Area 88 is a Japanese manga series authored by Kaoru Shintani that first began publishing in 1979. Running for 172 chapters over 23 volumes, the story follows a hopeful Japanese pilot named Shin Kazama who, thanks to a terrible friend's scheming, is forced into serving as a mercenary pilot for the fictional Kingdom of Aslan/Asran. With his options being fight for three years, earn 1.5mil USD, or desert and risk government-issued assassination, Shin slowly finds himself losing his mind to the horrors of war while struggling to find his way home. The story is certainly...unique at points with how absolutely ridiculous it can get (in truest traditions of manga and anime), but it's not a half-bad series and got both an OVA in 1985 and a TV series in 2004 with CG elements. This version of the Shin Kazama F-5E is based upon the livery and loadout used in the OVA with a simple dark blue stripe running along the entire spine and vertical tail of the plane, his trademark flaming unicorn emblem, and a black radome. As for weapons it's carries six AIM-9L Sidewinders; while a standard Tiger II should not be able to do this, it can easily be explained away as a modification made by the mercenaries to at least try and increase their survivability in a series that goes through nameless mooks like copy paper. Heck, even named characters aren't safe - the OVA ends with the implication that everyone dies in a big last stand dogfight against the antagonist forces while Shin does Shin things. It's certainly one of the series of all time.

Variants

"Ralfi's Raiders" EWR Strike
Area 88 TV series Shin Kazama 'desperate gunpods'

Controls

Group1 - Emergency tailhook
Group2 - Drogue chute
Group3 - N/A
Group4 - Jettison drop tanks
Group5 - Airbrakes
Group6 - Jettison weapon stores
Group7 - N/A
Group8 - Master Arm

Armament

2x M39 20mm revolving cannon
1x 150US Gal drop tank
6x AIM-9L Sidewinder missiles