Anime like Area 88

Macross Plus

Also known as Macross Plus.

Studio: Triangle Staff , Manga Entertainment , Madman Entertainment , Selecta Visión , Studio Nue , Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions , Hero
Status: Finished
Genres: Action , Drama , Mecha , Music , Romance , Sci-Fi

The year is 2040 and the galaxy is flourishing with several colonies and advanced technology. AI is near perfection and the current top idol is the near-completed Virturoid Idol Sharon Apple. All that is missing are her actual feelings, which instead are supplied by Myung Fang Lone. Sharon's debut concert is on planet Eden, where at the same time, fighter pilots Isamu Dyson and Guld Bowman battle over air superiority for the "Supernova Project." Isamu, Guld and Myung were once childhood friends, but after an accident seven years ago, they went their own separate ways. With Myung back in the picture, the old disputes are once again awakened. And when an unstable and illegal AI technique is installed in Sharon, the situation is worsened.



Tags: Love Triangle , Space , Military , Artificial Intelligence , Heterosexual , Real Robot , Aviation , Idol , Primarily Adult Cast , Space Opera , Aliens , CGI , Guns

The Cockpit

Studio: MADHOUSE , Jacom , Visual 80 , Tokuma Shoten , Shogakukan
Status: Finished
Genres: Action , Drama

Slipstream
About a Luftwaffe pilot who must choose between his duty to his country: to guard a bomber loaded with Germany's final hope of victory... the world's first atomic bomb... or his duty to the world: to let it fall in flames to enemy Spitfires and be a footnote in history. Of course, things are complicated by the plane's other cargo... the woman he loves.

Sonic Boom Squadron
Near the end of the war, Japan has implemented a new weapon -- a human-piloted rocket-propelled flying bomb. Aboard a bomber carrying one of these, young Ensign Nogami awaits his chance to die as a "cherry blossom", a suicide pilot. In a few hours, he will die. The date of his death is set: August 6, 1945.

Knight of the Iron Dragon
Two soldiers attempt to reach an air base in order to fulfill a promise despite the fact that it might have been rendered moot in the reality of war.



Tags: Military , War , Historical , Aviation , Anthology , Foreign , Tragedy , Primarily Male Cast , Male Protagonist , Motorcycles

GATE: Jieitai Kanochi nite, Kaku Tatakaeri

Also known as Gate.

Studio: A-1 Pictures , Genco , Sentai Filmworks
Status: Finished
Genres: Action , Adventure , Fantasy

The military fantasy series begins when a gate appears in Tokyo's Ginza district sometime in the 21st century. From the gate pours out monsters, knights from middle-age Europe, and other fantasy-like beings, and they kill many of the citizens of Tokyo. This event is known as the Ginza Incident.

The government sends a small group of soldiers from the Japanese Self-Defense Forces (a replacement for Japan's military) to the alternate world beyond the gate. Led by otaku soldier Youji, they find that the villages in the world are being attacked by a dragon. An elf girl who is a survivor from the dragon's rampage joins the group in their travels across the dangerous new world.



Tags: Military , Isekai , War , Alternate Universe , Politics , Male Protagonist , Primarily Adult Cast , Magic , Primarily Female Cast , Dragons , Elf , Anachronism , Tanks , Otaku Culture , Language Barrier , Slavery , Kemonomimi , Kuudere

Sky Crawlers

Also known as The Sky Crawlers.

Studio: Production I.G
Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Psychological

The Sky Crawlers is based on a Japanese novel series by Hiroshi Mori. First published by Chuōkōron-shinsha in June 2001 and spanning five books, it follows the journeys and tribulations of a group of young fighter pilots involved in dogfight warfare, and is set during an alternate historical period.

Tags: Military , Philosophy , War , Tragedy , Dystopian , Clone , Male Protagonist , Aviation , Foreign , Reincarnation , Heterosexual , Kuudere , CGI , Amnesia

Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu

Also known as Legend of the Galactic Heroes.

