Breaking the concept of anime and doing away with old conventions, these are the foundations which gave birth to
Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise. Released in
1987, debut of the legendary studio
Gainax and the first foray into anime production for the Japanese toy giant
Bandai,
Royal Space Force has gone on to establish the way in which many anime series and films are created today, but almost 30 years ago a film such as this was thought of as inconceivable.
The
Royal Space Force is a space program set on the fictional Kingdom of
Honneamise which is where we meet the protagonist,
Shirotsugh Lhadatt. Although the space program boasts a 30 year history it has yet to bear any fruits and has been rendered not only a joke among the people of
Honneamise and a burden on the government itself. Even the cadets enrolled onto the space program itself have all but lost hope as they lounge around without purpose, drive or determination and as they do so the notion of getting anything into space at this point becomes ever more ludicrous. Furthermore, as an impending war looms over the nation the money being sunk into the
Royal Space Force is seen as a waste of resources and causes upset among the people.
Honneamise is a prosperous place, a kingdom amidst an industrial revolution but like many developing nations its clear that the distribution of wealth is uneven at best. It is here that
Shirotsugh Lhadatt sees hope and optimism, among the people of
Honneamise when he meets a young religious woman named
Riquinni Nonderaiko and it is here where his destiny changes course.
Although the people behind
The Wings of Honneamise are today seen as immensely talented individuals, at the time they were unknown quantities, amateurs fresh out of college and so the production of this now highly revered and respected film was seen as an impossible task because this wasnt the way things operated back then, but this is far from the only breaking of old conventions. Many of the anime films from this period of time were not only based upon pre-existing properties, mainly compilations of TV series but also directed by people with extensive portfolios, factors that led credibility to the projects and instilled confidence into its investors. To create a wholly original film, to entrust eight hundred million Yen and launch your animation production initiative off the back of this unknown quantity is without a doubt a breaking of old ways. The parallels between the story of
Wings of Honneamise and the team behind the film itself is evident, the unlikely tale of a group of geeks and nerds doing the impossible and defying all odds.
Animation since its inception has been a medium aimed at kids; however this was a notion that had been quickly diminishing in Japan. The potential to tell stories beyond talking anthropomorphic animals was becoming ever clearer. In fact this was a period in which the audience themselves were becoming the creators which led to the creation of works such as
Wings of Honneamise. One of the greatest assets of animation is the freedom it affords its creators to construct wholly new and interesting worlds, worlds devoid of constrains of the real world. To create from nothingness and to construct a whole new world, with new methods of transport, clothes and languages, this is what anime affords its creators and
Wings of Honneamise was created when this idea started to take hold, as the amateurs started to become the ones in charge, the ones that would go on to create the foundation for anime today.
Its clear that many of these sentimentalities were instrumental to the later
Gainax works such as
Evangelion, creations that werent appealing to sponsors at the time and unorthodox in nature. There was a consensus within
Gainax at the time that during their youth it would be more productive to create something strange and different, maybe even ugly because as they matured they would then be able to think more about balance. After all, their stay within the industry wasnt guaranteed, they had no idea that theyd still be making anime decades later and so an all-out approach made more sense. It was a means of creating an identity for
Gainax as well as an atmosphere that puts its creators first. It was stated for example by the director that his friend
Hideaki Anno was great at animating explosions and so he decided that the climax of the film would feature them prominently in order to bring out the best of
Annos abilities. Instead of the director creating a story that he liked and having everybody else make it for him, he thought about what stories the staff would want to make instead.
In fact at the time the biggest name on the production of
Wings of Honneamise was
Ryuichi Sakamoto. Although the
YMO keyboard/vocalist was hired to compose the soundtrack, he wasnt alone.
Sakamoto ended up composing four themes and two other composers,
Haruo Kubota and
Yuji Nomi composed the rest. The idea behind this was to diversify the soundtrack of the film just like the visuals. Personally I found some pieces to work better than others, with some pieces actually diminishing the effect of the scene and feeling out of place. The music is definitely an acquired taste and works for some people more than others. The main theme by
Sakamoto itself is fantastic however with many different renditions featured throughout the film with the ending credits version being the best.
