The Duel

I didn't like the animation too much, but the story, the fights, and the atmosphere were all done well.

"Star Wars: Visions" offers something different than we've seen before in this universe. A series of (presumably) unconnected animated adventures, that are free to deviate from any established canon as they see fit. As with all anthology series, the overall quality might prove to be mixed, but certainly this first episode is an excellent opener.

An enigmatic warrior (Brian Tee) arrives at an isolated village with his droid. The community soon comes under attack from a troop of bandits, but they have a plan and have hired a group of mercenaries to fight back. All goes well until the bandit's leader, a Sith warrior (Lucy Liu), joins the fight and the resistance is thwarted. The Ronin warrior then enters the fray, challenging the Sith and defending the village.

Have to start with the fact that this episode looks lovely. The main footage is in black and white, with only the flash of light sabres or laser beams allowed to be in colour. Kamikaze Douga and director Takanobu Mizuno chose a style that mimics hand drawn animation and shading that is beautiful. Then, as the episode is inspired by the Kurosawa films and other features of Japanese cinema's golden period, the animation has a grainy film effect applied. It's really nice to look at even still images from the episode.

The Kurosawa inspiration runs on into the bandits, whose stormtrooper outfits, loosely worn like shogun Karuta, are but one inspiration lifted from something like "Yojimbo", along with much of the actual plot. Unlike how we've seen with some episodes of "Marvel's What If..." this episode manages to tell it's tale and hint at back story and potential future without leaving you unsatisfied at the resolution.

If they're all as good as this, then we're in for quite a series.

This episode, kicking off Visions, is almost entirely style over substance, but that's not necessarily a terrible thing. I am not by any means whatsoever (and I cannot stress this enough) an anime aficionado or even a fan. I literally have never watched an anime (unless one counts ATLA, whose anime status is hotly debated among certain circles) except for a few Studio Ghibli films which have proven hit or miss with me, and so would not trust myself to be a judge of the style. That said, I do greatly enjoy Eastern live action cinema, and know what I like and what I don't. I greatly enjoyed the black and white art style, broken up with shots of color from sabers and lasers. The grainy look and Japanese aesthetic made me feel like I was watching a Kurosawa samurai film, though I must admit 'The Elder' from this same series does the duel tension better than this episode. The saber "sheath" brings up logistical questions, but it sure looks cool. My fear going into this show would be that there are serious lore contradictions to established canon, and yes, nearly every episode seems to have that, which would make expanding any of these into a show of some kind difficult unless they change aspects or maintain a non-canon existence, which is unfortunate, as many of these could benefit from fleshing out and seeing more. This episode was cool to look at, but that's about it.

The first thing I said even before the episode ended is I could watch a whole series of just this ronin. The animation was so beautiful and left me breathless, felt like I was watching a moving painting the entire time. The fight scene was amazing too, and I love how they interpreted Japanese culture into this, it just felt natural. The lightsabers design of the sith lord was so different and intriguing, I wish they pushed the boundaries with all Star Wars and not just this series. I hope we get a season 2!

There was not a lot of substance, however there is in fact a duel and the duel is very entertaining and well animated.

Solid premiere and i'm excited to see the other stories.