Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise

Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise is a 1987 science fiction anime film directed by Hiroyuki Yamaga, produced by Gainax and distributed by Toho.

In an alternative history, the Kingdom of Honnêamise plans to put the first man in space, but at the same time is engaged in a war with a neighbouring country. One of the kingdom’s space cadets, Shiro develops a connection with a religious women named Riquinni who inspires him to be the first man in space. However, the government, unconvinced of the mission’s success has other ideas.

Dubbing History
Unusual for a japanese film of the time, Royal Space Force had it’s world premiere in the United States under the title Star Quest on February 19th, 1987 at the Chinese Mann’s Theatre with the Japanese version of the film premiering in it’s home country in March that same year. Information regarding this version of the film is scarce, as after it’s original theatrical release there was no official home video release of this version in any format (Some claim to have seen a TV broadcast of it in the early 90’s, though the few claims that are out there are vague and unverifiable).

Reportedly this version of the film was produced by a company known as Go East Productions and featured drastically altered dialogue, framing the story as taking place on the planet “Eeya” and changing the character names to more American-sounding alternatives. What little information exists of this version was largely material written in the early 90’s with little following afterwards. No bootlegs of this version have been uploaded to the internet, so it is unlikely it still exists in any viewable form.

In 1994, a more faithful translation of the film was commissioned by Manga Entertainment and dubbed by Animaze which was given limited theatrical Arthouse distribution in the United States by Tara Releasing. In 1995, the dub was released on VHS and has been included on every other format the film was released on such as Laserdisc, DVD and Blu-ray.

Cast
Additional Voices:
 * John Snyder
 * Steve Blum
 * Daniel Woren
 * Simon Prescott
 * Tony Pope
 * Richard Epcar
 * Kevin Seymour
 * Wendee Lee
 * Stephen Apostolina

Trivia

 * In order to achieve a PG rating, Manga Entertainment removed the infamous attempted rape scene from the original 1995 UK VHS release. All later releases of the film are uncut, however.