Star Wars: Visions releases on Disney Plus today, bringing nine original anime tales from seven different studios to the Star Wars galaxy. I don’t have much experience with anime, but I’ve been really excited to see these stories from the start. Experienced storytellers being able to give their own take on Star Wars completely unconstrained is something that we don’t get to see often.
The end result completely lived up to all of the expectations that I had. Each short manages to balance breathtaking visuals with compelling stories. There may have been ones that I enjoyed more than others, but none of them left me feeling let down.
The Duel is the perfect story for Visions to open with. Right from the first second, the short creates a deeply interesting atmosphere heavily inspired by the same sources Star Wars itself drew inspiration from. The duel itself is beautiful to watch and the short gives just enough information on its characters for your brain to race filling in the rest. It’s worth mentioning that the novel based upon the short that releases next month, Ronin, is equally great and worth a look.
My favorite of the batch is most likely The Village Bride, which tells the story of a fugitive Jedi survivor visiting a village besieged by raiders. Everything in the short from the characters to the visuals to the music is top notch, culminating in a perfectly Star Wars finale. Not far behind it for me is The Ninth Jedi, which deftly accomplishes its goal of telling a story that calls back to the original film by following a young character’s journey as they become part of a larger world. The short length of these episodes and others makes their efficient storytelling even more impressive, because they rarely feel like they’re not long enough despite each having to build up its own setting and characters from scratch.
Each of the other shorts manages to find its own element that makes it enjoyable. T0-B1‘s protagonist is impossible not to root for. The fast pace and action in The Twins make it breeze by, with a couple of particularly eye-catching set pieces. The mentor and student dynamic in The Elder provide a sweet arc, and I enjoyed getting a classic Jedi story. The themes of family in Lop and Ochō build up to a finale almost as engaging and deeply Star Wars as The Village Bride‘s. Akakiri wasn’t without some compelling ideas of its own and I’m glad we got one love story in the lineup, though I did think it was an odd note to end the season on.
If I had one criticism of the overall season, it would probably be that I wouldn’t have minded more variety in the different premises. Every episode involves lightsabers to some degree, with most of them being about a conflict between Jedi and Sith or a Jedi surviving after the purge. These stories all work in the vacuum, but it would have been nice to see some more different types of Star Wars stories as well. This is one of the things I appreciated about Tatooine Rhapsody; its premise made it stand out very distinctly from most of the other shorts, though it had just as much heart.
I watched the season in both Japanese and English and I didn’t think either was any less enjoyable than the other; the English dub has a couple more familiar voices while the Japanese can sometimes feel more true to the tone. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Star Wars: Visions, and it managed to recapture a sense of wonder that doesn’t come around too often. I’ll be disappointed if we don’t get more, especially considering how many of the shorts end up feeling like pilots. Whether it’s more Visions or not, I really hope to see more shows that feel this free to go outside the box, because I’m happy to say it really paid off for me here.
Guest review by @NumidianPrime
- Hardcover Book
- Candon, Emma Mieko (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 352 Pages - 10/12/2021 (Publication Date) - Random House Worlds (Publisher)