Series from the dawn of the Viz era #2: Area 88
I'm on a roll here! I live in SoCal, and it just feels so good to have the skies clear and the weather warm again. The doors and windows are open, and the fresh air is blowing out the stagnant germ-ridden atmosphere that's been hindering my recovery. I hope this keeps up; I've already been sick for two months, and I'd like this wonderful weather to help put it behind me. If nothing else, it's great for the psyche! ^_^
Since the weather has been so uplifing, it's really put me in the mood to dig into my huge manga backlog here. Yesterday I read Pineapple Army, and today I plowed through the only graphic novel release for Area 88 by Kaoru Shintani. This series was being published at around the same time as Pineapple Army and also suffered an unfinished release in both floppy and graphic novel format. This is such a shame, as Area 88 is a phenomenal military aviation drama; it's still regarded as one of the finest titles in its genre in Japan and recently had another animated version air in 2004. It was animated previously as a 3-part OVA series back in 1985.
Area 88 introduces us to Shin Kazama, an enigmatic ace fighter pilot who is one of many mercenaries employed by the Asran Kingdom. These mercs are based at Area 88, the "front line's front line" in North Africa. The book opens with stunning panels of Shin in action against an army of tanks on the ground; I would have loved to see these first few pages in color! Once he returns to base we find out right away that Kazama is an unwilling participant in Area 88's operation...but why? He also meets a rookie merc by the name of Mick Simon, and on their first mission together that evening, Kazama demonstrates his prowess as both a skilled pilot and thinker. The rest of the book continues to showcase subsequent missions (Kazama has a three year contract with the Asran Kingdom, and he is barely a few months in at the start of the story), and along the way explains the betrayal in Kazama's past that results in him becoming a mercenary. It also seems to be setting Mick up as a strong supporting character; his past and motivation for voluntarily joining the force at Area 88 is explained in this volume's final chapter.
What makes this book an amazing read is two-fold: the detailed artwork and how Shintani delves into the soldiers' psyches. Shintani is obviously an aviation fanatic, as his precise drawings bring life to many of the most cutting edge fighter jets of the day. I think fellow jet enthusiasts would be quite satisfied with his depictions of both the planes themselves and the aerial action... I know I was impressed! The author also introduces the reader to a varied cast of mercenaries at Area 88, and through the missions we get a glimpse of their pasts and how service in prior wars has shaped their futures and inevitably led them back into the realms of war...
This is what makes the book such a rewarding and moving read for me. As also touched upon in Pineapple Army, Shintani delves headfirst into the horrors of war and how it irrevocably reshapes the lives of anyone who has been on the battlefield, killed enemy soldiers, and lost friends in their comrades. The inner monologues of Shin and his fellow soldiers explain how they can never go back to a normal life, having lived second by second with death constantly hanging over them, knowing that they themselves have also caused death and destruction. The prose in the book that communicates these ideas is just poetic; it really drives the point home that even though the experiences in the manga are fictional, scenarios like this play out daily in soldiers' lives. I have to say that James Hudnall and Satoru Fujii did an excellent job translating this title as I don't think the book would be the same without their oftentimes poignant and powerful choice of words.
It's disappointing to know that perhaps only a third of this series has been translated into English. Since I enjoyed this first volume so much more than I initially thought I would, I am now left with the task of finding all the comics volumes (of which I believe there are 40?). If all else fails, I know I can visit UC Riverside's special collections; they have an amazing science fiction library which includes multitudes of comics issues. I already know they have Area 88 since one of my good buddies has already read them from there! In the meantime, I just ordered the OVA and TV series from Rightstuf.com's ADV liquidation sale so I can enjoy more of the story in animated form. But it's still saddening to know I won't know the resolution to the story... Will Shin get back home, and more importantly, can he even go back to a normal life with the woman he loved?
