Star Wars: Visions

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 their 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 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.

Being both a fan of Star Wars and anime, this collaboration seemed like a gift from the gods. How could I not be excited for this! Even with the score I have given it, it still lived up to my expectations.

※ Story: 5/10 ※

As an episodic series. there was a great variation in the tone for each episode. In some episodes, we viewed a light-hearted and dreamy scene unfold, while in others, we witnessed a more serious tone with more mature scenes.

Each episode did well in differentiating itself from the others in its storytelling. It didn't feel repetitive despite most episodes revolving around ... 'The Force' and Jedis. The direction that the episodes took was also unexpected and not cliche. I found myself surprised with some of the decisions the story writers made.

That being said, there was nothing incredible about the stories, nothing intelligent or awe-inspiring, especially with the time constraints for each episode. Quite a few didn't close off the story but rather instigated the idea of a follow-up.

In terms of being 'Star Wars', I'm glad these aren't Canon. The series took a lot of creative liberty with Star Wars lore, with episodes breaching it on many occasions. That being said, there we iconic Star Wars vehicles, planets and figures that returned to remind you that this is in fact Star Wars.

Of course, this would not be anime without some Japanese culture in it. The Star Wars technologies and Japanese culture were interwoven well whether through the settings, characters or tools. It was very cool to see such a combination come to life.

※ Characters: 6/10 ※

For characters, there were a few well-written ones such as Dan and Tajin who had great chemistry and F. Other than that, no character really stood out as special nor memorable, just average, with a simple motive and a simple personality.

Character designs were done well, especially in the 1st and 7th episodes. I would have liked more Aliens in the main casts, but I'm still contempt with what we got as no main character was appalling, except the furry one.

※ Production: 7.5/10 ※

The animation and sound are definitely where the anime shines. The iconic lightsaber sound coupled with great animation made for interesting fights. The Choreography in this was, I would argue, better than in some Canon Star Wars media, I was impressed with it.

Wide shots in some of the episodes incorporated heavy CG for the scale which was a bit offputting, but completely understandable.

The music definitely had that Star Wars vibe meshed in with some traditional Japanese music, contributing well to their respective scenes.

※ Enjoyment: 5/10 ※

The score for this category is a bit misleading as some of the episodes were superb (my personal favourites were episodes 1, 4 and 7) while others paled in comparison, primarily because of the boring setting and plot.

Lightsaber fights just never get old and the anime maintained that while adding its own originality.

For anyone who is a Star Wars and anime fan, I highly recommend Star Wars: Visions!

I’ve been so apathetic towards Star Wars for a couple of years now. I didn’t hate the new Disney movies, however the constant yearly releases, and the constant arguing from fans, by the time episode 9 came out I was just done with Star Wars. I didn’t really wanna have anything to do with it anymore.

However, with the announcement of this anthology series, I felt happy about Star Wars again. The trailer really grabbed me. I was still skeptical, of course, but I was more happy about this than other Star Wars media because this was going to be something unique for the series.

And I ... was right to be happy about this, because this set of mini Star Wars stories were, for the most part, really great. It just feels fun to be happy about Star Wars again.

My ranking of the episodes from best to worst goes like this: 8,6,4,1,3,7,2,5 and 9. The only one I really disliked was episode 9, however, even that one had some moments. It’s difficult to rate overall, since it’s an anthology and all. But I feel like a 9/10 is good for it. It’s just so great to see all these different takes on Star Wars. And it’s no secret that Star Wars is somewhat inspired by Akira Kurosawa’s samurai movies, so this feels like it’s come full circle in some ways.

It’s difficult to talk about this without spoiling by things but yeah. I really enjoyed it, Lop is the best Star Wars character, and I really hope we get more of this anthology series. Maybe even some continuations of the episodes here. Especially for episode 1, 2, 5 and 8. Those I would love to see more of.

