# Wings of Honneamise
**Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise** (王立宇宙軍 オネアミスの翼, *Oritsu Uchūgun: Oneamisu no Tsubasa*) is a 1987 Japanese animated science fiction film directed by Hiroyuki Yamaga as the debut feature of Studio Gainax, produced with funding from [Bandai Visual](https://www.edgepedia.org/bandai-visual). Set on an alternate Earth where manned spaceflight has not yet been achieved, it follows a listless young pilot, Shirotsugh Lhadatt, who joins his kingdom's ridiculed space program and becomes its first astronaut as his nation slides toward war with a rival republic.[1](https://www.crunchyroll.com/pl/news/latest/2016/3/14/gainax-pays-tribute-to-30th-anniversary-of-royal-space-force-the-wings-of-honnamise) • [2](https://japansociety.org/events/royal-space-force-the-wings-of-honneamise/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original title | 王立宇宙軍 オネアミスの翼 (*Oritsu Uchūgun: Oneamisu no Tsubasa*); Gainax staff call it simply *Royal Space Force*[3](https://gwern.net/doc/anime/eva/1996-animerica-conscience) |
| Release | March 14, 1987, in Japanese cinemas; about 119 minutes[1](https://www.crunchyroll.com/pl/news/latest/2016/3/14/gainax-pays-tribute-to-30th-anniversary-of-royal-space-force-the-wings-of-honnamise) • [2](https://japansociety.org/events/royal-space-force-the-wings-of-honneamise/) |
| Director | Hiroyuki Yamaga, who wrote and directed it at age 24 as Gainax's first film[2](https://japansociety.org/events/royal-space-force-the-wings-of-honneamise/) • [4](https://anigamers.com/interviews/hiroyuki-yamaga-reflects-on-gainax-past-anime-future-fanimecon-2017/) |
| Budget | 800 million yen from Bandai, then the largest ever for a full-length 35mm anime film[3](https://gwern.net/doc/anime/eva/1996-animerica-conscience) • [5](https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/p-library/books/9e1c46631ac3c7d58d65e9b00f7e0663.pdf) |
| Key staff | Character design by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, mechanical designs by Hideaki Anno, music by Ryuichi Sakamoto[6](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/anime/2022/04/12/royal-space-force/) |
| Commercial record | A box-office disappointment that swept Japanese critics' awards; Bandai recouped its money in September 1994, seven and a half years after release[3](https://gwern.net/doc/anime/eva/1996-animerica-conscience) |
| US release | Theatrically in the United States on March 10, 1995, distributed by Manga Entertainment[7](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/oritsu_uchugun_oneamisu_no_tsubasa) |
## Spoilers
### Story and setting
The film takes place on an unnamed world resembling Earth but distinct from it, where the kingdom of Honnêamise and a rival Republic are locked in a Cold War-style escalating conflict while space remains unconquered.[8](https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/ci/sereArticleSearch/ciSereArtiView.kci?sereArticleSearchBean.artiId=ART002879383) • [6](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/anime/2022/04/12/royal-space-force/) Shirotsugh Lhadatt, a low-ranking soldier in the Royal Space Force, a branch of the military dedicated to the exploration and domination of space, begins the story unmotivated and drifting.[8](https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/ci/sereArticleSearch/ciSereArtiView.kci?sereArticleSearchBean.artiId=ART002879383) After failing to become a navy pilot, he is accepted into the underfunded space agency, which must make him the first man in space to keep its funding alive.[7](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/oritsu_uchugun_oneamisu_no_tsubasa)
Shiro's outlook changes through his friendship with Riquinni, a young evangelical missionary for a non-specific religion, complete with its own creation myth, invented for the film's world.[6](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/anime/2022/04/12/royal-space-force/) • [9](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1994/12/23/reviews/8c9ba64c-57c1-44c6-a371-1d36859f3239/) When Shiro learns that the military intends to use the rocket launch as an aggressive gesture toward Honnêamise's neighbors, he questions his assignment, and in the finale he rallies his comrades to turn the flight into a plea for international peace, telling the world that no borders are visible from orbit.[7](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/oritsu_uchugun_oneamisu_no_tsubasa) • [6](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/anime/2022/04/12/royal-space-force/)
The film is noted for its worldbuilding. The Sight & Sound critic Kim Newman wrote that it convincingly creates a world neither of the past nor the future, in which almost every object, from aircraft, trains, and uniforms to drinking vessels, newspapers, money, and spoons, is recognizable but somehow different from real designs.[6](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/anime/2022/04/12/royal-space-force/) The launch sequence in particular is frequently singled out; the BFI's program notes describe "the intense spectacle of a shuttle launch" as one of the film's remarkable elements.[6](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/anime/2022/04/12/royal-space-force/)
