Star Wars Visions
I finally had a chance to watch STAR WARS VISIONS, and I thought it was pretty good.
The premise was that LucasFilm asked some of the biggest Japanese anime studios to make some Star Wars themed short films (each one was between 15 and 22 minutes long or thereabouts, and a self-contained story) and this was the result. Given that one of the original influences on Star Wars was samurai films, it makes sense to go back to the well, so to speak. A Jedi Knight isn’t all that different from a wandering samurai warrior.
This ends up being an interesting visual aesthetic – the version of Star Wars in VISIONS is basically medieval Japan IN SPACE! The are many small villages under attack by bandits or cruel local warlords. The Jedi and the Sith sheathe their lightsabers in katana scabbards, because why not? Sometimes the lightsabers themselves look like glowing katanas. Instead of master swordsmiths toiling for decades to create a masterpiece sword with a name like Celestial Destiny, so sharp that it can slice a single hair in midair, there are master lightsaber-smiths forging blades for Jedi to wield. Droids wear straw hats, and Japanese-styled family temples hold ancestral lightsabers that are solemnly passed down from generation to generation. There are more modern flourishes too – a robot boy wants to grow up to become a mighty hero ala Mega Man, though since this is Star Wars, he wants to grow up to become a Jedi.
I am definitely not an expert on anime – I’ve seen the more popular Studio Ghibli movies, and that’s about it. Additionally, I very strongly suspect that Japanese culture is something you have to be born into to fully understand. A degree of it will likely always remain opaque to outsiders, but that’s probably true of most cultures. So whenever I have seen an anime movie, I always suspect that nuances are going over my head.
That said, STAR WARS VISIONS was beautiful to watch, and had entertaining stories. I think “The Duel, “The Ninth Jedi”, and “The Village Bride” were my favorites. Definitely worth viewing if you have the time.
-JM