Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise

is a 1987 Japanese animated science fiction film written and directed by Hiroyuki Yamaga, co-produced by Hiroaki Inoue and Hiroyuki Sueyoshi, and planned by Toshio Okada and Shigeru Watanabe. Ryuichi Sakamoto, later to share the Academy Award for the soundtrack to The Last Emperor, served as music director. The film's story takes place on an alternate world where a disengaged young man, Shirotsugh, inspired by an idealistic woman named Riquinni, volunteers to become the first astronaut, a decision that draws them into both public and personal conflict. The film was the debut work of anime studio Gainax, whose later television and movie series Neon Genesis Evangelion would achieve international recognition, and was the first anime produced by toy and game manufacturer Bandai, eventually to become one of Japan's top anime video companies.
Yamaga and Okada had become known through making amateur fan-oriented short films, particularly the Daicon III and IV Opening Animations, but their pitch for Royal Space Force argued that growing the anime industry required a shift away from works that pleased fans on a surface level but reinforced their isolation, advocating instead for a different type of anime that attempted to engage with fans as human beings who shared in the alienation issues of a larger society. The making of Royal Space Force involved a collaborative year-long design process using many creators, including some from outside the anime industry, to construct an elaborately detailed alternate world described as neither utopian nor dystopian, but "an attempt to approve existence". Science fiction writer Ted Chiang, author of "Story of Your Life", the basis for the film Arrival, would later describe Royal Space Force as the single most impressive example of worldbuilding in books or film.
Royal Space Force collective approach to filmmaking, its deliberate rejection of established anime motifs, its visual complexity, and the general lack of professional experience among its staff were all factors in its chaotic production, while increasing uncertainty about the project led to what has been described as an attempt by its investors and producers to "fix" the film before release, imposing a late name change to The Wings of Honnêamise, and a lavish but deceptive publicity campaign that included misleading advertising as well as a staged premiere at Mann's Chinese Theatre on February 19, 1987. Although receiving some support among domestic anime fans and the industry upon its March 14, 1987, release in Japan by Toho subsidiary Toho-Towa, including praise from Hayao Miyazaki, and Mamoru Oshii, the film failed to make back its costs at the box office, but eventually became profitable through home video sales. Future Evangelion director Hideaki Anno would later describe the reception Royal Space Force received as having had a major impact on him both personally and as a creator.
Royal Space Force did not receive an English-language commercial release until 1994, when Bandai licensed the film to Manga Entertainment. A dubbed 35 mm version toured theaters in North America and the United Kingdom, during which time it received coverage in major newspapers but highly mixed reviews. Since the mid-1990s, it has received several English-language home video releases, and various historical surveys of anime have regarded the film more positively; Yamaga has stated his belief in retrospect that the elements which made Royal Space Force unsuccessful made possible the later successes of Studio Gainax.
==Plot==
In the Kingdom of Honnêamise— on a different, Earthlike world of mid-20th century technology— a young man named Shirotsugh Lhadatt recalls his middle-class upbringing and childhood dream to fly jets for the navy. His grades disqualifying him, Shirotsugh ended up instead joining the "Royal Space Force," a tiny unit with poor morale whose commander, General Khaidenn, dreams of human spaceflight, yet is barely capable of launching unmanned satellites. One night, Shirotsugh encounters a woman named Riquinni who is preaching in the red-light district. Riquinni Nonderaiko, who lives with a sullen little girl named Manna, surprises him by suggesting that humanity could find peace through space travel. Inspired, Shirotsugh volunteers for a last-ditch project to keep the Space Force from being disbanded: send the first astronaut into orbit.
Riquinni gives Shirotsugh scriptures to study, but becomes upset when he touches her and angry when he suggests she should "compromise" with God. Riquinni feels such compromise is to blame for the evils of the world, but Shirotsugh suggests it has made it easier to live in. The General arranges a shady deal to help finance his project, and tells a cheering crowd that the orbital capsule will be a "space warship". Soon after, Riquinni's cottage is foreclosed upon and demolished; not wishing to expose Manna— whose mother was constantly abused by her husband— to any more conflicts, she rejects the outraged Shirotsugh's offer to get her a lawyer. He begins to read Riquinni's scriptures, which assert that humanity is cursed to violence for having stolen fire.
A test explosion that kills the chief rocket engineer is suggested to be the work of radicals, and Shirotsugh confounds his friends by sympathizing with protestors who say the mission is a waste of federal funding. The launch site is suddenly moved to the Kingdom's southern border, which will assist in reaching orbit but is also adjacent to a territory occupied by their international rival, the distant Republic. The General learns to his shock that his superiors see the rocket only as a useful provocation; unknown to the Kingdom, the Republic plans to buy time to get their forces into position by assassinating Shirotsugh.
Increasingly disenchanted, Shirotsugh goes AWOL, giving his money to the homeless and joining Riquinni's ministry, but is troubled by Manna's continued silence and seeing the money Riquinni keeps. He turns away when she reads from her scriptures that one’s own efforts at truth and good will fail, and one can only pray. That night, he sexually assaults her; when he hesitates momentarily, she knocks him unconscious. Next morning, a repentant Shirotsugh is bewildered when Riquinni maintains he did nothing, apologizing for having hit “a wonderful person like you". Reuniting with his best friend Marty, Shirotsugh asks whether one might be the villain in one's own life's story, not its hero. Marty replies with the view that people exist because they serve purposes for one another. The Republic's assassin strikes— Shirotsugh attempts to flee, but eventually fights back, killing the assassin. The General confides in the wounded astronaut afterwards that he once wanted to be a historian and not a soldier, but found history harder to confront, because it taught him human nature would not change.
