This Week in Anime

Visions of a Galaxy Far, Far Away

Jean-Karlo
Okay, Nicky, stop me if you've heard this one before: "A long long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away..."

Of course not, it's Mark Hamill's classic 1970s movie about his coming-of-age and conflict with his father—Corvette Summer!

But seriously. Star Wars. Star Wars: Visions, even.

This isn't the first time someone has tried making an anthology of anime shorts for a Western property. The Wachowskis broke new ground with this format almost 20 years ago with The Animatrix, a series of shorts that served as a tie-in/companion to the Matrix movies, some of which even served as prequels to Enter The Matrix or Matrix: Reloaded. Other attempts followed, like Halo Legends, Batman: Gotham Knight, and—most puzzlingly—a companion piece to that Dante's Inferno game nobody remembers that was a rip-off of God of War. But this time, the House of Mouse did it with Star Wars!

Unfortunately, when it comes to anime anthologies based off of Western properties, the track record becomes significantly muddier; of all the anthologies listed above, only The Animatrix ever managed to stick in pop culture memory. And it's fairly easy to see why: the Wachowski sisters are turbo-weebs and have an understanding of anime as more than just an art style where you draw people with blue hair, big eyes and small mouths. Even the The Animatrix shorts that don't tie into other Matrix media feel just as artistically weighty when removed from their context. The Animatrix's "Floating" feels engrossing. Halo: Legends' "Odd One Out"...not so much.

Add Star Wars to the mix, which has the unfortunate position of being both omnipresent in media (shout-out to Hisao Tamaki's Star Wars manga, which I wish would get reprinted stateside), and also overly nitpicked by nerds to the point where I think part of calling yourself a Star Wars fan is just hating everything Star Wars. It's not that Visions had to reinvent the wheel or justify its own existence: it's that, as far as I can see, it has a lot of uphill work to do to not come off as just a cynical piece of Content™ thrown out of a Mickey Mouse-shaped window.

For the record, my feelings on Star Wars are best summed up by the immortal words of the late, great Harlan Ellison: "Luke Skywalker is a nerd, and Darth Vader sucks runny eggs". As you can see, I'm real fun when May 4th rolls around, and I'm already side-eying people trying to make May 5th a "thing".

It's been said before, but a lot of Star Wars was in turn inspired by Japanese media; the plot to A New Hope was basically a take on Kurosawa's Hidden Fortress, and the "Jedi" were named after "jidaigeki"—Japanese period dramas set in feudal Japan about wandering samurai who would do good deeds in new locales every week. Kinda like how Jedi are supposed to wander around and, I dunno, commune with people's mitochondria or whatever. So once again: media is an ouroboros of references.

Fitting that the first short in this anthology is one big Kurosawa send-up: "The Duel." It's in CGI, but colored black-and-white (except for the lightsabers, those have to be in color of course), and purposefully textured to look like a grainy old samurai romance.

This short is mostly about a duel between two Sith, one of them a wanderer who speaks little about himself, the other the leader of a gang of bandits. And it sadly has little else to go off of. It has a lot of that Kurosawa feel to it, but it's nevertheless so much flash and no substance. Sure, the lightsaber umbrella is cool, but there is little reason to care outside of the principle of not wanting a bandit leader to win.

Again, the Wachowskis understood that it's not really enough to have a style: there's gotta be steak to go with that sizzle, after all. The aesthetic behind "The Duel" is well-realized enough to mostly carry it, but this is also one of the more forgettable shorts in the whole anthology.

But then you have Studio Colorido's "Tatooine Rhapsody", and you see you really can't lean back on just aesthetic...

On the one hand, I cannot call "Tatooine Rhapsody" out for using rock-and-roll in Star Wars, because it makes about as much sense as anything else and a three-headed-six-armed alien as a drummer is a pretty cool idea. On the other: uuurg.

A massive problem with these shorts is that they all do the thing where they think they're so smart for drizzling in bits of Star Wars dialogue here and there, but almost every short keeps spouting variations of "PUNCH IT!" "I HAVE A BAD FEELING ABOUT THIS!" "PUNCH IT!" "I HAVE A BAD FEELING ABOUT THIS!" over and over. It's as off-putting as it sounds. And like, I get it, easy references. But nothing makes your massive "galaxy" seem overly tiny when everyone keeps using the same one-liners. So all the nostalgia really gets tiresome after, like, two shorts. Like, even Transformers uses "'Till all are one!" sparingly.

Also, I've seen BoBA Fett in so much Star Wars stuff that it just tires me. I can't wait to see how they claimed he escaped the Sarlacc for this cameo!

Disney. You shove two-bit songs into every cartoon you put onto your channels. Couldn't you, I dunno..."punch" this song up a little? This song gives me a bad feeling. ...Eh? Eh?

