One of the really enjoyable things I’m able to do as my kids are getting older is introduce them to some of my favorite shows and movies. Things that aren’t appropriate for a child to watch, but an early teen? Sure. To that end, Saturday night has become old-school Anime night, as we watch (mostly) some classic series of decades past. Not that there’s anything wrong with a lot of the new shows, it’s just that if you want to appreciate Gundam or something like that, you really need to start closer to the beginning.
Anyway, we started off with Area 88 and Ouran High School Host Club. I try to keep it balanced with a more action oriented show for the boys, and a more funny/romantic show for Adventure Girl. For this article, though, I’ll focus on Area 88.
To start with, I’m talking about the 2004 TV series, not the OVA series from the ’80s. Although since the original OVA series got re-released last year, I may have to pick that up at some point. I have the (now out of print) ADV box set of the TV series, so that’s what we watched. In truth, I’d never had time to sit down and watch the full series back in the day. For folks who don’t know what I’m talking about, here’s a good AMV that encapsulates some of the best parts of the show.
This show is basically jet nerd crack, especially if you love 3rd- and 4th-Generation fighters. It’s full of MIG-17s and MIG-21s as enemy aircraft, and F-4 Phantoms and A-4 Skyhawks as most of the “supporting” friendly aircraft. The heroes have more visually distinct planes, ranging from a Harrier, to an F-14 Tomcat (somehow flown single seat, but that’s not important right now), a Mirage F-1, and of course our main character’s F-8 Crusader and F-5E Tiger II.
Like I said, the flight sequences are basically anime jet porn. There’s an overall plot about how all of these pilots are paid mercenaries fighting in someone else’s war, except for our main character who was dragged into this life under false pretenses, but it’s honestly not that important. The show definitely falls down a bit when it tries to tell some serious war stories, because it suffers from what we’ll call “Red Shirt Syndrome”. Three or four of our main characters are about to go on a mission along with this guy that we’ve just met? Gee, I wonder who’s going to come back?
So the plot isn’t any great shakes. But again, the air combat is where things really shine. There are definitely some creative Rule Of Cool liberties taken with some aircraft flight capabilities, but overall, this is a solid popcorn series to sit down and enjoy. DVDs can still be had on Amazon, although some of the discs (four in the full set) are a bit pricey. Some careful searching on YouTube can likely also turn up all twelve episodes, more or less intact.