At the launch site, the crew finishes assembling the rocket even as both sides prepare for the expected attack. Without informing his superiors, the General decides to launch early by trimming safety procedures, to which Shirotsugh agrees. When the Republic's forces invade to seize the rocket by force, an evacuation is ordered, but Shirotsugh rallies the crew to proceed with the countdown. The combined ground-air assault ceases with the rocket's unexpected launch, and the Republic forces withdraw. From orbit, Shirotsugh makes a radio broadcast, uncertain if anyone is listening: although humans have brought ruin to each new frontier, he asks nevertheless to give thanks for this moment, praying for forgiveness and guidance. As the capsule crosses into the dayside, a montage of visions suggests Shirotsugh's childhood and the passage of history; far below, Riquinni, preaching where he first met her, is the only one to look up as the snow begins to fall, and the camera draws back, past the ship and its world, to the stars.
== Voice Actors ==
Character 	Original 	Go East dub 	Animaze dub
Kharock 	Masato Hirano 	Herbert Ellis (General Dickson) 	Stevie Beeline
Darigan 	Hiroshi Izawa 	Stan Wojno (Steinberg) 	Rudy Luzion
Nekkerout 	Yoshito Yasuhara 	Stan Wojno (McCarthy) 	Warren Daniels
Yanalan 	Bin Shimada 	Stan Wojno (Carlos Sanchez) 	Richard George
Khaidenn 	Minoru Uchida 	Stan Wojno (Carson) 	Arnie Hanks
Space Force Trainer 	Shōzō Iizuka 	Hal Smith 	Steve Blum
Gnomm 	Chikao Ohtsuka 	Hal Smith (Dr. Moss) 	Alfred Thor
Professor Dekro 	Hirowo Oikawa 	Herbert Ellis (Dr. Leclair) 	Steve Blum
Ronta 	Ryuzi Saikachi 	Hal Smith 	Steve Blum
Aristocrats 	Gorō Naya 	Herbert Ellis 	Arnie Hanks
Aristocrats 	Mikio Terashima 	Herbert Ellis 	Doug Stone
Aristocrats 	Tetsuya Kaji 	Hal Smith 	Steve Blum
Airmen 	Ichirō Murakoshi 	Herbert Ellis (Air Force Sergant) 	Jonathan Charles
Airmen 	Keisuke Yamashita	Stan Wojno (Jerry) 	Steve Blum
Denta 	Tetsuya Yamazaki 	Stan Wojno 	Jonathan Charles
Vice-Minister Nerredon	Willie Dorsey 	Hal Smith (Prime-Minister Scorco) 	Simon Isaacson
Nerredon's Secretary 	Frizanki Belloto 	Herbert Ellis (Scorco's Secretary)	Dan Martin
Prince Toness 	Kazuo Kumakara 	Herbert Ellis 	Dougary Grant
===Additional Voices===
*Original: Leo Morimoto (Shirotsugh Lhadatt), Mitsuki Yayoi (Riquinni Nonderaiko), Aya Murata (Manna Nonderaiko), Hirotaka Suzoki (Domorhot), Koji Totani (Tchallichammi), Masahiro Anzai (Majaho), Kazuo Makino (Funeral Priestess), Atsushi Goto (Man in Bar), Masako Katsuki (Woman in Bar), Yuko Kobayashi (Prostitute), Reiko Seno (Test Film Narrator), Ritsuo Sawa (Air Force Pilot), Takao Ishii (ATC Voice), Kazuo Hayashi (Airman C), Theatre Echo, Steve Felper (War Room Announcer), Don Whittiker (Intelligence Officer), William Roberts (Refueling Plane Pilot), Jerry MacKerrick (Republic Commander), Dora Cotrell (Republic Newscaster), Anton Whikey (Radio Comedian), Osman Sancon (Radio Comedian), Kazuo Tokumitsu (Honneamise Newscaster), Kazuyuki Sogabe (Marty Tohn)
*Go East dub: Herbert Ellis (Major Starky, Others), Shawn Levy, Hal Smith, Stan Wojno, Steve Zuckerman
*Animaze dub: Jayne Allen, Steve Blum, Jonathan Charles, Tom Charles, Warren Daniels, Wendee Day (Manna Nonderaiko, Others), Bambi Darro, Christophe De Groot (Tchallichammi), Gary Dubin, Jack Emmet, Jeff Frayer, Lena Gale, Richard George, Dougary Grant, Stanley Gurd Jr. (Domorhot, Others), Arnie Hanks, Simon Isaacson, Melody Lee (Riquinni Nonderaiko), Rudy Luzion, Jill Lyons, Dan Martin, Robert Matthews (Shirotsugh Lhadatt), Dorothy Melendrez, Joe Montane, Anthony Mozdy (Majaho, Others), Joe Romersa, Anthony Santacrose, Doug Stone, Lee Stone (Marty Tohn), Helen Storm (Tenz Kovikh, Others), Thomas White, Mimi Woods
==Voice acting==
The voice performances in Royal Space Force were supervised by Atsumi Tashiro of the anime studio Group TAC, who had been sound director for the highly influential 1974 TV series Space Battleship Yamato. Gainax had been enthusiastic in pursuing Tashiro's involvement, even though Tashiro had not worked outside his own company in over 20 years, sending him the film’s script, followed by a personal visit from Yamaga and Okada. Despite his initial difficulty in grasping the project, Tashiro was struck by the passion and youth of the filmmakers, and felt that working with them on Royal Space Force would represent an opportunity to "revitalize" himself professionally. 
