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Even for die hard anime fans, Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5secret 5tar 5ystem, is a mixed bag. However it is not without it charms. For one thing it has a killer soundtrack by Daft Punk from their Discovery album. The entire film plays every track from that album. Second, it contains the creative vision of Leiji Matsumoto, who worked on Starblazers, Galaxy Express 999, and Captain Harlock, which this short movie is modeled after. The two members of Daft Punk grew up admiring the anime of Matsumoto so it was a dream project for all involved. Still after my initial viewing, I was confused.

At the beginning of the movie there is an alien planet with four blue skinned musicians, who may be human or alien, are playing Daft Punk’s One More Time to a strange and mixed crowd. A distress signal is picked up by one of the band members. The vocalist decides to investigate and that launches the plot in motion. Then Interstella takes off on a Sci Fi musical journey. This is all accomplished without dialogue. That is the main problem. It is very hard to follow the plot as one song starts playing and ends only to be followed by another song and another song. Without dialogue to go by, the viewer sees scenes that go along with the audio but make little sense. It is like watching an hour long music video that becomes hard to pay attention to the longer it plays. I was able to follow along for the most part and then I just got tired of watching music and visuals that really didn’t go anywhere.

Don’t get me wrong, Discovery is a great album and Matsumoto is a great artist. My advice is to keep both separate. Go out and get Daft Punk’s Discovery, put on some headdphones and make up your own little movie to go along with the grooves. Check out Matsumoto’s Captain Harlock and Starblazers for great anime space operas. Just don’t combine the two into one movie that will leave you confused.

Final Verdict:

2.5 out of 5 Stars for a noble effort that sends one to la la land.