Star Wars Visions: Volume 3 (2025) - REVIEW
“It’s all connected.”
The new anthology season starts off right with a new entry into the Ronin series, animated by Kamikaze Douga, who are known primarily for their work on Batman: Ninja, and the opening sequences for Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. "The Duel: Payback" continues Kamikaze Douga's streak in this series with another gorgeously animated black and white episode that feels like a charcoal illustration come to life, and harkens yet again to early Kurosawa films, which in turn were the inspirations for the original Star Wars films. With this installment, they managed to further blur the lines of right and wrong between the opposing ideologies of the Sith and Jedi, all while showcasing their animation chops and bringing us one of the most mesmerizing lightsaber fight sequences in Star Wars' history.
Project Studio Q, home to former Khara studio members, are a 3D production house that have helped with 3D sequences on projects like Gundam: GQuux, Darling in the Franxx, and Evangelion 3.0+1.0. In the first installment of Star Wars Visions, this studio helped produce "The Twins" short with Studio Trigger, though now they've taken on a project all on their own with "The Song of Four Wings". This short utilizes their 3D production to the fullest extent, leaving little room for doubt of the medium's place in anime's future as it managed to weave some of the most breathtaking examples of animation possibilities in every second of screen time.
In the third episode of this anthology, Star Wars Visions brings back another beloved short from the first season with "The Ninth Jedi: Child of Hope", animated by Production I.G. As with anything this production team touches, this latest installment is action-packed from beginning to end and has a sense of quality that could fill an entire feature length showing, which hasn't gone unnoticed by the Star Wars team as it's the first title to be green-lit for an entire limited series to premiere in 2026. Before then, though, Production I.G. once again knocks it out of the park with a deeply emotional story that continues the engrossing world they set forth in the first season, and introduces a new droid to fall in love with in Teto, whose endearing story is backed by a design reminiscent of Wall-
Despite the fourth episode being helmed by Wit Studio, "The Bounty Hunters" was plagued by poorly executed expository dialogue. Even with an experienced and talented team on board, it's still an incredibly difficult task to tell a compelling and complete story in such a short amount of time. Though this short is full of interesting concepts, it falls short of the tightly written stories shown in some of the other shorts in the season.
Kinema Citrus, who had previously done "The Village Bride" for Visions Volume 1, is back with a new short titled, "Yuko's Treasure" for episode 5, featuring an adorable creature that absolutely had to have been influenced by the iconic character design of Ghus from the comic Saga (or Totoro, either way). The team behind the adaption of Made in Aybss once again gives us a thrilling adventure featuring two chibi-like children, albeit in a significantly less disturbing way.
Kinema Citrus actually has a back to back feature in this season, with them tackling episode 6 as well in, "The Lost Ones", which is actually a sequel to their previous short "The Village Bride", whose narrative was a reference to a Kurosawa film called "Dream". Much like its predecessor, this short immediately immerses you into the lives of the new characters; where they live, how they live, their customs and struggles, all of it comes to life in the most natural ways. In this short, they expand a little into the enigmatic character "F" and her background as a Jedi, while also tackling the subject of Imperialism and how the Empire affects the lives of innocent people, all in another gorgeously animated story that climaxes in a stunning lightsaber duel.
Studio Trigger is back yet again with a new short called, "The Smuggler". This one was directed by Masahiko Ôtsuka, who has directed episodes for Fooly Cooly, Gurren Lagann, Neon Genesis. He had also directed the Trigger short from the first season, "The Elder", and co-directed an episode from this season with Kinema Citrus in, "The Lost Ones". This short followed the titular smuggler attempting to smuggle two passengers off of a planet that finds itself in the Empire's grasp. It does wonders to enforce the idea of hope seeding rebellion and the happiness that hope can spread.
"The Bird of Paradise" is the 8th short in the anthology, and it was animated by 3D animation studio Polygon Pictures. They've handled the 3D work for titles like Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, Drifting Dragons, Ajin, a few Transformers show including the recent Cybertron story, AND this is actually not the first time they've worked with Star Wars as they handled production for The Clone Wars for seasons 4-6. If anyone went into this 3D shorts with doubts or reservations, they were immediately quelled with the very first frame being an explosion of lights and colors set against a mountainous sunset that looked undeniably gorgeous. The title cards littered throughout this episode stating which Day they were on were definitively obnoxious, especially because the strength of the writing didn't need to lean on that. Each break between these day segments were easily fragmented, so stuffing the title cards into an already tight space of storytelling was unnecessary. It ultimately doesn't stop the story from being deeply engrossing, following a Jedi who has suddenly lost her sight and stranded alone at the same time, needing to find her way back to her master, and to safety. It takes the idea set forth with Luke and the training helmet, and cranks it up ten-fold as she has to learn to fully trust the force to guide her. All the while, the animation is fully on display, using that sightless-ness to create lush, painterly illustrations to impart what she's seeing and feeling through the force, and it is absolutely breathtaking to watch. It culminates in a beautiful journey of self-discovery and life as a whole.
"Black" - an immediately enthralling title for the last episode of the season, animated by David Production, who have done works like Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, Fire Force, and Undead Unluck. The director has only directed a few short titles, but has provided key animation for a plethora, including The Boy and the Heron, The Night is Short, Redline, Ping Pong, and so much more. All of these experimental titles make so much sense the moment we enter the world of this short, met with a dizzying animation sequence full of sketched lines and a kaleidoscope of colors. The further in you get, the more confusing what you're experiencing will be. Loose sounds and music that comes in and out, occasionally leaving complete silence, matched with more dizzying animation that uses some of the most unique perspective shots that have ever graced the screen, animation or otherwise. "Black" will leave you breathless and gasping for more as its story comes to a close, the experimental approach to its narrative with no dialogue, and no clear vision as to what's happening on screen as it's mostly told through unique symbolism and visual cues as it drags you end to end with its unnerving perspectives and camera movements. Much like the other titles this director has worked on, it's infinitely less about the details of what's actually happening, and far more about what you're feeling as you're watching it.
All in all, Star Wars Visions once again proves that the Star Wars franchise has so much room to run still, given that it allows for new life to be breathed into it. Or, if you will, the future of Star Wars is anime, so long as people allow it. Whether or not this series as a whole will be able to make it into the Top 100 Anime of All Time List is currently under review, only due to the nature of the series with Volume 2 not being eligible for the list.
My Current MAL Rating: 7/10
Top 100 Contender: Possibly, but will revisit.
