By 
For many mecha fans in the English-speaking world, The Five Star Stories is a fascinating mystery. Its mecha designs shared in breathless posts about author Mamoru Nagano’s influence on the mecha genre, its character designs complimented for the sheer beauty of their fashion. A small community focuses on the many model kit releases, sharing builds, techniques, and everything you can expect from a niche modelling hobby. And yet, surprisingly, not much of its story, its artistry as a manga, is really ever discussed.
I want to change that. The Five Star Stories will celebrate 40 years of publication in 2026, and there is a reason for that longevity. It is a unique reading experience, a story that spans millennia and alternate dimensions. Nagano spins a yarn that can show us everything from high courts ruled by gods and wizards, the grimy streets of a cyberpunk city replete with android brothels, fables about an ancient war between demons and dragons, and even half a volume dedicated to exploring conventional warfare in this fantastical setting.
It is also possible the words ‘Five Star Stories’ have never appeared before your eyes, so let’s get back to basics.
The Five Star Stories is a manga created by Mamoru Nagano, first serialised in the pages of Newtype Magazine on its April 1986 issue, continuing publication to this day. Despite its relative obscurity outside of Japan, it is fairly well-known in its country of origin, with new volumes frequently appearing in the top five best-selling titles on the week of release (and in long-term sales charts!). A recent exhibition of Mamoru Nagano’s artwork was attended by names anime fans will recognise such as Haruhiko Mikimoto, Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, Kunihiko Ikuhara, and many others.
The Five Star Stories doesn’t have the cultural penetration of your One Pieces or Demon Slayers, but it is not exactly rare in its native country. The widespread perception of its obscurity in the English language sphere is due to being long out of print, and its English license being in legal limbo.
A problem facing anyone foolish enough to attempt describing The Five Star Stories is its density as a text. While one could say that “only” 17 volumes have been published so far, the sheer quantity of storylines, world-building and side-stories make them feel like three times that amount. Let’s give it a shot:
The Five Star Stories takes place in the Joker Star Cluster, made up of four star systems plus a ‘nomadic’ star system orbiting around an itinerant giant comet. In ancient times, a vast super-empire ruled the cluster, and achieved the pinnacle of technological advancement. Since its fall, humanity has fractured into several nations, each with their own history and conflicts.
Despite its loss of ancient technology, the planets of Joker remain highly advanced. Long ago, it was agreed that open warfare was an uncivilised, and costly, manner of settling disputes. Gigantic robots, known as Mortar Headds, were created to provide a swifter, more elegant alternative (although more conventional warfare is not unheard of). These behemoths are piloted by a headdliner pilot, alongside a fatima copilot. Baseline humans are unable to become headdliners: we are simply not strong enough. Headdliners are those descended from genetically-enhanced super-soldiers from ancient times, possessing faster speed, strength, and intelligence. As soon as such abilities are discovered in a child, they are inducted in their nation’s knightly order and begin training, joining the aristocracy regardless of their social background. Thus, “headdliner” and “knight” are essentially synonyms. Mortar Headds are, correspondingly, finely crafted works of art befitting of the nobility. They also have organic components, and some of them have shown signs of life.
Still with me? Good, we just have one more term to go over, then we can talk about the actual story. I told you this was challenging. But I believe in your power to follow my words as much as I believe in my ability to convey all of this. Let’s do it.
Finally, we have Fatimas: genetically engineered humanoids designed to be the perfect partners for knights. Fatimas are also faster and stronger than baseline humans, but are programmed to find a master and obey only them. They are required for a Mortar Headd to function, acting as a manner of CPU, as well as communicating more directly with the machine. Fatimas are essentially treated as second-class citizens, and their often tragic lives are central to the tales presented by Nagano.
The main yarn spun in the pages of The Five Star Stories is the tale of Amaterasu-no-Mikado, Emperor of A.K.D., and his wife, the Fatima Lachesis. From the prologue, taking place a thousand years in the future, we know Amaterasu is fated to wage war against other nations with the aim of unifying the Joker Star Cluster and ending all wars. He will achieve this by sacrificing many friends and, yes, even Lachesis.