Yamaga remarked that he "wanted the dialogue to be natural," which he maintained was "a first in Japanese animation." Akai felt a tone had been set for Royal Space Force by the decision to cast Leo Morimoto in the lead role as Shirotsugh: "The other actors [then] knew that this was going to be a different kind of animated film." Morimoto was a 43-year old veteran actor of live-action films and TV but had very limited experience in anime, whereas Mitsuki Yayoi, cast as Riquinni after Gainax had heard her on the radio, was a stage actor and member of the Seinenza Theater Company with some voice-over experience, but who had never before played an anime role. Tashiro saw the casting as a great opportunity for him, asserting that the apprehension Morimoto and Yayoi felt due to their mutual unfamiliarity with the field meant that they approached their roles as an actual encounter, with genuine emotion and reactions that were honest and fresh, a spirit that Tashiro said he had forgotten within the world of anime.
Morimoto remarked during a recording session for the film in late November 1986 that Tashiro directed him not to play the role of Shirotsugh as if it were an anime, but rather to attempt the flavor of a live performance, and that Yamaga had given him the same instructions. He commented that it was a difficult role for him, as unlike a live-action drama, "you can't fake the mood, you have to express yourself correctly with just your voice," and viewed his work on Royal Space Force as "scary" but "fulfilling." Although evaluating the character himself as "not a great hero," at the same time he found much that was convincing in Shirotsugh's growth, feeling that it somehow came to assume the role of history's own progression: "What is to be found at the end of that maturation is gradually revealed, arriving at a magnificent place." He added he was "shocked that a 24-year old could make such a film ... I'm glad to know that [creators] like this are making their debut, and I hope that more of them do."
Yayoi commented that Yamaga had described Riquinni to her as "uncompromising in her beliefs, and this could be seen as hardheadedness and causing problems or discomfort to those around her. But also that she could look upon something truly beautiful, yet not respond simply by thinking that yes, it is beautiful, but might ponder it, and wonder if it genuinely is. It's not a disability or a deliberate obstacle [in her character], but just that people around her would honestly think that this girl is a little bit weird." Yayoi understood Riquinni as a "normal girl" who, to the extent she was out of step with everyday life, was not so much because she was strange on the inside, but because her relationships with the exterior world were governed by her strong will; Yayoi suggested that the film is her coming-of-age story as well. 
==Music==
In April 1986, Ryuichi Sakamoto was selected as the musical director of Royal Space Force. Sakamoto was already regarded for his work in the pioneering electronic band Yellow Magic Orchestra and his soundtrack for the 1983 Nagisa Oshima film Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence; the year following the release of Royal Space Force, Sakamoto would share the Academy Award for Best Original Score for the soundtrack to The Last Emperor. In 1986 Sakamoto was prominent also in the Japanese domestic film market for his soundtrack to its top-grossing movie of that year, Koneko Monogatari. Ryusuke Hikawa commented that in fact the musical director was the only member of Royal Space Force main staff known to the general public at the time of the film's production; Yamaga recalled that asking Sakamoto to do the music for Royal Space Force required a special increase of 40 million yen above its previous 360 million yen budget. Sakamoto's first commercial release of music for the project occurred three months before the Japanese debut of the film itself, in the form of a 12" maxi single entitled The Wings of Honnêamise: Image Sketch, containing early mixes of four key initial pieces he had composed for the film's soundtrack, referred to on Image Sketch only under the names "Prototype A", "Prototype B", "Prototype C", and "Prototype D". In its liner notes Sakamoto commented that one of the main reasons he accepted the job was that he saw a resemblance between the meticulous care he put into his music and the efforts the filmmakers were taking with Royal Space Force. Yamaga wrote in Image Sketch that he saw Sakamoto as a composer who, like the other creators working on the film, rejected "fill-in-the-blank" styles and instead expressed a deep personal sensibility.
Sakamoto brought into the Royal Space Force project his prior collaborators on Koneko Monogatari, musicians Koji Ueno, Yuji Nomi, and Haruo Kubota. Ueno, Kubota, and Nomi took as their starting points Sakamoto's four prototypes as well as a set of "keywords" that Yamaga had given them for guidance. The team worked from a
"chart table" prepared by Sakamoto and sound director Atsumi Tashiro listing each scene in the film requiring music, with notes on length, the kind of music to be used, and which of the four prototypes to use as a basis for their arrangements. Ueno, Kubota, and Nomi then decided which scenes in the film they would each arrange, and then made their pieces separately, neither working on them in the studio together, or with Sakamoto. After arranging a piece, they would reassemble as a group and listen to each other's work, and then go their separate ways once again to continue the process. Of the 47 musical arrangements made for the film based on the chart, of which 15 were later selected to be featured on The Wings of Honnêamise~Royal Space Force Original Soundtrack album released in March 1987, most were developed as variations on one of Sakamoto’s original four prototypes; for example, "Prototype A" would become the basis of the film's opening credits theme. A few were created based on arrangements combining two of the four prototypes; 13 of the 47 pieces, however, were not based on any of the four, but were instead new original compositions created later in the soundtrack process by Ueno, Kubota, Nomi, or Sakamoto himself; several of these were featured on the Original Soundtrack. The background music pieces not included on the Original Soundtrack would eventually be collected as a bonus feature on the 1990 Royal Space Force~The Wings of Honnêamise Memorial Box LaserDisc edition; this bonus feature would also be included as an extra on the 2000 Manga Entertainment DVD.
