Interstella5555: The 5tory of The 5ecret 5tar 5ystem

So here we are with another anime review! This time around, it seems that I'm reviewing not so much a series, but a single one shot movie. This movie in question is called Interstellar 5555(which I found out of luck), and I have to say that it was something very unexpected. Story: While this movie is really a visual representation of the Daft Punk album Discovery, it actually had a pretty good story. The basis of the story involves four extraterrestrial musicians who get kidnapped from their home world and brought to Earth. They end up having to be rescued by afan/spaceship pilot, and the rest turns out to actually be a pretty enjoyable movie. As a note, I'd like to point out that there is absolutely no dialogue in this movie, so everything is pretty much told with body langauge, facial expressions, action and of course, music. Art: The art was simply phenomenal. Everything flowed, and the animation was crisp and smooth, especially for it's time. Character designs were awesome in my opinion, my favorite one being Octave and his radical afro. As a note, I have to say that I personally liked how the artists drew Stella, because I could tell that the way she looked was slightly different than from what I've seen of most anime females. It's little things like this that give the art a unique feel. Sound: Of course, the sound is perfect. I had a slight interest in Daft Punk before watching this, but after watching this, my interest grew to a lot more. The music is magnificent, and every song perfectly fits with each segment of the movie, from the happy, upbeat dance parts, to the slower, sadder ones. The audio shines bright in this movie, but what else would you expect from a movie based on a music album? Character: Unfortunately, this is where this movie lacks a bit. With no dialogue, character development is close to zero here. Now that's not saying each character was the same. There were differences based on facial expressions and such during the many scenes of the movie, of course. It's just that with no dialogue, the character's personalities are left to our imagination. It's mostly opinion whether that is a flaw or a good thing. I personally don't mind it at all. Enjoyment: If you like music, especially techno, then this is a definite watch for you. I enjoyed it from start to finish, and although it wasn't perfect in all ways, it's unique enough to take the 5th place spot on my favorites list. Overall: A fantastic movie overall, with awesome music, amazing art, and a pretty good story to go along with it. Besides the lack of character development, this anime movie has no other faults that I can think of. I award it a 9/10, and it's definitely a must-watch. Now go watch it. Now!

Unlike most anime, there is no dialogue in this movie. The story is told by Daft Punk's album Discovery. I thought the film was great and had an awesome plot (though I think if there had been speaking parts it would've been AMAZING!!!) Having been a big fan of the parisian robot duo I had much respect for the work and tried to correlate the songs to the story. I think that if you have previous experience with their work, the movie is a slightly more enjoyable (well, more easy to understand if you're familiar with their odd film style), but the lovebetween Stella and Shep is enough to whet the average otaku's appetite! (Call me a daftopihle...but,) I highly recommend this film! If it turns out not to be your bag of chips then at least you can say you listened to some of the group's best hits!

This anime is pretty meh. The story is told with no dialogue or sound other than the overlay of Daft Punk’s “Discovery” album. It is an extremely simple story, which made it hard to be invested in at all. There is, however, one tragedy in the story that I was not expecting. It was effective in making me feel at least somewhat connected to the characters. It is an hour long romp that was overall inoffensive, but hardly engaging. The art is standard fare and nothing special. It is vibrant enough to be a fun watch but it is otherwise not notable. The character designs werepretty appealing, though, and made me wish that the Crescendolls (the band of characters in the anime) were a real band because of how cool they were. Obviously, the driving force is Daft Punk’s music. If you’re a fan of their stuff, then you’ll probably like this anime more than other people. In my opinion, their tracks definitely have a catchy beat but can be repetitive to listen to. Once you’ve heard about 10 seconds of their song you’ve pretty much heard the rest of it since they just loop the same thing over and over again. There are a couple gems, though, such as “Digital Love” and “Something About Us.” The rest of it I can go without. The characters are unmemorable archetypes. You have the damsel(s) in distress, the hero that saves them, and the villain. The only other thing I can say about them is that they at least look stylish. Overall my feelings for this anime are so lukewarm that I can hardly conjure anything too positive or negative to say about it. I think fans of Daft Punk will enjoy this, obviously, but I find it hard to recommend to anyone else. I think there are better ways to spend an hour of anime watching time.

Interstella5555 is the collaboration work of a band with an anime legend: It all begins in the 90s, when music videos were original (no offense to the current works); Daft Punk, a techno group, made a music video for their song "One More Time," the video animation was done by an anime artist known as Leiji Matsumoto. The video featured a band of four extraterrestrial characters, looking human with blue skin. The video had them playing the song as the whole alien world was dancing to their beautiful music. While this is going on, some mysterious villain shows up and spies on them, soon aftersending soldiers to the planet. The video continued when the song "Aerodynamic" had a music video featuring the same animation, showing the band being kidnapped. Then another came with "Digital Love," and finally the series of music videos ended with "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger." Notably, all these videos used songs from the bands second album, and in the order they were listed on the album so far. In 2003(I think), there was a full movie made for the videos, using the first four in the beginning of it. This movie was basically like one huge music video, using the entire album. It was known as "Interstella5555: The 5tory of The 5ecret 5tar 5ystem." Now, onto the review! STORY The story is about a villain who kidnaps an alien band and makes them look human, using them for profit as he puts mind control over them. The story takes a twist as their fellow alien allie comes to release their minds from this villains control, so they can escape... A very original concept, one I'm sure not many people would think of doing. That just makes it worth seeing. ART The style of the anime legend Leiji Matsumoto is one that will always be timeless; It has the look of an old anime, as if the movie came straight from the 80s. Such a feel to it will please all nostalgic anime and cartoon fans. SOUND Rather than voices - since the movie has none - this will be about the music. All of it is from Daft Punk's album "Discovery," with songs like "Something About Us," "Face To Face," and "One More Time." All of these, like the movie itself, have a retro sound to them and will please many techno fans, as well as those who just want to hear something different. CHARACTER Even when there's no spoken word, these characters say a lot by their expressions and actions. There are those you love for their heroic choices, and those you love to hate for what they do to one another. Such a quality comes straight from the genius of a true story-teller. ENJOYMENT Whenever I see this movie, I feel like I've been taken right into the 80s. It's such a wonderful film, I never tire of seeing it... I'm very nostalgic when I watch it. I love it. OVERALL Though I love the movie, one thing saddens me; Rarely anyone knows of it. I've rarely heard anyone speak of it like I do, nor do I see any fanart most of the time. It's a shame this movie is so underrated, because it has true potential to be a #1 anime film.

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