Disney has not given many big surprises to Star Wars fans in the last couple of years. While there have been some successful series, there have also been some missteps and some unfortunate boycotts. Star Wars fans are not going to go hungry, but it is true that without big movies, it seems they don’t have as many high-quality things as they did four or five years ago. Except that the second season of the best anthology series that Disney has ever given us is premiering: Star Wars: Visions.
The premise of this anthology series is to offer a different perspective on the Star Wars universe. Exploring every corner of the universe, each episode is directed by a different Japanese anime studio, bringing its own drawing and animation style to the Star Wars universe. Giving a fresh and bold tone to the whole.
A Very Japanese Star Wars
The interesting thing about Star Wars: Visions, moreover, is that it is not limited to being Star Wars, Japan. It really takes advantage of giving them a freedom that we generally do not see in the franchise, constrained by decades of stories. With much more diversity of characters, places, and tones, it is possible to find something here for everyone, partly also because anime has a different style than what we are used to in Star Wars. Even if the change between episodes can be very radical from one to another.
In fairness, it cannot be said that Star Wars: Visions invented this kind of anthology. Matrix had already published an anthology of animated shorts, called Animatrix, which told stories from the franchise’s universe through that medium. This is something that Star Wars: Visions has clearly drawn inspiration from.
But that is no kind of demerit. On the contrary. It is knowing how to learn from the best to create something equally extraordinary. And in fact, this third season promises to offer us some episodes of very high quality, based on the studios involved. The Ninth Jedi: Child of Hope is produced by Production IG, the continuation of the excellent The Ninth Jedi. Trigger, now known for Cyberpunk: Edgerunner, is in charge of the episode The Smuggler. And the studio behind JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure closes the anthology with Black. Demonstrating that there is immense quality here.
With the premiere scheduled for October 29 on Disney+, the series promises nine stories that will keep us on the edge of our seats and wanting to know even more about the Star Wars universe. And if you haven’t seen the previous two seasons of Star Wars: Visions, you should, because it might be the best that Star Wars has offered us in the last 20 years.
