New 4K Restoration. The debut of animation studio Gainax (Neon Genesis Evangelion) and a seminal work of cel animation, Hiroyuki Yamaga’s Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise launched a new generation of animators with its conceptual, Promethean ambitions. Set on an alternate Earth in the kingdom of Honnêamise, where space travel has not yet been achieved, Bandai’s first foray into film production finds intrepid pilot Shirotsugh Lhadatt, a member of the country’s oft-ridiculed space program, making one last attempt to man a flight into space. Determined to reach the heavens despite corrupt political machinations and the looming shadow of war, Lhadatt struggles to reconcile his mission with the ramifications of mankind’s progression to the stars. Featuring the talents of Hideaki Anno, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, Mahiro Maeda and Hiromasa Ogura, with music by Ryuichi Sakamoto, Royal Space Force was envisioned as an art film, with rich worldbuilding that countered the conventions of contemporaneous anime—an outsider work “to make anime fans reaffirm reality”.

Dir. Hiroyuki Yamaga, 1987, 119 min., DCP, color, in Japanese with English subtitles. With Leo Morimoto, Mitsuki Yayoi, Aya Murata.