Story: 8/10
Overall, the stories were all pretty damn solid. The only major problem being that there’s not enough of it! I need more of these stories! The highlight for me in the story department is episode 8!
Art: 9/10
It’s the main reason I decided to watch it, and it doesn’t disappoint, it’s worth watching for the animation alone. The highlight for the art is either episode 3 or episode 6 or 8… or 4. It’s a tough decision.
Sound: 9/10
I’m not great with deciding if music is good or bad, but I enjoyed it in this, the soundtrack for episode 4 is the highlight of this.
Characters: 7/10
While characters have only a 7/10, which is the lowest of the scores I’ve given here, they are still great. There are just a lot of two dimensional characters that I didn’t really like, but also a lot of great characters, so it evens out. Lop from episode 8 is my favourite, but the Jedi F from episode 4, Kara from episode 5 and Ronin from the first episode are also pretty amazing characters.
Enjoyment 10/10
I was not bored for a second. I had fun even with the few flaws I had with it, especially episode 9, but still. I’m definitely rewatching this soon, and this time with the original Japanese language version.
Overall 9/10
Go watch it. This is super important. If it gets popular enough, Disney might let these studios or even more studios have a go at playing with the Star Wars IP. It’s a wonderful anthology!

If you have never watched Star Wars, you can watch the anime without any problems, if you know what a Jedi is, that's fine. Another attempt by Disney to do something different with Star Wars, being Japanese we can see samurai jedi and homages to classic manga works like "Vagabond" and "Astro Boy" with good art, but it's a shame that it's a bad anime....

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator

-Story: 4/10 (Lack of plot)
Star Wars visions has reasonably good ideas for its episodes but its big problem would be their short screen time, it is hard to build a good story in only fourteen minutes, ... as we can see, in many episodes the flaw is evident, where the anime shows us dramas and fights, without even presenting the characters or a good context. Such factors that make climactic scenes futile and ignorable, unless you're the type to be entertained by anything.

-Art: 8/10 (Beautiful and creative)
The production is the best part of the show, each studio did their best and did their best to make their animations, especially episodes one and three, where it is beautiful in artistic terms and very well directed. impressive.

-Sound: 6/10 (ok...)
The soundtracks vary with the episodes, but there is nothing so remarkable, the sound effects are good, but that's about it

-Characters: 4/10 (disposable...)
Of all the episodes we have at most 3 good characters, little screen time hinders you from generating some empathy for the characters, in its great majority they are nothing but posts without charisma or even without motivations or personality. In a certain episode the anime even tries to make a drama with the death of a character that you didn't even realize was there so useless, it was funny.

-Enjoyment: 4.5/10 (You can stay awake)
Honestly, none of the nine episodes I consider good, what saves the anime from boring you is that it's short. Star Wars Visions is nothing but a show of animation and random fights on your screen.

First off, let me state that I'm a huge fan of star wars. When it comes to reviewing the product, I try to be as neutral as possible, but undoubtedly, theres going to be bias there, as there is with anything. With that, lets see how this newest instalment to the cultural phenomenon stacks up.

It's good. Like pretty good actually. Now in my head, I had imagined this to be 9 long form products (movies or series) that would each be marked on their own merit, but I must of missed something somewhere. I was a little upset when I realised it was 9 short ... stories. But nevertheless, I hoped for the best.

Each short story has its own thing its trying to do, and they all do it to varying degrees of proficiency. The first is mostly an art piece based around the CGI, the 3rd is exactly what you would expect from trigger (hype, themes and good animation) etc etc. All except for the 9th one. The 9th one is weird. It has ideas on destiny and choice, but then seems to give a nihilistic ending. Now as far as i'm aware there is no second season planned. So this 9th episode is just very weird and I don't really understand the point of it.

It's hard to talk about any aspect on a consistent level as it varies from episode to episode. But for me: episode 1 was the best visually and atmospherically, episode 4 was the best on a music level, episode 7 was the best "star wars" episode and Episode 3 was the best overall. I really liked the aesthetic of episode 6 (sort of an Astro Boy feel), but the pacing was really fast on that one, which ruined my enjoyment a bit. Episode 8 was also really solid all around, and with a bit better execution could of been the best overall. A few episodes peak up to 10's in some aspects, and very few drop below a 5 or 6 on any. Most end in this sort of 7-8 range.

