Yugo the Negotiator volume 1 and Area 88 volume 1 Anime DVD Reviews

Release Information: Yugo the Negotiator volume 1 of 4, containing the first three episodes, is available now in a DVD release and also as a DVD with a collector's box to hold the entire series.

Area 88, where the open sky can be a prison of betrayal and death.

Area 88 is the new TV series of an anime that was previously released much earlier as an OVA. Based on the popular manga, this brand new anime is an exciting new incarnation of the story. The series, brought to us by A.D. Vision, is a dramatic story about war, betrayal, and death, combined with riveting, beautiful flight scenes and amazingly animated dogfights in the blue skies.

A completely new character to the anime not seen in the manga is Shinjou, a photographer who is there to take photos of Area 88 and its pilots who fight in a civil war over the desert kingdom of Aslan. The pilots here are a band of mercenaries who are tied into a three year contract, or they can buy their way out for 1.5 million dollars. With each kill adding to their pay, each battle costing them in fuel and repairs, and a death rate of over 20%, most of these pilots are facing a death sentence. Here we meet Shin, a Japanese pilot tortured by a hidden past, a betrayal, and a goal to return to Japan. To do so, he has become the best pilot, and the best killer, downing more enemy planes than anyone else. Yet still his goal is far from reachable. Shinjou the photographer has a suspicious fascination with Shin, one yet to truly be revealed as is the reasons why Shin is trapped at Area 88 to begin with.

So far in just three episodes, we are introduced to a bloody war, its tragic consequences, and the mysterious destiny tying these two men together. If this story has any faults, it's in the slow start. By the end of the first volume we still are unaware of exactly what Shinjou's goal is or why Shin the pilot is there at all. We barely get hints. And for such a short series (only four volumes), it needs to pick up the pace for storytelling. What would make me forgive almost any flaw is the gorgeous animation of the aircrafts

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