Art & design of The Wings of Honnêamise
These scans are from a pamphlet promoting the 1987 animated slacker science fiction epic Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise.
Written and directed by Hiroyuki Yamaga the film was explicitly intended to elevate the late 80s anime industry, outlined in the proposal Royal Space Force - Project Intentions: A New Wave in a Time of Lost Collaborative Illusions in which -
Okada and Yamaga argued in their proposal for Royal Space Force that what prevented the anime industry from advancing beyond its current level was that it had fallen into a feedback loop with its audience, producing for them a “cul-de-sac” of cute and cool-looking anime content that had the effect of only further reinforcing the more negative and introverted tendencies of many fans, without making a real attempt to connect with them in a more fundamental and personal way
From: Wikipedia > Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise > Production
The world building and technical design are a delight to take in. Feathered pompadours, riveted rockets, and canvas spacesuits. A semi-feudal civilisation, post-steampunk tech, wrapped in a self-loathing religious dogma, that feels awfully grounded. The tiniest details feel like they’re not from here. But that they have arrived where they are, in these strangely familiar forms, after generations of unseen iteration. Chief mechanical designer is Hidekai Anno, who would go on to create the inexplicable Evangelion franchise, and the wonderfully strange Shin Godzilla.
This selection of scans are taken from the full pamphlet, lovingly scanned and shared, at the Internet Archive:
Royal Space Force - The Wings Of Honneamise- Pamphlet by GAINAX
Further reading
- Royal_Space_Force:_The_Wings_of_Honnêamise at Wikipedia
- Oneamisu no Tsubasa at SFE (The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction)
- (Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise at IMDB
- Royal Space Force: The Wings Of Honnêamise - Ōritsu Uchūgun: Oneamisu No Tsubasa at Mubi
- The History of Gainax, Episode One - The Daicon Openings/Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise on YouTube
- Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise (1987) PILOT FILM on YouTube







