Royal Space Force - The Wings of Honneamise

Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise (1987) is a science-fiction anime worth watching online on iFILM. It was Studio Gainax's debut feature and remains one of the most ambitious animated films of its decade.

The story plays out on a world that resembles Earth but runs on its own history, technology and faith. Shirotsugh Lhadatt dreamed of flying fighter planes and wound up in the Royal Space Force instead — a neglected outfit the whole nation treats as a punchline, since no one has ever reached orbit. Then he meets Riquinni, a devout idealist, and something shifts: the aimless young man volunteers to become his planet's first astronaut. As aging engineers nurse a rocket toward launch, a rival state begins to read the program as a weapon, and sabotage and looming war close in around him.

Director Hiroyuki Yamaga and a young Gainax crew — including future Evangelion creator Hideaki Anno — built an entire civilization from the ground up: its clothing, vehicles, architecture, even its cutlery. Ryuichi Sakamoto composed the score. This is slow, contemplative work about belief, doubt and the price of a dream, made for viewers who love sci-fi as an idea rather than a spectacle. Stream The Wings of Honneamise (1987) online on iFILM.