Speaking of stories with unusual school settings, try to wrap your head around this one. Anakt Garden is a trainee musical school for “pet” idols, whose alien owners want them to compete in the ultimate idol competition called Alien Stage. 

What is Alien Stage?

That’s a good question. Alien Stage is an intergalactic story of human idols singing for an alien competition. But it’s also a story by Korean artists told through music videos.

Alien Stage is beautifully animated. The song lyrics emphasis themes of loneliness and the desire for connection. There is no dialogue, no narration. As such, you have to watch closely and and listen and pay attention. That’s how you discover the story of Alien Stage. There are flashbacks throughout the songs, so we learn about the characters and their relationships, as well as the alien world where humans are kept as pets.

Several of the characters attended the Anakt Garden Music School and were in the same class together. There were friendships and crushes and heartbreak all mixed up in their relationships. We actually see very little of the school except in flashbacks.

Mizi – pink hair and earnest, with bright smiles. (This can only end in tragedy.)

Sua – black hair, solitary and quiet. (Trying her best despite circumstances.)

Till  – gray hair, the Troublemaker, trying to get attention from the girl he likes. (Hint she’s in the competition.)

Ivan – black hair, suave, quiet and deadly in his own way. (Fighting for his happiness.)

Luka – the blond handsome prince (who will stab you in the back while giving you a gentle smile.)

Who created this?

The songs and animation are a collaboration between Korean music writers, directors VIVINOS and QMENG and animated by Studio LICO. It features different singers for each of the main characters.

I only discovered this recently, when I was tempted by a YouTube video titled ‘Top Three’. It looked like a short animation project and sometimes those are gems! I had no idea what I was clicking on or that I was watching the fifth video in a series. I immediately had to watch the earlier rounds and I was hooked by the riveting music, heavy pounding bass and electric sweet spots. “Top Three‘ was like a commercial for the competition. But why does the pink haired girl look so scared? Then I realized there are subtitles! 

So I had to rewatch everything to get more of the story. But it’s really more about discovering the story and puzzling out the character details. Oh, this guy with the blond hair Luka? He’s like the “king”, because he’s shown sitting on an elevated tower, with the royal red and gold chair at the top. Did he win a previous competition? (Yes, we can confirm this by the subtitles!)

But he’s also a schemer!

Competition stories can be tricky, because you have to be invested in the winners to keep watching. Who will win? Reality TV based on music competition, or talent shows are a mainstay, but I love when it gets put into a sci-fi setting. There’s a book by Catheryne Valente I’ve been meaning to check out with this premise called: Space Opera.

I highly recommend watching the Alien Stage videos yourself.

Or listening to the music first on Spotify, search “Alien Stage”.

You can get more beautiful pictures from their official website.

If I haven’t sold you yet, then let’s dive a little deeper.

Warning spoilers to follow

What’s the twist? The hook? What makes Alien Stage so compelling?

Alien Stage is actually a battle royale style competition. The singers compete in duets and are scored live, so that at the end the singer who loses is murdered on stage. After all, the aliens are in it for the spectacle and the singers are considered ‘pets’. Who cares if a few of them die?

Watch the first round with the sweet duet between two friends Mizi and Sua. (They’re possibly more than friends) and it turns into a tragedy at the end. It changes your entire perspective on the song My Clematis. They sing, “Oh My Clematis, always be at my side”. The lyrics are haunting.

There is a bracket for the competition, and after each round we see who moves on. I can only imagine how earlier videos teased the next character introduction. And was there something mysterious about Round 4? The video series skipped it and we can only speculate why. (Luka won, maybe it wasn’t as interesting as the next round.) Round five was the first time we had a song between two named characters: Mizi and Luka. Surprisingly, it did not end with a death, but someone clearly lost control! Luka tormented Mizi during the song about how she lost her friend. And there’s an all out fight on stage. And then a missing person!

On the official website, we get more world-building. There’s a brochure about the Anakt Garden music school everyone attended. There is also a flyer with tips about how to take care of your human “pet”. Don’t poison them carelessly with cyanide! One of the latest videos, called MIZISUA, shows a drop-off center for unwanted pets, possibly when Mizi and Sua first met.

Human society has all but disappeared in this universe, so the aliens control everything. It’s actually a really good metaphor for how we treat K-pop or Japanese idols, holding them to different standards. We love them but if they’re not popular enough, it’s like the death for an idol.

Alien worlds and idols are only the beginning. As a storyteller, I find it fascinating when I encounter a story told in such a non-traditional format. So much effort into the production of short animated videos and yet the story is compelling as anything. (For a behind-the-scenes look, check out the storyboards for Round 2 compared to the final by QMNEG.) Or maybe you’re a fan of the music, in which case don’t miss the covers by the other singers. The actress for Sua sings Black Sorrow.

Of course, I’m excited for the rest of the story. It’s not over yet. Who will win? What happened to Mizi in Round 5? Why is she missing? This is everything you could want. The drama and glamor of idols in space!

Now, let’s celebrate this with some AI art, because why not?