Next convention I'll be sure to ask Viz to throw us another classic bone in the form of Area 88. And since Vertical recently license-rescued Tezuka's Black Jack, perhaps they would be a reasonable candidate to publish this series (even though they rarely seem to stray from Tezuka titles). Can't fault a new fan for dreaming! ~_^
Since the weather has been so uplifing, it's really put me in the mood to dig into my huge manga backlog here. Yesterday I read Pineapple Army, and today I plowed through the only graphic novel release for Area 88 by Kaoru Shintani. This series was being published at around the same time as Pineapple Army and also suffered an unfinished release in both floppy and graphic novel format. This is such a shame, as Area 88 is a phenomenal military aviation drama; it's still regarded as one of the finest titles in its genre in Japan and recently had another animated version air in 2004. It was animated previously as a 3-part OVA series back in 1985.
Area 88 introduces us to Shin Kazama, an enigmatic ace fighter pilot who is one of many mercenaries employed by the Asran Kingdom. These mercs are based at Area 88, the "front line's front line" in North Africa. The book opens with stunning panels of Shin in action against an army of tanks on the ground; I would have loved to see these first few pages in color! Once he returns to base we find out right away that Kazama is an unwilling participant in Area 88's operation...but why? He also meets a rookie merc by the name of Mick Simon, and on their first mission together that evening, Kazama demonstrates his prowess as both a skilled pilot and thinker. The rest of the book continues to showcase subsequent missions (Kazama has a three year contract with the Asran Kingdom, and he is barely a few months in at the start of the story), and along the way explains the betrayal in Kazama's past that results in him becoming a mercenary. It also seems to be setting Mick up as a strong supporting character; his past and motivation for voluntarily joining the force at Area 88 is explained in this volume's final chapter.
What makes this book an amazing read is two-fold: the detailed artwork and how Shintani delves into the soldiers' psyches. Shintani is obviously an aviation fanatic, as his precise drawings bring life to many of the most cutting edge fighter jets of the day. I think fellow jet enthusiasts would be quite satisfied with his depictions of both the planes themselves and the aerial action... I know I was impressed! The author also introduces the reader to a varied cast of mercenaries at Area 88, and through the missions we get a glimpse of their pasts and how service in prior wars has shaped their futures and inevitably led them back into the realms of war...
This is what makes the book such a rewarding and moving read for me. As also touched upon in Pineapple Army, Shintani delves headfirst into the horrors of war and how it irrevocably reshapes the lives of anyone who has been on the battlefield, killed enemy soldiers, and lost friends in their comrades. The inner monologues of Shin and his fellow soldiers explain how they can never go back to a normal life, having lived second by second with death constantly hanging over them, knowing that they themselves have also caused death and destruction. The prose in the book that communicates these ideas is just poetic; it really drives the point home that even though the experiences in the manga are fictional, scenarios like this play out daily in soldiers' lives. I have to say that James Hudnall and Satoru Fujii did an excellent job translating this title as I don't think the book would be the same without their oftentimes poignant and powerful choice of words.
It's disappointing to know that perhaps only a third of this series has been translated into English. Since I enjoyed this first volume so much more than I initially thought I would, I am now left with the task of finding all the comics volumes (of which I believe there are 40?). If all else fails, I know I can visit UC Riverside's special collections; they have an amazing science fiction library which includes multitudes of comics issues. I already know they have Area 88 since one of my good buddies has already read them from there! In the meantime, I just ordered the OVA and TV series from Rightstuf.com's ADV liquidation sale so I can enjoy more of the story in animated form. But it's still saddening to know I won't know the resolution to the story... Will Shin get back home, and more importantly, can he even go back to a normal life with the woman he loved?
Next convention I'll be sure to ask Viz to throw us another classic bone in the form of Area 88. And since Vertical recently license-rescued Tezuka's Black Jack, perhaps they would be a reasonable candidate to publish this series (even though they rarely seem to stray from Tezuka titles). Can't fault a new fan for dreaming! ~_^