Star Wars: Visions
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Before We Begin:
Before we begin, I want to talk about how cool Star Wars: Visions is as a concept (if uninterested, please skip this paragraph). Back in the day, liking anime was considered... weird. You fit the category of being a sweaty, anti-social, creepy loser just by saying you watched anime. In some ways, this stigma still exists, the mere mention of "I like anime" is sure to bring groans and sighs around you. "Oh, you're one of those people?" Slowly but surely, that stigmatism is fading away. Now, it's not too uncommon to hear (in the 18-25 year old age group aka college) "yeah, I've seen Attack on Titan", or "I enjoyed Jujutsu Kaisen". However, anime in general is still kind of a niche to general western audiences. Star Wars: Visions is a massive step to normalize anime to western audiences, I've had friends and family who know of or enjoy Star Wars mention Star Wars: Visions to me, people with zero interest in anime say: hey, there making a new Star Wars cartoon, I'm going to check it out! Things like Star Wars: Visions, Invincible, Primal, etc. are starting to normalize not just anime, but animation not of the "for kids" or "raunchy sitcom humor" variety, but of differencing genres, age groups, and styles to the mainstream audience. I think projects, shows, and ideas like this should be celebrated around the community, and I for one am happy Star Wars: Visions as a concept was even made.
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The Duel
Studio: Kamikaze Douga
The Duel was the most visually striking from the trailer for Star Wars: Visions. Black and White film with some use of color, a lightsaber umbrella, a wandering jedi-samurai going into a village. From it’s opening shots, it’s made very clear to the audience. This is inspired by Kurosawa films. This short takes a lot of inspiration from Kurosawa film, including the old scratching film filter over the whole episode, but it is shot in it's own direction and doesn't feel old fashion in its cinematography. The Duel tells a fantastic “samurai” story, akin to an old western/samurai genre film. A village under attack, a wandering traveler in the right place at the right time, and an empire tormenting innocent civilians. Very Yojimbo. A simple premise, with much fun to offer.
We get a visual feast of characters, from the rag-tag band of defenders to the village, including a tusken raider, to the main villain, who looks like Mortal Kombat’s Sindel with lightsabers. The weapons we see as well are an amazing treat, laser gatling gun to the lightsaber umbrella. We get dynamic camera work, well-choreographed fights, dramatic camera shots, etc. The cinematography incredible. It’s a hell of a start to the anthology that gives a lot of promise and hope for the next episodes.
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Tatooine Rhapsody
Studio: Studio Colorido
Tatooine Rhapsody is an interesting one, and not in a good way unfortunately. Tatooine Rhapsody suffers from a problem some other shorts also suffer from: “You have the chance to tell a story with the STAR WARS property, and you came up with this?” I think there is nothing wrong with wanting to tell a story in the Star Wars universe that is about regular people having relatively normal lives, no jedi, sith, grand battles or space conquest included, but two problems arise from this. One is universal with any media. If it’s just people being normal, it’s boring, it’s watching paint dry. There needs to be conflict in the world. For Tatooine Rhapsody, a... kid(?) joins a band, but one of his band mates is being hunted by a bounty hunter, Boba Fett, who tells the group their Hutt friend is wanted by Jabba the Hutt. Ok, that’s not a horrible premise, but then we encounter problem two.
We get, 11 minutes, INCLUDING credits, with these characters. To resolve the conflict, the gang puts on a concert for Jabba the Hutt and ask him to be their sponsor instead of executing them. Taking a more “slice of life” style with the anthology made it really hard to connect with the story, or care at all. Tatooine Rhapsody is a story that would have fit better in K-On than Star Wars. Why make it Star Wars? When given a blank canvas, who came up with a band drama episode? Not only that, but not cool sci-fi fantasy band, but a generic rock band with a singer, drummer, guitarist, and bassist? Yes, for some reason, the music in this episode is music straight out of 2000s grunge and/or punk rock.
It's the same issue people have with SIng! vs Zootopia. One used its animal character to create a world centered around them, the other could have been done with humans. This short could have been done outside of Star Wars.
To give the episode a break, it is commendable the writers and director chose to tell a unique story, even if it fell flat in my opinion. It told a story I haven't seen attempted in the Star Wars Universe to my knowledge, and I applaud the chance they took. Also, Temuera Morrison coming in to voice Boba Fett for this episode was honestly incredible to see, and a welcome surprise.
