Five Star Stories

Director
Kazuo Yamazaki
Production
Kadokawa Shoten, Sunrise
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Film
Running time
65 mins
Year
1989

Five Star Stories

By xrys
28th Apr 04

It's a generally short movie. Well, it's just the prologue to the manga series by Mamoru Nagano. To fully understand (which you most probably might not unless you are the manga-follower) and enjoy this movie, it's best to understand certain terms they use in the story and a bit of the rich story background.

It is the Joker Galaxy. Apparently hinted by the title, there are 5 solar systems and in them many warring kingdoms. Warriors known by the term "Headliners" ride on giantic mecha-robots termed as "Motar-headds"(MH for short) and have a partner "Fatima". However, not all warriors get to have a "Fatima". A "Fatima" is a beautiful often female-shaped bio-computer engineered from "etrimi"(the Motar-Headd is input the "Fatima matrix" to correspond) by "Fatima Meist" (likewise, Motar-Headds are built and maintained by "Motar-Headd Meister"), and she chooses her own master by acknowledging the master verbally calling out his name. Other than these, there are emperors, city lords, etc. Reading from the above, you probably can guess there IS hierarchy system in the galaxy.

Huh, the above is probably more than enough for you to understand this movie for now. Of course if you are interested, you can always check out on FSS manga. It is way more complex with tonnes of characters and history. You can say it's something like another Star Wars, but I wouldn't want to do any comparison.

As for the main characters in this movie, they pretty much explain themselves. I don't want to give any spoilers. This movie is more on the emotional aspect and focus on the characters rather than mecha-wars. Quite intricate efforts in that though, my friends and I, whether guy or gal, enjoyed the movie alike. You don't have to be a mecha-fan or a helpless-lovebird to see through this movie. The other disappointing thing is the washed out color of the film since this is phew~ more than a decade ago!

8/10

-- xrys 28th Apr 04

Five Star Stories Images