Overall, I'm pretty happy. I even would of liked to see some of these in more of a long form. I would happily sit down and watch a 13 episode series for episode 1 and 7, a movie for 3 and 8 etc. So yh, if you like star wars, give it a watch.

Star Wars: Visions is an anime anthology series created for the American streaming service Disney+. Produced by Lucasfilm Animation, the series consists of nine short films created by seven Japanese animation studios, each telling their own original stories based on and set within the Star Wars universe. The participating animation studios are Kamikaze Douga, Studio Colorido, Geno Studio, Trigger, Kinema Citrus, Production I.G, and Science SARU. The creators at each studio were given free rein to re-envision the ideas of Star Wars as they saw fit, while receiving guidance from Lucasfilm's executive team.

The anthology was released worldwide on September 22, 2021. Naturally, the critic community ... acclaimed it, but Rotten Tomatoes’ scoring has more than proven how out of touch critics are from actual audiences. So, what was the actual audience reception? It was… mixed. When I say mixed, I don’t mean it in the standard sense that some people liked it, some didn’t – though I’m sure that’s also the case. No, I’m saying that individual episodes were received with varying degrees of excitement.

Being that Visions is an anthology, there is no narrative through-line and none of the episodes have anything to do with one another, and they’re all produced by distinct studios (with the exception of Tigger and Science SARU, who both produced 2 episodes each), so any individual audience member’s mileage will vary greatly with the differing aesthetic philosophies, animation styles, and stories.

Point and fact, episode 1 was my favorite, a black and white experience evocative of the suave film noir aesthetic produced by studio Kamikaze Douga, which prides itself as being a “half-breed studio” specializing in blending CG production with traditional 2D cel animation. They’re known for producing various shorts, advertisements, the Ninja Batman short film, and most notably, the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventures opening animation.

My 2nd favorite was episode 3. It’s a Trigger production through and through. A young protagonist & antagonist pair who have some kind of intimate connection, lots of standing cross-armed atop mechs, over the top yelling about ideologies, a final fight in the vacuum of space, and the climax of the battle being a giant Kamehameha energy clash, it’s got it all. I predicted all of these things before I even watched the episode and started foaming at the mouth as they all came true, one by one. The other Trigger production, episode 7, is a lot more subdued and does not feature any aesthetic whose identity you would consider as symbolic of Trigger.

The other episodes were kind of hit or miss. Episodes 2 (Studio Colorido) and 6 (Science SARU) were my least favorite, be it because of the chibi or Doctor Seuss aesthetic philosophies, be it because of the Saturday morning cartoon nature of the stories, there were several things about them that I found did not speak to me and made for an unappealing viewing experience in my case, but I’m sure there is an audience for that sort of thing as well. I’m just not it.

In short, if you’re a fan of the Star Wars franchise or if you’re at all curious about it, by all means, give Visions a go. Anime adaptations of Western media do not have an excellent track record, and while Visions is not a masterpiece, it is certainly decent and there’s something in it for everyone. You’re guaranteed to enjoy at least one of the productions, I’m sure.

For the purposes of agility, I'll review each episode separately, since it's from the same world, but entirely different studios for each one.

The Duel (Ep. 1) 9/10
The animation style of this one, my god.

It's a short watch of a small scale little conflict. Of course, breaking rules of the Jedi universe; but that doesn't really matter. You can look at this little bubble and stare in awe as this small animated project pertains an elegant dogfight between two siths. The combat resembles a fight in the amazing game "Furi" as counters fly, strategies pertain a certain flare of elegance while being dirty. The use of ... intelligence in an unlikely manner and the samurai themes.

It all worked perfectly well, only I didn't care for the characters, sometimes in a short you can't have a goal or an interesting plot. This is a situation and it remains as that.

Tatoouine Rhapsody (Ep. 2) 3/10
I mean, I get why it's the most hated, but it wasn't absolutely terrible.

The animation is fairly ok, but this conflict becomes too dumb at the end to make an actual emotional point. It does present an interesting narrative, and it may be how I personally dislike musical numbers and the power of friendship solving problems. It could've ended in a much grimmer note, and I'd work better but, the Disney here limits the style of narrative it could've been.

I don't hate it, but it certainly wasn't good.