Unfortunately, in the art and animation department, this episode was pretty uninspiring. By no means is it BAD of course, not with Disney money backing a studio, but nothing really stood out. There was one problem however I had, with the characters. Everyone in the animation looks like a kid. Maybe it’s personal preference, but the main character looking like an eleven-year-old, while sounding like he’s in his late twenties was jarring to say the least. Boba Fett as well looked like a “cutie-fied” version of himself.
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The Twins
Studio: Trigger
From the fan favorite studio Trigger come the story: The Twins. I feel like this was the story in the trailers many people were excited about. From the start of the episode, it’s got the classic, beautiful Trigger art. Thin to non-existent outlines on characters, dramatic perspective changes, and familiar character design. This was the episode we saw in all the promotional art leading up to Star Wars: Visions, and I can see why. For the casual fan of Star Wars, this is the episode to go. It’s an amazing fight between good and evil, with fantastical design, and familiar ships. I think overall, it was the “simplest” episode to get behind, not offering itself to an overly artistic interpretation like some on the list, but full of great action for the casual audience to enjoy.
If I must nitpick, there are elements of this short that don’t make too much sense on the surface, like how the two main characters are able to just breath and fight out in space. Was it the force? Are they in an oxygen bubble? Why did the main character’s lightsaber grow taller than a star destroyer? I don’t know, but does it matter? It was a cool, fantastical, non-canonical story that delivered action and spectacle.
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The Village Bride
Studio: Kinema Citrus
Kinema Citrus was a studio I was not familiar with going into the anthology, so I was curious to see what kind of story and style this story would bring. A lady in a mask, who I assume to be a wandering jedi watches a man carry a woman up a mountain, where they pray and thank nature for the beauty of their planet. The village is “sacrificing” the chief's daughter to take his place as a hostage of the empire. Naturally, many villagers, including the “bride’s” sister are against this and attack the empire. The masked wander steps in and stops the villagers from being killed.
I’m a bit baffled by this one. Village Bride didn’t really provide much to the anthology, nor did I think the story was all that interesting. Its animation is plain but passable, and while seeing/hearing the battle droids again was fun, it didn’t really do anything for me. I thought the short was going to run with the nature motif, maybe connect it to The Force, but they didn’t really go anywhere with that either. It’s not really a bad short, but I struggle to find anything worthwhile talking about it.
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The Ninth Jedi
Studio: Production I.G.
The Ninth Jedi probably contained the most “story-like” story from any episodes. Most episodes place us right into the mist of an ongoing story. The Ninth Jedi took its time showing us many characters, and building up its story. This is mostly from its longer runtime, where the episode has the opportunity to slow burn the audience on its story. I think that the twists as well were fantastic to the story. I won’t reveal them now, as I want this review to be as spoiler free as possible. This episode also had many dynamic camera angles, often times without using CG characters as well. We also get some beautiful close-ups of some lightsabers. The ending battle was an exciting and vibrant one, definitely one of the best in the series. And the episode leaves us with a cliff hanger for a future time to be explored.
Similar to The Twins, The Ninth Jedi is a great one for the casual viewer to enjoy. It’s not overly complicated or deep in its themes, but gave us an enjoyable story to sink our teeth into.
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T0-B1
Studio: Science SARU
T0-B1 starts off looking like a combination of Astro-boy, Mega-man, and Pinocchio. Its style and characters were initially off putting for me, looking more like Disney than Star Wars (ironic considering who owns the latter). But the episode quickly picks up a whimsical, child-like nature of fun and cheerfulness, much like T0-B1 himself. The sound design on this episode was fantastic. T0-B1's steps had a unique, cartoon-like sound-effect to them.
The planet the episode takes place on is a barren planet with little to no life on it, and the professor, T0-B1's father is looking to change that. T0-B1, along with the many other droids he lives with are a great visual treat to see, along with the main bad guy.
T0-B1 suffers from its runtime however. It’s one of the shorter episodes in the series, and it REALLY shows in the pacing. Within a minute and half, we go from T0-B1 finding his father killed, swearing to avenge him, and fighting the main villain. The story works, I just wish they gave themselves more time to build up and let everything sink in, even if just for 5 more minutes.
