Star Wars Visions review Part 1

binged them all in subs! will revisit the dub. first pass viewing order is 548621793.

[Part 2]  [Part 3]

The Ninth Jedi: Yay, Kara my girl! Look, I know it wasn’t the smartest decision to stan her out of all the girls even before we’ve seen the full series, but I’d like to be somebody different! I have, what you could call the highest expectation of this story. I heard it is actually two standalone concepts merged into one, that it has the grandest of a worldbuilding mechanism. Incidentally, that feels like it turns on itself - that the deviation from “canon” makes it almost its own fantasy story. And I say that going in knowing the rule book.

The aftertaste is: I watched a trailer. which is true, because that’s where the concepts started out. It feels like they set up a world, a quest, the main character and threw in the coolest fight scene to hook you on, and it frustrates me because Ninth has the longest runtime of them all. The lightsaber-smith is such a Japanese/traditional concept that I can understand the inspiration, just that I prefer building your own saber and a Jedi being more than a weapon. However that theme wasn’t lost in seeing Kara has to strengthen herself to earn her namesake. Kara turns out to be a bit ‘main-chara’ (in a perfectly fine but underexplored way) but I do like the confirmation of what I first saw in her: the optimism and fearlessness. Kind of reminds me of Ahsoka bouncing around with that green saber of hers! The character I’m more interested in learning though, ended up being the old pilot droid(s). My verdict for The Ninth Jedi is, I like its details and clues, but I’d like it better if it was its own story. 

8:2 / 7 (Japanese : Star Wars ratio + score out of 10)

The Village Bride: This one, expectation and reality matches up! This with T0-B1 are my favourites, but I think this is a close second because I’d have liked it to be a feature-length film! There are enough materials covering the village’s past and invasion, building up the characters like how Haru and Saku came to differ, Asu’s role, and how Van and F met! It doesn’t feel like a trailer like Ninth because instead of asking you to look forward to the next chapter, Bride feels like an extract with its dialogue delivering just the crucial story, and giving us a concluding climax. I super-love the costumes and visuals. The unconventional lineart and colour choices leave a refreshing impression. Music is killer. Chills every time the vocal hits. I think this hits that perfect mark of melding Japanese (mountain) culture (animism) and Jedi heroism.

5:5 / 10

Lop and Ocho: Lop puts a Japanese story inside the Star Wars framework more than the other way round. The industrialization and family feud works in Star Wars, while rooted in Japanese stories. Lop has the most palatable art style so it is very easy for a layman like me to go 'wow this has money' staring at the rich backgrounds and frame rate. The zinc rooftops, rundown alleys, shitamachi neighbourhood shops are very close to heart. I’m seeing old Kowloon while seeing old Shinjuku haha. The retrofuturism is an essential element of Star Wars that often gets overlooked (at least to me) and I’m glad it is the foundation for the aesthetic and conflict of this short.

And then I feel so dumb not realizing the time-skip haha! I was the one who sieved the trailer and I couldn’t make the connection! I was initially imagining more of a cheerful quest not unlike Ninth. Well wouldn’t you like to be wrong! I do like this more than I expected.

Felt just the slightest bit rushed. Ocho’s transformation and fight sequence are amazing. The final frame with the sakuras at the background just took my breath away. The inscribed lightsaber is a novel idea, but right where my mind swam towards the ‘Japanese’ side than the ‘Star Wars’ side. There were so many details in a frame I would go back to see the Easter eggs. This story is so pretty and when you peel all that away, at its core is a drama that is… an age-old tale. And I’m not complaining, because that's what Star Wars is, a ‘cliche’ that works. It brings novelty to Star Wars, but those are elements I’ve seen in classic stories I grew up with. In the end, Lop works, it is definitely a very high-quality work, but I don’t think it can quite secure a most special place in my heart.

6:4 / 9