The Wings of Honneamise
by SGT_R22eR

How am I supposed to say if it was for the better or the worse. I've grew up all ordinary. Middle-class country side home, there was trees and streams. Being in the middle, I've never suffered the hardship of the poor. I couldn't grasp the frustration of the rich. I guess its an image, but when I was young, I knew what I wanted. Only the navy had jets, fast jets, they flew very high and very fast. I needed to feel those wings. I would have been a pilot and I'd touch the wind. I applied, but they couldn't accept me. My school graduated me but my grades told a different story. I wanted to acheive the greater heights. But I blew it and I landed back in the middle. Into the middle of the Space Force.

"Royal Space Force : The Wings of Honneamise" ("Honneamise no Tsubasa - Oritsu Uchugun") is a feature-lenght film (125 minutes) which was created by Gainax (in fact, it was their first feature-lenght film) based on a short story written by the film's director, Hiroyuki Yamaga. They received from Bandai Visuals a 800 millions Yen (aprx 8 millions US) for the production of the film. The biggest budget ever for an animated film at its time.

Story: The story is highly believable, since we, humankind, did it on April 12, 1961 with Yuri Gagarin. Launching a man into space. Also set in a very cold war climate, the world just came out of a world war, but tensions are pretty high, no one is making a move but everybody is ready to fight the enemy.The alien world where the story takes place as an architecture that is both looking like the 30's with a neo tech look, but it is still a big blue planet, is similar to Earth.

The space program's, being run by the military, purpose is to launch a manned warship (yes, including a weapon, could be a flare gun of a pea shooter but they asked for a warship) into space. Except some leaders think that this program is a waste of time and money, they conspire to use the program to spark an all-out war, which would get the war economy back on track. Meanwhile a team of aging scientists race against time to complete the first launch.

25/33 points

Characters :

The main character is Shirotsugh (Shiro) Lhadatt, a member of the Royal Space Force, a slacker, gets late at a collegue's funeral, without his uniform on, then just eats bread instead of doing his exercises and like everyone else in the Space Force at this point, sleeping most of the time. But as most of you should expect from character developper Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, Shiro doesn't stay like this all movie long. He meets Riqunni Nonderaiko, a very religious lady. Shiro's life finally gets a real purpose after a discussion with Riqunni. These are the most proeminent characters. The support characters are: Manna, a little girl who lives with Riqunni, Dr Gnomm, the most prominent scientist in the group, who builts the best rocket engines there is with a view of manufacturing of a "family" thing, Professor Dekro and Professor Ronta, all three are in the Space Travel Society, a group of aging scientists. Also, General Khaidenn, who is in charged of the Space Force and harsh with Shiro, because he believes that he is a slacker, wanted to become an historian, but the previous war broke out and since then, been in the military. They all play a part, even if it is a very small one.

31/34 points

Animation and Sounds : Don't compare "Wings" to "Evangelion", "Wings" was Gainax's first project after a short 4 minutes animation. But, You will be surely surprised by the quality of the animations, especially the action scenes towards the end of the movie and a launch of a spaceship (I'm not saying which one, because you'll see a couple of launches), the animation hit a peak only surpassed by the real Apollo footage. There is one flaw with the animation and music altogether.

There is a scene of a marching band playing, but the music nor the animation are in sync with one another. But overall, soundwise, it is good. Music is a bit "antique" but fits appropriately the settings.

30/33 points

Conclusion : "Royal Space Force : The Wings of Honneamise" is a great classic, since it was also the first anime which wasn't based on a manga, it established anime as a true art form. Animations are great, story is plausible and well structure and it was made by what is now "THE" anime studio, Gainax. What can you ask more? Bottomline, if you are a true anime fan, you should own this classic and keep it close to "Akira".

Total : 86/100 points

More info :

General Producer : Makoto Yamashina Executive Producers : Toshio Okada, Shigeru Watanabe Producers : Hirohiko Sueyoshi, Hiroaki Inoue Original Screenplay : Hiroyuki Yamaga Character design & Director of Animation : Yoshiyuki Sadamoto Director of Animation : Hideaki Anno, Fumio Iida, Yuji Moriyama Art Director : HiroMasa Ogura Director of Photography : Hiroshi Isagawa Photography Supervision : Iwao Yamaki

Editing : Harutoshi Ogata
Sound Director : Atsumi Tashiro
Sound Effect : Mitsuru Kashiwabara
Recording : Shohei Hayashi
Music Director : Ryuichi Sakamoto
Director : Hiroyuki Yamaga

Original Cast :

Shirotsugh Lhadatt : Leo Morimoto
Riqunni : Mitsuki Yayoi
Manna : Aya Murata
Kharock : Masato Hirano
Domorhot : Yoshitaka Suzuoki
Darigan : Hiroshi Izawa
Tchalluchammi : Koiji Totani
Nekkerout : Yoshito Yasuhara
Yanalan : Bin Shimada
Majaho : Masahiro Anzi
Gen Khaidenn : Minoru Uchida
Dr Gnomm : Chikao Otsuka
Prof Dekro : Hiroh Oikawai
Prof Ronta : Ryuzi Saikachi