Star Wars: Visions - Anime Anthology Series

[JD]

Watched The Bounty Hunters today and I liked it. It was pretty clear from the moment the girl walked into the room what Jim-Sim was up to, but at least Seven was intelligent enough to figure it out. I had a feeling to moment she was agreed to destroy IV that something was up, but I what she did didn't occurred to me until it happened. I kind of hope we get a sequel to this at some point so we can see if Seven does run into her Jedi again. At first I had assumed after the first flashback she wanted to kill her, but then the second one added a bit of ambiguity to that.

 

[Set Harth]

Spoiler

It was pretty clear from the moment the girl walked into the room what Jim-Sim was up to, but at least Seven was intelligent enough to figure it out.

It was the guy from Alien: Earth all over again!

 

[Reverend]

Watched The Bounty Hunters today and I liked it. It was pretty clear from the moment the girl walked into the room what Jim-Sim was up to, but at least Seven was intelligent enough to figure it out. I had a feeling to moment she was agreed to destroy IV that something was up, but I what she did didn't occurred to me until it happened. I kind of hope we get a sequel to this at some point so we can see if Seven does run into her Jedi again. At first I had assumed after the first flashback she wanted to kill her, but then the second one added a bit of ambiguity to that.

Yeah, this short definitely played a little with context and audience expectations.
I think there's still some half-hearted animosity there for the Jedi that freed her, because freedom comes with complications like having a whole mercenary band chasing you all over the galaxy.

 

[137th Gebirg]

I found some of the most recent episodes interesting.

"The Bird of Paradise" is, I think, the first time we saw the inner torment of a Jedi (or, at least, a Padawan), trying to come to terms with their place in the Force and the final decision to embrace one side or the other, as well as an amazingly effective representation of how the Force provides visual information of the person's surroundings without biological sight. I think that was my favorite episode of the entire series - really stands out from all the others.

The rest is kind of meh to me and the final one (with the red/green stormtroopers) was a little too abstract for my taste. Overall, though, a mixed bag.

 

[Set Harth]

I found the whole thing underwhelming overall. The first ones I watched were the "sequels" to season 1 chapters, and of those I guess I liked the Duel one best. I didn't think the sequels were as good as the things they were sequels to ( which were among my favorites of season 1 ). The Ninth Jedi in particular felt like a filler episode.

The Bird of Paradise was the best looking animation of the bunch, and I agree with the Force sight thing, but thematically speaking it didn't give us anything we hadn't already gotten from, say, the Yoda vision quest arc of TCW.

And I note that of 9 chapters only 2 had male protagonists, so Disney is clearly still going full throttle with the female-centric thing.

 

[Reverend]

I forgot to mention it before, but did anyone else clock the fun Darth Vader cameo? (From the planet Vulcan, no less!)

 

[JD]

Which one of the languages on the list of Disney+ is Japanese? I usually prefer to watch this kind of stuff in the original language, but I've been watching all of these in English so far, since I'm not sure which language is Japanese. At least these have good English language casts, who have been really good in the episodes I've watched so far.

 

[Christopher]

Which one of the languages on the list of Disney+ is Japanese?

It should be "日本語."

 

[JD]

OK, thanks.

 

[Christopher]

Okay, I've started season 3, which means I rewatched "The Duel" and then watched "The Duel: Payback." I still find "The Duel" rather basic, practically a caricature of what you'd expect when you hear "Japanese take on Star Wars" -- just a stock samurai-movie plot with SW trappings. "Payback" went too far in the other direction, so cluttered with SW references that it overwhelmed the story. Like, what were Ewoks even doing there? I thought the use of the AT-AT was clever, but it was mostly a self-indulgent mess.

I do wish I'd looked up the voice actors first. I recognized Masaki Terasoma's name and voice from various roles, notably Kintaros in Kamen Rider Den-O, but I hadn't realized the Grand Master's voice actor also plays Goemon in Lupin III, which I've been watching recently. I'm surprised I didn't recognize his voice.

I've been trying to approach these with the mindset that they could potentially be part of the canonical universe, maybe taking place in some remote part of the galaxy, since such a large galaxy should be diverse enough to justify some of these idiosyncratic takes disconnected from the main saga. But I don't think I can reconcile the Ronin episodes. In addition to the question of how there are Ewoks off of Endor's moon, there's the question of how there are so many Sith or ex-Sith, when there are only supposed to be two at a time. Also, how does the Ronin sheathe a lightsaber blade that's still active? That's not really how they work.

I'm a little annoyed that the only English subtitles Disney+ offers are the closed captions for the hearing impaired. Not only do they add descriptions of sound effects and such, but when a character speaks in an alien language and it's then followed up with Japanese dialogue, the captions say "[in English]" because they were written to describe the English dialogue track. (Yet the alien dialogue is captioned in Japanese text in the raw video. Is that also the case with the English or other audio?)

