Area 88 is a Japanese manga series by author Kaoru Shintani written from 1979 to 1986. Its story is focused on the exploits of Shin Kazama, a commercial airliner pilot turned mercenary fighting for money and survival in the fictional country of the Kingdom of Asran. Kazama and his fellow mercenaries operate a variety of Cold War-era combat aircraft, ranging from F-5E Tiger IIs and AV-8B Harrier IIs to prototypes such as the F-20A Tigershark. The manga spawned a 1989 videogame adaptation developed by Capcom (known internationally as U.N. Squadron) and two anime adaptations, an OVA in 1986 and a full-length series by the defunct Group TAC in 2004.
References in the Ace Combat series
Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War
- The Special color of the F-20A Tigershark is a replica of the F-20 flown by Shin Kazama.
Ace Combat Infinity
- Replicas of the aircraft flown by the main characters of the series are meant to appear in Ace Combat Infinity in a future update. Their existence had been revealed in a leak in Reddit and teased by Project Aces on their Twitter feed through videos in Vine, and confirmed in the 2014 Tokyo Game Show "Operation Future Prospect" trailer.
Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown
- One of the A-10C Thunderbolt II's skins features the livery of Greg Gates.