Like with the MCU, I've been really falling out of love with Star Wars lately. Chalk up to a mix between oversaturation, some disappointing recent shows, nostalgia baiting, and how little I want anything to do with the discourse surrounding the series. However, I was pretty excited to see the next season of Star Wars Visions because of how much I loved the first one. While it may lack that initial novelty of "Star Wars but anime", the wider variety of animation styles should lead to a pretty unique selection of shorts.
Sith: Like with Season 1, we start things off with a pretty straightforward lightsaber duel episode, though Sith starts off a lot more abstractly than The Duel did. The first five minutes don't really explain what's going on, you just see the main character Lola walking around in what looks like a white void accidentally spreading black paint everywhere. But then the sith hunting her show up, and everything clicks. Lola is an ex-sith trying to run from her past, and she's scared of the darkness still within her. It's impressive how well everything in Sith clicks together. The themes, the way the plot unfolds, the animation style, it all paints a complete picture (pun absolutely intended). And speaking of that animation style, it's pretty amazing. The blend of painterly and 3D animation does look a bit Spider Verse-esque, but as I said, Sith takes things in a more abstract direction, almost like the Eko fight from Arcane extended into a whole short. The lightsaber fight itself isn't as long as the one in The Duel but it's weighty, powerful, and very inventively-shot. Overall, pretty good start.
4/5 Stars
Screecher's Reach: I had high hopes for the Cartoon Saloon episode, and man, did they not let me down. From its sketchy artstyle, to the fluid and expressive characters, to holy shit those backgrounds, Screecher's Reach is a treat for the eyes. I love the direction they chose to go in here, telling a horror story about the cyclic nature of the sith and what would make one join them to begin with. It endears you to Dall and her friends so quickly and efficiently before they enter the titular cave and sith hits the fan. That horror sequence with Dall and the old sith was so fresh and intense, the sith have never been more terrifying, their lightsabers have never felt more dangerous, and the twist ending where Dall willingly replaces that sith as apprentice is such a gut-punch. The way she basically resigns herself to death just feels so Madoka, I love it. This was a phenomenal short, so dense it feels like I had watched an entire movie but never rushed, gripping, tense, tragic, and unmistakably irish (the sith is literally a banshee). It's right under The Village Bride as my favorite short so far.
5/5 Stars
In The Stars: In The Stars tries to do a lot, trying to tell a story about two sisters struggling with the Empire's genocide of the rest of their species, with a bit of environmental themes for good measure. It's an ambitious and dark story that's I think was let-down by the first few minutes. In The Stars starts off with a lengthy exposition as Tichina tells her sister Koten about what happened to their mother, something she already knows. And since they go on their water run immediately afterwards, it doesn't feel like the short actually built up their relationship enough for you to fully care about the two. And that's a real shame because I think In The Stars ends really strong, with a tense finale, some great thematic touches, and a haunting final shot. In The Stars also looks pretty stellar too, with a uniquely gritty stop-motion animation that fits the tone of the short really well. Overall, In The Stars was good but I think the script needed a few more passes to really do its story justice.
3/5 Stars
I Am Your Mother: As a massive Wallace & Gromit fan, I was super excited for Aardman's short, and once again, I wasn't let down. I Am Your Mother feels like the Tatooine Rhapsody of this season as how much you enjoy it will depend on how much you're want something a bit more silly and light-hearted, though I personally found it a bit more fun. It's nothing groud-breaking is a fun and heartwarming "embarrasing mom" story with so charming stop-motion animation and fun racing sequences to boot. It also shows a real love for Star Wars as a franchise, and is chock-full of cute easter eggs (my favorite being the Force Awakens bread). The Wedge Antilles jokes alone are worth the price of admission, this one was a blast.
4/5 Stars
Journey To The Dark Head: Made by the Studio Mir, the folks behind Legend Of Korra, this is the closest thing we have to another anime short. Similarly to The Ninth Jedi and Lop & Ocho, it introduces a unique world and fun characters that I'd totally love to see expanded into a full-on series, though unlike those two, it also feels pretty complete as it is. Journey To The Dark Head is just a fun jedi adventure with some fun banter between the two main leads, yet another well-executed "jedi and sith are two sides of the same coin" message, and some pretty stellar action sequences. Definitely one of the more straightforward shorts of the season but that's by no means a bad thing. My only gripe, though, is that voice acting is a bit on the shakier side, especially with Toul.