The Twins (Ep. 3) 7/10
It was the spectacle.

As expected from Trigger. The love and care put into something you can easily and simply describe as hype is outstanding. It made watching this one worth it, but of course, the simplicity clearly makes for jarring results. Star Wars had a set of rules set in space physics to a degree. Breaking that into bits, chucking it into the void and making shit up as you go along... can work.

With this episode, it didn't work entirely, it feels like hype for the sake of it. The score, the animation, it's perfect. As a fan-project of sorts, it's great, but yeah... too much for its own good, maybe too illogical as a working story. At least it had a clear conflict and interesting ideas, but nothing to be extreme about.

Perfect everything except logic, rhyme or reason.

The Village Bride (Ep. 4) 8/10
A small scale, emotional conflict.

It was an interesting tale about what people do in the face of sacrifice. A very much explored theme, it felt like a pilot for a first episode of sorts. It was pretty good; simple, slightly emotional and holding a heart. Animation wise it was simply good, it works, nothing to gawk or hate. The voice work is alright, an all around ultra solid work.

It's just a solid narrative with a beginning, middle and end that feel clear with a lesson.

It's good.

The Ninth Jedi (Ep. 5) 9/10
A full-on episode in size, with an actual fascinating narrative.

Now this felt like an emotional arc, an evolution of character. We have moments of clarity, a twist, amazing fight choreography. I really enjoyed this one and is probably the one to actually recommend anybody.

The colors and the meaning in them, how they change. The animation works with each and every part of this moving story. Even some of the camera work held meaning, changing to handheld for intense effect. I loved this one and away from style, this is pure substance with enough style to hold it together.

T0-B1 (Ep. 6) 5/10
It was just okay. The animation was probably the only saving grace here.

The story was picking up pretty good all the way until the end, presenting a simple, heart-warming story. However, right at the last portion when he got his saber, It fell right off. The short started to feel so weird and absolutely rushed to hell in a quest to end fast. It was probably a time constraint that I can't blame on the people behind it.

Not only that, but the sound effects were so jarring and out of place. It was like a whiplash between how nice it was. I don't recommend it all that much, not a waste of time, but not an interesting one either.

The Elder (Ep. 7) 6/10
An alright story, only thing is; these stories about a planet in a conflict being solved by Jedi's is getting a little stale.

This one doesn't have an outstanding animation by any means, yet it doesn't really need to. Some scenes of quiet tension as enemies look at each other had a great mood. The episode felt like a quiet conflict that sets up a chain of events of sorts. My favorite part being how I do believe this people are acquainted with each other.

I liked it, but not that much because of being a bit boring sometimes.

Lop & Ochō (Ep. 8) 9/10
Probably the best short as of now.

This was an intense, escalating problem of family; finally something fresh. The fight choreography; mesmerizing. The animation; stellar. The story; quite interesting, no doubt. It all came to the end satisfyingly with a feeling of beginning and end. I loved this one to bits, and it didn't feel rushed at all.

Maybe some of the Deus ex machinas are the only thing holding this away from perfection, but how can you solve them in a short? I don't hold it against them, yet, it did take me out.

Akakiri (Ep. 9) 6/10
I liked the ideas present on it; the rest is alright.

It's a short about what can lead you to the dark side in a very contained style. We have the Anakin story to tell us, how can one get into what he did, and some people believe it, some don't. I was pretty skeptical about it (Without knowledge from clone wars, just the films), yet, this one is a much easier narrative to follow and believe.

Apart from the narrative, the art style is good, the fight is good, everything is just good. It doesn't really stand out from the other ones in any way possible, and feels like a short rather than a piece from the whole.

Good, however, not the best one to end it in.

Overall 7/10
A mixed bag of shorts about some stories to be heard. It was okay sometimes, the lowest lows are just 1 chapter. The highest highs are almost perfect, but lack some elements to really push them or heighten them. Recommended for sure.

I grew up a Star Wars fan, and I haven't ever deviated from that. I love Star Wars, and I also love anime. I cannot explain how excited I was for this show to come out, but I am extremely disappointed. I heard Star Wars anime and that peaked my interest.