The Elder
Studio: Trigger
Studio Trigger returns for their second episode, and I must admit, I had high hopes for this one. I thought it looked great from the trailer. Coming out of it, I’m mixed. The Elder is definitely one of the strongest episodes in Star Wars: Visions, and my biggest complaint is that we didn’t get more of the episode. The first half was great, setting up a mysterious and unknown villain and the Master & Padawan relationship between our two main characters. Where this short (no pun intended) falls short, is with the elder himself. I wish we got more time with him, and more time with the fight. With a title like The Elder, you know this is what the whole episode is building up to. I just wish they spent more time on it.
Animation and art are on point, as to be expected of Studio Trigger. I also really enjoyed the ending topic the episode gave us. “No man, no matter how powerful, can escape the passage of time.” No matter how powerful that Elder was, time slowed him down and dulled his senses. As with the master and apprentice relationship, the master will get weaker with time so he fills his apprentice with his knowledge to make him stronger and pass on not just his strength, but his ideals and legacy as well, as the jedi have done for centuries.
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Lop and Ochou
Studio: Geno Studio
I honestly had low expectations for Lop and Ochou. Going in, I thought Lop didn’t fit as a new Star Wars creature at all, but then again look at the design of T0-B1. I thought it was too humanistic looking for a creature where they played up its “cuteness” too much. Luckily, Geno Studio did a great job with this one. Lop and Ochou was my personal favorite episode. It had the best of all worlds to me. It’s animation, while not the best, was great to watch. Its story is easily one of if not the strongest in Star Wars: Visions. The family dynamic between Lop, Ochou, and their dad was an interesting story that I wanted to see explored more.
This is the greatest strength of Lop and Ochou. The culture and society of this planet and family is dripping in culture and history that I wanted to see explored more in the future. It excels not just in its character designs, but it’s world design. Just look at the scene where Lop is given the family lightsaber as an example.
The story was the most emotional one to me. While we only get a few minutes with Ochou, her siding with the empire was understandable, though I wish we got to see why she grew up so different from her younger self. Lop’s struggle to keep her family and sister together was heartbreaking to watch. If Star Wars: Visions is getting a second volume, I’d love to see Geno Studio return to continue this story.
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Akakiri
Studio: Science SARU
The galaxy brain studio behind Devilman Crybaby returns for their second episode, and ends Star Wars: Visions on an... unexpected note? Akakiri is most similar to a typical Star Wars story in my opinion, especially its ending, but we’ll get to it. Right off the bat, Akakiri opens up with unique music that actually sounds alien like to me. That was one of the weakest parts of Star Wars: Visions as a whole. I enjoyed hearing traditional Japanese instrumentations, but combining it with the alien sounding universe of Star Wars or orchestral genius of John Williams was lacking throughout the whole anthology except this episode. I also thought the designs of the new characters and creature fit much better into the Star Wars universe. As great as it is to see the Japanese influence, it was nice to see something that was clearly alien while taking inspiration from Japanese culture.
The story of Akakiri surprised me being the last episode. It was quite a somber one, and I would argue that it didn’t have a happy ending. The main character goes chasing after a vision he had of someone dying, over and over, trying to stop it from coming true. Sound familiar? It’s very much like what was going on with Anakin Skywalker in the original Star Wars. It ends badly for all involved, and was quite an odd episode to end the anthology off on. Not bad by any means, just surprising to say the least.
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Final Thoughts
Star Wars: Visions is a project I’m glad to see come out, and not only that, succeed in most episodes. There are some overall nitpicks, mostly small ones. Inconsistency of course plagues the show, but that’s found with every anthology. This is VERY minor, but I found the story elements to be a bit too similar between each episode, like how almost all episodes revolved around something to do with the Kyber crystals, and I swear, if I have nickel for every: “I have a bad feeling about this” line, I’d be a rich man indeed. But these are minor in the face of the whole product. Great animation was consistent in almost all episodes. Stories ranged from engaging to average. Characters, while designed great were usually one note and forgettable. Music was not bad by any means, but more variety and something more akin to Star Wars would’ve been a welcome addition. I know it may sound harsh and like I didn't like it, but Star Wars: Visions was a real treat to watch. I hope we get another volume sometime soon in the future.