Star Wars Visions is a real mixed bag to me. In a way, that’s to be expected with an animated anthology series. It’s a collection of isolated vignettes by a variety of different animation studios; some episodes are always going to be better than others. For example, I’m going to recommend World Record or Detective Story over the rest of The Animatrix. But as a whole, I’d still recommend watching the whole of The Animatrix. For Visions, I’m torn between cherry picking and saying that it’s worth watching the entirety.
On my basis (and bias) as a writer, I’m going to lean towards watching individual episodes. For a Star Wars fan that’s interested in seeing a new take on the universe or expansion of lore concepts, I’m absolutely going to say skip most of the episodes. There’s little to no substance here for any of that, and writing was definitely not a priority over the animation, visual style, and sound. It’s easily better to watch maybe three of the episodes and then skip the rest.
With that in mind, the fact that I am so torn should help the next statement resound strongly: The art and animation alone really is good enough to consider recommending the whole series.
Even the most dull and uninspired of these vignettes is done with striking visual flair and a frequently unique style. The most tonally nonsense and un-Star Wars episode (and I am thinking of a specific one here) will still be so flashy and over the top that I can’t help but revel in it. Star Wars Visions is a visual treat, and for those with any real interest in art and animation? That’s enough to recommend it in a heartbeat. For everyone else, your mileage will vary strongly on the individual offerings.
Since there’s nine radically different episodes, I’m going to do my usual Battle Report style write-up for each of them individually. I’ll include the episode name and number so you can choose whether or not it sounds like something you’ll want to check out. I also watched this in a group with a couple of friends, so I’ll note a couple of dissenting opinions and comments when relevant.
Very mild spoiler warning too, just for good measure. Shouldn’t matter too much for such short vignettes though.
Ep 1: The Duel
Visions comes out swinging for the fences. The series starts on the highest note, because The Duel is likely to be the absolute favourite of many who watch this. It’s right up there for me, and the single episode that I would encourage everyone to check out for the stylised art alone.
The Jedi as a concept are heavily inspired by classic samurai stories among other adventure series, and The Duel absolutely leans into this. Adopting Sin City colours of a sketched black and white style with vibrant red punctuation, this is a real visual spectacle and instantly had my attention. Little surprise from the studio that handled the Jojo anime, I suppose. Still, the art is used to showcase some fantastic classic samurai motifs and stylings, capping it off with the titular duel.
There’s not much more I could say about this one except to gush about how impressive I thought it was. If you’re only going to watch one episode, watch The Duel. It probably won’t get better from there for you.
Ep 2: Tatooine Rhapsody
Right off the tail of the strongest offering in Visions, we have one of the weakest. Sadly, Tatooine Rhapsody really didn’t do anything for me. Compared to the technically impressive and striking art of The Duel, Tatooine Rhapsody goes for an exaggerated chibi style that immediately clashed for me. Seeing the main character, I was unclear if they were an adult or a child, and by the end I’m still not sure.
The disconnect of the art style really made it hard for me to feel much of anything for it, and so the plot and concept failed to land entirely. It’s about a band trying to play a show only to keep getting interrupted by bounty hunters. They finally culminate in what amounts to a garage rock concert as a last wish before a firing squad. Neat idea, but I just didn’t buy it, and I didn’t care for the music in question either. So yeah. The series started high, then immediately sank low. Everything else is somewhere in between these two.
Ep 3: The Twins
Remember how I mentioned a tonally nonsense and un-Star Wars episode? That would be this one, the offering from Trigger. If you’re at all familiar with that studio name, then you probably know exactly what you’re about to get. The minds that brought us Gurren Lagann and Kill la Kill among many others were always going to do things their own way. The Twins is utterly ridiculous, breaking so many rules and conventions not just of Star Wars, but of how space even works at all. Only the barest nods to the source material are made before giving way for hyperdrive-powered lightsaber slashes and battles on top of a Star Destroyer in a vacuum.
It’s absurd. Did I care? Not really, because it was so stupidly over the top, flashy, and excessive in its crazy stylised action that I was just grinning like an idiot. This is worth watching for the spectacle, but anyone taking Star Wars with a modicum of seriousness will probably have their brains melted. I’ll end this with a paraphrased quote from my friend and I after watching it.
Me: Yep, that’s Trigger.
Him: Oh, I’m triggered, alright!
Ep 4: The Village Bride
I have reflex typed this as Village Bridge each and every time, fuck me…
Unfortunate reflex typing aside, this one was a personal favourite of mine. The art and animation was utterly gorgeous here, displaying a real naturalistic bent and fantastic vistas. More than that though, the music was incredibly on point. It stood out in conjunction with the visuals so much that I thought I was listening to NieR’s soundtracks for a moment.
