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Area 88 TV
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“Area 88” was remade in 2004, into a twelve episode TV series .
Freelance photographer Makoto Shinjo has been sent into the middle of Aslan’s civil war to take a very special, privately ordered, photograph. Hired by the new head of Yamato Airlines, Satoru Kanzaki, Shinjo must deliver an image of fighter pilot, Shin Kazama… dead.
Arriving at the mercenary desert air force base, Area 88, Makoto meets the subject of his assignment. Once an up and coming commercial pilot for Yamato Airlines, Shin was tricked into signing a three year binding contract with a Middle Eastern monarchy’s military. Jealous of Shin’s superior skill at flying; and envious of his girlfriend, Ryoko Tsugumo, the daughter of the previous Yamato Airlines president; Kazama’s best “friend” (guess who) sought to wipe him out of existence. However, despite being sent into a worn-torn maelstrom of almost certain death, Shin was not destroyed. Rather than becoming mere cannon fodder, Kazama became Area 88’s number one flying ace. Aboard his “Crusader” aircraft, he is the skilled grim reaper of these skies.
As Ryoko dutifully waits for his return, Shin, silently pining for his previous life, has buried his emotions, and relentlessly, methodically downs enemy planes, seeking to earn his contract’s buyout price of 1.5 million dollars.
Despite coming from the exact same original manga source as the 1985 three volume OVA, this “Area 88” TV show is nowhere near as fatalistically poignant as its anime predecessor. Outsider Makoto is now the protagonist, and Shin Kazama has been reinvented by Cooperating Director, Ryosuke Takahashi, into another of his beloved, badass, emotionally shuttered heroes (Chirico Cuvie from “Votoms”, Eiji from “Layzner”, Yushiro from “Gasaraki”, Marlene from “Blue Gender”, Akizuki from “Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto”, etc.). Also, the portrayed “Horror of War” is not an internal struggle with a latent awakened desire for violence and destruction; but is instead a daunting external challenge that Shin, and his fellow pilot friends, must overcome and survive in order to return home. Still, a very enjoyable action anime.
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8.65/10 
9.12/10
8.70/10 
65 votes