Star Wars: Visions Season 3

Reader Beware: This text comprises spoilers for “Star Wars: Visions” season 3.

“Star Wars: Visions” launched its third season in the present day, going again to the roots of its first season in Japan. It has been an fascinating, non-canon experiment for Lucasfilm, as they have been bankrolling experimental animated shorts from top-notch animation studios in Japan (or, within the case of season 2, all over the world) to only tinker round with “Star Wars.” It is given us some unbelievable “Star Wars” storytelling. The third season is a humiliation of riches, and it was tough to rank this season’s 9 episodes in any order of high quality. They have been all simply nice. However get them organized we will. 

I wish to say, although, this season was incredible. There wasn’t a nasty episode within the bunch, and every episode was firing on all cylinders. It virtually felt as if the entire Japanese studios noticed what everybody else achieved after the primary season had been launched and realized what they may get away with, after which every of them upped their sport significantly.

We have taken the time to rank the episodes right down to the perfect one, as tough a activity as that was. We are going to dive into some spoilers, so if you have not watched the present, you could wish to first. Prepared or not, right here we go:

Produced by Polygon Photos and directed by Tadahiro Yoshihira. The eighth episode of season 3 takes step one towards the extra metaphysical episodes. It tells the story of a younger Padawan and her grasp who’re preventing a Sith. The Padawan is knocked from a cliff and has a journey by way of herself, very paying homage to Ahsoka’s journey into her thoughts as she was within the sea of Seatos in “Ahsoka” or Luke Skywalker’s failure within the cave on Dagobah in “Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Again.” It is an existential journey the place the Padawan should defeat the evil inside herself. She struggles with anger and emotion on her journey, and it feels very human. It is deep and price rewatching, and in addition options “Star Trek” alum George Takei in his return to “Star Wars” as a fluorescent frog creature that fills a really Yoda-like function. It ends on a hopeful word of ambiguity, however we’re nonetheless left to marvel if she made it.

Produced by Kinema Citrus and directed by Hitoshi Haga, “The Misplaced Ones” is ready on a planet ruined by the Empire’s strip mining, with the survivors rescued by a passing Jedi. Attacked by the Empire, the Jedi discovers their previous grasp, who has turned to the darkish facet. A lot of the episode offers with the trauma of getting to deal with a mentor who turned out to be evil in methods you hadn’t anticipated. What do you’re taking from the individuals who mentored you who transform evil? It is an fascinating factor individuals grapple with increasingly more nowadays as they give the impression of being to individuals who have been influential to them of their youthful days and uncover them to be rubbish individuals keen to harm others. Kind of just like the “Harry Potter” conundrum. It illustrates a personality who stays true to themselves and the great the problematic instructor confirmed them and discards their harmful rhetoric, in the end defeating them. All in a cool “Star Wars” wrapper. And did I point out there is a utterly non-sequitur “Again to the Future” reference?

Produced by Wit Studio and directed by Junichi Yamamoto, this episode appears like probably the most trendy by way of animation and anime storytelling. “The Bounty Hunters” revolves round a lone bounty hunter and her droid that is half medical droid and half murderer droid. She blunders right into a scenario the place a serious company hires her to herald malcontents. This being “Star Wars,” nevertheless, issues aren’t all the time as they appear, and the company’s adopted battle orphans are literally slaves, and the malcontents are freedom fighters. There are double and triple crosses, and the proprietor of the company finds himself preventing inside an enormous destroyer droid when everybody turns in opposition to him. Stuffed with motion and journey with some unbelievable animation, it is a good episode with sturdy pathos, but it surely finally ends up center of the pack for me.

Seemingly taking cues from “The Hidden Fortress,” this installment, produced by Set off and directed by Masahiko Otsuka, tells the story of a smuggler who finds herself employed by a hidden prince on the run along with his loyal secret Jedi Common protector who wants a trip off planet. However first, they should get out of a closely occupied Imperial territory in search of them particularly. Stuffed with journey, nice music, and the aforementioned Jedi voiced by Judith Mild, it is an entertaining Saturday matinee serial. Dropped in the midst of the motion, it has all of the style and taste of “Star Wars” in a decent, economical bundle.