I'm not complaining about it being episodic either that wasn't my issue, I liked that each episode felt different from the last. Art and animation was different in every episode. This is honestly just a horrible concept. Disney advertised that a bunch of studios in Japan would be making their own ONA's on Star ... Wars and it's clear that some of the studios knew nothing about Star Wars.

Episode 1: I'm not a fan of 3D anime, but I really liked this episode. It was animated really well and didn't try to rush a story in 9 min like some of the other episodes. It just got straight to the point and I was satisfied and hooked on the rest of the show instantly. 8/10

Episode 2: Easily my least favorite in the series. Had absolutely nothing to do with Star Wars, so the studio threw in Boba Fett and Jabba the Hutt just to get the title right. Not much else to say. 1/10

Episode 3: Ok actually what the fuck was this episode. I don't think Studio Trigger did their research on Star Wars at all. Fighting in space with no space suits, a suit powered by kyber crystals, an astronomically long lightsaber. This was the dumbest shit I've ever seen. 2/10

Episode 4: I liked this episode the first time I watched it, but it's just extremely forgettable. I couldn't tell you what happened in this episode and I actually had to go back to Disney+ to see what this episode was. 4/10

Episode 5: I didn't hate this episode either it was just super rushed. They tried to fit an entire story line into one episode and it didn't work. I feel like this episode could've been better with more backstory or a longer runtime. 3/10

Episode 6: I really liked the art style of this episode and animation of this episode. I also really liked the sound design of it. That's all I liked though. It was the most rushed episode in the series and it made the least amount of sense. (spoiler) A droid being a Jedi, being able to use the force, it just made no sense. 2/10

Episode 7: I felt like this was gonna be a really good episode. The writing at the beginning was very strong, and they did a very good job of building up the villain. But they spent too much time doing that so the pay off wasn't satisfying. (spoiler) The villain was built up to be this super strong ex-Sith, but he was beaten very quickly with little resistance at all. 4/10

Episode 8: I absolutely loved this episode. 0 complaints. They fit a very well developed story with great characters into a 20 min runtime without making it feel rushed. Every decision made by the characters was understandable and made sense whether you agree with them or not. All of their motivations were valid. 10/10

Episode 9: Bad, rushed, and forgettable story. I've never heard of Science SARU before, but I really liked both of their episodes' art style and animation. The story of this episode was just awful though. The characters just seemed fake and unrealistic to me. 2/10

So yeah, this exists. Why, you may ask? Cuz it’s an easy way for Disney to make a cash grab and popularize Star Wars in the anime community. And let me just get started: this anime is awful.

First off, gotta explain the concept: 9 episodes, 9 studios making each one of those episodes. Got it? Now this could work, but in the short time each episode has they can only develop so much and the stories do not connect throughout the episodes.

The first episode was… not bad. It felt like Vagabond with lightsabers, the art style was fun and the plot was decent with ... the run time of the episode. Then it all went downhill, with episode 2. The episode was trash, the story was downright awful, the characters were annoying, the art took a major step back. But this wasn’t the worst episode. No, no, no, no. Episode 3 is utter garbage. Not only were the characters uninteresting but the consistency was terrible, I mean they literally fought in space without the effect of gravity or worrying about oxygen. The rest of the episodes kept the same amount of quality, and honestly I might be mentally ill to keep going to watch this terrible anime, but I like to finish things so I did. Characters were bland, bland stories, bland everything. As a huge Star Wars fans this anime dishonors the franchise and it should be burned to the ground so no one has to watch this piece of shit.

So do I recommend this? NO. This is by far the worst Star Wars content I’ve ever watched (yes I’ve watched the Sequels and Star Wars Resistance). Hope this helps :)

This is one of those shows that I was looking forward to when the trailer came but forgot it existed. As an experimental anthology series, the show is pretty ok. With any anthology series, there were a couple episodes that I really liked but the rest were either okay or just bad (I'm looking at you episode 2). It was interesting to see how each episode tried doing their own thing with the universe of Star Wars and attempts to capture the Star Wars spirit.

Honestly, each episode can be a hit or miss depending on your preferences. So, I suggest that all episodes should ... be watched.

If it helps, I really enjoyed episode 5-9.

