This article contains spoilers for Star Wars Visions. Specifically the episodes ‘The Duel’ and ‘The Ninth Jedi’.
A silent, stoic figure watches over a peaceful village, his unflappable demeanour is offset by his vivacious, loveable astromech droid. We have no backstory for this man, simply known as ‘The Ronin’, yet, a stirring tension hovers over this tranquil community he is visiting. It’s almost as if the Ronin has premeditated a coming storm.
Suddenly, his premonitions come into fruition. The small village is ambushed by bandits donned in imperial regalia, led by a ferocious, maniacal masked woman. As her forces are cut down by the heroic villagers, she makes her presence known and mercilessly slices her way through the villagers. She’s a Sith. There’s no doubt about it.
But make no mistake – she wields no ordinary lightsaber. No, in true Star Wars fashion, we’re introduced to ever more ravenous, bloodthirsty enemies. She has fashioned her lightsabers’ (!) into an umbrella, hacking and cutting through her foes with relentless precision. She has weakened the village into submission, they bow to her now. The Ronin, who up until point has been surveying the situation from the shadows, comes to confront the Sith. The Sith asks who he is, the Ronin simply calls himself ‘a wanderer’. The Sith chooses to take on the Ronin with only one lightsaber, no use wasting her prized possessions on ‘a wanderer’. The Sith welcomes her opponent with glee, this will surely be a quick fight.
Until he blocks her attack, using the force. He’s a Jedi! Of course!
Only, this Jedi is different. His sabre is a red, only wielded by those with an affinity to the dark-side. This duel must be personal. Their skirmish takes them through the streets of the village and across the lake that runs through it, until the Ronin is overcome by the Sith’s might. She pushes him down a waterfall. His body nowhere to be found, the Sith uncovers a temple beneath with a red light beaming through the cascading water. The Sith has won, she has the Ronin cornered. She cuts down the Ronin, only to find the light was not the Ronin, but a statue holding onto a lightsaber.
A beam of red strikes through the Sith’s back. She has been outwitted by the Ronin.
The Ronin returns to the village, carrying the weapon of his fallen enemy. The villagers cower upon seeing that the hero of their village is too a follower of the dark-side. The Ronin drops his fallen enemy’s weapon – and strikes through it, taking the kyber crystal within. Kyber crystals, after all, are the heart of a lightsaber – a symbol of your affinity to the force. He hands the crystal to a child, telling him to hold on to it as it fends off evil forces.
The Ronin is no ordinary Sith. He’s a Sith hunter. He traverses the galaxy, taking down dark-siders one by one and collecting their kyber crystals as trophies. Yet, despite his crimson sabre, the Ronin appears as if his affinity to the force is not quite dark, not quite light and somehow, also not neutral. He serves only his duty – to rid the galaxy of marauding warlords, hellbent on spreading suffering and discontent. His motivations are not quite made clear. Is he a fallen Jedi? A rogue Sith? A lone warrior? His entire being is engrossed in shadow and intrigue.
Produced by Kamikaze Douga and directed by Takanobu Mizonu, The Duel is so much more than an anime adaptation of an iconic franchise, it’s a direct love letter to Star Wars and its’ roots. In fact, the entire series of Visions, each episode its own contained story, produced and written by iconic Japanese animation studios, is Star Wars giving full recognition to a country and culture that has provided so much source material for the franchise. George Lucas was greatly inspired by 20th Century Japanese cinema, particularly Akira Kurosawa’s The Hidden Fortress. The Hidden Fortress falls under genre known as ‘jidaikegi’, Japanese for ‘period drama’. Star Wars takes heavy inspiration from much of Kurosawa’s movies, many of which were jidaikegi, featuring noble samurai protecting helpless villages against power-hungry, ruthless villains. On the other hand these movies also feature characters known as ‘ronin’. They are samurai who effectively march to the beat of their own drum, not weighed down by the teachings of master. Sound familiar?
