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

Original Japanese theatrical poster

Status: Found

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 14, 1987 is often listed as the premiere, Royal Space Force actually premiered a month earlier on February 19, 1987 at Chinese Mann's Theater is 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 31, 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

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