s a child, Shirotsugh Lhadatt wanted to be a pilot. But he didn't
measure up to the Air Force's standards. So he accepted a place in the
Royal Space Force, an underfunded, unsupported, woefully unsuccessful
semi-military venture staffed by optimistic old crackpots and cynical,
lazy young "pilots" who had never flown a day in their lives. Most
citizens think spaceflight is a frivolous waste of public funds, while
the military thinks of it merely as a possibly useful ploy for starting
a war. Even Shiro, despite his old dreams, doesn't take the idea
particularly seriously.
But a devout evangelist who clearly respects and admires Shiro gives
him something to believe in, simply with a few inspirational words and
her own personal example of determination through adversity. Energized
and proud, he volunteers to become the first man to go into space, to the horror of his jaded friends, who have seen the training films of rocket after rocket exploding and have only recently attended the funeral of one of their number. It takes a great deal of effort and energy to convince
them and their seemingly senile scientific crew that he means
business.
And even with a dedicated pilot and a fanatical team to back him up,
the RSF still has to face public apathy, official hostility, monumental
technical problems, funding crises, and the occasional foreign assassin.
But if the RSF can meet their impossible goal of getting a man
into orbit, will they actually have changed anything about the world for
the better?
Animation and imagination that soar
Wings beat the classic Akira to completion by one year, but
took a much longer time to work its way into American anime fans'
hearts. A slow, solemn, contemplative piece, it features little external
action and little polarized conflict. In fact, it has the stolid feel of
a genuine historical documentary, although it isn't Earth history, or
even necessarily Earth. The fantastically rich cultural and sociological details make that clear, but they also give the story a great deal of realistic,
human flavor.
Of course, a piece this textured and this textually sophisticated
needs imagery to match, and Wings doesn't disappoint there
either. The spaceflight sequences in particular are breathtaking, as are
the thrilling but grim battle sequences, both the large-scale and the
intimate. This is a big-screen piece, full of meandering, soaring vistas
that don't condense well to the TV.
Nor do the vagaries of the story conform well to the average anime
piece. There's no real hero--even Shiro is a weak and confused man
operating on a borrowed dream and a set of very questionable motives.
There's no real enemy, except perhaps for apathy and ignorance. The
forces at work in this story are philosophical and emotional, and they can be complex and hard to track. But ultimately they're extremely rewarding.
Wings is unusually mellow, but it's an extraordinarily
intelligent and involved movie that has as much to say about humanity's
nature as its scientific works.
