Grounc Control to Major Tom...

G’day Shipheads, and welcome to my review of “Royal Space Force: Wings of Honneamise”.

For those of you who haven’t seen this movie before, a brief rundown of the plot:

“In a world both very similar to and different from our own, an apathetic student, Shirotsugu Ladhatt, who aspired to join the local air force but doesn’t have the grades, instead joins the Royal Space Force. Unfortunately, this space force is more of a publicity stunt by the government than anything else–nobody has ever even made it to space. However, after our hero meets and falls in love with an idealistic young missionary, Riqunni, he becomes determined to actually make something of the joke that is the Royal Space force. But as the odd collection of dropouts and aging rocket scientists begins to make progress toward their goal of a space flight, the enemy in an ongoing war decides that this new space technology could become a dangerous weapon and decides to nip the budding space program in the bud. Shirotsugu, spurred by his unreturned feelings for Riqunni, braves assassins, budget cuts, and all-out war to make his dream of traveling among the stars come true…”

This movie is a masterpiece. From the story, to the artwork, everything in this movie is top notch, from start to finish. And don’t let the fact it’s an animated film fool you, this is very much a movie for adults.

Tom Cruise, eat your heart out...

To start with, the plot is quiet but complex and engaging, and the overall theme is an extreme close-up on a sweeping tale of exploration and adventure. It follows the story of Shirotsugu Ladhatt. Unable to join the Air Force, he instead settles for the Royal Space Force, whose goal is the first manned shuttle launch. Unfortunately, the countries space program is considered a joke. Through a journey of personal discovery and finding faith, you watch as Ladhatt progresses from a man with no hope and direction to a man driven to succeed, and prove to everyone that the space program is something to be taken seriously.

Now, while the story is awesome in itself, where this movie really stands out is in the animation. The sheer attention to detail that went into this movie is a credit to everyone who worked on the film.The world in general is beautifuly detailed, but the wow factor comes in some of the action scenes, which are few and far between in this movie. This isn’t a bad thing however. The whole point of this movie was not to be a massive action film, it’s a lot deeper than that. It talks about the human condition, the struggle to achieve things that are bigger than yourself. But when the action scenes start, they don’t hold back. Featuring stunning aerial dog fighting, an awesome scene where Ladhatt is being chased by an enemy government’s assassin, up to and not forgetting the final scene of the shuttle launch, the detail that went into drawing these scenes gives us action sequences that are comparative to, hell, that even exceeds the quality of some big budget Hollywood movies.

If you can find a copy of this movie anywhere, I highly recommend it to anyone. This movie was made back in 1987, but don’t let that scare you off. For a movie made back in the 80’s, it has a better quality of animation than can be found in just about any cartoon series from today.

Muttonchop approves this movie!