Area 88: Story, Cast and Series Facts

Story and premise

Area 88 takes place in the late 1970s/early 1980s and is largely set in a war-embroiled Middle Eastern country called the Kingdom of Asran. The war uses mercenary fighter pilots, with its headquarters at a secret desert air force base called Area 88. Up-and-coming airline pilot Shin Kazama gets tricked into signing up by his "friend" Satoru Kanzaki. Facing execution for deserting from Area 88, Shin reluctantly turns into a fighter pilot and attempts to serve his three year contract out. Area 88 attracts all kinds of people with all kinds of assorted and often sordid pasts. Among the other mercenaries are Mick Simon, an American who couldn't adjust to normal life after his tour of duty in the Vietnam War. Mick becomes Shin's best friend at Area 88. Another familiar sight at Area 88 is McCoy, a greedy weapons dealer who sells everything the mercenaries need from toilet paper to the plan...

Series details

• Title: Area 88
• Format: Animation
• Language: Japanese
• Genres: Action, Anime, War
• Premiere date: 2004-01-08
• Final broadcast date listed: 2004-03-25
• Status in TVmaze: Ended
• Network listed by TVmaze: Animax
• Network country: Japan
• Typical episode runtime: 25 minutes
• TVMaze ID: 10707
• IMDb ID: tt1256124
• TVDB ID: 81867

Cast and credited roles

• Takehito Koyasu — Shin Kazama
• Tomokazu Seki — Mickey Simon
• Hiroki Takahashi — Saki Vashtar
• Shinichiro Miki — Makoto Shinjou
• Shingenori Souya — Gustav Tanchelm
• Ryou Hirohashi — Kim Aba
• Sanae Kobayashi — Kitri Parvaneh
• Chikao Ōtsuka — McCoy
• Hikaru Midorikawa — Satoru Kanzaki
• Kimiko Saito — Alicia

Seasons in the TVmaze catalogue

• Season 1: premiered 2004-01-08; final listed air date 2004-03-25; episode order: 12.

Source and licence

Adapted from Area 88 on TVmaze. The synopsis is reproduced as plain text; catalogue facts, cast and season records are selected and reformatted. This adapted text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, following the TVmaze API licence. Network and web-channel credits identify the service listed in this source; they do not establish current streaming availability.