## Production
Gainax was formed by a university collective of science fiction anime fans in the early 1980s, and *Royal Space Force* was its first feature, made in partnership with Bandai.[6](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/anime/2022/04/12/royal-space-force/) Toshio Okada, Gainax's co-founder and president until 1992, recalled that at age 27 he talked Bandai into giving the young studio 800 million yen, the largest budget ever for a full-length 35mm anime film at the time.[3](https://gwern.net/doc/anime/eva/1996-animerica-conscience) The project had begun as a one-shot video release with a modest budget of 20 million yen, but amid the mid-1980s anime boom it accreted multiple investors and sponsors, including an airline that insisted on the word 'wings' in the title, and grew into a theatrical production with the 800-million-yen budget.[5](https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/p-library/books/9e1c46631ac3c7d58d65e9b00f7e0663.pdf)
The production drew on real research: key staff traveled to Florida in 1986 for rocket launch research.[3](https://gwern.net/doc/anime/eva/1996-animerica-conscience) The film was hand-drawn frame by frame, and Roger Ebert's 1995 review noted Yamaga's drawing style, influenced by comic books and by the 19th-century Japanese artist [Hiroshige](https://www.edgepedia.org/hiroshige).[10](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-wings-of-honneamise-1995) The effort left Gainax virtually bankrupt.[5](https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/p-library/books/9e1c46631ac3c7d58d65e9b00f7e0663.pdf)
## Title and marketing
In Gainax no one calls the film *The Wings of Honneamise*; its one and only internal title is *Oritsu Uchugun*, The Royal Space Force. When distributors demanded a change, the staff deliberately invented a meaningless word, 'Honneamise', chosen for having no meaning at all, in the manner of brand names like Kodak. A legend about a bird that tried to fly to heaven and was turned into a fish by God was improvised later, when publicity staff insisted the title have a story behind it; Yamaga came up with it over whiskey.[3](https://gwern.net/doc/anime/eva/1996-animerica-conscience)
The distributor Toho-Towa, whose experience lay in comedy and cartoon anime, had only one precedent for a successful original anime feature without a pre-existing TV audience: *Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind*. Its promotions unit therefore marketed *Honneamise* to the same audience, even by misleading advertising. In the 'insect incident' described by Okada, Sadamoto Yoshiyuki was commissioned to draw a giant spider-beetle attacking a city, although the creature appears in the film only as a finger-length child's pet; the advertisement implied it would grow into a house-sized monster like *Nausicaä*'s ohmu. Okada was incensed that three days of the character designer's time were spent on the commission rather than on correcting problematic scenes in the film itself.[5](https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/p-library/books/9e1c46631ac3c7d58d65e9b00f7e0663.pdf)
## Reception and commercial history
The film swept the Japanese critics' awards and found particular acclaim among anime fans in the United States, but its theatrical performance disappointed its investors. Okada took personal responsibility for the box-office result, saying in a 1995 interview that the screenplay was not very strong: the team had aimed for a realistic art film, but the project was in fact a major motion picture, and a stronger, simpler structure might have reached the mainstream.[3](https://gwern.net/doc/anime/eva/1996-animerica-conscience) Gainax's producer Yasuhiro Takeda pushed back on the 'flop' label: no theater canceled its run, some locations ran it longer than planned, and with an 800-million-yen budget reclaiming all production costs at the box office was never feasible, since the film was expected to monetize through licensing, video, and merchandise. Bandai finally made its money back in September 1994.[5](https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/p-library/books/9e1c46631ac3c7d58d65e9b00f7e0663.pdf) • [3](https://gwern.net/doc/anime/eva/1996-animerica-conscience) Gainax itself later referred to the film dryly as its 'little-known masterpiece'.[3](https://gwern.net/doc/anime/eva/1996-animerica-conscience)
