The Scale Models of Kaoru Shintani

The Shintani projects:

My projects based on the manga works of artist Kaoru Shintani break down into these main sections:

The passion:

I’m a huge fan of the manga artist Kaoru Shintani (新谷 かおる). He might not be on the same level of recognition as Osamu Tezuka (Astro Boy), Rumiko Takahashi (Ranma 1/2), or Leiji Matsumoto (Galaxy Express 999), but it was really his work that first got me interested in manga.

Now, of course, I’m mainly talking about his series Area 88, – and If you’d like to know more about that series, I encourage you to check out my Area 88 fan site.

But, In a nutshell, Area 88 (also known as エリア88) is a Japanese manga series written and drawn by Kaoru Shintani that was originally serialized between 1979 and 1986.  It’s the story of a young pilot named Shin Kazama and his experiences at AREA 88, a mercenary air force base in the middle of a war-torn desert nation know as the Kingdom of Asran.  Originally a head-of-the-class student at a world-renowned aviation school in France, on track to marry the beautiful daughter of the president of Yamato Airlines, Shin’s dreams are derailed by his traitorous friend Kanzaki.  Jealous of his childhood friend’s success, Satoru Kanzaki dupes a drunken Shin into signing enlistment papers for a 3-year contract to become a mercenary jet fighter pilot for the Kingdom of Asran – a country griped in a bloody civil war of succession.  Determined to earn the $1.5 million he needs to buy out his contract, Shin quickly becomes one of the top aces at AREA 88 and then needs to come to grips with his shame and self-loathing over the killing-machine he has become.

You can imagine, when VIZ Media unleashed Area 88 on me in May of 1987 I was woefully unprepared but completely blown away.  One of the first three manga to be translated and published in English in North America, Area 88 had an instant impact on me – I loved all three… but I REALLY loved Area 88.

Even though the series was unfortunately never completed in English, I eventually tracked down a full set of the manga translated into Korean and was able to enjoy the entire story to its conclusion.

Area 88 was also responsible for getting me into scale modelling – at least partially.  When I first started getting a taste for building scale models, I wasn’t that interested in authentic real-world representations.  A lot of (most?) people seem to enjoy that aspect of scale modelling – building planes or tanks that they flew/drove/worked on in their youth… or that their parents/grandparents flew during the war… but I had no real connection to any of that.  What I did have a connection to was Area 88.

However, Shintani’s work in general lends itself well to model building – which perhaps should come as no surprise that he himself is a prolific model builder. Beyond Area 88, I’ve also become a fan of several of his other serials and short-story manga, in particular motorsport works like Gentle Man, B&W Sheep, and Goddamn, and his WWII short story collection, Battlefield Roman. All of which, sooner or later will make an appearance in my builds.