Rating: 
Summary: DO NOT buy this DVD
Review: Save your money. DO NOT buy this DVD. Wings of Honneamise is an awesome movie. A truly excellent film in its own right, and top notch anime. Also, the extras are far better than your normal anime DVD. There are plenty of reviews for this title which will tell you about the story and its triumphs. Unfortunately, everyone who has written a review with more than one star has done you a diservice: This DVD is poor quality. Primarily, any time there is any quick action on screen, bars will appear over the picture. Second, the picture is not sharp at all, akin to a well used VHS. If you must own this movie, go for the VHS. Manga has cheated everyone who purchased this disk by doing a poor transfer. Before buying this disk, I did not even know you could botch a DVD this badly. I shall never buy another Manga DVD unless they re-release this title and reimburse me for my trouble. That's too bad to, because Manga has licsence for several excellent anime titles. SAVE YOUR MONEY!
Rating: 
Summary: Hope springs eternal....
Review: This is a flawed film, to be certain. However, its main problem is perhaps that it is an animated film with aspirations that are too high for the likely audience. This is also, in a way, its strength. In presenting a film that is deliberately paced and deals with philosophical subject matter, the creators have certainly presented anime fans with an "odd man out" in the genre. The film has no superheroes, no futuristic high-tech battles, and no coquettish schoolgirls. Instead, they have given us (especially those of us too young to have witnessed the moon landing) a new look at mankind's seemingly inherent desire for knowledge (Cold War ideology included), and the conflicts that arise when that drive confronts other instinctual urges, such as the thirst for power. But the filmmakers take it a step further by suggesting that such awe-inspiring advances in science may not be compelling enough in and of themselves that we can ignore the plight of the poor in favor of experiments that don't seem to have any immediate benefit for the populace (and make no mistake about it-- a fair number of Americans were opposed to the moon landing for that very reason). Ultimately, the film plays out as an attempt to unify faith and science, without compromising either-- yet it thankfully refuses to provide the viewer with any pat answers. Obviously, the creators were aiming high. The film is lacking in the characterization department, and some of the principals' motivations remain unclear, or overly simplistic. At the same time, the story tends to introduce storylines and then leave them underdeveloped. That's bound to happen, maybe, given the goal the creators set for themselves, but it still takes away from the film's ultimate impact. Nevertheless, in spite of its flaws, the result is a dramatic film that has as much substance as pretty much anything playing at your local arthouse theater, and it has a stunning (although somewhat dated) soundtrack by Ryuichi Sakamoto (of 'Last Emperor' fame) besides. Never released stateside, it is still in print in Japan, twenty years after the fact. Ultimately, 'Wings of Honneamise' manages to be pro-science and optimistic about faith at the same time, even as it presents the pitfalls of dogmatism on both sides ... The scene was troubling, but there for a reason; namely to remind us that we're human in spite of our best intentions, I would suggest, though we may try our best rise above it-- and that applies to both characters in the sense that he failed to overcome his sexual urges in favor of a 'higher calling' and that she failed to overcome her desire for some abstracted personal reward in favor of a more tangible temporal justice,as most contemporary liberal Americans (including myself) would view it). It goes without saying that some of the artistry of the film seems to be lost in the translation (the Japanese version emphasizes a more general spirituality along the lines of a belief in some greater purpose ((suggesting that it might even be nothing more than a biological drive), while the translation comes across as more essentially Christian), although as dubbed versions of anime go, this is top-notch and well-acted. This is an ambitious film, and it's an art film, make no bones about it. It's not a bona fide classic, but if you're interested enough to have read this far, you really can't go wrong by giving it a look. As an attempt to reconcile faith and reason, the end result is a minor statement that manages to be both spritual and secular at once-- in spite of the inherent contradictions. Strongly recommended, with reservations.
Rating:
Summary: Great Science Fiction
Review: I didn't give this film 5 stars because of how slow it is. Other than that, it's a great piece of science fiction. I prefer animated sci-fi because it's limitless. With live-action sci-fi, there are too often cheesy effects and horrendous makeup. Nothing is compromised in animation. The Wings of Honneamise is fantastically animated. I was very impressed. Every last detail is very fine-tuned. The pieces of machinery remind me very much of the manga of Masamune Shirow (who made the comic that inspired Ghost in the Shell). It's beautiful. There's not a lot of action in the Wings of Honneamise. Like the Patlabor movies, there's simply more to it than explosions and chaos. There was obviously a lot of thought put into this movie. It's one of the best animes out there.