Toshio Okada remarked in 1995, "I didn't really like Sakamoto's [musical] style back then, or even now. But I know his talent, his ability to construct a strong score, and write an entire orchestration. That’s why I chose him," stating that "at that time, he was the only choice for an original movie soundtrack." Asked if he had considered Joe Hisaishi, Okada replied, "Hisaishi always writes one or two melodies, and the rest of the soundtrack is constructed around them ... But his kind of style wouldn't have worked for [Royal Space Force] ... for better or worse, the film has a very differentiated structure, and we needed a score to match that." In 2018, Sakamoto’s film score for My Tyrano: Together, Forever was reported by media outlets as his first time composing for animation. The composer remarked in an interview earlier that year that he had been in charge of the music for an anime film "35 [sic] years ago, but I didn't like it very much (so I can't say the title)." Commenting on Sakamoto’s remarks, Okada recalled that the composer had been sincerely excited about creating the music for Royal Space Force early on in the project, and had studied its storyboards closely for inspiration; the liner notes for the 1987 Original Soundtrack album noted a music planning meeting where the enthusiasm was so great participants ended up staying for 12 hours. Okada theorized Sakamoto may have seen the exactly timed scenes as a chance to achieve a perfect sync between his music and the images; however, Okada noted, the actual length of a finished cut of animation may vary slightly, and ultimately the sound director has the prerogative to edit the music accordingly. Okada believed such issues could have been resolved if he had the opportunity to speak directly with Sakamoto and make adjustments, but after a point communications became relayed through his management, Yoroshita Music. The composer himself had been away from Japan during the final months of Royal Space Force production, which overlapped with the shooting schedule of The Last Emperor. Okada asserted that although Sakamoto and Yamaga themselves never came into conflict, the situation led to frustration among the film’s staff, and in particular between Yoroshita and sound director Tashiro; Tashiro eventually asked Okada to make the call as to whether he or Sakamoto would have final say on placing the music. Okada chose Tashiro, remarking that he accepted responsibility for the decision although he believed it was what soured Sakamoto on Royal Space Force, to the extent of not discussing it as part of his history as a film composer.
==Marketing and release==
===Marketing===
By late 1986, signs of nervousness had appeared among sponsors and investors in the film, as "the footage of Royal Space Force neared completion … and was found to be inconveniently free of many merchandising spin-off opportunities," prompting what Jonathan Clements describes as "outrageous attempts" by its financial backers to "fix" the film that began with "prolonged arguments over a sudden perceived need to rename it." The project had been pitched, developed, and approved for production under the name Royal Space Force; Okada remarked that, to Gainax, it was "its one and only title". All Nippon Airways, one of the film's sponsors, however desired that the title include the word "wings", while Bandai favored that the title should use the form "Something of Something," on the reasoning that the last big anime hit had been called Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. As Royal Space Force "was 'not sexy enough and Riquinni was "conveniently female," the initial push was to use the title (The) Wings of Riquinni.
Although the plan to make Royal Space Force had been known around the anime industry since mid-1985, the official announcement of the film was not made until June 4, 1986, in a press conference held at the prestigious Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. The announcement used Royal Space Force as the main title of the film, with (The) Wings of Riquinni as a smaller subtitle; privately, Yamaga objected strongly to the subtitle, pointing out the purpose of the film was to expand the audience's view of the world, and that he did not want a title that focused on one character; therefore, if a second title was absolutely required, he suggested it use Honnêamise after the name of the kingdom in which most of the film's events takes place. As 1986 drew to a close, publicity for the film gradually relegated Royal Space Force to the status of a smaller subtitle beneath The Wings of Honnêamise.
In a 2010 memoir, Okada reflected that the conflict had involved not only the film’s title, but also its length. Okada acknowledged a shorter movie could have potentially increased ticket sales by allowing the film to be shown more times per day; at the time, however, Okada had refused, arguing that the box office was not part of his job, saying in a meeting that if they wanted to cut the film by even 20 minutes, they might as well cut off Okada's arm. In retrospect, Okada felt that he had acted like a child, but that "creators are all children." Bandai company president Makoto Yamashina affirmed shortly before the film's release that during a three week period he and distributor Toho-Towa had thought of cutting 20 minutes from the film: "but the process of deciding what [scenes] to cut began with conversations about why they shouldn't be cut. And afterwards, I thought, 'Ah, I get it now' and felt that I couldn't ... For the sake of the box office, it could have worked at around 100 minutes, but if we cut the film at this stage, the whole objective of the movie flies out the window, and the hundreds of millions of yen spent on it have no meaning." Yamashina told Toho he would accept responsibility if his decision meant the film was not a hit.
Okada wrote of having later heard how "emotions were running high" on the Bandai side as well, to the extent of considering taking the project away from Gainax and giving it to another studio to finish, or even cancelling the film's release, despite the 360 million yen already spent on producing it. However, this would have required someone's "head to roll" at Bandai to take responsibility for the loss, which could mean Makoto Yamashina himself, who had announced Royal Space Force as his personal project durung the official press conference in June. Okada noted that the person caught in the middle was Shigeru Watanabe, who had supported the project from the beginning but now found himself "forced into a very difficult position," becoming so depressed by the conflict that following the film's release, he took a year's leave of absence. Okada expressed great regret for what he described as his lack of kindness at the time toward Watanabe, but nevertheless did not regret his lack of compromise, believing that if he had given any ground, the film might have not been completed.
