East Africa Safari Rally (Area 88)
The finished model:
The scene:
Mark III Commander Bosch hunts down Shin and his men, one by one in the jungle forest the south African country of Bamballa, as they try to escape with the President and his family. When Bosch kills “Map” (the logistics/transportation member of the team) his life flashes before his eyes and he thinks back to another time he was in Africa – during his time as a driver in the East Africa Safari Rally. As he and his navigator, in their Porsche 911, try to shake the legendary Datsun Z that’s hot on their tail, they are attack by an African native with a spear.
Check out the original manga scene from Chapter 116 “Survival Game” here:
The story:
This is the “forgotten story” of Area 88. Likely due to the racist caricature depiction of the African native, these pages have been removed from many of the Japanese editions of Area 88. I didn’t even realize it existed until I stumbled across these pages in a Korean edition – and suddenly the mystery of why that chapter was so short was solved! I absolutely don’t condone racism in any way, but I’m also not a fan of revisionist censorship either. This manga was originally published in the mid-1980s – and while that certainly doesn’t excuse the depiction, sensibilities in Japan at the time were quite different than they are today (albeit still not perfect) and how an image (really one single panel) made it past editorial is quite understandable.
My feeling is that we won’t learn from our mistakes if we don’t realize they were there. I’ve come across this many times in both Tintin (specifically Tintin in the Congo), but also in the works of Osamu Tezuka (creator of Astro Boy among many many others), and I believe that a caption highlighting and explaining/apologizing is the way to go in these cases.
To me, it’s sad that an amazing Rally Car action sequence was cut from the manga – one that also gives “Map” a bit more character development and backstory. So, I’m happy to include another car scene (minus the offending caricature of course) in my Area 88 1/144 project.
The kit(s):
The build:
Obviously, getting a Rally Car kit in 1/144 is a non-starter, but luckily this was the perfect job for my 3D resin printer! As luck would have it, I was able to find a couple of good-looking STL files on Thingverse and adapt them to my own use – basically just adding my own set of rally car lights and swapping out the tires.
The prints were very small, so the rear tail on the Porsche 911 just sort of evaporated, so a thin bit of plastic card and some CA glue came to the rescue.
I don’t have a great 3D printer, so there is usually quite a bit of clean up that needs to be done in terms of filling in the little ‘ledges’ left by the printer, so a light brushing of Tamiya putty and a equally light sanding job usually does the trick. It was nice not to have to worry about panel lines disappearing. Afterwards I gave both cars a coat of white primer and a top coat of Tamiya XF-2 White and a coat of Future to seal it all together.
For the Porsche, the next step was applying some tiny little homemade decals for the sponsor logos. They were small, but relatively easy to apply. For the Datsun Z though, I had to figure out the placement and size of the decals in advance, mask off the areas where they would be, and then paint the car red (Tamiya XF-7) and black (Tamiya XF-1 for the hood). It worked, but getting the decal placement just right was certainly a challenge.
The biggest challenge was probably masking the windows for painting. No clear parts on something this small, so I had to be satisfied with using Tamiay X-1 Gloss Black for the windows. Very tight in the corners, but you can’t really see the overspray, so I’m happy enough.
Finally, in an attempt to give the cars some sense of motion, I used a bit of paper “clay” for the sand and a bit of painted cotton for the blowing dust. It’s tough to paint without completely changing the shape of the cotton (or getting it matted down with paint).
Anyway, I’m pretty satisfied with the result. I think it does justice to the dramatic little “hidden” story in the manga, but feel free to tell me what you think.
I hope you are OK. I’ve missed your updates. I especially love the Tintin and Ghibli builds. But all of your work is fantastic.
Thanks Raphael!! All fine on this front… I’ve been working on a few updates to my Tintin projects… so stay tuned for more to come!
TBH Area 88 never painted a very true-to-life picture of Africans or Middle Easterners, so any disclaimer editions really should mention both. Damn sad how the latter portrayals of a fictional nation are *still* more sympathetic than seen in piles of War on Terror-vintage US technothrillers. Given the awful current & ongoing real-time political weaponization of revisionism & censorship, I have to agree with you there.
I don’t know the Area 88 manga, having never read it and being totaly unfamiliar with it, but I am familiar with the East Africa/Safari Rally having spent the better part of a decade in Africa and learned how to drive a stick on the wrong side of the road from an American turned Ugandan rally legend in the 2000s. It’s a shame that the “natives” are portrayed this way because anyone who’s spent much time in East Africa knows that the Safari Rally is the biggest sporting event of the year and is to East Africa culture what the Superbowl is to Americans. It’s the Kenyans and Ugandans (and the other countries of former British colonial East Africa) “natives” who are the biggest fans that line the stages in support, not rock throwing animosity. They’re the ones who will right overturned cars, will drag cars out of ditches when they are stuck and render aid to driver who need them, not *throw spears.*. Even for a Rally set in 72-74, (as we can deduce from practical reasons of a 911 running against Datsun Z), Kenya was a fairly civilized country. You’re much likelier to die on the Dakar (stranded off course and unrescued of dehydration) or on the Baja (for multiple reasons), which I think are the other two Rallies referred to in this manga.
BTW, totally textbook 80s/90s era sentry removal technique of knife in the space of the clavicle, except you’re supposed to wrap the head with your free arm first, IIRC. I don’t know if anyone’s actually performed it in the last half century, but it is textbook combat manual stuff.
Thanks for stopping by and leaving some very interesting comments. As I said elsewhere in the comments, manga depictions are infamous for their racist portrayals of black people, especially Africans. In the Area 88 manga, Shintani tries to crank up the drama by introducing an attack, but it’s frankly unnecessary. The Rally scene itself is fast and fun all by itself. It comes during a sequence when the group of mercenaries, led by Shin, are betrayed and then hunted down by the man who recruited them, which is pretty intense. I think Shintani might have been worried about dropping the intensity, but as a flashback scene, I think it’s a great interlude. After building this model I got quite interested in the history of the Safari Rally. Amazing that you’ve got some first hand experience with it. I’ve spent a lot of time in Asia, especially Korea, but never been anywhere in Africa. Seems like an amazing place!
Comics generally (including Manga and Bandes dessinées) generally have historically had poor descriptions of other peoples. I think you’re right, the disclaimers should mention both. Certainly some cringe-worthy episodes in almost every story you can find… but I don’t think we should shy away from it. Pretending it didn’t happen only ensures it will happen again (or continue to).