Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem

Interstella 5555 is an anime that many people probably don’t know about. It was produced in the beginning of the decade by Toei animation, probably one of the most influential and important production companies in the industry. Founded in 1948 it has produced such titles as; Captain Harlock, Galaxy Express 999, Dragon Ball, Neon Genesis Evangelion and Mazinger Z. The reason why this movie may be unknown to many anime fans, even coming from such a power house, is the fact that it is actually a collection of music videos set to the band Daft Punks second album, Discovery.  

    The movie tells the story of an alien musical group that is abducted during a performance and brought to earth, altered to look human and forced to perform their songs in order to make an evil producer more money. One of their friends arrives on Earth and works to save them from their fate and bring them back home.

     One of two things can keep the typical anime fan from enjoying this cool movie, the first is that its actually an album length music video, the second is that it is done in the classic Toei style from the 70’s. Leiji Matsumoto, one of the directors, has a large and impressive list of productions he has worked on. The style is very similar to Galaxy Express 999, which Matsumoto is the original creator of. The art is clean and the colors are vivid. The story, while not spoken in any sense, tells an in-depth tale about one persons’ ruthless and far reaching pursuit for power and control and the way he uses anything in his path to get to his goal. It also tells the story of acceptance and understanding between cultures and the strength of friendship. Being a fan of the album already, I greatly enjoyed the entire movie, which I just watched in full for the first time. Originally it came out in bits and pieces as music videos for the selected singles from the album, first one being One More Time. Around that same time I ended up catching a string of them late one night on Toonami and found out there was more than just the first video. The DVD was released in 2003 along with action figures of the main characters, both of which are still available from retailers and Daft Punks website. If you are a fan of the band you already know about parts of the movie, if not all of it. If you are a fan of classic anime this is a nice thing to add to your collection. If you are a fan of fun loving electronic dance music this can also appeal to you. I would say if you have seen the One More Time video and didn’t care for it this movie is not for you. I enjoyed it, even though it took me for ever to watch it in its entirety. I might try and pick up some of the action figures, but the complete set is something like $100 US.