Okada asserted in a 1995 interview that as Nausicaä had been "the last 'big anime hit,'" the marketing staff at Toho-Towa modeled their thinking upon it, and after realizing the film was not going to be like Nausicaä, decided to advertise it as if it was. Yamashina had himself acknowledged that the film’s sales target was based on Nausicaä even though "the content of this work isn’t like Nausicaä ... No one’s ever done something like this before, so it’s a great risk in that respect." In 2000, Akai recalled, "The PR department didn't really seem to understand the film. They have a tendency to make a new release interesting by making it appear similar to a film that was previously a hit." Yamaga commented, "There was no precedent in advertising a film like ours at the time ... they can only compare it to something like Nausicaä. It's actually completely different." Yamaga however felt that Nausicaä "at least served as a reference when we were asked to describe our film. If it wasn't for that precedent, there would have been no reference point at all." Clements remarked, "the promotions unit did everything in their power to make Honnêamise appeal to precisely the same audience as Nausicaä, even if that meant misleading advertising," citing an "insect incident" where Yoshiyuki Sadamoto was asked to draw an image of Manna’s pet bug as if it were a giant creature attacking the city in the film, in the manner of the giant ohmu in Nausicaä.
The national publicity campaign for the film now being promoted under the title The Wings of Honnêamise~Royal Space Force began on New Year's Day, 1987, including full-color newspaper and magazine ads, as well as TV commercials, with eventual placements in over 70 media outlets. As with the "insect incident," a frequent aspect of the marketing push involved taking images from the film and presenting them as fantastical, such as a steam train from the movie relabeled as a "bio-train" in ads. The film's official press kit described its story premise as: "'... Through the guidance of a lass with a pure and untainted soul, those who are awakened shall take wing and rise to Heaven, taking in hand the Honnêamise holy book' ... Shirotsugh grew up to join the Royal Space Force, as did other youths as hot blooded and energetic as he. It was then that work began on a grand project to search space for the envisioned holy book that promises eternal peace to Honnêamise." The standing stone seen briefly in the story, while given no particular meaning in the film itself, was repurposed into a major feature of the film's advertising, labeled as a "Symbol Tower" that shines due to what ads described as a secret telepathic link born from the "passionate love" between Shirotsugh and Riquinni. The only dialogue spoken in the trailer, "Do you believe in the miracle of love?" said by Riquinni's voice actor, Mitsuki Yayoi, was not a line from the actual film, but referenced a catchphrase used in the advertising campaign.
===Release===
====Japanese release====
Shortly before the release of the film, Makoto Yamashina stated his considerable uncertainty over how the film would be received, with the fear that "the theaters will be deserted." He also however expressed anxiety over the implications for the industry if it succeeded: "If it turns out that young people today are thinking along Yamaga's lines, at that level of sophistication, it's going to be very difficult [for other filmmakers] ... It's hard for me to talk about the film like this, but regardless of whether or not it succeeds, it's a movie that I don't understand." In an attempt to build publicity for the film’s March 1987 release in Japan, a world premiere event was held on February 19, 1987, at Mann's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. The one-night showing was arranged for the Japanese media, with all Tokyo TV news shows covering the premiere; Bandai paid for 200 anime industry notables to attend as well. Footage from the Hollywood event was incorporated into a half-hour promotional special that aired March 8 on Nippon TV, six days before the film's release in Japan. Americans invited to the showing included anime fans and several figures associated with U.S. science fiction cinema including The Terminator and Aliens actor Michael Biehn, as well as Blade Runner designer Syd Mead. Although referred to in Japanese publicity materials as The Wings of Honnêamise~Royal Space Force "American prescreening," the film was shown under the name Star Quest, and presented in an English dub remarked upon by both U.S. and Japanese anime magazines covering the event for its significant differences from the original film; in 2021 Bandai’s Ken Iyadomi recalled, "it was localized in a totally American way, and everyone hated it." 
The Wings of Honnêamise~Royal Space Force was released nationwide in Japan on March 14, 1987. In a late spring discussion following the film's release, co-producer Hiroaki Inoue asserted that the film "put up a good fight," arguing that the average theater stay for original anime films was four weeks; in one theater, Royal Space Force had managed a seven-week engagement. Takeda recalled, "Not a single theater cancelled its run, and in some locations, it actually had a longer run than initially planned ... The budget scale meant that reclaiming all the production costs at the box office simply wasn't feasible." Clements however presents an argument that the film was overinvested in as part of the "goldrush tensions" of Japan’s bubble economy, and that the original plan to release it as an OVA might have been more financially sensible. Beginning with its 1990 Japanese laserdisc box set release, the film's main title was changed back to Royal Space Force, with The Wings of Honnêamise as a smaller subtitle. Although Gainax itself was nearly bankrupted by the project, Bandai recouped its investment in September 1994, seven and a half years after its Japanese theatrical release; the film has continued to generate profit for them since.
====English-language release====
An English-subtitled 16 mm film version of the film authorized by Bandai screened at the 1988 Worldcon; a contemporary report linked it to a possible home video version in the United States. However, it was not until 1994 that the film received an actual commercial English-language release, when a new English dub, using its original Japanese theatrical release title The Wings of Honnêamise: Royal Space Force was recorded at Animaze and released by Manga Entertainment. The new English dub showed in over 20 movie theaters during 1994–95 as a 35 mm film version and was subsequently released in both dubbed and subtitled form on VHS and LaserDisc. Animerica, in a contemporary review, assessed the dub as "admirable in many respects," but argued that changes to the dialogue meant the subtitled version represents "a clearer presentation of the original ideas and personalities created by Hiroyuki Yamaga." In a later interview however, Yamaga, while confirming he had not approved the dub script beforehand, was more ambivalent, stating that he himself had enjoyed foreign films whose translations had been changed: "What I think is that everyone has their own areas of tolerance as you shift from the original work ... It comes down to what you're willing to accept."
