One More Time.
Title: Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem
Format: Film
Release: 2003
Studio: Toei Animation, Daft Life Ltd., Wild Bunch, BAC Films
Director: Daisuke Nishio, Hirotoshi Rissen, Kazuhisa Takenouchi, Leiji Matsumoto
Plot
Four musicians are kidnapped from their home planet and brought to Earth, where they’re brainwashed and turned into the next big international music sensation in a secret plot to control the universe.
Legacy
In 2001, French electronic music duo Daft Punk released their second album: Discovery. During its recording, they conceptualized the music videos that would go along with the songs, and eventually found themselves in Tokyo, presenting the album to Leiji Matsumoto, creator of Captain Harlock, an anime they’d both watched as kids.
Matsumoto agreed to supervise the project, and a team was assembled to create what would become Interstella 5555, an hour-long anime film spanning the entire Discovery album. The film contains no dialogue and few sound effects. Almost all of the movie’s sound comes from the music.
In addition, with Matsumoto supervising, many of the characters ended up looking like characters from classic Leiji Matsumoto anime (Captain Harlock, Galaxy Express 999, Queen Emeraldas).
The film itself gained popularity in the US from segments of it being played on Toonami and other places music videos are played. The Discovery album’s singles themselves were also very popular around the time of their release, exposing many to the videos, which themselves were part of Interstella 5555.
