Patalliro: The Stardust Project (1983) (2025)

Popular reviews

• Review by nintendufus 1

  “That’s the kind of person you are.” 🌹

  Ostensibly another absurdist comedy of supervillains, the apocalypse, and a horny little freak who might just be horny enough to stop them both.

  But actually (ACTUALLY!) it’s about the power of the ruling class to cause a climate catastrophe with the snap of a finger (using literal diamonds, no less – perhaps the universal symbol of exploitative opulence) and what prompts each generation to keep the door on doom, opened again every era, slightly ajar – just enough to help us keep failing our responsibility to close it once and for all.

  At the center of that story, and arguably the most sympathetic part of the whole thing, are two intersecting love…

• Review by 𝐉𝐎𝐒𝐇𝐘 𝐒𝐐𝐔𝐀𝐒𝐇𝐘 ★★★★

  Patalliro: The Stardust Project is the most cool-toned rose-filled 80s anime you'll find, featuring men of beauty who embrace their beauty (or sexuality) by wearing eye-shadow and lipstick, that has me questioning my sexuality.

  Bancoran makes eye contact with a secretary, fixing her gaze upon him as sparkling white roses fade through the screen indicating how charming his beauty is, as she reaches orgasm from the grace of his touch. Bjorn drugs his lipstick in a seductive act of villainy. Incest is present.. on two different accounts. Hail is used for world domination too. I can't say that I've seen anything quite like it. Unique in its aesthetic, humour and characters, Patalliro: The Stardust Project is another wonderful watch on the CRT TV.

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  Previously on Joshy: Final Destination 3

• Review by peggypepper

  maraich has got to be one of my favorite genders

• Review by Jeremy Urquhart ★★★½

  Gotta love how this is one of the most striking looking anime films of it’s time and it’s paired with super silly comedy that quite often literally gets lost in translation (there are many extra subtitles explaining plays on words, kind of explaining things but also reducing the capacity for those things to be funny. I think I would’ve preferred them being treated like non-sequiturs).

  When it’s not being silly, there’s also some romantic melodrama in here. It’s odd, messy, but always fun to watch, it only for how the entire thing looks and sounds. It’s a good burst of retro anime, and I dug the style. I think that was enough.

• Review by Humorous Username ★★★

  An absolutely gorgeously designed art deco crossdresser BL spy thriller that unfortunately is also at the same time an 80's comedy anime, meaning that the jokes & tonal shifts move at a million miles a minute as well as having an extremely annoying comedy goblin shoved in the audience's faces constantly.

  If we took out our title character, the aforementioned insufferable cherub baby (x10 worse than the weird baby thing from Urusei Yatsura), this would be a charmingly melodramatic queer spy thriller about Satanist Nazis using essentially HARP satellite-esque tech to destroy the planet with only the most beautiful of femboys able to stop them. The background detailing, the heavy black shading, the constant roses EVERYWHERE; stylistically it's a sight to…

• Review by Wes Black ★★★★

  Gorgeously animated nonsense.

• Review by Th0mastom

  Gay spies go to space!
  I mean, it's Patalliro...
  But if you are able to tolerate the parts that have aged badly (and that seriously loud prince) you will find a gorgeous 1970/80s Shojo artstyle, absurdist humour that does hold up and the most gender spy power couple to ever homosexual.
  This is definitely one of the best parts of the franchise!
  To be honest, I don't know a huge amount about portrayals of homosexuality from 1970/80s Japan but there was a lot in this story that surprised me. Like the bisexual character and how explicit it all was.
  A fascinating film! I watched Kinoko Video's 4k scan/remaster, which can be found here!
  They do some incredible work in terms…

• Review by Johan

  (purple haired bishōnen appears)
  "There's no way that's his name."
  (second purple haired bishōnen appears)
  "There's no way that's his name."

• Review by freskey ★★★★★

  A visual treat for lovers of 1970s manga. Who cares about the plot!

• Review by Rafael

  50 minutes of everything that's good and bad about Patalliro, but mostly the good parts, so gay spies being gay, heightened drama, and a very strong and unique visual direction—I will never stop praising the art direction in particular, but God, isn't this well directed in general.

  I know it's certainly not everyone's cup of tea (sometimes even I get annoyed by Patalliro's constant slapstick antics and puns), but I've grown to love this series quite a bit, and this is the best it's ever looked, plus the only part of it that's available in HD (thanks Kineko Video and Lonely Chaser Subs). so, all in all, it's great to revisit this movie now, having finished the show, as a closing to the 1982 series. I'll probably rewatch it more and more times in the future. I just like these characters a lot. well, maybe not Patalliro, I'm not sure. Great series regardless.

• Review by hotsake ★★

  50 minutes of nonstop gags and jokes and I only thought 1% of it was funny.

• Review by Adrielle ★★★½

  Conteúdo extremamente duvidoso, mas os episódios são muito engraçados, devo admitir.