Forum - View topicArea 88 OAV-- very underrated!! plus a few questions...
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Steve Berry
Posts: 522 Location: San Francisco Bay Area, CA |
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Hi,
I just finished watching the Area 88 3 part OVA, and I thought this show was very good. I'm quite surprised and impressed!! 20 years old or so, and in my opinion, the jet fight scenes easily equaled those in more current shows-- no CG, but the planes actually handle like real planes, and the animation is very smooth. They also use a lot of really intersting camera angles for the flying. Besides that, I thought the characters were very engaging-- Shinji and Ryoko (the main girl and guy) ended up being more complex than I expected. The rest of the cast is pretty 2 dimensional, but in a simple fun way. Basically, outside of the bad 80's english pop they use, there wasn't much I could say against the show. It actually used some restraint when it was needed, and let the emotional outbursts come at the right times, and like all good anime, it gave a relatively morally ambiguous line to things as the show progressed-- atleast in regards to Shin's character's choices. This is just a show that noone ever talks about, is hardly ever reviewed, and is very hard to get in the US. I don't know why they only released the 1st DVD domestically, the rest is easily just as good or better. The 2 other parts really carry the story forward into interesting places. Has anyone else seen this show?? What a diamond in the rough. I remember reading this when Viz was releasing it back in the late 80's, but I read somewhere that they never really finished it. Is this true? Also, I read somewhere that the OAV was actually a condensed version of a TV show from the early 80's as well (not the recent one). Is there any validity to this also? This OAV set was good enough that I would be very interested in watching a longer version.... Mostly wanted to gush about this totally unheralded show, and see if anyone else out there has seen it. I'd love to get some answers though re: the comic and whether there was an original TV series or not..... Thanks. |
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kusanagi-sama
 Posts: 1723 Location: Wichita Falls, TX |
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Central Park Media owns the license to Area 88 OVA, Viz has the license to the manga.
According to this article, they had no plans on releasing the 2nd and 3rd parts of the ova. Plus:
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areaseven
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 1486 Location: Makati, Philippines |
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I agree that Area 88 still is a great OAV series. Unlike the recent TV series remake, the OAV is not marred by cheap CG animation and annoying trance music.
It's a damn shame that CPM has no plans to release the entire OAV series on DVD. I may have to hunt down the old laserdisc copies. |
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MasterFuu
 Posts: 434 Location: Phoenix, AZ |
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I only watched the TV series of Area 88 and liked it a lot. The story was good and I love anything with planes and combat. Also the music did not fit very well (this is not Initial D) but was not awful.
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Randall Miyashiro
 Posts: 2451 Location: A block away from Golden Gate Park |
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I was a big fan back in the early 80s of Kaoru Shintani's works. I have a huge stack of his manga in a box somewhere. I bought the limited "red box" laser disc collection of when it was released. My favorite cel that I own (along with my Giant Gorg ending credits cel) is a close up profile of Shin as he is trudging through the desert in Act II. I own all the BGMs on vinyl, although I really ought to buy them on CD. So yeah, you can say I'm somewhat of a fan
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Steve Berry
Posts: 522 Location: San Francisco Bay Area, CA |
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It's nice to know there are at least a _few_ people out there that have seen this show and liked it. I don't understand how this could fly so low under the radar so long. I know it's not released in the states, but that doesn't seem to stop anyone from downloading or buying bootlegs of other shows.
I just thought this was light years ahead of most of the stuff I've seen from the early to mid eighties. There's only 23 reviews of it here on the website. Only 23? People, you need to watch this show.... Tekken has 163. It's just a bummer.
Still, does anyone know if there was an original TV show that the OVA's came from? This is what I've read somewhere. Also, I know Viz released the title in the 80's as a manga, because I read it all the time back then. I was just curious if they actually finished the run or took it to a logical ending. I read that they cut it short. |
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samuraiwalt
Posts: 647 |
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According to the ANN encyclopedia the TV series is a remake of the OVA and the first DVD of the TV series is going to be released next month on the 19th. I just checked netflix has the first OVA so I added it to my queue. |
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Dan42
Chief Encyclopedist
 Posts: 3794 Location: Montreal |
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I absolutely loved the first part of the OAV when I rented it, but after that I never managed to find the 2 other parts. How did you manage to find them?
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Steve Berry
Posts: 522 Location: San Francisco Bay Area, CA |
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I was naughty and downloaded them, frankly. Although you can also be naughty and buy a bootleg. The great thing about the torrent I got was that it was taken from the old VHS copies, which meant that all the subtitles were very good-- no engrish.
The first OVA is very good-- I agree. The second one is just as good or better, with a very good ending. The third one is actually (I believe) 2 more of them combined into a feature length production. It is also very good, although it has less action. It ends on a very ambiguous/ unresolved note, which I imagine must infuriate some people. Basically, many characters make their "important decisions", so character development occurs, but the plot is left right in the middle of the action. It didn't bother me personally, but others might not like it. It doesn't pull any punches, that's for sure. This site has links to a number of different reviews of the show, if anyone's interested. http://www.animecritic.com/_metareview/index.php |
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Craeyst Raygal
 Posts: 1383 Location: In the garage, beneath a 1970 MGB GT. |
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Heh, the flame-maned unicorn flies again.
Seriously, I'm a big Area 88 fan myself who had the same problem - never being able to find the other two volumes. I'm anticipating the new TV series' release this summer in the hopes that it'll be a minor success and that it'll light a fire under Central Park to get more copies of the OAV out there on the market. |
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Randall Miyashiro
Posts: 2451 Location: A block away from Golden Gate Park |
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All three were released as OAVs, although the production values does go up with each release. I believe they were all released on VHS in the US, but only the first has a R1 DVD. I remember watching the commercial for the third OAV (during Zeta maybe?) and being really excited.
There was a Capcom coin-op Area 88 game around 1990 which was called UN Squad in the States. This was completely strange since you still earned cash for shooting down enemy planes to spend on weapons. I only wonder what non-Area 88 fans made of this. The high score rankings allowed numbers so I always imputed A88 as my high score initials. |
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CorneredAngel
 Posts: 854 Location: New York, NY |
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Hey, hey, damn near the *only* reason I'm looking forward to the TV series is the happy hardcore-ish OST ^^ Well, and the potential for 'name that fighter jet' drinking games. ...also, "Boris, the God of Death" |
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Zalis116
Moderator
 Posts: 6903 Location: Kazune City |
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It is pretty good. . .I watched it on bootleg, but donated it away because the subtitles were pretty awful. I also enjoy UN Squadron on my SNES, especially since I can do the first 8 missions without buying any new planes. . .
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