Star Wars: Visions ~ A New Hope For Star Wars Anime [Spoilery Star Wars/Anime Review]

Star Wars: Visions is hopefully the start of a new era for the franchise. I mean, come on. First Star Wars anime ever? At the very least, it should pique your interest, even if you have no love of anime itself.

Star Wars: Visions is not only the first official Star Wars anime series, it’s also an anthology series. Each episode of this series is by a different anime production studio. The list of studios are, in order, Kamikaze Douga (Batman Ninja), Studio Colorido (A Whisker Away, Burn the Witch, Pokémon: Twilight Wings), Studio Trigger (Kill la Kill, Little Witch Academia, BNA), Kinema Citrus (Barakamon, Made in Abyss, The Rising of the Shield Hero), Production I.G (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet, Fena: Pirate Princess), Science SARU (Devilman Crybaby, Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!, The Heike Story), and Geno Studio (Golden Kamuy).

Star Wars: Visions launched on September 22, 2021. The anime lasts a total of 9 episodes, each around 20 minutes long. If you want to watch it, head on over to Disney+ to check it out. Note thought that you need to pay for a subscription to use this streaming service. If you want to watch it, be prepared to cough up some cash.

Warning: spoilers for Star Wars: Visions below. If you want to watch the first Star Wars anime for yourself, stop here, and come back once the lightsabers are done snap-hissing.

Star Wars: Visions ~ Plots Summary

Talking about the plot of Star Wars: Visions is tricky, because there are multiple of them. It is an anthology series, after all. Each separate episode has its own unique plot independent of the others. The plots, as well as the responsible animation studio, are as follows:

The Duel (Kamikaze Douga):

A lone Jedi who calls himself Ronin and his faithful droid companion are staying at a remote village. However, a group of ex-Stormtroopers-turned-bandits interrupt their peaceful rest. The village’s hired guards ambush the ex-Stormtroopers and kill a larger number of them, but the tides turn when their female Sith leader shows up and annihilates the guards. Ronin steps in to fight the Sith, and to our surprise, reveals himself to be also a Sith, but a good one. After an extended fight, Ronin manages to slay the female Sith, and his droid takes care of the rest of the ex-Stormtroopers. Ronin takes the fallen Sith’s kyber crystal from her lightsaber, but then hands it over to the young chief of the village, saying it will protect him from evil. Ronin then heads out with his droid, and continues his travels.

Tatooine Rhapsody (Studio Colorido):

In the aftermath of Order 66, a young Padawan named Jay escapes the carnage, and winds up with an odd Hutt named Gee. Years later, Jay and Gee have formed a band together with some friends. Boba Feet crashes their concert though, intent on capturing Gee for execution on Jabba’s orders. The band tries to escape, but well, he’s Boba Fett. He brings their ship down, and hauls Gee away. The band though, shows up at the execution grounds, and convinces Jabba to let them play one last performance. The concert is so moving that Jabba lets them live to play another day, and so the band’s legend lives on.

The Twins (Studio Trigger):

Karre and Am are fraternal twin Force-sensitive brother and sister respectively created with Sith alchemy, and are now masters of a new conjoined Star Destroyer class poised to strike at the New Republic. However, Karre abandons the mission after he gets a vision of his sister’s death, and takes the kyber crystal powering the SD’s superweapon. Am is not pleased with this. The twins fight it out both in and out of their SD. Karre eventually destroys the crystal and their SD, saving Am’s life. Karre is later seen on an unknown desert planet, vowing to save his sister from the Dark Side.

The Village Bride (Kinema Citrus):

Some time after Order 66, a Padawan known only as F is wandering a verdant planet with an old wanderer named Valco. The duo wander into a local village, where the locals are preparing a young woman as a sacrifice to some battle droid-armed bandits. F wants to stay out of it at first, but changes her mind when she sees the young woman’s friends and relatives try to carry out a guerilla attack with very limited…everything. F steps in just as the bandits are about to execute someone. She and Valco take out all of the bandits. The village is no longer in danger. F leaves the planet, happy at finding her groove back. Oh, and she finally cuts off her Padawan braid to make herself a full Jedi Knight.

The Ninth Jedi (Production I.G):

A margrave named Juro invites 7 Jedi to his space station to form a new Jedi Order. He needs lightsabers though, so he orders some from a local sabersmith. The sabersmith completes the lightsabers, but the Sith find out and go after him. Thus, he leaves the delivery to his teenaged daughter, Kara. After some misadventures, Kara finally deliver the lightsabers to the 7 Jedi. Unfortunately, all but 1 of them turn out to be Sith in disguise. After a fierce battle, the Jedi, with Margrave Juro’s assistance, kill all but 1 of the Sith. The last Sith decides to change sides. They then all depart to form their new Jedi Order. Oh, and did I mention that the margrave’s space station turns out to be a giant lightsaber? Why? I have no idea, but it looks awesome.