Theres no denying that the
Wings of Honneamise is a spectacle and a film of epic proportions and a lot of its most ambitious effects and set pieces are the work of
Hideaki Anno. Adorned with the title Special Effects Artist, a title that was rare within animation at the time,
Anno had the job of executing the animated equivalent of special effects that youd see in live action film. Its true that special effects are as much of a character as the characters that star in the films themselves and this isnt a new phenomenon. People were flocking to the theaters just to see the set-pieces. Theres a weight to the mecha within
Wings of Honneamise with a fanatic attention to detail that brings them to life with even attention being brought to the tiniest of details within the inner workings of the machines which adds credibility to the world and makes it more tangible. Being known for his depictions of explosions, a great deal of emphasis is placed upon them within the film. The explosions themselves are multi-layered, starting with shock-waves and then the flames themselves swelling up as shrapnel scatter. Different tones of orange are used to represent the different intensities and temperatures. To further the point, in a scene towards the end bits of ice fall down and each shard is animated by hand, with each one moving at its own speed with some twisting and turning as they fall. What this does is allow the animator to represent occurrences and phenomena that would otherwise be invisible to the viewer such as gravity and inertia. You could argue that up until this point most special effects utilised within anime was used as a means of depicting supernatural phenomena and battles but here it was used as a means of solidifying this world and making it feel as real as possible.
Its abundantly clear the visuals have aged like fine wine and the story itself is as timeless as one can be, however I will note that a lot of the cuts and transitions from scene to scene are pretty odd and the whole film is marred with strange pacing issues. Likewise, a lot of the music choices are strange with some not fitting in with the scenes themselves at all. Was this another attempt of discarding old conventions and doing away with what is deemed acceptable, choosing to purposely create something weird and odd to stimulate the audience in a different manner? Maybe, and if thats the case then the team succeeded. Director
Hiroyuki Yamaga himself stated that the film in hindsight was uneven and unbalanced so Im not the only one feeling this way. Nevertheless, the quirks do etch out a unique identity for this film and also one for
Gainax, a studio that went against the grain for many years later and so its fitting, after all as
Hiroyuki Yamaga mentioned the studio was blindly swinging around at the time with the idea of finishing the film itself being a huge question mark on the production.
Its fair to say that Ive avoided the elephant in the room, the controversial scene that takes place halfway into the film. I wont go into specifics as a means to avoid spoilers but also due to the simple fact that I could easily dedicate a whole post to that scene alone in a much more nuanced fashion but I will mention that the scene is still a blight on an otherwise fantastic film, and not because of what happens in the scene and the subject matter at hand but rather because of how the film fails to follow up on that scene in any meaningful fashion thereafter. You can see their intentions but it just felt horribly out of place and I feel that the film overall doesnt lose anything by removing that scene altogether, with many releases doing exactly that, although many would argue otherwise. One could argue that it intensifies the tragic nature of
Riquinnis character but that could have been done in other, less ham-fisted ways. Others may argue that the film follows a downhill trajectory after this scene that it never recovers from but I wouldnt go that far, but I wont deny that a bitter taste was left in my mouth throughout the remainder of the film. Thats not to say that I still dont hold this film in high regards, but I honestly feel that the film is a stronger one without that scenes presence. There are many breakdowns of the scene, defenses and condemnations and so I implore you to read them for yourselves and make up your own mind. I do believe that the film has a stronger first half and that the second half is weaker outside of the final scene, with some weird tonal shifts here and there but the second half is not without merit.
Whatever stance you take on that scene, its hard to deny the legacy of this film and the impact that it has had on the animation industry. For all of its quirks and all of its abnormalities
Honneamise managed to forge an identity that is unlike any other film, one that is enriched in history and shrouded by a fascinating production that ultimately paved the way for what would become a storied studio. Despite its shortcomings, The Royal Space Force is a must see spectacle, a film that glistens like the stars 30 years later.
8/10