If there is a single phrase to explain this episode, I’d use “lovable.” There’s one thing so inherently “Star Wars” about it, although. When making “Return of the Jedi,” one of many mantras George Lucas repeated on set and to the varied departments was “Dare to be cute.” This installment, produced by Challenge Studio Q and directed by Hiroyasu Kobayashi, has that in spades. It is a couple of princess, very similar to Leia Organa, whose civilization has been destroyed and devoted herself to the trigger. She places herself in peril to rescue probably the most lovable child Gigoran named Woopas, who had been a sufferer of the Empire’s tyranny, and uncovers an Imperial plot to strip mine a planet. Together with her droid that transforms into a private X-wing-like scenario, he single-handedly saves the planet. It is obtained a relentless enjoyable to it, and it simply would not get cuter than this.

The episode “Black” was produced by David Manufacturing and directed by Shinya Ohira. When you have been to place some unbelievable hand-drawn animation in a blender with inspiration from MTV’s “Liquid Tv,” Disney’s “Fantasia,” and the Canadian Movie Board quick movie “21-87” that impressed “Star Wars” and made a “Star Wars Visions” quick out of it, you would possibly get near understanding what “Black” is. It feels just like the fevered final moments of a Stormtrooper with their life flashing earlier than their eyes as we transfer by way of photos from a galaxy far, distant, some stuffed with magnificence and serenity, some stuffed with the brutality of battle. It is in contrast to something “Visions” has up to now produced, but it surely’s so great and experimental, I would like it to provide extra like this as effectively. It is really a murals and wouldn’t really feel misplaced enjoying on an LCD display screen in a contemporary artwork gallery, however nor does it really feel misplaced on this collection or within the milieu of “Star Wars.” It feels very proper and makes it a really welcome addition to this collection.

This episode,  produced by Kamikaze Douga (and ANIMA) and directed by Takanobu Mizuno, within the arms of a lesser studio or group of artists may have been nothing greater than a mish-mash of Kurosawa and “Star Wars” references scotch taped collectively in a really lovely bundle. However “The Duel: Payback” inverts so many issues we anticipate out of each and repackages them in fascinating methods. As a sequel to among the finest shorts from the primary season, now we have the return of the Ronin, a Sith who hunts former Sith and collects their kyber crystals. That will get sidetracked on this journey, although, after they’re attacked by the Crusaders and the Grand Grasp, a Jedi who’s extra machine than man — very a lot this universe’s model of Darth Vader. We even have Ewoks who stay within the snow and combat within the water, aiding the Sith, and among the most elaborate and beautiful-looking combat scenes of the collection. It turns issues the wrong way up, like an AT-AT, and is without doubt one of the must-watch episodes of the brand new season.

If there’s an installment of “Visions” in its third season that embodies the vibe of basic Saturday morning cartoons, it is this one. Produced by Kinema Citrus and directed by Masaki Tachibana, “Yuko’s Treasure” tells the story of an enormous bear droid with a microwave in its abdomen named Billy, who’s the guardian of a younger orphan named Yuko. Set within the acquainted environs of Mos Eisley on Tatooine, this quick embodies as a lot of the zaniness of “Looney Tunes” because it does the center and pathos of Pixar movies and blends them collectively in such an exquisite stability. It has a core to it that’s terribly “Star Wars” as effectively; Sola, the marginally older orphan on the heart of the story, is down on his luck and would not have a droid looking for him. He is working for a pirate named Fox Ear (voiced within the English language model by Steve Buscemi), and he finally ends up promoting out Billy and Yuko. Seems, he has a coronary heart of gold he did not notice and activates the pirates to assist the youthful orphan and the bear droid, and is ready to be part of their little household in an extremely heart-warming second.

Produced by Manufacturing I.G. and directed by Naoyoshi Shiotani, “The Ninth Jedi: Baby of Hope,” is a sequel to one in every of my favourite episodes from the primary season, and the one episode that is been introduced as getting a continuation with the brand new collection of “Visions” longer format spin-offs. It is a couple of younger sabersmith’s daughter who has joined a gaggle of Jedi working from the Sith. Her father was kidnapped, so she’s been looking for him, however her quest continues on. Within the newest journey, she’s separated from the group on an deserted area station. It is probably the most emotional of the episodes and drew tears — in actual fact, it was the one episode that packed sufficient of an emotional punch for me to try this. Superbly animated and ending on such a compelling cliffhanger, it could have been a disgrace if it hadn’t been continued. The standout character, although, needs to be the droid Teto — his function is ideal and his capacity to emote by way of the animation is gorgeous. Within the English-language model, Teto is definitely performed by Freddie Highmore as effectively, who brings a depth of soul to the function that provides immensely. This episode tops the batch for me for its emotion, its encapsulation of what “Star Wars” means by way of themes of sacrifice and care, and simply nice storytelling. That is the excessive watermark.

“Star Wars: Visions” season 3 is offered to stream on Disney+.