Star Wars Gets The Anime Treatment

Star Wars fans have been clamoring for a Star Wars anime since the days of that Tie Fighter short film hit YouTube. Well Disney has gone ahead and updated fans during Anime Expo this past weekend about their aim to do just that with Star Wars: Visions. Visions will be an anthology series, a collection of one off stories, that will be comprised of shorts made by different world renowned anime studios.

“Japanese Animation inspired a lot of the people at Lucasfilm over the years. We loved the idea of Star Wars being expressed in that way.” – James Waugh, Executive Producer at Lucasfilm LTD.

There are seven different animation studios working on nine episodes of the series, and all episodes will be available for binge-watching at once on September 22nd on Disney Plus.

Studios Involved

Twin Engine has produced the anime adaptation of Vinland Saga and A Whisker Away. They are one of the newer studios involved with the Visions project. Yuki Igarashi, director from Twin Engine, mentions in his vision for their short (“Lop and Ocho“) “I wanted to make a symbolic character and was looking for a non-human being.” The concept art featured for this short shows a rabbit looking humanoid who seems quite cheerful.

Some concept art for Twin Engine’s Lop and Ocho.

Studio Trigger (The one I am most excited about) is famous for it’s hit anime Kill La Kill, and has also done the movie Promare. They showed some key art from their story, Twins, directed by HiroYuki Imaishi. “It’s basically the story of twins of the dark side”. One look and you can instantly tell this is Studio Trigger’s unique art-sytle as it is very reminiscent of Promare. The premise of two force sensitive twins who are against each other with force powers and lightsabers seems to be like wish fulfilment for those of us who loved the Star Wars Legends canon characters of Jacen and Jaina Solo.

Promotional image from Promare, just for comparison.

The twins clashing their blades together in this key art.

Force lightning in play. Did I mention how hyped I am for this animated short? Image from Geek Culture.

Other notable anime studios that are contributing to the project include Kinema Citrus (The Rising of the Shield Hero, Made in Abyss: Journey’s Dawn), Science SARU (Space Dandy, DevilMan Crybaby), and Production I.G (Ghost in the Shell, Psycho-Pass 3, Tsubasa), and Studio Colorido (Typhoon Noruda, Pokémon: Twilight Wings).

Concept art of a scenic Hangar Bay.

Closing Thoughts

It’s long been overdue, but eventually Star Wars does permeate every form of media. Whether it’s Lego, comics,  Videogames, TV streaming, etc. Anime has experienced a resurgence in recent years and now is the best time for Star Wars to get a small anime makeover. And with the support of the best animation studios out there, it’s going to be pure magic to see! To me this is just a smart move. Aside from adding new takes and perspective to the franchise, it also broadens the appeal for Star Wars in Japan and the rest of Asia.

Are you excited by any of these anthology one-shots? If you enjoyed this article then go ahead and subscribe to GeekNewsNow.net and follow our socials on Facebook here and Twitter over here.