Unfortunately, I wasn't a big fan of the Studio Trigger episode. I was really expecting to like it. I'm a fan of their works but there was just this one part that brought back old wounds from The Last Jedi.

No connection between episodes, the story was half-baked and utilised on the most common anime tropes. Trying to set emotional backstories for characters we know for 10 minutes is a joke. No way I get attached to a character that quickly. It felt rushed and didn't capture that Star Wars feeling for me. Trying to do that every single episode was a such a mistake I do not know how it was even approved.
Soundtrack was fairly bland and didn't scream Star Wars to me. Animation was fine but nothing special. It felt super rushed.
Waiting for each episode to end was dreadful. Good job Disney, ... you shat all over Star Wars. Hope you're proud.

Star Wars Visions is a set of different stories told by different people and is developed by different staff. I will review each episode on its own, but assign a rating for the entire set at the end.

Some episodes are not even worth watching at all, while others tower above the franchise at a height not seen since the days of Knights of the Old Republic games in 2003 or perhaps Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire (The Thrawn Trilogy) published all the way back in 1991.

At the very top of this pinnacle stands episode 5. The storytelling and directing is on point. From ... only a few minutes in, I could tell from the color palette, faces, and camera shots that this was from Production IG and specifically director and writer that worked on Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Kenji Kamiyama. Every moment oozes character, an understanding of the established Star Wars Universe's lore, and introduces new ideas that are compatible with it. The story rides the line of unexpectedness and inevitability that all writers strive for and draws on a deep well of experience and creativity. This episode has the highest fidelity and also holds the most promising story out of all the series.

Closely behind are episodes 1, 4, and 8. They are excellent additions that fall only slightly behind when considering story, but have individual qualities which surpass the 5th episode. The 1st has the most intense battles that draw out the tension for most of the episode and is heavily inspired by old samurai films, the 4th has the greatest soundtrack and captures a feeling of magic that none of the other episodes hold a candle to, and the 8th has the highest production value and best animation of the set. These are also worthwhile contributions to the Star Wars Universe and are far above average for what the Old SWU and New SWU had to offer over the last 35 years.

Episode 7 is decent, but does not add enough of its own flavor to be considered in league with the aforementioned 4 episodes.

Episode 9 has a story that I could not care about.

Episode 2 is a musical episode, targeted towards a younger audience and something I am not suited for. From an adults perspective it has very little charm.

Likewise, Episode 6 falls into this same category, only it is more frantic and disorganized.

Episode 3 fails to deliver. Trigger has lost their soul and while their storytelling is clearly identifiable, it is now unchanging and uninspired. They grasp no essence of what Star Wars or its universe is. I daresay they didn't even bother. It reminds me of The Last Jedi, and not in a good way. This is the worst episode the series has to offer, while representing the heart of the mediocrity that plagues so many mainstream anime.

The short of it? Watch 1, 4, 5, and 8. Skip the rest unless you are a die hard Star Wars fan. On the whole, this series is a 6/10 for me, but I would probably rate the stand-out individual episodes a 9/10.

Postscript/Disclaimer:
This is from someone who has fallen in and out of Star Wars fandom over the years and has read over a hundred Star Wars novels from the pre-Disney era. I also have the luxury to enjoy these in the original language. The Disney subtitles for the Japanese audio are insultingly awful. At times they directly contradict what is actually being said or are outright wrong. These are things as severe as reading 山（やま）mountain as 空（そら）sky, something not even an amateur would make. We are not talking about non-literal interpretation, but rather violation of intent.

Perhaps, in the future it would be good to look for fan-subs for these episodes.

Star Wars Visions has some really great moments with fantastic art but that is all that can be said about it. The story changes each episode and with each episode only being 15 minutes the writing is pretty shallow and lacks an attempt at depth. The stories are extremely cliche and generic. The reason for the decently high rating on MAL mostly comes from Star Wars fans and the hype surrounding it.I do not fault the studios animating this at all the art for a majority of the episodes I have seen is done very well however art can only take something so far. Disney ... should have made it a series with one story and each episode in a different art style so we could get something coherent instead of varying stories with little to no depth.

