Back in the good old days when MTV was actually Music Television and not a channel for Reality TV Kazaa and Napster made piracy popular and you had to go out of your way to record your favorite music off the radio just so you could have a tape of your favorite music in one place music videos were awesome. And they were so huge that they would draw in huge ratings to channels with music programming and studios would sell music videos on VHS so people could have them along with their vinyl cassettes and/or CD collection Studios would invest a ton of money into them because they doubled as promotional material for the band and as a result you would get music videos that were essentially awesome short films with an awesome song attached such as Michael Jackons Thriller Ahas Take on Me and Nirvanas Smells Like Teen Spirit. Interstella 5555 hearkens back to these days by essentially being a 60 minute music video. Interstella 5555: The 5story of the 5ecret 5star 5system what a mouthful is an hour long music video telling the story of an alien band to the music of Daft Punk. Interstella 5555 was developed by Daft Punk along with legendary creator Leiji Matsumoto and was released by Toei Animation. The story follows a group of blueskinned extraterrestrial group of musicians who are kidnapped right after one of their concerts and are brainwashed and altered to look human by an evil music manager. Soon after a space pilot from their planet who happens to be a huge fan of the band tries to save them after receiving a distress call sent out during their kidnapping. As far as stories go its on the simple side but it doesnt need to be more complex than it needs to be. It is after all an extended music video. Any more complex and it would get in the way of the music and feel completely unnecessary. Its also completely void of any dialogue letting the visuals and music do all of the storytelling. The music which consists entirely of Daft Punks Discovery album doubles as both the soundtrack and some of the storytelling. The rest of it is told through the visuals letting the characters actions and expressions do most of the work which is done masterfully. And considering the complete lack of any dub anyone can understand whats going on. Its animation and art style looks fantastic with Leiji Matsumotos style shining through. It definitely feels like a 70s era anime considering that quite a few of the directors works were released. That said with all of the praise i gave Interstella 5555 its not for everybody. If Daft Punk isnt your thing or having a simplistic story puts you off you probably wont like this. If you can get past the band maybe pretend this is a silent film. Interstella 5555 is worth checking out.