T0-B1 (Science SARU):

A droid named T0-B1 (pronounced “Tobi”) is living with his armless inventor/father along with a bunch of adorable droids, trying to restore life to a barren world. However, Tobi wants a life of action and adventure as a Jedi. Wanting to appease him so that he doesn’t get in too much trouble, Tobi’s father tells him to go find a kyber crystal. Not finding one, Tobi sneaks into the forbidden basement, where he finds a working T-16 Skyhopper and starts playing around with it. Unfortunately, he accidentally turns on the communicator, and alerts a Sith patrol. A Sith hunter comes around, and kills Tobi’s father. In his grief, Tobi tries to finish his father’s work, and succeeds in making the world rain and seeding some very hardy plant life. Unfortunately, this attracts the same Sith hunter again. In a fierce battle, Tobi manages to slay the Sith, and then sets off with his droid BFF to find more barren worlds to seed life on.

The Elder (Studio Trigger):

A Jedi Knight named Tajin and his Padawan Dan land on a remote Outer Rim world after Tajin senses a disturbance in the Force. They find an old man. An old man who arrived on a Sith ship. Yes, the old guy is a Sith, and he wants to kill them. He fails to kill either of them, but he does succeed in blowing up his own ship with his dying grasp. Thus, Tajin and Dan are left with a lot more questions than answers as they depart the world, and continue their Outer Rim journey.

Lop and Ochō (Geno Studio):

A young rabbit-like alien slave girl named Lop escapes from her Imperial captors and tries to eke out a living stealing food. She attracts the attentions of a local nobleman Yasaburo and his daughter Ochō, especially the latter, who adopts Lop into her family on the spot. 7 years later, the Empire is occupying the planet. Yasaburo wants to fight a guerilla war against the Empire. Ochō wants to collaborate with them to better her people. It all comes to a head when Ochō enlists in the Imperial Navy. Yasaburo makes Lop the next head of their clan over his blood daughter, and goes on a suicide mission against the Empire. Ochō blinds her father to keep him dying at the hands of the Empire. An enraged Lop slashes Ochō with the clan’s lightsaber, but Ochō escapes alive. Lop vows to bring Ochō back so that they can all be a family again.

Akakiri (Science SARU):

A Jedi named Tsubaki has disturbing visions of him killing someone over and over again. He heads to a world where he had a forbidden lover: the local princess named Misa. Her Sith aunt Masago slayed Misa’s father (and Masago’s brother), and installed herself as queen. Tsubaki helps Misa and 2 local guides sneak into the palace. Masago is a lot smarter and more competent than she looks though. She quickly captures all of them. Masago has her henchmen try to kill Tsubaki, while also hiding a disguised Misa among them in their uniform. Tsubaki’s attacks thus accidentally kill Misa. Masago makes an offer to teach Tsubaki Force healing in exchange for becoming her apprentice. Tsubaki agrees, and helps Masago use said Force healing to revive a grievously injured Misa. Tsubaki then departs with Masago as a distraught Misa watches on.

Star Wars: Visions ~ The Good

Star Wars: Visions is the first official Star Wars anime series. Enough said.

The story, or rather stories, of Star Wars: Visions is one of its strongest suits. The anthology nature of this anime means that we get to see a whole bunch of different plotlines. Your mileage may vary on the quality of the stories each episode tells. However, you can’t deny that with the variety, there’s something in here for everyone. Even speaking of the overall story quality, personally, I think even the worst of the episodes are still pretty good. At the very least, they’re better than the story of the Sequel Trilogy.

The art and animation quality of Star Wars: Visions is also generally pretty good. Some animation studios do a better job than others, although overall, you have some pretty nice artwork and animation here even for the worst of the episodes. I wouldn’t mind regularly looking at the art if it was part of a series instead of a single episode in an anthology.

If I had to rate the episodes of Star Wars: Visions from best to worst in order, I’d say: The Twins, T0-B1, Lop and Ochō, The Duel, The Ninth Jedi, The Village Bride, Tatooine Rhapsody, The Elder, and Akakiri. Again though, your mileage may vary. In fact, I’d say everyone’s mileage may vary based on opinion.

Star Wars: Visions ~ The Bad

Unfortunately, the anthology nature of Star Wars: Visions is also one of its weaknesses. Each episode’s plot has but a single episode to develop said plot. In all cases, the plot is just begging for a continuation. I generally don’t like it when a plot leaves me hanging like this. Cliffhangers aren’t fun when you aren’t entirely certain that there’s going be a next episode in the story. I honestly hope that they do make series out of the more popular episodes. It just wouldn’t be right to leave the story thread alone like that.

Conclusion

Star Wars: Visions is the first official Star Wars anime ever to exist. I think by and large, this anthology series manages to fulfill the wishes of every anime and Star Wars fan who has ever wished for a Star Wars anime. Your mileage may vary, of course, since not everyone likes anime. Even if you’re not an anime fan though, I do think it’s at least worth your time to check out on Disney+. If you do, leave your own list of your favorite episodes ranked from best to worst, yeah? I do want to know which episodes are likely to get a continuation based on how popular they are.

Source: Disney+