Our first few stories follow Ladios Sopp, Amaterasu’s secret human identity, a renowned Mortar Headd mechanic. Sopp reaches the planet Addler, where Dr. Ballanche’s final “masterpiece” Fatimas are to be presented to potential masters. Lachesis was promised to Sopp, but the greedy local duke is holding her hostage. With help from the Mirage Knights, as well as King Colus from the planet Jüno, Sopp frees Lachesis, and presents her with the Knight of Gold he had promised her so long ago: a magnificent, overpowered Mortar Headd.
The next story will see our protagonists assist King Colus in a local conflict which may have greater implications for the political landscape of the star cluster. From here on, the manga settles into a semi-anthological format. The focus shifts to different characters and their stories, jumping back and forth on the timeline. Characters from these side stories will in some way influence events in the main tale of Amaterasu, or maybe did in the past. Sometimes we will take a glimpse into a far future where most advanced technology is gone. Quite often, we will return to familiar characters to see their stories progress, such as the Fatima EST, or tales of the Fillmore Empire’s knights. Occasionally we will visit the Taiga Universe, inhabited by advanced aliens and, somehow, intersecting with the stories set in Joker.
At the end of the day, The Five Star Stories is less a single storyline and more the tale of a universe and its inhabitants. It is as much world-building as it is myth, constantly shifting and changing according to its creator’s interests and aesthetic preferences. While retcons were never alien to The Five Star Stories, the most famous one came after the release of the anime film Hana no Utame GOTHICMADE. Nagano took a long hiatus from the manga to create this film set in the world of The Five Star Stories, taking on the roles of director, screenwriter, storyboarder, key animator and more. To this day, the film has not received a home media release, nor been screened outside of Japan, an issue which has caused some controversy I am not here to settle.
After GOTHICMADE, Nagano made several retcons to The Five Star Stories. Basic nomenclature was changed, characters were redesigned, and most controversially, the mecha design language shifted. Mortar Headds were now GoThicMades (GTM for short), sporting often-unrecognisable redesigns, as well as new names. Story-wise, the manga has continued the long-running current arc, and previous volumes have not been revised at all. It falls on the reader to make the connections, confusing as they may be, although this has always been the case when engaging with the text.
An illustration of the change from Mortar Headd to GoThicMade design language.
TOP: MH “The Bang” (SSI Kubalkan), also known as “Bang Doll,” 1991
BOTTOM: GTM “DARMAS” (Erupting Doll), 2019
Sitting as it does at the fulcrum of mecha anime history, there are many topics I’ve left unexplored, such as the L.Gaim connection and Mamoru Nagano’s background, the two animated films, taking a closer look at the themes of the piece, the history of FSS hobby modelling, or the legacy and impact of Nagano’s mechanical design work. These are important subjects for understanding Nagano’s legacy, and I encourage you to look into them.
For now, I want to answer a pressing question: Where do you read it? Unfortunately, the answer is not so simple. Here are your options:
- The English Edition: Released by Toyspress in the early 2000s, covering until volume 10 and including extensive appendices that were included in the Japanese edition, as well as many taken from art books. While not up to date, reading 10 volumes of FSS will give you a very strong understanding of it as a manga. Unfortunately, this is long out of print, going for exorbitant prices in the secondary market.
- The Japanese Edition: If you read Japanese, then you’re set! The volumes are easily available from online retailers, with volume 18 having just been released as of this writing.
- Other Languages: There are ongoing editions of FSS in Italian and French. The Italian and Korean editions are currently only one volume behind from the Japanese release, while the French one is quite new and not caught up yet. There was a Taiwan-published Chinese-language release, but it seems to have stopped at volume 14 in 2022. The Korean and French editions often come with bonuses unique to those versions.
Thank you for reading! I hope this has made you curious and excited for the world Mamoru Nagano has created, and that you’ll join me in enjoying the beautiful madness of its creativity.
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