Star Wars: Visions

Star Wars Visions was a bag of mixed feelings, with couple of episodes being very good and the rest of them being either average or poor.

The ones I liked were :

Twins by Trigger which had a great animation along with decent action sequences.

The Duel by Kamikaze Douga was good in terms of story, although I felt the animation could have been better. The duel between the characters was displayed with effectiveness as well.

The Village Bride by Kinema Citrus had good animation and quality storyline with a satisfactory ending.

The rest of the episodes were average and couple of them (Tatooine Rhapsody and Akakiri) were totally dull and boring.

My Rating : 6/10.

Most of the First season was above average,there were some hit or miss episodes but mostly the stories were fine and diverse. On the second season most, if not all of the episodes are the based on the same principle. A Girl (shocking I know) is oppressed - taken down etc finds she has inner strength and rises above the situation. When I read from other reviewers that most of the episodes were like this I thought, no chance they are just nitpicking. Turns out they were right. So from hundreds of plot pitches and ideas from studios around the world somehow the same pattern was chosen time and time again. This is deeply problematic.

Arguably, people don't go see Star Wars for the plot, but even still, many of these episodes feel like they show the animation studios' prowess in their field, but have nothing worth saying. Most have no story to speak of, just a setup for a fight, which is fun, but have no point. There are a couple gems here, who do want to tell a story. The rest is nice to look at, but pointless and make an impression.

Season 1 was a letdown for me. There's a few episodes worth watching, and a few that you definitely should skip, the others are just ok. The dialog and the english dub in general are not great, watch it in japanese if possible. There are some nice visual moments, but nothing really mindblowing. You can see the most interesting bits in the trailer. The bad episodes are awful and the good ones weren't good enough to really compensate for that. I'd give it a decent to strong 5.

Watching season 2 right after was a very pleasant surprise. It improved on the previous episodes in basically every way. Unlike season 1, there's a much greater variety of artstyles and a much more consistent level of quality. The dialog is not as cringy any more, and I would actually recommend watching most of the episodes in english. Every episode looks absolutely gorgeous as well, I can't think of a single one that i didn't like.

A lot of the season 2 episodes have a similar base plot (special girl saves the day with her special powers), so i'd knock off some points for that, but honestly i only noticed because someone else pointed it out. The overall presentation was different enough each time, and those "special girls" weren't even really the main focuspoint of all those episodes. The season overall was a strong 8 to a light 9 for me.

Star Wars: Visions Season 3 continues its creative experiment - handing each episode to a different studio to tell a standalone story within the Star Wars universe.

I really enjoyed how Episode 1 followed up on Season 1's opener. It gave a rare sense of continuity in a series that's usually all about disconnected tales. Some of the animation styles this season were also stunning, especially near the end - you can really feel the artistry and imagination at work.

That said, several episodes struggled to hold my attention. A few felt too similar in style, and their stories just didn't stand out. While they technically took place in the Star Wars galaxy, they didn't feel like Star Wars...

Notable episodes include Episodes 4, 7, and 8, which stood out for their storytelling and unique artistic approaches. One of the episodes, #3, The Ninth Jedi, had a promising premise and it's actually being developed into its own spinoff series titled Star Wars: The Ninth Jedi - now in development.

Overall, Visions Season 3 is a mix of creative highs and forgettable middles. It's beautiful to look at, and when it works, it really works. But too often, it misses the soul of Star Wars.