Like the rest of the episodes, it doesn’t really do anything truly spectacular in the plot and writing departments, but every other aspect carries it triumphantly over the finish line. Overall, a definite highlight.
Ep 5: The Ninth Jedi
More than any other episode in the anthology, The Ninth Jedi felt like the pilot of a Star Wars arc that I would happily watch more of. There’s enough here to kickstart a new period in the timeline much further than the movies, with wholly different power balances and a lack of really established Jedi or Sith. So, you know, where the Legends stuff would’ve been before Disney annulled it all. Either way.
Beyond the potential of the setting, the plot revolves around the lost art of lightsabers being rediscovered. Newly forged lightsabers are being offered to the seven Jedi who answer the call, gifted by a mysterious eighth Jedi. Meanwhile, the Force sensitive daughter of the swordsmith is desperately trying to get the blades to them in the hopes that they’ll help save her father in return. A simple premise with the usual suite of gorgeous visuals, but this one also had some of my favourite action, choreography, and character designs of the bunch.
It didn’t quite win me over as hard as The Duel or Village Bride — I typed bridge yet again, motherfu– but it certainly won me over. Those three make up my favourites from the series and they come as easy recommendations. But there’s one more that’s definitely worth highlighting…
Ep 6: T0-B1
…because this is easily the most stylised of the bunch, animation wise. Tobi (as it’s pronounced) makes its pretense known immediately: What if Astro Boy, but Star Wars? The titular droid is quite endearing and charming in their child-like innocence, and that same vibe carried through in the gorgeous art from start to finish.
I can’t say this made as strong an overall impression as the aforementioned three favourites, but Tobi had such a unique style and irrepressibly good vibes. It made me smile, what more can I say? That was enough to make it a worthwhile experience.
Ep 7: The Elder
The Elder is a pretty mixed bag. Once more, it leans really heavily into the samurai mythos and styling. The latter half of the episode really captures the feeling of a Kurosawa film (but in colour), and I respected it for that. Unfortunately, the first half is fairly slow and plodding, with perhaps the most plain and “classic” anime style of the bunch. I was also hoping for an early plot tease to end up being a twist, but instead it played its premise completely straight. Probably for the best given Star Wars’ record when it tries to subvert expectation, no?
Either way, this one had its moments but could probably have achieved those in a fashion that’s less drawn out and exposition heavy. Without the visual flair to carry it, it’s probably among the missable ones.
I only realised now, in hindsight, that this one was also a Trigger production. Well, it sure as hell didn’t look or feel like it.
Ep 8: Lop and Ocho
Perhaps I was feeling the fatigue of binging the series by this point, but I found Lop and Ocho to be where I was largely tuning out or checking Discord. There’s a pretty good theme at the heart of it, that being that found family can easily be more important than blood family (shoutout to Ben if you’re reading this). I just don’t think that theme was handled particularly well, either due to the tight timeframe or else focusing on the more climactic moments of the tale.
The visuals get really kicked up here though, and I will say that the general backgrounds and vistas are second only to Village Bride (HAH, typed it right this time). This one goes really hard on the samurai motifs again, but this time largely through the style of clothing and iconography over swordplay. Maybe this is more to your taste than it was mine; of the viewing party, this one was probably the most split down the middle in terms of feedback.
Ep 9: Akakiri
The final episode of the season consolidated my overall feelings for Star Wars Visions as a whole: all style, no substance. Akakiri is yet another samurai-flavoured tale, this time largely telling a story that’s mostly a rehashed version of Anakin’s fall. There’s a few twists to the formula, but nothing that really sells the notion that well, and it ends on a note that I found kinda flat.
Again though, this one had a lot of style. Akakiri’s setting felt like a grungy, run down and low tech feudal Japan. The art style reflected that immensely, and almost nothing but the shine of the lightsabers looked like it fit in Star Wars at all. It’s supremely stylised and stands out in its own way. All the same, it lacked the vibrancy to really entice me with anything more than a “That’s kind of neat” response. Not bad, but ultimately only reinforced my mindset about Visions.
So yeah, that’s Star Wars Visions. I didn’t really know this was coming out, and only got a heads up when I was invited to watch it a couple of hours prior. I’m still largely jaded and disinterested by most modern Disney franchises and properties as a whole. This did absolutely nothing to dissuade my sentiments on that front, and especially about my frustrations with increasingly poor writing and lack of creativity. At the very least though, Visions really did let the creativity run rampant for the animation and art, which alone may validate its existence just fine. There’s certainly far worse ways to spend an evening, but there’s a lot better ones too. They just probably won’t be so pretty, is all.
Couple of big projects to be posted in the next couple of days. No, seriously. For real this time. Until then!
Bridge. Fuck.
Delfeir vs. the Backlog 