The 2000 release by Manga Entertainment on DVD, although praised for its commentary track with Hiroyuki Yamaga and Takami Akai, was at the same time severely criticized for its poor visual quality. In 2007, Bandai Visual released a Blu-ray/HD DVD version to mark the film's 20th anniversary; this release used the audio of the 1997 Japanese edition of the film in which its sound effects were re-recorded in Dolby 5.1. Although containing a 20-page booklet with essays by Hiroyuki Yamaga and Ryusuke Hikawa, it lacks the commentary track of the 2000 Manga DVD release, and is now out of print. Maiden Japan re-released the movie separately on Blu-ray and DVD in 2013. In August 2022, Section23 Films announced a concurrent home video release with Bandai Namco Filmworks of a 4K remaster of the film supervised by director Hiroyuki Yamaga, containing as extras the 1987 Japanese production documentary Oneamisu no Tsubasa: Ōritsu Uchūgun—Document File, a version of the pilot film with an alternate audio track, and a collection of the film’s background music. The film's initial release in the United Kingdom on VHS in 1995 by Manga Entertainment was cut to remove the attempted rape scene; in a contemporary interview, BBFC examiner Imtiaz Karim indicated this was done voluntarily by Manga, so that the film, which had been certified for audiences 15 and up when shown in UK theaters, could receive the lower PG certificate when released on home video. The 2015 Blu-ray and DVD UK edition of the film from Anime Limited was released uncut with a 15 certificate.
==Reception==
===Critical response in Japan===
The Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan's largest daily newspaper, published a mixed review of the film the day before its Japanese premiere, characterizing the film as scattered and boring at times, and stating a certain "resentment at its lack of excitement," but concluded by expressing its admiration for the film on the grounds of its effort and expense, honest and personal vision, and for not clinging to the patterns of previous anime works. A contemporary review in Kinema Junpo, Japan's oldest film journal, saw the film as not truly about the "well-worn subject" of space travel, but rather about reaching a point where "the whole Earth can be seen ... taking full advantage of the unique medium of animation," the creators "observe civilization objectively first and then disassemble it to eventually restructure it ... Stories that feature cool machines, robots, and attractive characters, with the plot unfolding while drifting through space, already reached their peak in a sense with the [1984] Macross movie. Rather than trying to go beyond Macross, I think the creators of this film believed that they could find a new horizon for anime by creating a different world in a way that draws the story closer to Earth again."
Royal Space Force ranked high in major annual retrospectives awarded by the Japanese anime press. The film won the Japan Anime Award for best anime release of 1987, while making two of the top ten lists in the Anime Grand Prix fan poll, as #4 anime release of the year, with Shirotsugh Lhadatt as #9 male character. In 1988, Royal Space Force won the Seiun Award, Japan's oldest prize for science fiction, for Best Dramatic Presentation of the previous year. At the beginning of 1989, an Animage retrospective on the first 70 years of anime film compared Royal Space Force to Isao Takahata's 1968 directorial debut The Great Adventure of Horus, Prince of the Sun as a work that, like Horus, seemed to have emerged onto the scene unrelated to any previous commercial release: "an anime movie with a different methodology and message ... It's uncertain what influence it will have on anime in the future, but what is certain is that this was a work filled with the tremendous passion of its young staff." 
Hayao Miyazaki praised Royal Space Force, calling it "an honest work, without any bluff or pretension ... I thought the movie is going to be a great inspiration to the young people working in this industry. They may be intensely divided over whether they like it or not, but either way it's going to serve as a stimulus." Miyazaki expressed two criticisms of the film: the design of the rocket, which he saw as too conventional and reminiscent of "big science like NASA," and the fact Shirotsugh was positioned as having to rally the older members of the Space Force into not giving up on the launch, which Miyazaki found unconvincing given that they had dreamed of space travel far longer than he. Yamaga did not deny that he wrote the script in a way he thought would appeal to young people, but felt it very important to note the contributions of the older and younger generation to both the launch of the rocket, and to the making of the film itself. Miyazaki felt that since it was young people like Yamaga who had "actively sown the seeds of improvement [in anime]" with Royal Space Force, it would have been better in the movie if the young told the old, Stand back, old men. Yamaga remarked in response that the film showed a reality where neither generation of the Space Force saw their personal visions prevail, as the construction of the rocket and its launch only happened because of support from a government that had a different agenda from their own. "It's not about making a leap, even though from the beginning it seems that way. More than going somewhere new in a physical sense, my aim was to show something worthy in the process."
In a 1996 interview shortly after the original broadcast of Neon Genesis Evangelion, Hideaki Anno traced his preceding period of despair and sense of creative stagnation back to the commercial failure of Royal Space Force, which had "devastated" him, asserting that his own directorial debut, Gunbuster, was an ironic response to the reception Royal Space Force had received: "Right, so [instead] send into space a robot and a half-naked girl." Three years earlier Mamoru Oshii had expressed the view that Anno had not yet made an anime that was truly his own as a creator, whereas he believed Yamaga had already done so on Royal Space Force. Oshii felt it therefore necessarily revealed all of Yamaga's shortcomings as well, and that he "had a lot of problems" with the movie, but nevertheless felt that Royal Space Force had a certain impact on the idea of making an anime film, simply because no one had ever made one like it before: "It's the kind of work that I want to see." Oshii admired most the film's "rejection of drama." " ... The more I saw it, the more I only realized that Yamaga was a man who had no intention of making drama. And I thought that was a very good thing." Oshii asserted it was not necessary for films to be based in a dramatic structure, but that they could instead be used to create a world filled with mood and ideas.
