Five Star Stories

The Five Star Stories is a notoriously complex and detailed manga by Nagano Mamoru, who also worked on L-Gaim, a mecha show that Yoshiyuki Tomino fans should be familiar with.


The movie, however, had minimal involvement from Nagano, and only tells the story of the first 3 or so volumes of the manga or the first "book" released here in the U.S. and so by the end it feels like it has just set the stage for an epic, interstellar adventure filled with androids, robots, and androgynous gods. And that's it. That's where it stops. This could be seen as a major flaw, and it ... is, for those who don't ever plan on reading the manga. For those who have had the pleasure to experience the story on paper though, this movie is a great visual treat. The story we get to see is nothing but an introduction, so it does feel a bit weak, even if there is an action packed climax at the end.


The art style gives away the era it is from quite easily, and will invoke nostalgia in many veteran anime viewers, and possibly repulsion by those newer and more spoiled. The mech design, though barely seen here is fantastic. I can't stress enough how amazing Nagano's mechanical designs are. If you can get this movie in 1080p, DO IT!


The music from what I remember was great, the notes that bombard your ears as soon as the title screen shows up is very fitting for the type of story this is. The theme played in the credits is catchy and again, very nostalgic for its era.

The characters are all great, and I love them. But this is from the perspective of one who has read the manga. You don't get to really see their full potential here, but there are some glimpses of what they may become.


This movie is just fun to watch, I wouldn't say it's the pinnacle of cel animation, I'd shift more towards "Do You Remember Love?" for that, but this is definitely up there. For those interested in this series, I recommend this movie as an introduction, then the manga as a followup. Grab yourself every artbook you can find, I know there's gigabytes of material out there, they're all worth it, Nagano is fantastic.


Any fan of mecha, especially of the fantastic variety (Escaflowne, Magic Knight Rayearth, Dunbine) should look into this series. You won't regret it.

A fairly standard story. A young man must save his true love from a greedy merchant. Decent way to spend an hour.

Pros:

-- (Nice aesthetic) - Renaissance Italy combined with mecha and other classy tech
-- (Specificness) - the story is a small piece of a larger tale, so instead of being another tale of The Ultimate Hero defeating The Ultimate Evil, it's a more personal journey of a man realizing that he loves a woman and should save her, even though they're not lawfully allowed to be together
-- (Engagement) - the story is fairly absorbing and moves along well. We have sympathy for out hero and ... root for him to outwit his enemies

Cons:

-- (Overcomplicated) - This is a fragment of a larger universe, so not only is there an infodump at the beginning, but one needs to go to Wikipedia if one is to understand what exactly is going on.
-- (Straightforward) - The actual plot is basic: hero vs. irredeemably greedy, lusty, and gluttonous old ruler. Guess who wins?
-- (Deus-ex-machinas) - The story is so simple, you'd think this isn't needed; but apperently the plot must go in a certain direction, and several fortuitous coincidences conveniently steer it the right way.

Every now and again, I take it upon myself to look through my list of "Plan to Watch" titles to see if anything looks good enough to finally get around to watching. Many of the entries on that list are films, and among them I recently found Five Star Stories. I said, "What the hey? It's only 65 minutes long, I have access to the Blu-ray rendition of it, and it was a landmark project for Nobuteru Yuuki, a character designer and animator whose work I generally enjoy, so it's bound to at the very least look amazing. Let's give it a shot." While I ... was dead-on about the film's art and animation quality, those are about the only things this film has going for it aside from its merciful brevity.

The story has all the tried and true beats of a by-the-numbers origin arc for a by-the-numbers epic in the vain of works like "The Odyssey", but it is also EXTREMELY boring. It is itself an achievement that this film makes 65 minutes feel far, far longer. Nothing of even remote interest happens in this film: minimal suspense/tension and only very weak emotional investment and connection with the characters who themselves are so inactive, so passive with zero explanation for why. Five Star Stories is also rife with dramatic flashbacks, exposition dumps, and uninteresting dialogue that do nothing to make the plot, characters, or world more interesting, all at the expense of ACTION SCENES, NO LESS. For a MAL entry that has the "Action" tag, it's surprisingly dull. Even when the giant robots finally show themselves (and only in the last 6 minutes, mind you), the actual fight shown is totally boring and devoid of tension because the hero is blatantly overpowered against enemies that pose absolutely no threat. Of course, the robots' design and movements all look great, but it's what they are actually doing that is totally lame. I've thought up more interesting action set pieces playing with 1/144 scale Gunpla and Transformers toys when I was seven. Don't try and say that the staff didn't have enough people, time, or money, either; if they could make the other 60 minutes look as good as they do, then they had the time to give us a better action sequence. On the other hand, the ending frame is this pretty spectacular still with super hopeful, triumphant music playing now that the male and female "leads" are reunited ... only to tell us in narration, WHILE THE MUSIC AND IMAGE ARE UNCHANGED, that their reunion, the entire goal of this film, will spell doom for the entire universe. I'm sorry, but... what? If that was the end goal, then, both literally and figuratively, paint it differently. I get that the manga is still ongoing even to this day, but just... come on. There was no excuse for this ending, even back during the initial release. It explicitly tells the audience that they are wrong to feel happy (or at least totally indifferent because I had completely checked out by that point) at the film's resolution in spite of the fact that the director literally could not have done more to bring about the furthest thing from negative emotions. This isn't just absolutely asinine; it's downright insulting.

Amazingly enough, however, the ending of this film isn't even close to its most insulting aspect. This is where I point out the overt racism and misogyny. Basically every antagonistic character in this film has dark skin, except for the antagonists' leader who is, of course in stories like this, light-skinned, you know, to point out that he's the leader and clearly superior to them. Additionally, the heroes of the story are the absolute whitest people you could imagine. I'm not going to hold this against the film's staff, either; I blame the manga's creator, Mamoru Nagano, for the blatant offense on display here. I can also blame him for the Middle Ages-level gender politics shown in Five Star Stories. Men are the only characters with any sense of agency, which is itself a generous concession considering how passive everyone is. Women may as well be body pillows for all the personality and effect they have. The only things women are good for in this film are 1) being put up for auction and sold to pilots of giant robots, 2) co-piloting giant robots, 3) being sexually assaulted (the intention was there, even if it didn't happen), 4) getting hitched, and 5) being a body double for a very effeminate-looking man, who, in a callback to item 3, is himself at one point nearly assaulted by a drunken man (who gets off scot-free and without even an apology, obviously).

As I said in the introduction, the only redeeming quality to this film is its visuals. While I don't find the character designs particularly interesting, the sheer polish, line work, and consistent detail across numerous, and I mean numerous frames, for both character models and backgrounds, is nothing at which to scoff and both demands and absolutely deserves respect. The animation is incredibly fluid, and stills are only very rarely used, the most notable instance being the ending shot. As you can guess I am about to say, it just sucks balls that such high production value and attention to detail was squandered on a story this insulting. Again, the plot may be boring, but that alone would have only garnered a mediocre score. What makes this film BAD is how purely offensive it is.

I didn't find the music nor the voice acting very impressive. If you really want to experience this film, the best way would be to search it up on sakugabooru and look for the prettiest, most fluid clips. You won't have to look for long, I imagine. I think the best light in which I can paint this film is that it proved to be a nice tech-demo for some animators, and you may want to check out those cuts. Other than that, stay away from this film if you value 65 minutes of your time and don't care for racist and sexist views.

Happy Watching!
- LC