Wings of Honneamise is the movie that put Gainax on the map. It is just amazing the amount of detail put into Wings of Honneamise, but that's to be expected since it had a budget that rivals even today's big projects despite being made 16 years later.

I liked just about everything about WoH. The story was absolutely fantastic, but Shiro's relationship with what's-her-face (I'm terrible with names, especially ones that are mentioned only once) met an untimely end. It was pretty unfortunate that it didn't actually develop, but I suppose it's because it was one-sided.

Which brings me to the only thing I didn't like about Honneamise: it's too preachy. All of these references to God just made me so annoyed, and in the ending where Shiro prays for humanity annoyed me further. Add to that the fact that there wasn't actually an ending just made me mad. It just stops abruptly. There isn't even something extra after the clips. It left me thinking "Is that it? They couldn't just throw in five more minutes?". It really was a shame that such an inspiring story about following one's dreams stopped like that.

I suppose I'll neutralize that negative paragraph there with another positive. The characters in Honneamise are just so wonderfully realistic. Shiro, who is more like an anti-hero than anything else, was just such a believable character. I could especially relate with his general malaise.