Star Wars Visions Review [Spoilers!]

I imagine a lot of reviews might be starting this way, but I’m not a big anime fan, nothing wrong with it but I just haven’t seen much. My experience is limited to a few Studio Ghibli movies, Akira, the first season of One Punch Man and a Hokusai biopic on Netflix, I am a fan of Japanese culture though and love Akira Kurosawa, the aforementioned Hokusai and Japanese folklore. So my excitement for the series, especially given the inspiration George Lucas took from Japan, was high and rose even higher following the trailers. So here is my episode-by-episode review of the anthology series which was released yesterday.

Ep1: The Duel

I was excited for this episode from the art style we saw in the trailer and it did not disappoint. I really loved the aesthetics which looked like a black and white Kurosawa epic complete with graininess crossed with a Hokusai painting. The inventiveness of the classic Star Wars designs of stormtroopers, aliens and droids brought into the samurai era was perfect. The story was that of a classic samurai flick, bandits raiding a village, and our protagonist, known only as ‘Ronin’, defends the town. He must battle a Sith woman, and defeats her with patience and the help of his droid. The Ronin also has a red blade, but does not confirm he is a Sith, only that he is not a Jedi, and has a collection of red kyber crystals presumably from dark siders he has killed. Which certainly makes me more intrigued and excited for Emma Camden Meiko’s Ronin novel. 

🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕 /5

Ep2: Tatooine Rhapsody

The second story is a big change of pace, a brilliantly goofy rock opera! An Padawan named Jay escapes Order 66 and is rescued by a Hutt named Geezer with dreams of Rock stardom, The Star Wavers must play for their lives before Jabba the Hutt. The animation is much more cute, and from the glimpses we got in the trailer I had my doubts, but this was a pleasant surprise and a reminder that weird Star Wars is great Star Wars. I need that Star Wavers song for my in-universe playlist, pop-punk is in the Galaxy Far, Far, Away!

🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑 /5

Ep3: The Twins

This was the episode that I connected with the least, it probably had the most, modern  anime style (to my ignorant mind), with force powers going out of control and was totally OTT. The story is of twins born into the dark side, with a destiny to control the galaxy, they end up at odds as Karre has a vision of his sister dying and he wants to stop her so that she lives. There are some intriguing ideas, such as their suits which can be powered with kyber crystals, and there is a great homage to the Holdo maneuver. The scenes where the twins are able to breath in space and then a droid is wearing a space helmet are surely trolling us and is pretty funny to be fair! With the brother and sister twins and Karre crash landing on Tatooine at the end (what a gorgeous shot), it almost feels like a ‘What If’ Luke & Leia were raised on the dark side.

🌕🌕🌗🌑🌑 /5

Ep4: The Village Bride

The Village Bride felt like more classic Samurai fare with a more classic anime design. Raiders with an army of old battle droids hold a village to ransom, and the granddaughter of the chief volunteers to go with the bandits in exchange for the village’s safety. A Mysterious woman, with a braid and a helmeted guide observes the village, Asu talks of the woman’s code. Later she cuts off her braid and removes her mask to prepare for battle, and when the raiders come she reveals herself to be a Jedi and fights them off. F (the Jedi) is one of my favorite characters so far and I would love to get more of her adventures.

🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗 /5

Ep5: The Ninth Jedi

The fifth episode feels like yet more classic Kurosawa, a swordsmith and a mysterious man named Juro, gather masterless Jedi to give them 9 lightsabers and rebuild the Order. The Swordsmith and his daughter Kara have the force too, they are attacked her father sends her to the temple with the sabers. What is really interesting is that in a difference to canon a swordsmith makes lightsabers, and the lightsabers change color according to who wields it, a fascinating concept, which leads to the dramatic reveal that 6 of the gathered Jedi are Sith. There are lots of other cool ideas including cranky old cab driver droids, and the Jedi temple built into an asteroid floating above the planet, with a giant Kyber crystal inside it which makes the temple resemble a lit saber.

🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑 /5

Ep6: T0-B1

When I first watched this episode it struck me as a play on the Pinocchio story (which the Filmmaker Focus later confirmed), T0-B1 dreams of being a Jedi. T0-B1 is really cute, and reminiscent of the Astro Boy design, and the overall design is very different and quite beautiful. His ‘father’, Professor Mitaka, is a scientist who is trying to bring life to the planet they live on, while T0-B1 is looking for a kyber Crystal he accidentally signals the Empire, and it transpires that Mitaka is actually a Jedi and an inquisitor kills the professor. T0-B1 finishes his father’s dream, and it is poetic that it is Mitaka’s grave that brings forth life. The scene of T0-B1 seeing force ghost Mitaka is absolutely GORGEOUS, this episode was a big surprise and absolutely love it.

🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑 /5

Ep7: The Elder

It’s surprising that it takes until this episode to get a Jedi & Padawn story, and what a great one we get. Tajin and his padawan Dan travel follow a dark presence to a planet and try to track it down, and have some cool Jedi philosophy conversations along the way. The two separate and Dan encounters ‘The Elder’ a dark sider looking for a challenge, he strikes Dan down as Tajin rushes to help. Tajin fights him and the kill move he uses is seriously cool, igniting his lightsaber through the old man’s heart. The voice work of David Harbour, Jordan Fisher and James Hong really stood out in this excellent episode.

🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕 /5

Ep8: Lop & Ochō

The one with the bunny. I really wasn’t sure what to expect from this one, but it turned out to be one of the very best and Lop is one of my favorite characters. Lop is an escaped slave on the planet Tao who is adopted by Ochō and her father, Yasaburo. Years later Yasaburo is leading a rebellion against the Empire but Ochō sides with the Empire, Ochō looks down on her sister but Yasaburo passes the family lightsaber on to Lop. They fight and Lop wins and Ochō escapes, it feels like a story ripe to be continued, and captures that ever present Star Wars theme of family and adopted family superbly.

🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕 /5

Ep9: Akakiri

In the final episode Jedi Knight Tsubaki has painful headache/visions, after crashing his B-Wing he is saved by Misa, a Princess who he once helped and loved. Masago, the sister of the King, is a Sith and has taken over the kingdom. Subaki suffers another attack, and loses himself killing the guards, but realises he has killed Misa. Masago tempts him to the dark side with the promise of saving Misa, which has obvious echoes of Anakin and Padme. It is the only story of the nine to end so darkly, the rest have much more positive ends, it’s an enjoyable episode but didn’t quite do it for me.

🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑 /5

I wasn’t sure beforehand if the stories would feel like more like modern anime, but the creators really leant into the Japanese influences on Lucas’ saga which ultimately made it feel like Star Wars. The visuals are stunning with incredible shots in many of the episodes, I loved the soundtrack which was everything I had hoped the Mandalorian OST would be. I watched both the dub and sub versions of all the episodes and although the english dub has a fantastic voice cast, I preferred watching in Japanese with subtitles, it just felt more authentic to the stories, I recommend doing both! I loved so many of the characters created and I’m going to need figures/funkos of Ronin & his droid, F, Kara & Four-9s, T0-B1, Tajin & The Elder, Lop & Ochō.

Overall although I liked some episodes more than others I would give the series 

🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕/5 as it was an absolute breath of fresh air.

Jonny O

If you liked this review then please check out;

The Bad Batch The Ewok Movies Tempest Runner