===Critical response internationally===
Critical response to the English-dubbed version of the film during its 1994–1995 theatrical release was greatly divided, with reviews differing widely on the film's plot, themes, direction, and designs. The San Jose Mercury News gave a one-star review, writing that the film was misogynistic, lacked originality, conflict, and resolution; also perceiving in its character designs "self-loathing stereotypes" of Japanese people, a view advanced as well in a negative review of the film by LA Village View. The Salt Lake Tribune described it as "plodding" and "a dull piece of Japanese animation ... The filmmakers create precisely drawn images, but there's no life or passion behind them." The Dallas Morning News felt that Hiroyuki Yamaga’s "trying to appeal to a broader audience" was by itself a fundamentally mistaken approach to making anime, comparing it to trying to "commercialize punk music"; the review instead recommended that audiences see "a far more representative anime, Fist of the North Star ... Fist has few of the pretensions of Wings and it's driven along with an energy its better-dressed cousin never attains."
More favorable reviews tended to regard the film as unconventional while nevertheless recommending the film to audiences. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram wrote it "blends provocative ideas and visual beauty", comparing its worldbuilding to that of Blade Runner. LA Weekly commented, "These strange, outsize pieces fuse and add a feeling of depth that cartoon narratives often don't obtain ... Technical brilliance aside, what gives [the film] its slow-building power is the love story—a mysterious and credible one." The Washington Post viewed its two-hour length as "a bit windy" but also asserted, "Hiroyuki Yamaga's The Wings of Honnêamise is a spectacular example of Japanimation, ambitious and daring in its seamless melding of color, depth and detail." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three stars out of four, praising Yamaga's visual imagination and remarked on the director's "offbeat dramatic style," recommending "If you're curious about anime, The Wings of Honnêamise ... is a good place to start." In the United Kingdom, The Guardian regarded it as the standout of an anime festival at London's National Film Theatre: "One film in the season, though, proves that anime can be complex and lyrical as well as exciting. Hiroyuki Yamaga's Wings of Honnêamise ... " In Australia, Max Autohead of Hyper magazine rated it 10 out of 10, calling it "a cinematic masterpiece that will pave the way for more" anime of its kind.
Following its initial English-language release in the mid-'90s, later retrospectives on anime have had a positive view of Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise. In a 1999 issue of Time, former Film Comment editor-in-chief Richard Corliss wrote an outline on the history of anime, listing under the year 1987 the remark, "The Wings of Honnêamise is released, making anime officially an art form." In the 2006 edition of The Anime Encyclopedia, Jonathan Clements and Helen McCarthy characterized the film as "one of the shining examples of how cerebral and intelligent anime can be". Simon Richmond, in 2009's The Rough Guide to Anime, wrote that the film's "reputation has grown over time to the point where it is justly heralded as a classic of the medium". whereas in 2014's Anime, Colin Odell and Michelle Le Blanc described the film as "an example of science-fantasy anime as art-film narrative, combined with a coming-of-age drama that is intelligent and thought-provoking". Jason DeMarco, current senior vice president at Warner Discovery and co-creator of Toonami, ranked it as the #11 anime movie of all time, stating "If The Wings of Honnêamise is a 'noble failure,' it's the sort of failure many filmmakers would kill to have on their résumé." During a 2021 interview with the New York Times, science fiction author Ted Chiang, whose Nebula Award-winning "Story of Your Life" was the basis for the Denis Villeneuve movie Arrival, cited Royal Space Force as the single most impressive example of worldbuilding in book or film.
 
==Academic analysis==
Royal Space Force attracted a broader academic analysis as early as 1992, when Takashi Murakami referenced the film through Sea Breeze, an installation created during his doctoral studies in nihonga at Tokyo University of the Arts. The installation piece was described as "a ring of enormous, 1000-watt mercury spotlights that emitted a powerful blast of heat and blinding light when a roller shutter was raised ... the circular of lights was based on a close-up of rocket engines firing during a space launch in the anime Royal Space Force: [The] Wings of Honneamise." Hiroyuki Yamaga’s remark, "We wanted to create a world, and we wanted to look at it from space" would be quoted as an epigram in My Reality—Contemporary Art and the Culture of Japanese Animation, where Murakami was described as a "pivotal figure" among contemporary artists "inundated with manga and anime—and with concepts of the new Japan, which was wrestling with a sense of self-identity as an increasingly strong part of the modern capitalistic world, yet was tied to a long and distinguished past." In a discussion with the Japanese arts magazine Bijutsu Techō, Murakami "... found it commendable that otaku were dedicated to 'the invention of a new technique, especially through the use of overlooked elements, finding an "empty space".' He maintained that art must find the same 'empty space' to revolutionize itself." "Gainax represented, for Murakami, a model of marginalized yet cutting-edge cultural production ... At the same time, the fact that the burning wheel was contained inside a box signified passion confined within a conventional frame, evoking the failure of Honneamise to present a uniquely Japanese expression as it remained under the influence of Western science-fiction films."
