Area 88 (2004)

Japanese ace Shin Kazuma was staring at a cozy future at Yamato Airlines, where he was dating the president’s daughter. Instead, he’s tricked into signing on as a mercenary and now must serve a three year hitch or raises $1.5 million to buy his way out.

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Deep in the sandy plains of the Middle Eastern kingdom of Asran, Japanese photojournalist Makoto Shinjou travels to the remote airbase Area 88 to document the activities of the mercenaries who destroy the country’s enemies for a living. Among their ranks is Shin Kazama, a Japanese ace pilot who was tricked by his former best friend into signing a contract with the Asran’s fighter squad. Because of this, he lost his career as an airline pilot and the chance to marry his fiancee Ryoko Tsugumo. Now, Shin has three choices in order to leave Area 88 and return to Japan: serve the mercenary group for three years, earn US$1.5 million, or desert the base, risking imminent death.

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Shin Kazama was once in training to become an airline pilot, until his jealous friend Satoru Kanzaki tricked him into signing a 3 year contract whose reward is $1,500,000, and whose escape is unthinkable. His mission since that day has been to work for a hidden base of mercenaries known as Area 88, with the skies as his new home, soaring into deadly battles and fighting to survive. Determined not to die, this ace pilot of Area 88 battles hard daily to one day leave the hell of being a fighter pilot. Will he ever return to his fiance Ryoko, or is he doomed to die in the skies?