Rating:
Summary: Worth the trip
Review: The Wings of Honneamise is a film that has truly a great animation, but the animation seems to well be darkened with the image of this poor DVD, The Wings of Honneamise has a truly good music, great and realistic animation, an excellent character development and probably the best ending i have seen on film, but the problem is that one Shiro tries to rape Riquinni well that scene feels like fingers in the eyes of the film, but it dosen't completely ruin it, but i think that the problem is that is a bit slow at the beginning and that it lacked of action, but i still loved it, but i would send an e-mail to Manga telling them that this film deserves better, the sound is very good, but curiously the 2.0 japanese soundtrack is better than the 5.1, for example the music sounds more natural, but the image (...), but it looks good on dark scenes, anyways i would recommend you seeing this film, it lacks a bit of action, but it still is like the Apollo 13 but in anime
Rating:
Summary: NOT WORTH IT
Review: The quality of this DVD is pathetic. A VHS version I've had for several years has far better picture and sound quality. Wait for another version of the disk that does the title justice.
Rating: 
Summary: The movie was Fantastic!! The DVD not so great.
Review: I was so excited to have finally purchased this movie. It should be in everyones Anime collection. The film does not disappoint! But the DVD is another matter. To my disappointment this DVD is riddled with encoding problems. The picture is fuzzy and toward the layer switch it breaks up (pixelization). I own about 250 DVDs many of them with dual layers and this is the only one that has this problem. I know this DVD may react differently to different players. But my Panasonic did not like this disc. This disc should be recalled and a new remastered reissue made.
Rating:
Summary: Yet Another Film for 19 Year Olds
Review: You would think that 19 year olds are half the population of the planet, since so many films are made from that viewpoint. Meaning, the viewpoint that mankind is generally bad, mean, cruel, stupid - generally hopeless. Of course, many people never grow up to become 20 year olds, and stay 19 all their lives - especially professors and artists - artists like the constant parade of filmmakers who make movies about what they perceive as the hopeless state of mankind. This film "cleverly" takes place on a planet "just like our own" (amazing coincidence, eh?) - of course, so that the filmmaker can only deal with his own personal conception of what is "the important" aspects of life on our own planet. For example, there is a religion on this planet, and it has a book, but since it is another planet, the filmmaker can remove those aspects of religions that he finds inconvenient or disturbing. As many anime films do, this one ends with a string of platitudes (cf the otherwise superior "Ghost in the Shell") that sound good, but have little meaning other than impressing the 19-year-old-at-heart viewers until they go on to the next thing in their lives. In terms of art and animation quality, this is far inferior to "Akira" or "Macross Plus" (two of the only intelligently scripted animes I have come across so far, but I admit to only having seen about half of the more acclaimed works.) PS The recent DVD I viewed on my better-than-average system was quite excellent in picture quality - although I've never seen any other format to compare to. So, maybe they've recently corrected the problems referred to in other reviews.
Rating:
Summary: Great film, horrible DVD transfer:
Review: This is one of my favorite films, but my love for the film cannot overcome the poor transfer of the film to DVD. The average viewer probably won't mind the problems, but audio and videophiles will recoil at the quality. It appears that the DVD was mastered from an old tape copy of the film that was in turn made from a relatively poor original film print. Hopefully a new release of the film will be made available. Having said all that, I still did buy the DVD.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent and powerfull animation!
Review: Wings of Honneamise is a truly incredible anime experience. The animation presents an interesting world with a very different yet similar culture to ours. The world is one that is very advanced in some areas, but has yet to take the stars similarly. This is a story about those who think we should go to the stars. Little do they know that the government sees them as just another pawn to be used in regional power struggles. It's a rich story that we can easily relate to. The top quality animation adds only yet another layer to this wonderful story.
Rating:
Summary: technical problems on this disc
Review: 5 STARS! It's a masterpiece. Unfortunately, the technical problems on this disc are severe and you will be distracted by the defective video track. AFAIK Manga has not released a replacement disc yet. Don't ruin one of the best animes ever, wait for the perfect version.
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