Japanese anime, a genre loved by many, has taken the world by storm, especially over the past few years. And with Star Wars being a pop-culture phenomenon and one of the biggest sci-fi franchises on the planet, some may have wondered how an non-American-made computer-animated Star Wars movie besides The Clone Wars (2008) and The Bad Batch (2021) would look. Fortunately, we now know with the release of Star Wars: Visions, a nine-episode anime series featuring independent stories written for the Star Wars universe and for fans looking for something different. The first season is now available on Disney+, which recently dropped all the episodes.
Visions is an absolute Japanese take on the Star Wars universe which blends Star Wars stories with anime that pays homage to the samurai-style of Akira Kurosawa with a touch of retro Speed Racer and works of renowned anime studios such as Kamikaze Douga, Studio Colorido, Geno Studio, Trigger, Kinema Citrus and Production I.G. Not all episodes are action-packed though. Some are philosophical, some that have nothing to do with Star Wars, and others that deserve more runtime. Each episode in the first season is fairly short, about 15 to 20 minutes, so the episodes get straight to the point and waste no time. You can easily tell which episode resonates with your style and which does not.
And that's the downside about this series as well. While each episode has its own independent story and style, you can't help but make comparisons as almost all the episodes are similar in concept. Most follow the same formula with a Jedi vs Sith battle, search for lightsabers, or a hidden "force user" that steps in to save the day. When watched consecutively, the episodes begin to blend together. The standard good vs evil battles begin to grow tiresome and as a result, the series suffers, which is unfortunate considering how much work was put into creating the show.
For example, take the first episode titled The Duel, which pays homage to Kurosawa. The plot follows a wandering samurai who comes to save a village from an evil clan, which reminds us of the main protagonist in Yojimbo (1961) and Sanjuro (1962). The visuals are black and white, with the exception of coloured lightsabers, so the scenes feel as if you were reading manga. Anime with a samurai theme just clicks so well. George Lucas actually took inspiration from old samurai movies when he was creating Star Wars, so maybe that's why having anime and samurai styles mixed felt right.
Meanwhile, Episode 3 titled The Twins is an exceptional example of the use of colour, featuring blue, orange and red, which are the primary colours of the original Star Wars trilogy. The story is simple -- twins fighting for opposite sides of the force. However, the visuals and execution of the narrative make it a standout episode, especially considering the stellar voice cast. It was a delight to see Alison Brie and Neil Patrick Harris voicing the twins. Other episodes like The Ninth Jedi and The Elder are also quite decent and based on Star Wars stories, so you know for sure that the creators actually have seen it. The remaining episodes seem like someone came along after the script was written and swapped out every instance of "magic" with "force" and "hero" with "Jedi".
Episode 1: The Duel. (Photos: Disney+ Hotstar)
Karre in The Twins.
For example, Episode 2, titled Tatooine Rhapsody, is about a rock band hired to play a concert by Jabba the Hutt for reasons that are never fully explained. The story in this episode is silly and barely has any real connection to Star Wars and felt more like watching a Japanese movie about a high school band contest. Also, the style of some episodes just didn't sit well with me like Episode 6 titled T0-B1 in which the main robot reminded me of Astro Boy and the scientist looked like one of the seven dwarfs from Snow White. It just took me out of the story a little bit.
Overall, Visions is an interesting and unique take on Star Wars. It was definitely creative, but there were some episodes that were not interesting and I had a hard time getting through them. However, that's the great part about short episodes -- there is something for everyone. If I don't like something, it doesn't mean someone else can't. If you want to avoid feeling tired after an extended viewing session, try not to watch all the episodes in one sitting. Besides the flaws of some episodes, the visuals, music and characters are well done given the short amount of time. Even though each episode is less than 20 minutes, Visions packs a lot of detail and content into each episode and is worth a watch for both Star Wars and anime fans.
- Star Wars: Visions
- Starring Lucy Liu, Henry Golding, David Harbour
- Produced by Lucasfilm Animation
- Now streaming on Disney+ Hotstar
