Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem

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🎙️ EPISODE 270: 06.12.20 I'd like to think I'm not giving this a "shitty score" for quasi-political reasons but in a sense that seems like what is happening here. I haven't fully "drawn a line in the sand" against anime (see Episode 241) and sincerely believe my embarrassing lack of exposure, both broadly (in general) but specifically re "the good stuff," is mostly to blame. It'll likely never be a go-to genre in my house; I could be schooled ecstatically, showered with the best of the best and hidden gems alike, and I just don't see it happening. This will always register, at the core, as, err, um, cartoonish. Sorry? But this thing seems specifically unnecessary. It is very much plainly (and perhaps it deserves credit for this) one of the first "visual albums" put into existence. (Beyonce, eat your heart out!)

I just don't know why anyone who would want to listen to the very popular second Daft Punk album Discovery would also want to watch this (at the same time). I guess I have this issue with ALL "visual albums." C'est la vie.

Come with me, for a second, if you will....

I imagine an alternate universe where this anime wasn't a "visual album" at all but the work of, and apart from the influence of any "band," a single filmmaker. Are you still there? Anyway, this anime movie, let's also call it 'Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem' because that is a lovably stupid title, registers with the two gentlemen of one Daft Punk, or someone deep in their environs or fandom, and either they purposely or accidentally push the narrative that the album Discovery can be synched with this film to the splendor of many ala "Dark Side of the Rainbow"¹. Now, the whole thing, even within the confines of this fake world, could have been a coup, generated from the start "in secret" as a companion piece. In this sense, the fake world and this world would become one and we're right back where we started. What I'm saying is that I don't nearly care enough about Daft Punk OR anime to appreciate this story, which, because it is an "official" venture, feels like an annoying bit of grandstanding, a bad idea run amok (at first mention of "The Crescendolls," if you can't see this then god have mercy on your soul) AT BEST, and at worst: self-mythologizing at its very bleakest (one of the few notes I scrolled down during this reads, "The token black guy from BKN is well not great here in 2020 and the drummer just looks like a monkey").

I'll leave you with an abridged quote from a review in Empire Magazine by Nick Dawson who said the film was "Fine if you like the band – you'll be treated to some cartoons playing over the top of their Discovery album."

That's WHAT this is.

If it also isn't ALL this is, well, you'd need to do some "press play on the third lion roar" level convincing.

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FOOTNOTES:
1. On Pink Floyd, some more, or something: They are interesting counterpoint in a sense, their The Wall being the very very very first "visual album?" Can we call it that? I'm no The Wall (The Movie) stan, by any measure, as I feel steadfast in my opinions on this matter regardless of my personal taste in music and/or the passing of time (historical significance, if any). That film is aided by its soundtrack to *my ears* but it's also just hard to ignore on its own weird af merits as a work of art. Why I brought up "Darkside/Rainbow" is because there doesn't seem to be a match between the content of Discovery (and its essentially meaningless if not, at the very least, unrelated lyrics, sparse as they are) & the story of Interstella. Hence if this connection was "accidental" (even on purpose) it might register as "better" (harder, faster or stronger, also? who's to say). It's an impossible thought, obviously, and also just a bad idea. But perhaps it's interesting insomuch as its calling attention to what we're ultimately left to grapple with here: the soundtrack to an otherwise silent film, only marginally connected and mostly bad. [BACK]

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CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ EPISODE 269 - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 271 ⫸

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