Nationality, Religion, and the Human Condition

Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise is a 1987 animated film by studio Gainax that brings to question what it means to be human, how our actions can cause us to change, how political forces use technological advancements for national gain, and asks us to find commonality between us. In this writing I will go over each one of these aspects and provide my insights to how these are related to our modern way of life.

In the film we follow a character named Shirotsugh Lhadatt who starts the film as a guy who is just going with the flow of life, not questioning his position, his motives, or pushing himself to achieve something greater for himself. Through the film he meets various characters who challenge his ways of thinking, push him to redefine himself, and give him a purpose in life. Shiro is a great analogue to us as a casual audience because he feels like an everyman with how he chooses to be apathetic to the larger aspects of life that do not immediately have any impact on what he is doing right now. The modern parallel to this is how people now days are willingly becoming addicted to distractions such as social media and how they do not take action to think critically about the quality of their lives. However, through the film Shiro begins to question his position in life by asking what he want out of it, how important his duty is to his nation, and what his higher purpose in life is. The main catalyst for these questions are the people he meets, the spaces he finds himself in, and reflecting on his actions. Through my life I have had many times where I’ve needed to answer these questions and find out who I am and what I want out of life and a large part of finding them are rooted in the people I meet, the places I go, and how I can internalize these things to change the quality of my life for myself. Specifically I believe that who we surround ourselves with play a larger role in this discovery than anything else; especially when those people can push us to become the best version of ourselves or can negatively impact the quality of our lives.

This film also brings up how our nationality can influence our lives and how the national identity causes strife for others, ruins the quality of life to those who do not conform, and how the constant want for war pushes technology in a direction to cause suffering instead of increasing the quality of life. The movie’s nation has used corruption and subversion to illegally build a spacecraft, pushing for a militaristic technological advantage over their rival nations instead of using funds to build public works or to advance technology for the betterment of the public. Through these actions, Shiro is forced to come to terms with how the military treats people, how national corruption pushes for these changes, and how the technological advancements could influence others to think differently. Through these actions Shiro meets a woman named Riquinni who helps push him to find a greater purpose outside his position in the military and helps him change his perspective on what his purpose is and how he interacts with the world. It’s not by being forced to be part of certain actions that cause us to see things differently, but it’s by the outside perspectives of those around us who reframe our minds and let us take a step back to really look at things in new ways. One thing I find interesting is how in our lived experiences we can directly call parallels to these things happening exactly like in the film. A lot of technological advances in the last hundred years have been because of military advancement, using the power of flight to deliver decisive strikes against the enemies, using space technology to gain intelligence on foreign powers, and using modern technologies to outmaneuver the enemy in the long list of conflicts since inventions have been created. Instead of us using these advancements solely for the growth of our species we twist and deform them to become tools of destruction and to oppress others.

The end of the film asks people to find common ground, look for other perspectives on how to live life, and to break down barriers and borders. During the ending moments of the film, Shiro and the rest of the Royal Space Force are forced into a predicament of either abandoning the launch or to go through with it anyway and as a final act of growth Shiro asks the rest of those involved with the launch to look at the situation and to chose for themselves, claiming how they are at a precipice to do something for history and the betterment of those who come after. After a stressful and successful launch, Shrio finds himself in orbit around the planet, communications not working, but speaking to everyone. His last words are a prayer, a prayer for everyone to become one people and to disregard borders and national pride and live to pave a path for those who come after. The final part of this speech being “Dear God, please give us your mercy. Mercy for we are lost. Forgive the irresponsible, the trivial men who beg you from the dark for the forgiveness of your light.” which I believe him to be saying that the powers above need to forgive the actions of the irresponsible who push agendas and take the lords name in vein. If those people were to actually act in accordance of being one people, then maybe we wouldn’t be in the situation we find ourselves in. People tend to believe in religion, preach in the word of God, but act to alienate others and put people down, which should be unforgivable in the eyes of God but try to handwave their actions away because they are a believer in a higher power and that their faith alone will atone for their actions. If we acted more in line with that of what those who claim to believe preach we wouldn’t have a need for war, for conflict and for pushing people away who are different than us.

Even forty years after this film came out, Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise is a look into how other perspective and those around us can influence us to change, how technology gets twisted and warped for national gain, and asks us to come together as one humanity and to leave a legacy for the future. I think these speak to our modern lives and the modern issues we have because they speak to traits of human development that are timeless and have not changed for thousands of years. We may replace the vehicle of our desires, the technology being developed, and the object of our faith, but I believe that if we truly want to take to heart the message of this film we need to learn how to learn to look at things from other perspectives and ask questions to change things for the betterment of society.

~Patrick Kelly, 08/26/2026