Last month, Disney+ released an original series titled ‘Star Wars: Visions’.

Cue much excitement as it combined two things we (boys and me) love – ‘Star Wars’ and Japanese anime.

The series ‘celebrates the Star Wars galaxy through the lens of the world’s best Japanese anime creators… offering a fresh and diverse cultural perspective…’ to the franchise.

It comprises 9 episodes, ranging in length from roughly 13 to 22 minutes, and all the episodes were released simultaneously. While it’s possible to watch all of them in one sitting, we opted to split them over 2 days to better savour them.

Now, because the episodes are so short, it’s impossible to review them as I normally do because I will, almost immediately, be in spoiler territory.

Instead, I’ll list each episode and share my brief thoughts on each… I know I’m going to struggle not to wax lyrical on a few of them!

This is the order in which they were shown.

THE DUEL
‘A mysterious wandering stranger steps up to defend a village besieged by bandits.’

The setting for this episode is a ‘Star Wars’ galaxy that’s been heavily inspired and influenced by Japanese culture.

Filmed in black and white with a few pops of colour, namely red and green, the second it begins, you’re instantly reminded of a Kurosawa samurai film.

Even though there’s an ‘old world’ Japan feel to it, from the mainly agricultural setting to the houses and the villagers’ clothing, the tech that was present in no way jarred with the surroundings.

I enjoyed this very much as there were a good number of surprising moments, each one well handled.

TATOOINE RHAPSODY
‘A scrappy band with big dreams must rally to save one of their beloved bandmates from the clutches of Jabba the Hutt.’

This one turned out to be delightfully quirky.

Set on Tatooine, we thought it would play out in a predictable ‘Star Wars’ manner but were delightfully surprised.

Despite the number of characters and the short run time, we were given just enough information about them to understand what they were about. It definitely helps to be familiar with the ‘Star Wars’ universe.

THE TWINS
‘Twins created by the Dark Side clash on board a massive Star Destroyer over a powerful weapon.’

Visually, this one is the most epic, and is Gordon’s favourite.

We’re familiar with the studio that created it as it’s also responsible for an anime the boys introduced me to, which we all love, ‘Kill la Kill’.

So, the art style was familiar and gorgeous to look at.

The episode wastes no time in setting up the clash that pits one twin against the other.

Along with 2 other episodes, it has a distinct ‘Star Wars’ feel, and also embraces the craziness of anime… in a good way.

THE VILLAGE BRIDE
‘A Jedi on the run observes the strange and beautiful customs of a remote village on the eve of a wedding.’

My favourite episode.

There’s a gentle folk tale feel about this one.

Yet, the addition of a Jedi and other ‘Star Wars’ elements only serve to add to the story, which I find quite impressive.

Many people have said this deserves to be made into a film, and I won’t argue.

THE NINTH JEDI
‘The daughter of a legendary lightsaber-smith is pursued by dark forces.’

Liam’s favourite episode, the consensus about this one is, it warrants its own series.

This episode is another that’s close to familiar ‘Star Wars’ territory.

Interestingly, it’s set far in the future of the stories we know.

As with ‘The Duel’, there are at least a couple of unexpected (for us, anyway) surprises.

T0-B1
‘A cybernetic boy who dreams of one day becoming a heroic Jedi discovers a secret that threatens the peaceful existence he shares with his creator.’

As this story unfolded, we thought this has got to be a homage to ‘Astro Boy’.

The animation style here is more what one would expect for a child’s anime – pure, clean lines and a pleasing colour palette – but, although the story starts off innocent enough, it doesn’t remain that way.

THE ELDER
‘A Jedi Master and his restless Padawan come across an unexpected dark presence near a small village on an outer rim planet.’

This is the 3rd episode that’s recognisably ‘Star Wars’.

There’s a good amount of dialogue between the Master and his Padawan, and the dynamic between them reminded us, in turns, of Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan, and Obi-Wan and Anakin.

The lightsaber battle is a masterclass in making every movement count.

LOP AND OCHÓ
‘A powerful patriarch clashes with his eldest daughter over the increasing presence of the Empire, which threatens their customs and way of life.’

As this features a character who looks like a humanoid rabbit, I thought it was going to be quite cutesy.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

The interactions between the characters and the art style are what make it my 2nd favourite. I mean, just look at the detail on this box that only features for a few minutes…

AKAKIRI
‘A Jedi returns to help the daughter of a ruler he once served to help her defend her kingdom from a Sith-like Shogun.’

This, the final episode, was made by the same studio that did ‘T0-B1’, but the art is very different, much grittier.

It honestly pains me to say it, but this one fell flat for all 3 of us.

I didn’t care for the 2 main characters and by the time it ended, all we did was shrug.

At the end of the day, having only 1 out of 9 that we didn’t enjoy is pretty good going.

The music for the series is all original with each episode covered by a different composer, apart from one who worked on ‘The Twins’ and ‘The Elder’, and another who composed the score for ‘Lop and Ochó’ and ‘Tatooine Rhapsody’.

I particularly love the music for ‘The Village Bride’. Not what I’d expect from ‘Star Wars’, it evokes the feeling of an old-style mystical folk tale and is beautifully haunting.

The music for ‘The Twins’, on the other hand, is so ‘Star Wars’, there are at least 3 moments very reminiscent of John Williams’ score, you’d be forgiven for thinking he’d composed the music for it.

As with short stories, there’s an open-endedness to each episode, some more ‘open’ than others.

It makes us wonder if, with the success of this series, Disney might consider a second season with a possible mix of new stories and continuations of, maybe, the top 3 or 4 of the original stories.

Whatever they decide, I hope we get more ‘Star Wars’ anime as the franchise just seems to fit the style.

By the way, if you want to watch this in Japanese with subtitles, just be aware that the only subtitle option on Disney+ is ‘close captioned’; I don’t know if that’s still the case. We ended up watching it on an anime site instead as we prefer to watch anime subbed.

There’s an English language trailer, but I quite like the Japanese one.

[Images from ‘Star Wars: Visions’]

TV/Disney+ Review - 'Star Wars: Visions'