite the OVA being nearly 25 years old, the animation still looks excellent. The landscapes are well designed, especially in the cities. The dogfights were also well animated, with a great attention to detail placed into all the pieces of the plane that get blasted around once a plane was shot down and the flight sequences also look great considering how old the OVA is. I do think that the character designs are inferior to the TV series and the series does show it's age compared to the newer series.

To wrap up this long review, I've got few complaints with this OVA. The story was full of real emotions, the action was well animated, and each character had something to add to the story. I highly recommend watching this and running at only three hours, it's could hardly count as a waste of time. read more

What have I been doing all this time? Why didn't I have watched this jewel sooner? It doesn't matter now, because I finally did and I have to admit that the "cult" following that exists around this OVA is well deserved unlike other series with such status.

This tells a story of shin Kazuma, a pilot who is betrayed by his best friend and finds himself in a mercenary air force in a critical country in middle east thanks to that betrayal, Shin to get out of there needs to work for three years or do a reasonable ammount of missions that has surpassed the price of those three years of work.

The story is very good, it doesn't have major holes and goes into a complete new approach at the time and original theme and plot. Characters are fitted to the story and we have a good character development. Sound and animation are a little affected by time, but nothing big, it's still a good viewing.
Betrayal, War themes, good air action fights, great character development and a good story awaits here.

Rate: 8.2/10 read more