The Five Star Stories

Pluto

In a world where humans and robots live side by side, the legendary Swiss robot Montblanc is found destroyed. Beloved for his service in the 39th Asian War and his dedication to nature, his violent end shocks the public. Around the same time, a prominent figure in a robot rights group is murdered. The two cases share a strange detail: the victims' bodies have been arranged into bizarre collages with makeshift horns placed near their heads. Europol assigns the robot detective Gesicht to investigate. As he digs deeper, he uncovers evidence of a mysterious entity known only as Pluto. He also learns of a plot to dismantle the eight specialized robots who participated in the war, a group that in

All You Need Is Kill

Keiji Kiriya is a new recruit in the United Defense Force, fighting against the alien Mimics that have invaded Earth. Equipped with a powered combat suit called a Jacket, he is sent to the battlefield with little training and dies on his very first deployment. Instead of staying dead, he wakes up the day before the battle, forced to relive the same fight and his own death over and over. Trapped in a time loop triggered by his demise, Keiji must use each repetition to sharpen his skills and find a way to break the cycle. His only lead is Rita Vrataski, an elite soldier known as the Full Metal Bitch, whose own experience with the loop may hold the key to survival. Together, they face the rel

Neon Genesis Evangelion

In 2015, Earth is still reeling from a cataclysm that melted the Antarctic ice and drowned half the world's population. Now, mysterious beings known as Angels have begun to attack what remains of humanity, and conventional weapons are useless against them. Fourteen-year-old Shinji Ikari is summoned to the fortified city of Tokyo-3 by his estranged father, Gendo, commander of the secret organization NERV. There, Shinji is forced to pilot Evangelion Unit-01, a monstrous bioorganic weapon created to fight the Angels. Thrust into a war he does not understand, Shinji must confront not only the alien invaders but also his own fears and the growing suspicion that NERV is hiding a horrifying truth

86―EIGHTY-SIX

The Republic of San Magnolia claims to have ended casualties in its long war against the Giadian Empire's autonomous drones, the Legion. By deploying supposedly unmanned drones of their own, the government assures its citizens that the fighting now takes place far from them, without the loss of a single life. But beyond the walls protecting the eighty-five official districts lies the hidden Eighty-Sixth Sector. There, the Colorata minority, stripped of their humanity and branded as the Eighty-Six, are forced to pilot the Republic's 'unmanned' weapons. Handler Vladilena Milizé is assigned to command the Spearhead Squadron, where she confronts the brutal truth her country denies and grows att

DARLING in the FRANXX

In a devastated post-apocalyptic future, Earth is a ruinous wasteland. Humanity’s only remaining strongholds are mobile fortress cities called Plantations, defended by giant robots known as Franxx. These machines are the only weapons effective against the klaxosaurs, massive beasts that have pushed mankind to the edge of extinction. Within the Plantations, children are raised for the sole purpose of piloting the Franxx in boy-girl pairs, knowing nothing of the outside world. Hiro, a former child prodigy, fails out of the piloting program after falling out of sync with his co-pilot. His existence seems unnecessary, as not piloting a Franxx is the same as ceasing to exist. Skipping his group'

Knights of Sidonia

A thousand years after the Gauna destroyed the solar system, the seed ship Sidonia travels through deep space carrying the remnants of humanity. The alien creatures that annihilated Earth remain a constant threat, and the ship's survival depends on the Gardes, mobile weapon units capable of destroying the monsters' cores before they can regenerate. Nagate Tanikaze has spent his entire life in the ship's underground depths, isolated from the society above, where he trained relentlessly on pilot simulators. When he finally emerges, his exceptional skills earn him the right to pilot the legendary Garde Tsugumori and a place in humanity's defense force. As Nagate joins the fight against the Ga