Studio: Kitty Film , T.P.O , K-Factory , Sentai Filmworks
Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Sci-Fi

For decades, the Galactic Empire has been locked in an interstellar war with the Free Planets Alliance, a conflict that involves thousands of spaceships and millions of soldiers on both sides. Two new commanders enter the conflict with great hopes: Imperial Admiral Reinhard von Lohengramm and the FPA's Yang Wen-Li. As they deal with superiors and subordinates, maneuver through complicated political arrangements, plot strategies, and win battles, each will be tested, and ultimately, changed, by the reality of war.



Tags: Space Opera , Politics , War , Military , Space , Ensemble Cast , Primarily Adult Cast , Tragedy , Philosophy , Economics , Femboy , Primarily Male Cast , Terrorism , Male Protagonist , Royal Affairs , Cult , Gore , Revenge , Coming of Age , LGBTQ+ Themes , Foreign , Heterosexual , Tomboy , Post-Apocalyptic ,

Kouya no Kotobuki Hikoutai

Also known as The Magnificent KOTOBUKI.

Studio: GEMBA , BANDAI SPIRITS , Bandai Namco Entertainment , Bandai Namco Arts , Digital Frontier , Sentai Filmworks
Status: Finished
Genres: Action , Adventure

The story takes place in a barren frontier where people trade goods with each other in order to help each other survive. The Kotobuki Squadron are bodyguards for hire, led by a strict but beautiful squadron leader, an unreliable commanding officer, and a true artisan of a crew chief. Alongside pilots who don't lack for personality, they take to the air in dogfights, letting the engine noise of their Hayabusa fighters ring out in the skies.



Tags: Aviation , Primarily Female Cast , Full CGI , Female Protagonist , Military , CGI , Post-Apocalyptic , Alternate Universe , Cute Girls Doing Cute Things , Episodic , Guns

Salamander

Studio: Studio Pierrot , Pony Canyon
Status: Finished
Genres: Adventure , Sci-Fi

Three tales based on the Gradius video game series by Konami. The planet Latis is under attack by the Space Dragon Salamander and it's war planet, the Bacterian horde destroying everything in sight, their defenses ineffective and losing all hope, three heroes from the planet Gradius join Lord British in defense of his beloved planet.

Then in a prequel, a girl from a distant planet brings an ominous warning to the planet Gradius, the Bacterians and how three people become heroes of the galaxy.

Then we jump to the future, after the signing of a peace treaty, one of our heroes gets captured by the Bacterians, can the military might of Gradius and our remaining heroes save the prisoner from a fate worse than death.



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GREY: Digital Target

Studio: Magic Bus , Ashi Productions , Viz Media
Status: Finished
Genres: Action , Fantasy , Sci-Fi

Grey is a laconic trooper in a rough, futuristic military system which rewards success in battle with high pay and promotions, but only three percent of troopers live long enough for the final goal - citizenship and the chance for a life above the misery of most of the populace. Grey has managed to keep coming back alive, even earning the nickname Grey Death. But is the society he's fought for worth it?



Tags: Dystopian , Post-Apocalyptic , Battle Royale , Conspiracy , Cyberpunk , Male Protagonist , Primarily Adult Cast , Desert , Artificial Intelligence , Tragedy , Female Protagonist , Tanks , Guns , Gore , Seinen , Heterosexual

Macross Zero

Also known as Macross Zero.

Studio: Bandai Visual , Satelight
Status: Finished
Genres: Action , Adventure , Drama , Mecha , Romance , Sci-Fi

Taking place one year before the Zentraedi arrive on Earth, Macross Zero chronicles the final days of the war between the U.N. Spacy and anti-U.N. factions. After being shot down by the anti-U.N.'s newest fighter plane, ace pilot Shin Kudo finds himself on the remote island of Mayan, where technology is almost non-existent. While Shin stays on the island to heal his wounds, the tranqulity of the island is shattered by a battle that involves the UN's newest fighter - the VF-0.



Tags: Military , Real Robot , Environmental , CGI , Heterosexual , Aliens , Space , Love Triangle , Space Opera , Idol , Nudity