Area 88 Ep. 2: The Setting Sun as Grave Marker

aka Boris

Any doubts about the seriousness of the anime series are dispelled by this grim episode that follows a pilot nicknamed “the Angel of Death.” Thrilling action scenes punctuate a slower moving story about survivor’s guilt and the tremendous toll war takes on those who fight it. While photojournalist Makoto Shinjo learns more about life on the base, the real star of the episode is attack pilot Boris. The ghosts of the Vietnam War are beginning to haunt the stories of Area 88.

There is a poetic quality to both the visual and verbal imagery of this series that sets it apart from most anime. The thoughtful and meditative scripts are matched by the art and directing, making for stories that are not easily forgotten. This particularly strong episode sets the tone for the entire series very early on.

After hearing a rumor about a pilot called “the Angel of Death,” Makoto becomes intrigued. Ominously wondering if he is Shin Kazama’s personal angel of death, the photographer sets out to find out about the enigmatic pilot named Boris. A master of ground attack missions, he is reputed as getting all his wingmen killed -- so nobody wants to fly with him.

The location cuts to a night mission where a lone F-8 Crusader leads a trio of A-4 Skyhawks on a strike against a heavily defended target. Flack flies and the bombing run is successfully pressed home, much to the jubilation of the A-4 pilots. Celebrating too soon costs them dearly and the reputation of The Angel of Death is shown to be all too real. The images of a Crusader and Skyhawks conducting an attack run is straight out of the Unites States Navy’s operations over North Vietnam.

Crippling his battered F-8 home, Boris refuses to replace it with a new aircraft. He is strangely insistent that flying a plane one is used to is more important. Constantly fingering a silver ring on a chain, he muses before others that the sunset is so beautiful that it is sad. There is an aura of separation from everyone else and of being in his own world.

While picking up more 35mm film for his camera, Makoto finds out from the quartermaster/master gouger McCoy that his hottest selling item is caskets. The reason? The Angel of Death. Clearly, the man is a mythic story in the making.

The fear of associating with Boris has the mercenaries avoiding him more and more. When he sits at a table in the mess hall, everyone clears out from it. Only Shin is willing to sit with him and is promptly told by the loner that he will not become friends with him. Yet he does not send the younger man away.

Makoto’s sleuthing also digs up the fact that Boris never sleeps and always has the lights on in his room. Bafflement turns into curiosity as the tormented screams of the pilot spill from his room. There can be no rest in the world of dreams for the veteran of too many fights. Haunted by all those who died around him, but one in particular, Boris senses his time is soon up. But is it the wishful thinking of someone left behind? Does he have a death wish?

Ever probing and provoking, Makoto finds out from Kim that most of the pilots are trapped by their contracts with the Kingdom of Aslan. The only ways out are buying out the contract for $1,500,000 or death. Only one pilot has a chance at the former and that is Shin Kazama. So what is the Angel of Death’s story? Showing himself to be a jerk, Makato tries to get a rise out of the pilot and discovers very little other than he is human.

While all of this has been playing out, a high priority target has been consuming jets from the regular air force with none coming back to report. Tired of wasting their own pilots, the government plans to send the mercenaries in with a $30,000 payoff for each pilot who succeeds. When Boris decides to take the challenge, only five others volunteer to go with him, including Shin and Kim.

It has been a long time since he has flown with another Crusader, Boris tells Shin, and we finally get a little of why he acts the way he does. But he still can’t be friends with the younger Japanese pilot.

The die is cast and the strike package takes off for a dangerous night attack mission at low level with no idea of what defenses await them at the target. Can Boris lead the group with his exceptional skills at ground attack or will the Angel of Death get them all killed?

Thoughts

This is a fantastically grim episode, with death hanging over nearly every moment in it. While the missions are spectacular in their execution, character development is at center stage and the show dares to push the main characters to supporting roles for the story’s sake. I found myself coming to care for Boris a great deal due to his tragic life and motivations. While the other characters are left to puzzle over the mystery of the man, we get to see what they do not.

A well written story transcends the media it is contained in and Area 88 managed to make me wish this was a live action show, just to get other people to see the episode. It reminded me of shows like Combat and Tour of Duty in its ability to portray an unvarnished account of what war does to soldiers. By having the characters being mercenaries trapped by their contracts, it makes things even more desperate than the reality those shows were based on. I figure it counterbalances the more over the top fights in some of the episodes.

The combat sequences in this episode are superb, if a bit Hollywood. They are thrilling and the music fit them perfectly. Exciting and fast paced, they convey the speed of flight and confusion of warfare well.

The soundtrack was wonderful at using different genres of music to enhance the varied moods portrayed. From blues to techno, each was carefully chosen to fit what happens on the screen. I had planned to do a review of the soundtrack, but got burned in an Internet transaction and ended with an incomplete bootleg of it instead of what was advertised. Maybe someday I will get my hands on it, since it is very good throughout.

BEWARE! SPOILERS BE AHEAD!!!

 

 

 

That last conversation between Boris and Shin was very well written. The fact that he does not make friends because he does not want to lose another was rather poignant. I kind of got the impression that Shin reminded him of his dead Naval Academy classmate and friend, Steve.

The night take off scene was a pretty thing and I appreciated them getting the hot nozzles right on Kim’s Sea Harrier FRS. 1. Amidst the many technical gaffes on the show, I have to point out when they get things right!

One ding and one praise. Nice imagery of the HUD on the F-8 as a MiG falls into gun range. Wait, the F-8 had a much simpler gun sight and that looks more like an F-15 display!

At least the MiG’s were properly depicted. In this case they are the night fighter variant, the MiG-17PF.  The night times scenes were all nice to look at and the dogfights were not ludicrous.

Okay, now for the ludicrous. The “Fangs of the Desert” weapon is pure science fiction, something that was actually used more in the manga. At least this seems theoretically possible and the kind of massive thing Saddam Hussein would have plowed money into developing.

A giant net made of steel beams propelled up into the air by rockets is still ludicrous. Yeah, it made for an exciting and very anime moment, but come on! It was clearly an excuse to use the wing folding on the F-8’s.

Ah, that ring. I knew it would be an important plot device the moment it was first shown, but it did not go the way I expected. I assume the dog tags on Boris’s desk were Steve’s, since they appeared to be damaged.

The strange bonding moment between Makoto and Shin as they turned off the lights to Boris’s room was an interesting turn. Shin’s vow to make it back to Japan as the sun rises was a clever bit.

Boris’s F-8 getting too old was good foreshadowing for what is to happen to Shin.