Hello Looters! I’m going to do a once a week breakdown on episodes of Star Wars: Visions. We’ll be discussing studios, plot points, animation style, etc… This week we’re doing Episode 1, titled The Duel and Episode 2. titled Tatooine Rhapsody!
Episode 1: The Duel
The Duel follows a wandering samurai-esque character. The Wanderer stumbles upon a small village accompanied by his droid. He is then forced to duel with a self declared Sith Lord after her forces come down on the village demanding money and resources. There is a bit of a twist at the end, so keep an eye out.
The studio that took the helm for The Duel was Kamikaze Douga. Kamikaze Douga was behind Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure and Ninja Batman. The animation style utilized is a hybrid 2D and CGI style all in black and white tones aside from light sources, which are in color. (Droid lights, lightsabers, flames, etc…) There was also a classic cinema filter layered over the top to replicate the appearance of actual film reels. The Music in this episode is very reminiscent of the samurai films of old and fits the animation style perfectly. The duel itself is a tactical one that I’ve watched a few times by itself because of the beauty in the fight. One of the things that stood out to me the most in this episode was the antagonists lightsaber. I’ve never seen one like it myself and it was a damage dealer for sure.
I’ve made it known to anyone I’ve talked to about the show that The Duel is my favorite episode of the show, but make no mistake, there are some other very good episodes worth watching including…
Episode 2: Tatooine Rhapsody
Tatooine Rhapsody goes WAY off in a different direction stylistically. It follows Jay (Voiced by Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a Jedi Padawan that was trying to escape battle during The Clone Wars. He is found by a Hutt named Gee who recruits Jay to be the lead singer of his band. During a set they’re ambushed by Boba Fett (Voiced by Temuera Morrison), who wants to bring Gee back to join Jabba’s syndicate.
Studio Colorido animated this episode. They are most known for Burn The Witch, and they took the animation to a different world. There was the occasional hybrid animation, but the style of the living beings made them all appear to be children proportionately. The music in this episode was very rock heavy. Not heavy rock mind you but a lot of rock music. Given that’s the musical style of the band, it only makes sense. Hearing Joseph Gordon-Levitt on lead vocals was pretty cool, and he genuinely sounded like he was singing while playing a guitar. It was very upbeat and vibe worthy for sure.
This was the only episode of the 9, if I recall correctly, to have old school Star Wars characters in it, which is kind of strange but oddly satisfying. Hearing Temeura reprise his role as Boba Fett was just the right kick of fan service. We also get to see the Fett Man getting into the groove of things! This episode was enjoyable in a fun way. It’s an okay episode for the kiddos too!
Next week I’ll be talking about episodes 3 and 4, so keep your eyes peeled!