I think it's a bit my fault that I gave it such a low rating since I had too much hype at the time of the release of this anime series ( this is a review by a otaku and star wars fan )

STORY (6 fair) : well I can't say much about the story of a single chapter since they are all completely different but I must say that the chapters should have been longer since many of them didn't even manage to build a good idea of ​​the story of the chapter or the world in which this was turned

ART (10 outsanding) ... : Well this is disney and it has gigantic amounts of money so if we put that together with Japanese animation studios, a star wars license and an indefinite budget then this is what you have one of the most beautiful animes I have ever seen or well the most beautiful animes that I have seen, the animation style of all the studios is somewhat noticeable (some more than others, like the ronnin episode) I have little to say about the simply unique and beautiful art

SOUND (10 outsanding) So this is star wars many of the sound effects already had them as well as many of the songs and how do I say the new songs are incredible sincse finite BUDGET

CHARACTERS :(5 mediocre) all the characters are very meh cool but meh but you can't blame him too much since they are only characters from one chapter, I would like disney to see all these mini animes and decide to serialize the most promising ones

OVERALL (4 bad) : this star wars "new show" it´s very strange and in some ways vere mediocre in terms of history but in some moments I got overhypes with the battles
Apart from this, many chapters were a bit difficult to see because of how boring or not very entertaining they became.

Star Wars: Visions (2021)

What a challenge laid down, one that makes me wonder what didn't make the cut since at least two of them were trash in my opinion. I mean the last one was so bland I just couldn't believe it and episode 6 was the same in that it was just plain boring.
That said, the other 7 are absolute banging, and show the brilliance of what could be if it is renewed for more. For me, this is the Disney+ version of Netflix's Love Death + Robots.

The art styles range from superb and brilliant to dull and boring. It had a ... really strong start that weakened to a disappointing finale. Katana lightsabers are incredibly awesome, especially episodes 1 and 8. In episode 7 you get an amazing steam effect coming off a lightsaber in the rain too.

With sound, we don't really have an OP or ED but you do get a very varied soundtrack that is mostly pretty amazing.

The characters they introduce are sometimes unexpected and deep with amazing stories in such a short time. Others are just a waste since I felt nothing in episode 6 or 9 since it was such a lame conclusion.

I would say the only thing episode 9 had was an unusual story that was refreshing but at the same time, it was dull, just so dull. Instead of worldbuilding for three-quarters of the episode actually develop the story in the time given. You do get amazing moments through the series and one of my funniest thoughts is episode 3 where the people on the other Imperial Star Destroyer must just be stood there like damn that could have been us.

Overall, the series is strong but weak. In 7 of the 9, they are 9/10 out of 10 but the 6th and 9th were just so bad sitting around 1 or 2 which brings the score down to settle at 8 for me since I don't want to take too much from those that were great.

8/10. Let's have a season 2 with more story vetting.

Unfortunately, as a whole, Star Wars: Visions was just...fine. And there's a very clear reason for that.
What this anime really is is a collaboration between animation studios. Meaning that each 23 minutes episodes were produced and written by different people, and I am very sad to say that MOST of the episodes were just terrible as far as their plotlines goes. In fact a lot of them just boils down to "good Jedi meets evil Sith and they fight", and its all rushed. That is pretty much what most of the studios did, and the only real difference being how they animated their own episodes.
BUT ... then there is two or three episodes of the 9 that are actually pretty well done, and ABSOLUTELY deserved to have their own full length anime series. If you wanna save yourself some time, watch episodes 5 and 8, and maybe 7 as well. They are easily the best of the bunch.
If Disney really wants to make money, they will pay the studios to produce full series of those episodes, but in all honesty I am not hopeful about that.

Star Wars has been really really disappointing lately, especially when I refer to sequels like just no, I can't tolerate sequels.
Anyways leaving my whiney ass behind, I loved this concept, two of my favorite things coming together, I had mixed feelings when I saw the trailer.
Not gonna lie, it seemed like that they could screw up with this one too.

BUT I.WAS.WRONG.

Every episode comes with a new and a unique animation, and the series never seized to disappoint. The lores are not connected to the main universe, there is no good or evil, this series has no sides at all, in one episode you'll see a ... sith and in another you'll see a bounty hunter, a jedi and whatnot.

