Jidai Jedi

The combination of Star Wars with Japanese animation is an idea with so much potential so I was excited when Star Wars: Visions was announced. It premiered yesterday, an anthology of short anime films from some prominent Japanese studios produced for Disney+. The final result is interesting, sometimes quite good, but more often disappointing. For the English voice casts, some relatively big names were recruited, including David Harbour, Lucy Liu, and George Takei. But I only watched a few minutes of the English version before switching to Japanese. As is often the case, the English dub is awkward and unnatural sounding and drastically changes the meaning of the original dialogue.

The best three stories are "The Duel", "The Elder", and "Lop and Ocho". "The Duel" is obviously inspired by Yojimbo but doesn't follow the concept of a ronin playing both sides of warring factions. Instead, a lone warrior fights against an Imperial takeover of a village. It's almost entirely in black and white except the glow of electronics--like lightsabres and droid eyes--are in colour. The hero (Masaki Terasoma) comes off as really cool, using few words and precise attacks. He's intriguingly mysterious and the other characters marvel over the fact that he uses a red lightsabre.

Another story, "The Ninth Jedi" from Production IG, also makes sabre colour a plot point. In this case, a sabre smith creates lightsabres that change colour automatically based on the spiritual alignment of the wielder. This was an idea I really didn't like. The idea of the human soul being reduced to colour codes is even worse than the Dungeons and Dragons alignment system. "The Ninth Jedi" is set some time after Rise of Skywalker and involves the ruler of a planet trying to resurrect the Jedi. The protagonist is the teenage daughter of the sabresmith who, like Rey, is inexplicably expert in lightsabre use the moment she picks one up and is able to deflect blaster fire. Production IG has made some impressive things in the past but I'm used to weak output from them by now. So I wasn't surprised this was a letdown.

I was more surprised by the weakness of "The Twins", which was directed by Kill la Kill and Panty and Stocking director Hiroyuki Imaishi. The story involves two powerful Dark Side Force users, twins, a man and a woman, in command of two Star Destroyers. They're using kyber crystals to combine the two ships into an ultimate weapon but then the brother (Junya Enoki) turns to the Light Side and tries to run away with the crystal. There's an over-the-top and ultimately meaningless fight sequence and I was reminded of the weak last twelve episodes of Kill la Kill instead of the magnificent first twelve episodes.

More than half of the stories involve kyber crystals for some reason, the essential component of all lightsabres. Considering how often crystals factor into anime and Japanese video games, I suppose it makes sense.

"T0-B1" from the studio Science Saru is about a robot boy seeking a kyber crystal so he can become a Jedi. This story is cute but too obviously Astroboy.

I was disappointed by the first Studio Trigger short, "The Twins", but "The Elder", directed by Masahiko Otsuka, is mostly pretty good. A Jedi master, Tajin (Takaya Hashi/David Harbour), and his Padawan, Dan (Yuichi Nakamura/Jordan Fisher), go to investigate reports of a Sith on a remote planet. The relationship between the two men and their personalities are nicely established over the course of the investigation. The story's main idea about the inevitable deterioration that comes with time and age was surprising and very effective in the context. It felt like a genuine moment of mono no aware. The only disappointing part of this one is when one character gets slashed in the gut with a lightsabre and makes a complete recovery shortly thereafter. Nearly every story had one stupid moment where something really amazing and horrifying that happened was immediately softballed in an implausible manner. Disney claims to have been hands-off but this felt like studio interference. At least the women don't look like Jean-Claude Van Damme.

Despite the fact that I don't like the furry aesthetic, I really liked "Lop and Ocho" from Geno Studio. Set between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, it involves a very Japanese-looking community on a planet occupied by the Empire. A bunny girl named Lop (Seiran Kobayashi) is a slave of the Empire until she's rescued by the local leader, Yasaburo (Tadahisa Fujimura), and his daughter, Ocho (Risa Shimizu). Seven years pass and Ocho has decided her people must cooperate with the Empire while Yasaburo is still against it. A nice sense of genuine, personally motivated political tension is created, with each side having clear, understandable motives. Stylistically, too, this is one of the nicest looking episodes.

All the stories have good visuals, except maybe "Tatooine Rhapsody".

Twitter Sonnet #1476

The shadow shirt attracts a sudden breeze.
The even heat absorbs a dream of mist.
Reminders float on ships on purple seas.
On lines of green we kept a changing list.
Another hand assists the falling wish.
A probing question bounced an offered truce.
Another hand of cards produced the fish.
We gather late to praise the giant moose.
A speaker jack awaits the mouldy floor.
For heaven's sake, the smaller shoe was laced.
We scratched a music sheet across the door.
The staff are sunk beneath a treble case.
The kyber crystals weigh the painted mind.
A glowing sword destroyed a melon rind.