Star Quest (found English theatrical dub of Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise; 1987)

Original Japanese theatrical poster.

Status: Found

Date found: 31 Mar 2023

Found by: Nicholas Walstrom

Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise (王立宇宙軍~オネアミスの翼, Ōritsu Uchūgun: Oneamisu no Tsubasa) is a 1987 Japanese anime film, notable for being the debut work of Studio Gainax. While the film's Japanese release date of March 14th, 1987, is often listed as the premiere, Royal Space Force actually premiered a month earlier on February 19th, 1987, at Chinese Mann's Theater in Los Angeles, California, re-titled Star Quest. This release was hastily dubbed into English by an unknown cast and crew, and reportedly distributed by a company by the name of "Go East Productions." According to a Usenet post by manga editor Carl Horn, the dub may have been written by Budd Donnelly, who may have written for the My Little Pony franchise. Reportedly, significant changes were made to the script and character names, such as renaming the main character from "Shirotsugh" to "Randy." Reports by those who attended characterize the dub as poorly put together, with ill-fitting, cartoonish voices.

7 years later, Animaze and Manga Entertainment would put out a much more faithful dub, re-titling the film to Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise. This dub would later be the one included with every home video release.

The 1987 dub was considered entirely lost until 2014 when Anime News Network writer Mike Toole presented a number of short clips of Star Quest as part of his column Anime Twice Dubbed.

On March 31st, 2023, Nicholas Walstrom announced that he had obtained a copy. According to Walstrom, the film now fell in the public domain due to it initially premiering in the U.S. without a proper copyright notice

Gallery

The full dub.

Mike Toole's Anime Twice Dubbed

1987 Japanese TV special that shows clips from the Los Angeles Premiere.

1987 column by Toren Smith in Anime-Zine #2 describing the changes to the Star Quest dub