It's fresh, the animation style is unique, loved it.
Sometimes story slacks a bit, but overall, loved the show.
Second best thing after in the post disney star wars after The Mandalorian.
Do give it a watch even if you're not a star wars fan

Darth Vader: Luke, I'm your father...

Luke Skywalker: My father????NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Ok enough of that Empire Strikes Back monologue.

So:

Story:

... Pros: It was kinda nice that Disney has allowed studios Production I.G, Kinema Citrus, Kamikaze Douga, Trigger, Studio Colorido, Geno Studio and Science SARU,to create each of their version of the iconic Star wars franchise....

Coms: The problem since each of the studios were given their own version of the Star Wars episode, half of it were downright lame but half of it were masterpieces...TBFH, it wouldn't be fair to rate this as a whole since this ONA is a package deal so my ratings for this ONA:

Verdict: 6 over 10.

Art:

Pros: TBFH, there were a lot about the character illustartions that were good, but..

Cons: There were also illustrations that were downright corny...so

Verdict: 6 over 10

Sounds:

Pros: Nothing to say.

Cons: They didn't play the iconic sound track of the Star wars franchise, which the quintessential in all Star Wars franchise.

Verdict: 4 Over 10

Character:

Pros: Well given that this ONA is a package deal, one cannot rate the characters as a whole in this ONA cu'z of the fact that each episode has different main characters. The only thing constant around here is the antagonist be it the Imperial troop or Frist Order Troops.

Cons: Nothing to say.

Verdict: 4 Over 10.

Enjoyment:

Pros: This is the part where I like half of this ONA's episode.

Cons: This is also the part that I hated half of this ONA's epsiode

Verdict: 6 Over 10.

Overall:

Verdict: 6 Over 10.

It was a bit of a sign to be able to watch a Star Wars Japanize version, but given that the ONA itself is a package deal, it's either you accept this as a whole or just dump is in its entirety. So, that all folks.

May the force be with you...

Star Wars visions, although not perfect, is a beautiful love letter to the Star Wars franchise as a whole. It complements the themes and dances around it magnificently, being able to take pride in being in the Star Wars universe. Each episode of visions has its own unique direction and storytelling method that stands out on its own, from a samurai story to a journey of a band and even a stunningly breathtaking tale about a devastating torn of a family (which is probably my favorite episode). A lot of the characters were able to engage with the audience, getting to know their personality/goal by ... a “blink and you’ll miss it” show not tell method, or through dialogs between characters, or simply just by letting the action scenes speak for itself. Speaking of the action scenes, the fights were greatly animated, and a lot of times, it was also capable of adding to the story beat.

However, I do think that it isn’t flawless. Some people may point out the pacing issues it had, but for me, that makes sense since it was mostly around 12+ minutes an episode. There are also some people who might notice the over repetition of some plot points, but the way each episode was able to tell its story their own way with their own unique style, characters, animation, and message, ultimately shine the most out of the series, in my opinion.

Overall, I would say this series was worth the watch and I would give it around a high 8 / low 9

Quick review.

What I liked:

The fight scenes were well animated and pretty well stylized.

The character designs are also pretty nice.

Tràkata shows up, I really like that.

... The band episode was fun.

The katana lightsabers look really cool.

What I disliked:

The anime moments i.e lightsaber jousting through a star destroyer on an X-wing

Almost every short ended in some type of lightsaber duel, I kinda wish they explored more than just Jedi related Star Wars universe stuff.

A lot of the stories setup sequel material and I am pretty sure none of it is getting follow-ups.

Some of the stories just lacked atmosphere if that makes sense. Like you'd think there would be more of a reaction from both Jedi and Sith over a girl with a colorless lightsaber. Or the fact that one of the characters is raised from artificial birth with his twin sister to be one of the galaxy's most evil sith lords and he just breaks away from that lifelong indoctrination immediately and has a get rid of bad guy armor button. Like, even the hanger of the bad guy ship has a random x wing inside, cause you can't have the good guy fly a tie fighter even though that's probably all he learned to fly growing up.