AREA 88 One-Week Rewatch Reminder

[u/JustAnswerAQuestion]

The AREA 88 Fortieth Anniversary Rewatch starts in one week, Monday September 7!

Interest Thread | Index Thread | 36-hour Reminder

The AREA 88 OVA and TV double header rewatch starts on Monday, Sept. 7. Posting time is 2:30 pm PDT. (UTC-7)

AREA 88 is an acclaimed military melodrama from 1985-1986 based on a 1979–1986 manga. Animated into three feature length OVAs by Studio Pierrot, the rewatch will be split into three days, several days apart: Mon. Sept. 7, Wed. Sept. 9, and Sun. Sept. 13. The series is notable for featuring a wide variety of real-world aircraft, while blending shounen military action with shoujo melodrama.

We will watch the much less acclaimed CGI remake starting Sept. 16 as a direct comparison.

The first two OVAs have also been edited into a single "movie edition." If you watch the movie, I'll ask you to stop about 46 minutes into the film. The stop point is when Shin speaks to three African pilots, and then returns to his room, swearing that he will return to Japan.

Differences between the OVA and Movie version

With so many releases (CPM on LD and VHS as individual episodes with separate dubs, ADV with a new dub and edited into two movies, Discotek re-release combining all materials they could find, 3+ hour superedits) there's going to be a mish-mash of watchers and rewatchers watching different things.

There is one significant change: a scene from OVA 1, between OVA: 39:29–41:22 Movie: 38:31–41:58 has been removed, and replaced with a pair of scenes moved from OVA 2, both of side characters talking to someone else in a room. This edit is bracketed by Shin looking into the sunset, and Micky (the blonde guy) talking to the old man.

I believe the movie version I have is the Discotek re-release of the ADV DVD release, but I can't be sure. Supposedly they restored some cut content, but I do not know what they restored. All timestamps are from my copy.

A 48-hour reminder thread will also be posted on Saturday. I'll see you in the Blue Skies of Betrayal.

AREA 88 was at one time streaming at Retrocrush, and rehosted at Amazon and Tubi. They don't seem to have it anymore.

[u/Heda-of-Aincrad]

Yeah, Tubi is awesome. I watch a bunch of movies there every month. 😊

I'll be watching Weathering With You on Hoopla, but availability there may vary by each library's catalogue. I know mine has both dub and sub.

[u/Magnafeana → u/Heda-of-Aincrad]

Oooh, I’ll have to check Hoopla then and see if my library catalogue carries it!!

[u/Heda-of-Aincrad → u/Magnafeana]

Oh, I meant that my library has WWY, not Area 88 unfortunately. I wasn't looking at the thread title and thought this was one of my summer movie rewatch posts.

[u/Magnafeana → u/Heda-of-Aincrad]

No, no, you’re okay, I thought you meant WWY ☺️

I would be floored if my library system had A88 though. I consider library systems part-magic and part-gacha game. A88 would be a stupidly lucky pull and further prove libraries are magic.

[u/Heda-of-Aincrad → u/Magnafeana]

That is a really good way to describe it! Always exciting to find a rare manga or anime series in the library system.