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Five Star Stories
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"Five Star Stories" is a 65-minute movie from 1989. Creator Mamoru Nagano's manga illustrations were adapted by Character Designer, Nobuteru Yuki ("Battle Royal High School", "Angel Cop", "Lodoss War" OVA, "Escaflowne")
The story takes place in a five-star system (The “Joker” System) on the verge of interplanetary war. On its, for the most part, monarchial planets, Headdliners (knights) engage in battles using Mortar Headds (giant suites of mechanized armor). Each Headdliner is able to pilot his Mortar Headd with the aid of a Fatima, synthetically created women who look like fashion illustrations, and act as the robot’s operating system. The Fatimas are created and programmed to be loyal to their Headdliners, whom they refer to as their “Masters”.
The one destined to unite the Joker system is Emperor of planet Delta Belune, the demigod Amaterasu. Under the guise of a Mortar Headd mechanic, Ladios Sopp (sounds like soap), he becomes friends with the greatest Fatima engineer (called fatima meights), Dr. Chrome Ballanche (they just use any kind of European sounding word). Chrome’s greatest creations are the three Fatimas of fate: Atropos, Lachesis, and Clotho. Amaterasu is captivated by Lachesis, but is unable to act on his desires, because, though she seems to be an innocent girl, she is really a weapon destined to throw the Joker System into war. However, when Lachesis enters her adolescence, she is forced to choose a Headdliner Master. Because of his love for her, Amaterasu comes back for Lachesis as Ladios. After Lachesis chooses Ladios to be her Master, they’re attacked by the local aristocracy, because Ladios appears to be of a lower social class than a Headdliner (even though he’s really a god).
In the end, Lachesis and Ladios (Amaterasu), who were fated to be together, are together, beginning Amaterasu’s military unification of the Five Star System.
"Five Star Stories" is execution over story. The fact that Ladios is not really from a lower class and has problems hiding his “innate superiority” over the lower class irks me; and the strange sexist, sexual relationship between Headdliner, Fatima, and Society is just too creepy and weird. However, the way "Five Star Stories" is executed in 65 minutes is intriguing. The movie is based on a Manga (Comic) from 1986 that still hasn’t ended. The film was able to add later scenes from the Manga through Lachesis’ and Clotho's flashes of insight, which made some sense because they are goddesses of fate. I liked that this was shown through imagery rather than monotonous explanations (though they do use some of that, too). Best of all, this Anime was made in 1989 when Anime looked really good. "Five Star Stories" is a work of its time, the 1980s-early 90s, the years when spectacular looking Japanese Cartoons like: "Akira", "Arion", "Arslan", "Dagger of Kamui", "Neo-Tokyo", "Robot Carnival", "Silent Mobius: the Motion Picture", "Venus Wars", and "Wings of Honneamise" were made. And even among such works, the look of "FSS" stands out, as being particularly beautiful as well as superbly animated.
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8.65/10 
9.12/10
8.70/10 
65 votes