Star Wars: Visions
スター・ウォーズ：ビジョンズ
Presenting all-new, creative takes on the galaxy far, far away, Star Wars: Visions will be a series of animated short films celebrating Star Wars through the lens of the world's best anime creators. The anthology collection will bring nine fantastic visions from several of the leading Japanese anime studios, offering a fresh and diverse cultural perspective to Star Wars. (Source: Disney+)
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Presenting all-new, creative takes on the galaxy far, far away, Star Wars: Visions will be a series of animated short films celebrating Star Wars through the lens of the world's best anime creators. The anthology collection will bring nine fantastic visions from several of the leading Japanese anime studios, offering a fresh and diverse cultural perspective to Star Wars. (Source: Disney+)
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anime-prime
September 22, 2021
Disney has been taking over the movie industry step by step, so naturally it wasn't long before they show an interest in anime. What resulted is their first original anime based off a popular franchise that they purchased the rights to about a decade ago, Star Wars: Visions. Deciding to make an anthology about Star Wars was an interesting idea, and they decided to hire seven different anime studios to animate nine short self contained episodes. This resulted in nine episodes of varying quality, but the decision to compile short stories itself had its own strength and flaws. Let me get this out of the way.I am not a huge Star Wars fan in general, and outside of the three main trilogies, Rogue One, and The Mandalorian, I don't know anything else about the universe. So perhaps there are a bunch of references to other shows or books, but I wouldn't know. That being said, I found the episodes with obvious easter eggs to be of lesser quality than the other episodes. Additionally, I can say that one doesn't need to be really familiar to enjoy this anthology. The pros of short self contained episodes is that it gives more imagination to the creative team and that if one person doesn't like an episode, they can watch the next and perhaps enjoy it. The cons of this style is that people that prefer a narrative and recurring characters might not get invested and that having a one-shot even that one enjoys can become unsatisfying if there isn't more. Likewise, some episodes in this anthology focus more on story while others focus on style. Depending on what type of person one is will impact which shorts one ends up liking. So I will briefly get into the individual episodes. The first episode, The Duel, is animated by Studio Kamikaze Douga and is a nice enough introduction. It is very style heavy and utilizes experimental animation. It isn't deep, but the animation and coolness of the characters will influence how much one likes it. The second episode, Tatooine Rhapsody, by Studio Colorido, has the most amount of references to the main series, but it ended up being the most disappointing. This is doubly true once finishing the anthology and realizing how different it is, and not in a good way. It's aimed much more toward a younger audience with its cutesy and dull animation and doesn't have any stakes worth caring about. It's more of a musical, and leaves more inconsistencies and questions than one would like. The third episode, The Twins, by Studio Trigger, is what most people expected it to be: an insane sakuga fest of zany action. The story's focus is very narrow and it just sets up the two twins to fight. Interestingly, it serves as an clever contrast to the original Star Wars trilogy. Sort of like a "what-if" scenario. It is easy to poke holes at some things that happen, but it's Trigger, so that isn't the point. Like why does an android need an astronaut helmet in space? The underlying story and action make the episode a fun adventure in the anthology. The fourth episode, The Village Bride, by Studio Kinema Citrus, has the best soundtrack of the series, composed by Kevin Penkin and has one of the coolest characters in the anthology, simply referred to as "F". The story isn't that compelling, but the atmosphere set up by the animation and soundtrack make a good showing with a bombastic finale with great action. The fifth episode, The Ninth Jedi, by Studio Production I.G., is possibly the overall best piece in this show. It contains a full story, sets up a potential sequel, and has elements of action, mystery, and suspense. Constructed around a interesting cast of characters, especially the lead, it all culminates in a finely told story which will definitely surprise the viewer. This is the episode that feels like it could have deserved a full series. The sixth episode, T0-B1, by Studio Science Saru, is cute and fun, but it doesn't do much besides that. The animation throughout the episode is pretty good, especially in the action scene, but it's mostly style and little substance. The seventh episode, The Elder, once again animated by Studio Trigger, is very different than their previous short. It's more substance than it is style. It is a slow burn, or at least relatively compared to the runtime. It's mainly the two main characters bantering in conversation. Towards the end though, a new character makes an appearance and some chaos ensues. It could have benefited with more of a story, but the calm story and characters makes an interesting contrast to their previous episode. The eighth episode, Lop and Ochō, by Studio Geno Studio, was one of the more highly anticipated episodes of this anthology, along with the Trigger episode, and this episode is an easy contender with the fifth episode as the best of the show. The animation style, the characters, and the story are brought together in a truly engaging tale of two adopted sisters finding themselves at odds with each other. It could have benefitted with a longer runtime, but that's true with all of the shorts. The ninth episode, Akakiri, once again by Studio Science Saru, is another instance of extreme contrast between same studio episodes. While the first they did was colorful and cheerful, this is a lot darker in both color and tone. It also plays to their strength of trippy animation. That being said, it's mostly style and if it wasn't for the unpredictably dark cliffhanger at the end, it would end up as a complete turn off of a final episode due to being a very weak stand alone. As it turned out, the dark ending might be why they left it for last. So that's all the episodes. They all could have benefitted from a longer runtime, but they are shorts for a reason. In general, the longer ones were better than the shorter ones, which makes sense. It's not easy to score an anthology, as there are strong entries and weak entries, but overall, I would say that whether one is a fan of Star Wars or not, there is enough content of different variety that most people will find at least one episode that appeals to them. Again, the episodes that one ends up liking will depend greatly on personal tastes and whether one prefers substance or style. I am scoring this anthology an 8. I enjoyed it enough to keep me watching without stopping and there are storylines that I am highly anticipating seeing sequels to if they ever come.
