A kid who wants to touch space gets ground down by everyone around him, and the movie doesn't flinch when showing you how small his dream looks against the weight of the world. The Royal Space Force builds itself like a real institution, corrupt, tired, moving slowly, which means every inch toward launch feels like it costs something. A 1987 film that looks like tomorrow, moves like a historical drama, and breaks your heart because Shiro's just trying to prove that one person wanting something badly enough still matters. This is what happens when you give a visionary director an unlimited budget and no notes to compromise on the vision.

Shiro Lhadatt is a cadet in the Royal Space Force of the Kingdom of Honnêamise, an outfit that has never sent anyone into space. The public sees it as a failure, and a government more eager to provoke a war with a neighboring country treats it with indifference. An unmotivated Shiro meets Riquinni, a devout young woman who believes in the importance of space travel, and her encouragement leads him to volunteer as the pilot of a planned rocket. Joined by a team of aging but determined scientists and engineers, Shiro races to complete the first launch while military leaders scheme to use the program as a spark for all-out war. The film is a sci-fi drama set around a nation's first attempt at spaceflight.