But whatever. I give "Tatooine Rhapsody" props for introducing a Hutt that isn't Jabba (although he's there grooving to the aforementioned song), and also introducing us to a freaking flamethrower guitar, a concept wasted on such a forgettable short.

I'd say it's nice to have a Star Wars story about a band of schmoes, but the lead singer is literally a Jedi with a lightsaber microphone. The small stakes are refreshingly unique, it's just a shame that this short is otherwise so forgettable.

Just. Y'know. Don't try to nostalgia-bait so hard? Please?

But clear the table, you bald alien dudes—the real stuff is here to impress us. Right after the ho-hum "Tatooine Rhapsody", we get some goodness that only Studio Trigger can deliver, with "The Twins"!

I've seen Promare in theaters twice, I wouldn't wanna forget Lio Fotia's face either!

Now that you made the Kill la Kill connection, the lightsaber stilettos suddenly makes sense...

With a title like "The Twins", you'd expect a high-octane short about the life and times of Luke and Leia Skywalker, but Trigger went on a complete lam and made their own tale. There's a surprising amount of story in this, all delivered as economically and stylishly as only Trigger can. The story of a pair of twins engineered by the Empire, "The Twins" covers their dramatic split as Karre fights to help free his sister Am from a horrible fate. Also, Karre is voiced by Neil Patrick Harris, because... because.

I mean, they made him say the lines for whatever reason, but that's Disney's casting money being spent, not mine.

Anyone who likes The Last Jedi is invited to my cook-out, I tell you what. Snark on The Holdo Maneuver all you want: Trigger barely had to do anything else to make it look fantastic.

I've heard some grousing about "The Twins" being the same bag of Trigger Tricks, and I can see that. For folks who are a little bored of Trigger's brand of over-the-top stylization and wacky takes, yeah: this is just more of that. But for now, I don't mind holding "The Twins" as a high mark among these shorts. It's a perfectly self-contained story told with punch, style, and flair, and it doesn't overstay its welcome. This? This is a good Star Wars short, plus or minus points for being extremely Trigger™.

I've said it before with Dynazenon, but I like stories that don't feel the need to explain everything in extreme detail. That "The Twins" is so economical in its storytelling is a definite plus. Like Joe Dirt once said, "Don't focus on the wrong part of the story!"

Now, I should point out: both Trigger and Science SARU were given two bites at the apple with this anthology, so of the nine shorts, two are from Trigger and two are from Science SARU. The second Trigger short isn't as good as "The Twins". But we'll cross that bridge when we get there, because it's time for my second-favorite short, "The Village Bride".

The colors and designs in this short are stellar. I don't know who this masked Jedi is but I think that mask is the coolest thing ever. Anyway: this short details her quest to save an innocent village bride from being used as collateral with a local group of bandits. All the while, the Jedi mulls over an internal conflict involving... some old problem or other. It's not really important what happened to her, rather, what she decides to do about it.

With how much Star Wars tries to make the Force sound mystical and deep, it's nice to see a short that side-steps all of that in favor of this one planet's own spiritual beliefs. Is it tied into The Force? Is it a separate phenomenon of this particular planet? Doesn't matter—the masked Jedi is able to learn from it and use it to fuel her own growth as a person.

Like I said earlier, for how expansive the galaxy is supposed to be all of its stories revolve around a handful of characters and fans seem to want to keep it that way. Unless it's their boring Gary Stu OC, in which case they need to be in the next movie because of course the problem with Star Wars is that the evil Disney execs won't use Thrawn and Mara Jade.

Meanwhile, here I am wishing we got more weird stuff like Droids. Anyone remember Droids? Stuart Copeland did the intro, it's pretty boss. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riIOiNq0RHk

Ah yes, "The Ninth Jedi"—my actual favorite short in the collection!

Production I.G is an old workhorse of the industry and their stuff has shown up everywhere, from Wario Land: Shake It! to beloved fare like Eden of the East. They can be counted on to do good work, and "The Ninth Jedi" is no different.

The story goes that a group of Force-sensitive people are called together by a politician in the hopes of restoring the Jedi order. A swordsmith is called upon to forge lightsabers for them—but a pair of mercenaries descend upon him, leaving his daughter to complete the delivery.

There's a metric ton of lore about lightsabers and kyber crystals, it's so nice that this short ignores it all in favor of lightsabers being really cool color-coded laser swords that reflect your personality.

It's also a great setup for the twist: as it turns out, the gathered Force-sensitive people all turn out to be Sith. As she battles them, the swordsmith's daughter's will is tempered and her lightsaber gains a color (green). Also, it turns out one of the Sith was actually a Jedi but he let himself fall in with the Dark Side—his saber is actually purple because that's what happens when Jedi get too close to the Dark Side.