Even the word jidaikegi itself gave birth to what we now know as Jedi. Darth Vader’s iconic suit is heavily inspired by the armour of Date Masamune, a samurai with a vengeful but complicated reputation. Of course, lightsabers – the iconic symbol of a force user, are a callback to the fearsome, yet beautifully assembled sword of the samurai. Indeed, many of the iconic lightsaber duels we see in the Star Wars universe are a direct reference to the intense and hair raising samurai duels of Kurosawa’s films. Then, of course, we have Queen Amidala’s extensive wardrobe which leans heavily on Japanese influences.
The impact of Japan on Star Wars can be felt even more in The Ninth Jedi, the fifth episode of Visions. We’re introduced to the legend of an eccentric force user known as ‘The Margrave’. He’s scouring the galaxy for light-side force users to rebuild a diminished Jedi order. The Margrave is aided by Lah Zihma, a sabersmith helping him to recreate the now scarce lightsaber, which has seemingly been lost for a generation. The sabersmith is accompanied by his daughter, Kara, an enthusiastic young girl who wants to be a Jedi.
The sabersmith has engineered lightsabers so that they reflect the users ability. The colour and length of the blade are an echo of the users force connection. Kara is frustrated that her abilities are not stronger, her lightsaber is nothing more than a meagre washed out green. Kara has no time to fret, however, as she and her father are ambushed by masked bandits. They want the lightsabers.
Kara escapes with the weapons, but her father is captured. She must get the lightsabers to the Margrave. When she arrives at the Margrave’s equally as eccentric space station (built into an asteroid no less) she is greeted by a Jedi called Ethan, and other Jedi who are helping the Margrave rebuild the Jedi order. Yet, when she hands over the lightsaber’s all but Ethan’s is illuminated in red. The Margrave had been tricked!
Of course, the Margrave had some kind of hunch all along, and as expected from Star Wars, he was unexpectedly hiding in plain site… inside of a ten feet tall droid, because of course. The Margrave comes to the assistance of Kara and Ethan and an epic fight ensues. Kara’s connection the force grows stronger and her lightsaber is now illuminated in a rich emerald green. She overcomes her foes, and she is now a true Jedi.
In isolation, if you showed this episode to anyone with no prior knowledge of Star Wars, the characters it portrays, the universe it conveys, you wouldn’t blame them for thinking that this was just an ordinary anime. The twists and turns that the story takes, the emotional intensity and connection we have with the characters and the journey we see Kara go on both physically and spiritually. Yet, it all feels so intrinsically Star Wars. In essence, this further demonstrates the impact of Japanese media on the franchise. Star Wars can embed itself into modern Japanese culture and feel so at home. It doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb, or some kind of gimmicky cash grab, no, it feels natural, it feels true. It feels like Star Wars is exactly where it belongs.
Visions is a testament to what Star Wars does best – innovate. The Original trilogy introduced audiences to an exciting, yet oddly familiar cast of characters, enticing alien worlds and new filming techniques. The Prequel Trilogy expanded on this with state of the art technology, impacting the future of film as we know it, while conveying just how vast the Star Wars galaxy is, while with the Sequel Trilogy and beyond, we’ve experienced Star Wars is so many modes and styles, with animation, concerts, games, books – there has never been a limit to how to tell a story in the Star Wars universe. It’s a surprise it’s taken this long for a Star Wars anime to be made.
While Visions may not be part of the Star Wars canon, these stories, at their heart, are perhaps the most Star Wars, Star Wars will ever get. They marry together everything that draws people to the franchise in the first place – the action, the reflection of our hopes and fears, the experimentation with aesthetic and storytelling, never afraid to explore something new, something that feels ungraspable. When watching the series, and how characters like the Ronin, Kara and The Margrave feel so naturally fixed into the Star Wars universe despite their brief appearances, you can’t help but feel this isn’t the last we’ve seen of these characters, or indeed, of Star Wars being interpreted in this way.