Murakami would express a specific historical conception of otaku during a discussion with Toshio Okada conducted for the 2005 exhibition Little Boy: The Arts of Japan's Exploding Subculture: "After Japan experienced defeat in World War II, it gave birth to a distinctive phenomenon, which has gradually degenerated into a uniquely Japanese culture ... [you] are at the very center of this otaku culture", further asserting in an essay for the exhibit catalog that therefore "otaku ... all are ultimately defined by their relentless references to a humiliated self". This historical positioning of otaku culture would itself be challenged through an analysis of Royal Space Force by Viktor Eikman, who cites Murakami's statement that the studio that made the film occupied "a central place in the current anime world... [they were] professionally incorporated as Gainax in 1984 upon production of the feature-length anime The Wings of Honneamise (released in 1987)" but that the two Gainax works discussed by Murakami in his theory of otaku were the Daicon IV Opening Animation and Neon Genesis Evangelion. Eikman argues that the theory should be tested also against "other works by the same studio, made by the same people for the same audience, but not analysed [in the essay] by Murakami". Of Royal Space Force, Eikman contended, "At most we may view the humiliated Shiro’s mission as symbolic of Japan’s desire to join the Space Race in particular and the 'big boy' struggles of the Cold War in general, a desire which plays into the sense of childish impotence described by Murakami, but even that is a very speculative hypothesis," arguing that "it is remarkably hard to find parallels to World War II" in the film.
In 2004's The Cinema Effect, examining film through "the question of temporality", Sean Cubitt presents an argument grouping Royal Space Force together with 1942: A Love Story and Once Upon a Time in China as examples of "revisionary" films that "displace the fate of the present, opening instead a vista onto an elsewhere...ready to forsake the Western ideal of realism [for] the possibility of understanding how they might remake the past and so make the present other than it is." Cubitt, like Murakami, references the historical consequences of World War II, but in citing a speech by Japan's first postwar prime minister on the need for "nationwide collective repentance," suggests that such repentance is "the theme that seems to resonate in the curious, slow budding" of Royal Space Force through Riquinni's "homemade religion of renunciation and impending judgment" arguing that such a philosophy is evoked also through the film's animation style: "Like the zero of the Lumières' flickering views, the action of [Royal Space Force] sums at nothingness, a zero degree of the political that removes its resolution from history ... into the atemporal zone denoted by Shirotsugh's orbit ... an empty place from which alone the strife of warfare and suffering sinks into pure regret, not so much an end as an exit from history."
In contrast, Shu Kuge, in a 2007 essay in the journal Mechademia, sees Shiro's position in space at film's end as "not the denial of history but the empathetic move to accept the cruel world without translating it into a metaphysical meaning". Kuge groups the connection between Shiro and Riquinni with Makoto Shinkai's Voices of a Distant Star as examples of a personal connection that is in either case a relationship sustained by the spatial distance between two people: "[they] sustain the distance rather than shrink it because sustaining ... is crucial for their relationships to be vast and generous. The topological relationship between the floating and the remaining is actually a mimesis of a stellar relationship, such as the moon and the earth, the earth and the sun." Noting the struggle between the armed forces of Honnêamise and the Republic to control the same territory, Kuge comments that by contrast the Royal Space Force does not in fact "possess any military force," and suggests that likewise the personal nature of Shiro and Riquinni's relationship depends upon respecting the physical separation and boundaries that she seeks to maintain and which he seeks to violate, and does violate, before they are reaffirmed in the latter part of the film.
==Sequel==
During 1992–93, Gainax developed plans for a sequel to Royal Space Force to be entitled Aoki Uru (also known under the titles Uru in Blue and Blue Uru); an anime film project to be directed by Hideaki Anno and scripted by Hiroyuki Yamaga, with Yoshiyuki Sadamoto serving as its chief animation director and character designer. Although a full storyboard, partial script, and an extensive collection of design illustrations were produced for Aoki Uru, the project had been initiated without a secured budget, and its development occurred within a period of personal, financial, and managerial crises at Gainax that contributed to the indefinite suspension of work on Aoki Uru in July 1993; the studio instead shifted to producing as their next anime project the TV series Neon Genesis Evangelion. In the years following 1993, Gainax has made occasional announcements regarding a revival of the Aoki Uru concept, including a multimedia proposal in the late 1990s, and the formal announcement of an English name for the film, Uru in Blue, at the 2013 Tokyo Anime Fair. In 2018, the Uru in Blue project was transferred from Gainax to Gaina, a different corporate entity and subsidiary of the Kinoshita Group, which aimed for a worldwide release of the film in 2022. However, in an essay about civilization made by Yamaga in the December 22, 2022 issue of Niigata Keizai Shimbun, it was stated that he was still "currently working" on the project.
==See also==
* List of animated feature films
==Notes==
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===Citations===
==External links==
* (archived English homepage)
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* Entry in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
Category:1987 films
Category:1987 anime films
Category:1987 drama films
Category:1980s Japanese-language films
Category:1980s science fiction drama films
Category:Animated films set on fictional planets
Category:Anime with original screenplays
Category:Bandai Visual
Category:Drama anime and manga
Category:Films about rape
Category:Films about space programs
Category:Films directed by Hiroyuki Yamaga
Category:Films scored by Ryuichi Sakamoto
Category:Films scored by Yuji Nomi
Category:Films set in a fictional country
Category:Gainax
Category:Japanese animated science fiction films
Category:Japanese aviation films
Category:Maiden Japan
 
Category:Toho animated films