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

Story:
The story is a fairly normal thing. Several musicians get kidnapped and brain washed by an evil doer.
The most interesting thing about this story is the fact that said musicians are aliens.
Which makes things very interesting.
The story moves along quickly but doesn't skim things either.
And if you like AMVs you'll find this to be very much the best one you'll ever see as things make sense!
An 8 on story from me.

Art:
While the movie aired in 2003, the art looks very much like something from the late 80s.
That is not to say it isn't well animated. It's very smooth, but looks like cleaned up 80s ... arty work. I think it fits with the mood quite well.
A 9 on art from me.

Sound/Music;
Something I did not know before I first watched 5555 was that there is NO TALKING! That's right. No voice actors, monologues, or trash talking contests.
The entire story is told with the music!(Very cleverly mixed with the visuals)
As the story is told entirely with sound, the score is incredible!
It ranks in the top 15 of all soundtracks I've heard.
(Which is very impressive considering I've listened carefully to over 200 OSTs)
A generous 10 from me on music! ^__^

Character(s):
If the movie has a single weakness, it's the characters.
Since there is no talking, there is very little character development.
And much is left up to the audience to imagine.
Some might like this, others might find this very dissatisfying.
All we have to go on with the characters is their looks and the actions that we witness, and while this gets quite a lot across, it still leaves large holes in what the characters are actually like. Their personalities and thoughts are left up to us.
And while this doesn't REALLY affect the movie, since it's a feast of the eyes and ears, not of the mind, it could be considered a minus overall.
A 6 on characters from me.

Enjoyment:
I enjoyed the movie hugely! I loved it from the first time I watched it, and have watched it several times since. Each time loving it more.
But just because I liked it, doesn't mean everyone will.
I showed it to more people then my self.
And they were not all impressed.
I would have to say that...you need to be a certain type of person to fully understand and appreciate this type or film.
I would suggest that if you want to watch this that you enjoy music much more then the average person, have a liking for music videos, as this might be considered a long AMV.
And have a mind which embraces the weird or unusual.
And enjoy techno! ^^
A 10 fom me on enjoyment!

Overall:
The way this movie handles story is something very interesting to look at. As their is no talking, their is no 'story telling' as such.
Everything is told through the music and visuals.
It is a feast for art lovers and dreamers!
It challenges you to think and imagine while taking you on a wonderful trip through the strange, dream like world that is created when music and animation are joined in such a unique and breath taking way!
I highly recommend this for anyone likes to imagine and dream to the hypnotic beat and notes of music. ^^

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 were ... pretty 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.

Discovery is a masterpiece, but I feel like this kind of misunderstands the appeal of Daft Punk and their music which was that the world was futuristic and cool but you were still just a normal guy doing boring things, so it would have been cool if space fanboy got more focus.


I also feel like the movie comes more from a love for the individual songs and an overriding commitment to perfectly emulating whatever aesthetic the album was going for, which makes for a really unfocused and weird film. It’s not bad, though! HBFS and Something About Us were highlights, though they tried to ... make Veridis Quo into Castlevania for some reason. I think the gothic stuff was where they lost me.