Wings of Honneamise
王立宇宙軍~オネアミスの翼
It was 1987. I must have been around 11-12 years old and apart from seeing Hokuto no Ken, I don't think I did much in life.
While I was happily enjoying my life, Wings of Honneamise was coming out in Japan.
Some shady types of a newborn animation studio (Gainax) with the participation of major companies such as Macross, managed to raise funds from Bandai to complete the project of the film.
The story revolves around Shiro Lhadatt, a member of the Space Force, a group under military leadership. The Space Force does not deal, like the other military sections, with warfare, but with space launches. The only flaw of the section is that it never managed to send a shuttle into the space. All representatives of the Space Force, including Shiro, are part of it because they have nothing better to do !
One evening, while on a walk, Shiro meets Riquinni, a young girl who distributes religious leaflets in order to spread the word of God.
Shiro, impressed by the girl, accepts the invitation proposed by the flyer and the next day he goes to the girl's house for what should be an in-depth study on the ecclesiastical topic.
What should have been a conference turns out to be a three-way meeting: Shiro, Riquinni and Mana (Riquinni's younger sister). During the discussion, the girls learn about Shiro's profession; profession that seems to Riquinni very suggestive.
It must be said that the Space Force was frowned upon neither by the population, who considered it useless, nor by the other soldiers, to whom it seemed more important to make wars than to waste time behind the stars. For this reason, Riquinni's enthusiastic speech had a surprising effect on Shiro.
From listless and idle he became a determined and convinced member of the Space Force (the only one actually), going so far as to volunteer for the project of the first real space launch. The story continues, showing Shiro's physical training, the design of the shuttle and the problems in raising funds from the central government and the evolution of the relationship between Shiro and Riquinni, which will lead to a change in the world view of the protagonist.
Shiro's problems do not end here: in fact he also has to contend with a hostile nation to his own that does everything to prevent the launch of the space shuttle and take possession of it, offering intense action scenes that will result in an open confrontation between the two nations, obviously before the long-awaited launch.
The film, from a technical point of view, is monstrous, especially considering the era in which it was made.
The entertainment is great; the lights and not too bright colors help to create that strong sense of reality which is one of the main features of the film (the scene of Shiro's first flight is magnificent).
For the space launch scene, Gainax employees even went to NASA to study the complex mechanics of space launches. Sadamoto's character design is atypical, made of rounded and less angular lines, obtaining a more adult trait, very suitable for the work, even if at first glance it may seem strange.
Ryuchi Sakamoto's music respects the atmosphere of the film while not being anything particularly exceptional, apart from the song that is the background to the final scenes of the film.
All right then?
Well, not completely ... for many people who have seen the film, the main problem is in the structure of the story, which can appear weak in some places.
The main difficulty is following the protagonist's thoughts. While in works like Gunbuster or Evangelion the feelings of the protagonist were evident, in Wings of Honneamise, Shiro's thoughts are not expressed in words, but in the form of looks and certain attitudes that change with the progress of the story, until reaching the prayer pronounced in space by Shiro.
Thus some scenes may appear obscure, and others, such as the rape scene, purely gratuitous.
Another symptom of a weak structure is the function of the antagonist nation of the empire in which Shiro lives. It seems to exist only to move the film between one dialogue and another and to showcase the technical skills of the Gainax having a large budget available (see the final confrontation near the launch pad).
王立宇宙軍~オネアミスの翼 (Japanese name), is ultimately a film to see, if only for the realization, especially if you are a Gainax fan. Personally I fully enjoyed it after seeing it 3 times, so I recommend watching it at least a couple of times.
Some curiosities: the original title was supposed to be "The Royal Space Force" (Ōritsu Uchūgun), but Bandai felt that the title was supposed to be slightly more high-sounding, something like "Fushigi no umi no Nadia" or "Nausicaa in the valley of the wind", and so it became "Wings of Honneamise".
Kenichi Sonoda (author of "Gun Smith Cats" and "Gall Force") also worked on Wings of Honneamise, designing some parts of the city, after the plates he was doing as a mecha designer were rejected because they were considered excessively fanciful.
