The title Five Star Stories sounds like one of those old movies from the 1940’s and ‘50’s about a newspaper. Nope. This is an sci-fi action anime.

No, really. There is action and lots of it. But you have to wait until the plot is established, which happens more than a third of the way into this 65 minute film. Well, you have to wait until the plot is somewhat established.

Very quickly, so I don’t have to spend too much time describing this, there are female battle androids called Fatimas. Now they don’t ever really do battle, but they are highly prized. Two Fatimas are kidnapped, and an effeminate pilot named Soop is sent to save them – or something. All the while, we get a lot of plot points thrown at us without definition or reference, so try to guess what is going on. It is slowly revealed, but as these are major plot devices, it would have been nice to know what they are talking about at the beginning.

The artwork is great, and the animation is a few steps above what we usually see for an anime produced around 1989. Too bad they just don’t tell the story well.

This seems to be one film in a series, or at least it is hinted at just before the closing credits. Either that, or they just want to finish telling us the story without having to do any more work. Either way, Five Star Stories is one uninteresting anime.