Again, this one is my favorite shorts for a reason. "The Twins" and "The Village Bride" had aesthetic, while "Bride" gave me some stuff to chew on. "The Ninth Jedi" has a damn good story for something so short. It's an incredible use of the runtime.

Also, yeah, it's nice to see Sith that aren't all weird-looking freaks of nature. The twist works partly because you don't expect conventionally-attractive people to be Sith.

The next short comes from Science SARU, and it managed to worm its way into my heart in a very special way: it's an Astro Boy send-up! Named after Astro/Atom's human name, "Tobio", this is T0-B1.

And OH BOY, did I smile when I saw these off-brand Dr. Ochanomizu/Elefun and Astro characters!

He packs an incredible amount of charm into this short. I've heard it compared to Kaiba, one of Science SARU founder Masaaki Yuasa's earlier anime, but I've never seen it so I'm just squeeing over how T0-B1's feet make Astro's squeaky noises when he putters around.

T0-B1 is a childlike droid made by an armless professor who is trying to terraform a desert-like planet. T0-B1 also loves the stories of the Jedi and dreams of being one himself. But first, he has to find his own connection to The Force—at least, that's what the professor tells him. Which, for a droid, is easier said than done.

Yeah, the homages are cute but as much as I love Astro Boy, "T0-B1" is still kinda hollow. It's cool to see a Droid become a Jedi, that's a concept I've wanted to see in Star Wars since forever. But it's sequestered in a cute-but-also-meaningless spin-off that the rest of the canon will surely ignore in favor of dragging BoBA Fett out of the Sarlacc pit yet again.

Also: I kinda wish the evil Droid looked a little more like Pluto or Atlas. Go full "The World's Strongest Robot" if you're giving us an Astro Boy send-up with laser swords, at least.

I am jonesing for an animated adaptation of Naoki Urusawa's Pluto. I am clutching at crumbs here. Help a guy out.

If the worst thing about a short is that it's too light and fluffy, I think you're at least doing pretty well. Unfortunately, Trigger had to show us what one of the "lows" looked like.

Considering how stylish and brisk "The Twins" was, "The Elder" feels more like the Trigger that was commissioned to work on DARLING in the FRANXX: slow, kinda pretentious, and ultimately meaningless.

"The Elder" is the story of an aged Jedi and his young Padawan seeking out a potential Sith on a backwoods planet. There is a lot of back and forth between the master and student; the student is brash and impulsive, the master is experienced and growing increasingly aware of his age catching up to him. This culminates in the duel against the Sith; in his age, his powers are fading, but he's still strong enough to want to find a worthy opponent.

The pacing is weird on this one. The fight consists of minor sword clashes with bits of dialogue between the Master and the Sith (no names in this short). Far from feeling dramatic or symbolic, it feels like they're stalling for time or were limited by budget.

He's been around since FLCL, he predates Trigger by a lot—I'd consider that "veteran status". In that light, the final discussion between the student and master about age and the nature of power is kinda poignant? The point is that you gain power as you grow older, but eventually your power also fades with age.

Which... I dunno, as far as ruminations about a person's place in the greater scheme of things, "The Village Bride" still handled it better.

"The Elder" is a weird one, and at the very least it's not something you'd expect from Trigger. I was very glad to move on to "Lop and Ocho".

Lop is a a cutie and her family is very loving, this sets up for a fun, warm romp. Until it turns out, this is about a family being split over political differences! Whoops.

The character designs definitely make me feel like I'm catching a late-night airing of Jin-Roh or Patlabor WXIII on Starz, and that's a good thing.

That's a very powerful message to send out, even today. Especially in light of Star Wars and its obsession with keeping the story to just one family of people related to Hayden Christensen.

Nevertheless, Lop is very good and her relationship with her father is very heartwarming. Also, the fight with Ocho is very eye-catching.

The episode ends on an open page, but it handles it in a good way that feels more like the world is bigger than what the runtime of the short allows and not in a way where it feels like the whole thing was just an emotional shaggy dog story. Kinda like "The Ninth Jedi", actually.

I almost wish "The Ninth Jedi" and "Lop and Ocho" got continuations somehow, but I'm not holding my breath.

Also, Lop has such a cute design, and one that feels so creative it's almost too unlike Star Wars. Like, she's an anime bunny girl, and that just doesn't seem to be the kind of thing Star Wars would go for. But here, it works. She's an alien species, the likes we don't see often in this galaxy.

It helps that Lop comes from absolutely nothing—unlike other characters in Star Wars who always get roped into being part of the "in"-group somehow, Lop's just an orphaned slave picked up by a found family. Heck, one of Ocho's most-damaging blows is by insisting she's not "really" part of the family.

Just goes to show, the Empire is no good. Like, they're Space Nazis. The fact that Lop had to run away from them as a slave is enough to point out these guys are bad news. Says volumes about Ocho that she seemingly forgot who put the collar on Lop's neck all those years ago.

