The Five Star Stories (ファイブスター物語) is a science fiction manga series created by Mamoru Nagano, building on his work on the anime series Heavy Metal L-Gaim. The story takes place in a cluster of four major planetary systems, and centers around Amaterasu, the immortal emperor of the Grees Kingdom who is destined to rule the whole Joker System, as well as his bride Lachesis. An anime film adaptation of the first volume, directed by Kazuo Yamazaki, was released in 1989.
Overview
The Five Star Stories takes its name from the Joker Star Cluster where the stories take place. The star cluster is made up of four stars: Eastern, Western, Southern and Northern. The "fifth star" is a large comet named Stant that passes through that sector of space every 1,500 years pulling with it its own collection of orbiting planets.
In the distant past the Farus Di Kanon Empire, now commonly known as the "Super Empire", controlled all four solar systems of the Joker Cluster. They enjoyed a level of technology much higher than is currently known and sent explorers to the far reaches of the Joker Cluster. Around the year 9000 AD (Ammon Duul) the empire collapsed due to internal strife. The explorers were called home and what remained of civilization focused mainly on survival. Much technology and knowledge was lost by the time the imperial families of Amaterasu, Fillmore and Hathuha gathered and established the JC era. JC stands for "Joker Calendar" and was meant to give a common frame of reference to all nations to help foster a lasting peace.