A VISION-ary masterpiece
The force is strong with Disney’s newest addition to the Star Wars franchise.
By Niko Adams
!! WARNING !! Minor Spoilers Ahead !!
I think I can speak for almost every Star Wars fan when I say that many of us are skeptical when it comes to new content.
There is an overwhelming amount of Star Wars to catch up on if you are new to the fandom— and not all of it is good. The original trilogy, the sequels, the prequels, and a plethora of TV shows and standalone movies like Clone Wars, Bad Batch, and Rogue One. And every fan has a different opinion on their quality. But while we await The Book of Boba Fett and the newest season of fan-favorite The Mandalorian, Disney+ has quietly released an underrated and innovative addition to the Star Wars non-canon universe.
Joining the notorious Legends comics, and other anthological works, Visions is the Star Wars boundary-exploration the franchise needs. While also catering to the popularity of the MCU’s multiverse story-telling direction, Visions asks viewers to question what they know about the Star Wars universe and its potential. All while using a medium that some may consider a risk: animation.
Animation, especially for Star Wars, is not new. However, the leap from Clone Wars to the diverse, and obviously east-Asian inspired art style of Visions is jarring. Especially for viewers who have let themselves become comfortable with the often unnerving CGI of the sequels and do not entertain themselves with new mediums of story-telling.
Visions is not canon, which opens it up to levels of critique that are not content-based, but rather visual. The swarm of hate for Visons online is not unexpected. There have always been adverse reactions to anime and Asian media in general, and the volume of these complaints hasn’t even begun to die down.
While Visions was widely accepted by the fandom, with many of its episodes quickly becoming fan favorites for their impressive art style and creative stories, not everyone was excited to see that their favorite franchise had been ‘contaminated’ by cartoons. Especially Asian-inspired cartoons. But animation in regards to storytelling is practically limitless. Where else can we see a katana-inspired lightsaber, dark-side twins battle it out in space, and explore the poignant themes of environmentalism, imperialist conquest, and human greed all within the span of nine twenty-minute episodes?
Visions’ diverse list of episodes is what makes it so special. The ability of the show to bond its viewers and characters in such a short period of time is a testament to the storytelling and directing capabilities of the studios that worked on the nine episodes we were given. And among them, my personal favorites being: THE TWINS, The Village Bride, and Lop & Ocho.
While there may be different levels of execution, voice acting, and overall production quality between the nine different episodes and studio contributions the anthology presents, Visions is a creative masterpiece, and a sight to behold for fans of the franchise. Many of which have been longing for content exploring the vastness of the universe and the diversity of force users across the galaxies.
The introduction of 2d animation to the series has opened up the door to new possibilities, including the exploration of some of the stories covered in the Disney+ series. Many of which robbed us of more in-depth action given their twenty-minute length. For now, we’ll have to see where Lucasfilm takes us with its live-action shows, and if they can stretch the limits of what we know of Star Wars the same way Visions has.