Also, many of the newly-Force Sensitive characters in these anthologies show immediate aptitude with lightsabers, which is cool. Nuts to the whole "you need years of training" nonsense—if you can hear the will of the galaxy, you can wield the laser cutter. That works just fine for me. Finding little green dudes in swamps is no basis for a monastic system based off of a pseudo-sentient energy field created by and creating life itself. You kick that space facist ass, you fabulous anthropomorphic lapin.

Sadly, it's easily the worst of the bunch, and it's Science SARU's second work: "Akakiri".

What I could gather was, Jedi comes to a planet to help an old lover of his, a deposed princess, regain the throne. He's been having visions that give him a bad feeling about this fear for the future. His master had warned him to allow someone else to go in his stead, but the Jedi insists and helps the princess. The Jedi makes a big fuss about how fate can be changed, only to resign himself to succumbing to the Dark Side and becoming a Sith.


Like, it's not bad because the story is slow and inscrutable. This is bad because this just feels like a Shaggy Dog story. "Welp, you can't fight fate! Whatchagonnado?"

It'd be one thing if this was a story about how the road to hell is paved with good intentions, like what they tried (but ultimately failed) with the prequel trilogy. But this just throws its arms up, shrugs, and ends on a sour note.

There's a way to tell this kind of story, of a person who desperately wants to fight their horrid fate with everything they have but ultimately falters and just indulges in their surrender. I can see snatches of that here. I can feel how this story could have been better. But it's all for nothing, it just rolls over and dies.

Sure, there are some nice bits of banter like the guides singing songs about Nue (which are Japanese yokai), but it's all for nothing.

I get that they can't all be happy stories, but you have to earn your sad endings just like you have to earn your happy ones.

Also, Masago's design feels wrong. Remember when I talked about how too many Sith are conventionally ugly earlier? Masago really ramps that up; she's the princess' aunt and a Sith, but she's muscular, dark-skinned, has a deep voice, and very masculine. Which leads to a lot of really bad implications.

Star Wars already has a lot of problems with correlating morality with beauty or relegating "monstrous" or non-human characters into support roles. Remember: Chewbacca didn't get a medal until decades after the fact, even Carl Sagan thought that was shady. Which is part of why "Lop and Ocho" stands out, Lop is so decidedly unhuman—but still cute. And again, "The Ninth Jedi" features a cadre of villains who buck that trend, hard. I already wasn't having a fun time with "Akakiri"; Masago and her design just made it worse as I sucked air through my teeth.

Sadly, if The Rise of Skywalker is any indicator, Star Wars is nothing but the traditions of stuffy old men. And that's fine with me, I've got this nice big pile of Kamen Rider to sift through and it comes without some dude eating pizza rolls talking about how Kamen Rider Wizard was the biggest disappointment since his son.

And the same goes for Star Wars: Visions. At the end of the day, there are more disposable shorts in here than there are good ones. And while the best ones are ones that, like The Animatrix, understand what it is about anime that leads to fun, imaginative stories, the worst ones all suffer from the same problem of just trying to tack Kurosawa and/or big eyes and small mouths onto people swinging laser swords around.

"The Twins" was fun, but if it wasn't intentionally a part of an anthology I'd probably have passed it over. It's better than "Akakiri" or "Tatooine Rhapsody", it's still just a Star Wars short. I definitely wouldn't have sought it out on its own.

"The Ninth Jedi", "Lop and Ocho", and "The Village Bride" are all standouts here, but also: they're stories that didn't necessarily have to be Star Wars stories. They work outside of the context of the brand. They're just good stories, period. "T0-B1" is cute, but even my love for Astro Boy can only take it so far.

So yeah, we're stuck with another anthology that just doesn't quite get that an "Anime™" art style isn't quite enough for your story to be good.

A lot of people wonder why it is I watch stuff from franchises/genres I don't like "if I'm just gonna hate on it". The fact is, grouchy as I can be, I like being wrong about stuff and I like finding new stuff to love. I like being surprised to find something new that I like, someplace where I didn't expect it. I barely watch boy's love; Twittering Birds Never Fly was a wonderful surprise. I don't really care for sports anime; RE-MAIN was a lot of fun. So I jumped onto Star Wars: Visions in the hopes that the creative teams involved would "wow" me somehow. I gave them that old college try, and they didn't. It would have been nice to look back on Star Wars: Visions and say, "Wow, they absolutely crushed it! What amazing stuff!" But you can only really review what you have before you. There's no singular problem with Visions, any more than there's any singular "problem" with Star Wars as a whole—no one person/idea/concept/storyline/show is "dragging the franchise down". Visions just left me cold, and that's fine. Maybe we'll get 'em next time. Beam us out, Scotty.