4/5 Stars
The Spy Dancer: Like The Village Bride, this was the real sleeper hit of the season for me, an incredibly fun and engaging espionage thriller. This is the first thing I've seen from Studio LaChette but these guys are damn good at generating tension and suspense, I was on the edge of my seat for the whole episode. Loi'e's story was well done especially after that stellar twist about her kid near the end, and as a whole, the short takes the usual setting of the Imperial era in a new direction by exploring how it broke apart families. But most of all, the real highlight here was the visuals. Stunning, fluid 2D lineart with jaw-dropping dance scenes, and hands down the best action sequences of the season. Between Loi'e's dance fighting and just how freaking tense it all was, my eyes were glued to the screen for that entire second half. It does however end on the first real sequel hook of the shorts, which only made me want a whole series' worth of this now.
5/5 Stars
The Bandits Of Golak: After a wide range of animation styles and mediums, The Bandits Of Golak goes for a look akin to Clone Wars, and ultimately kinda makes the least amount of impact. 88 Pictures does do a good job at emulating that style while giving it a bit of extra Indian flavor, but I still feel like they played things too safe here, and that applies to the story too. I totally get why a lot of studios would tackle the Imperial era especially if you're from marginalized groups, but it does start to get a bit samey this late in the season. It also feels like it's split into two stories, one in the train and one in the village, neither segment really meshing well with the other. I will say that Rani and Charuk's sibling relationship feels a bit more believable than Tichina and Koten's, but it's brought down by Rani getting herself in way too much trouble. The Bandits Of Golak definitely isn't a bad short by any means, it looks nice and has some good action, but it feels a bit disjointed and doesn't do much to stand out among the other shorts. The music slaps though.
2/5 Stars
The Pit: This is the other anime short of the bunch, but compared to Mir's offering, The Pit doesn't quite do it for me especially in terms of animation. D'Art Shtaijo has done some amazing work, particularly in the Castlevania anime, but The Pit looks choppy and stiff in the same way Trigger's The Elder did last season. It's got a neat concept where the Empire leaves a bunch of slave miners in the mine once they're done with them, but the execution feels a bit strange. There's the very in-your-face repetition of the phrase "follow the light", and the fact that the pit is so close to the city that you could probably see it from a high rise, but really my biggest issue here is the tone. The first two halves of The Pit is incredibly bleak and depressing, almost to the point of not feeling like Star Wars at all, but then the ending is suddenly super hopeful and idealistic. The final shot with the Force in particular felt so out of left field in what has otherwise been such a gritty story makes it feel like the Star Wars theming was tacked on.
2/5 Stars
Aau's Song: Season 2 feels like a polar opposite of the first in a lot of ways. Where that more light-hearted season ended on its bleakest episode, this relatively darker season ended on its most uplifting. In a word, Aau's Song is beautiful. The animation is so stunning, vibrant, and tactile, those backgrounds are jaw-dropping, and there are so many cool filming tricks and hidden details used here. When I realized how they did that driving sequence, I geeked out, this is damn good filmmaking. The story itself is a slow burn and yet another "child is taken in by jedi" story, but the pay-off is absolutely stunning and makes it all feel worth it. While not one of the most interesting on a storytelling level, Aau's Song is a truly magnificent piece of animation, probably the best-looking Visions short in both seasons. Kudos to Triggerfish.
5/5 Stars
Overall, Season 2 is yet another great season of Visions with some stellar shorts and way more variety in its animation styles than the first one. It's got everything from 2D to 3D to stop-motion to Spider Verse, and yet it feels far more consistent in its quality than the first season. However, I think that's kind of this season's biggest issue too, as the generally depressing tone and abundance of similar narratives can lead it to feel a bit samey by the end. Personally, I do still prefer Season 1 for its higher high-points, more varied tone, and just how cleanly Star Wars and anime blend together, but this was still a great time that solidifies Visions as one of the best things Disney has ever done with Star Wars.
4/5 Stars
Here's my ranking:
- Screecher's Reach
- The Spy Dancer
- Aau's Song
- I Am Your Mother
- Journey To The Dark Head
- Sith
- In The Stars
- The Bandits Of Golak
- The Pit
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