 

[JD]

Yeah, it's captioned in Japanese in the English version too, I had to keep turning the captions on and going back whenever the aliens talked.
Since my last post I watched Yuko's Treasure, rewatched Season 1's The Village Bride, and then The Lost Ones. Of the three I liked Yuko's Treasure the best. The other two weren't bad, I just didn't enjoy them as much as the others.

 

[Set Harth]

In addition to the question of how there are Ewoks off of Endor's moon

I'm guessing a starship was involved?

 

[Christopher]

I'm guessing a starship was involved?

The point is, ROTJ portrayed the encounter with the Ewoks as evidently a first contact, and the Ronin shorts seem to be set not long after the war, with a lot of OT-era Imperial gear and Stormtrooper armor and such. It seems too early for Ewoks to have migrated to other worlds in large numbers. Although I guess it could be handwaved if one were determined to reconcile these with canon. The abundance of Sith and red kyber crystals is harder to reconcile.

 

[Reverend]

As I've said before; while a lot of these shorts do seem to fit into canon just fine, 'The Ronin' stories are categorically intended to be an alternate mash-up universe/timeline, with it's own backstory and world building. There's a novel that gets into it in more detail, but the blurb gives you the broad strokes.

The Jedi are the most loyal servants of the Empire. ​

​

Two decades ago, Jedi clans clashed in service to feuding lords. Sickened by this endless cycle, a sect of Jedi rebelled, seeking to control their own destiny and claim power in service of no master. They called themselves Sith.​

​

The Sith rebellion failed, succumbing to infighting and betrayal, and the once rival lords unified to create an Empire . . . but even an Empire at peace is not free from violence.​

​

Far on the edge of the Outer Rim, one former Sith wanders, accompanied only by a faithful droid and the ghost of a less civilized age. He carries a lightsaber, but claims lineage to no Jedi clan, and pledges allegiance to no lord. Little is known about him, including his name, for he never speaks of his past, nor his regrets. His history is as guarded as the red blade of destruction he carries sheathed at his side.​

​

As the galaxy's perpetual cycle of violence continues to interrupt his self-imposed exile, and he is forced to duel an enigmatic bandit claiming the title of Sith, it becomes clear that no amount of wandering will ever let him outpace the specters of his former life.​

It does bare some passing similarities to some of Lucas's earlier drafts of ANH; notably the Jedi being protectors of the Empire, and the Sith Knights leading a rebellion against them, but it's still very much it's own thing.

All that said, I do enjoy thinking about these shorts and stories as in-universe fiction, bast on dubious historical tales and folklore from the Old Republic (much like actual jidaigeki the shorts draw from), with the holodramas made some time after the ST, hence them using a mish-mash of old surplus military equipment as costumes and props, regardless of anachronisms. No it's not necessary to make it fit like that, but I think it's a fun idea that plays into the spirit of the shorts!

Ironically; whenever they do get around to telling the canon version of the Sith schism, I do hope they go in a similar route to this rather than the Legends version as despite it's wild inventions, it's still way closer in content and spirit to what George seems to have intended. The EU version is just so needlessly convoluted and rushed.

Indeed, there's already been a few mentions and allusions in canon to a period of history not unlike this where the Jedi took up "Lordships", and there being a very good reason why they don't do that anymore.
It actually speaks to a larger problem I had with the EU 'Dawn of the Jedi' inititive, and gives me hope that future canon storytelling in the Old Republic with avoid the mistake of having the Jedi spring forth fully formed and recognisiable, and then hardly changing at all for twenty five millenia. I'd like to see distinct chapters in their history actually be distinct.

 

[Christopher]

It does bare some passing similarities to some of Lucas's earlier drafts of ANH; notably the Jedi being protectors of the Empire, and the Sith Knights leading a rebellion against them, but it's still very much it's own thing.

Well, except that it's basically just describing the end of the Sengoku Era and the rise of the Tokugawa Shogunate, with Jedi substituted for samurai. (Sort of a Sith/Jedi Champloo.) It's taking the samurai-movie inspiration of the Jedi and making it literal. Too literal, I feel; like I said, it strikes me as the most obvious, least creative way possible to do "Japanese Star Wars."

All that said, I do enjoy thinking about these shorts and stories as in-universe fiction, bast on dubious historical tales and folklore from the Old Republic (much like actual jidaigeki the shorts draw from), with the holodramas made some time after the ST, hence them using a mish-mash of old surplus military equipment as costumes and props, regardless of anachronisms. No it's not necessary to make it fit like that, but I think it's a fun idea that plays into the spirit of the shorts!

Interesting idea -- I've heard it used as an explanation for the Tartakovsky Clone Wars series, and I think it's a plausible reading for that. But I don't feel it works for the Ronin stories, since they're so blatantly a take on Japanese historical fiction with a surface veneer of Star Wars trappings, whereas what you're proposing would be the other way around, Galactic historical fiction with a veneer of something else.