American critics responded strongly to the visuals. Richard Harrington of The Washington Post called it ambitious and daring in its seamless melding of color, depth, and detail, and noted that although the two-hour feature was finished in 1987 it still looked state of the art in 1994.[9](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1994/12/23/reviews/8c9ba64c-57c1-44c6-a371-1d36859f3239/) On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 100% Tomatometer from 8 reviews and an 80% audience score from more than 2,500 ratings.[7](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/oritsu_uchugun_oneamisu_no_tsubasa) Reviewers have also flagged weaknesses: the deliberately paced, meandering storyline has been called demanding of patience, and the subplot in which Shiro attempts to rape Riquinni, who knocks him out and then forgives him, has drawn sustained criticism as jarring and difficult to follow.[7](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/oritsu_uchugun_oneamisu_no_tsubasa) • [6](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/anime/2022/04/12/royal-space-force/) • [10](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-wings-of-honneamise-1995)
## Themes and scholarship
Kalling Heck, a scholar at [Louisiana State University](https://www.edgepedia.org/louisiana-state-university), argues in a 2022 article in *Situations* that the film's ending, a psychedelic sequence evoking the entire history of humankind rather than a conventional resolution of its Cold War-style conflict, invites consideration of the miracle as a political category. In her reading, the miracle presents a rejoinder to the normal course of politics, whether diplomatic negotiation or the outbreak of hostilities, and opens a space for an illiberal politics predicated on the totally unexpected arrival, closely aligned with the state of exception; the article weighs both the hopeful and the destructive possibilities of the miraculous in politics.[11](https://repository.lsu.edu/english_pubs/75/)
The film's standing within Gainax's history is secure: Heck describes it as a major precursor to *Neon Genesis Evangelion*, noting that Yamaga and Evangelion director [Hideaki Anno](https://www.edgepedia.org/hideaki-anno) had been friends in art school in Osaka and that Gainax's later success traces back to the breakthrough of Yamaga's film.[8](https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/ci/sereArticleSearch/ciSereArtiView.kci?sereArticleSearchBean.artiId=ART002879383) A new 4K restoration was scheduled for screening at Japan Society in New York in September 2026.[2](https://japansociety.org/events/royal-space-force-the-wings-of-honneamise/)
## References
1. [Gainax Pays Tribute To 30th Anniversary Of "Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise", Crunchyroll News (2016)](https://www.crunchyroll.com/pl/news/latest/2016/3/14/gainax-pays-tribute-to-30th-anniversary-of-royal-space-force-the-wings-of-honnamise)
2. [Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise, Japan Society event page](https://japansociety.org/events/royal-space-force-the-wings-of-honneamise/)
3. [The Conscience of the Otaking: The Studio Gainax Saga in Four Parts, Animerica interview with Toshio Okada (1995), Gwern.net transcription](https://gwern.net/doc/anime/eva/1996-animerica-conscience)
4. [Hiroyuki Yamaga Reflects on Gainax's Past and Anime's Future, Ani-Gamers (2017)](https://anigamers.com/interviews/hiroyuki-yamaga-reflects-on-gainax-past-anime-future-fanimecon-2017/)
5. [Anime (book chapter on *The Wings of Honneamise* production and distribution, citing Okada 2010, Takeda 2005, Hotta 2005)](https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/p-library/books/9e1c46631ac3c7d58d65e9b00f7e0663.pdf)
6. [Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise, BFI Southbank Programme Notes (Sight & Sound reviews by Kim Newman and Samantha Ferreira)](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/anime/2022/04/12/royal-space-force/)
7. [Wings of Honneamise, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/oritsu_uchugun_oneamisu_no_tsubasa)
8. [Kalling Heck (2022). Endless War and the Politics of the Miracle in Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise. Situations 15(2), 3–37](https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/ci/sereArticleSearch/ciSereArtiView.kci?sereArticleSearchBean.artiId=ART002879383)
9. [Richard Harrington, "'Wings': Soaring Animation", The Washington Post (December 22, 1994)](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1994/12/23/reviews/8c9ba64c-57c1-44c6-a371-1d36859f3239/)
10. [The Wings of Honneamise movie review, RogerEbert.com (1995)](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-wings-of-honneamise-1995)
11. [Endless War and the Politics of the Miracle in Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise, LSU Faculty Publications](https://repository.lsu.edu/english_pubs/75/)
---
*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Films by genre, form, and subject › Animated and short films › Japanese anime features › Released 1932 to 1998*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license