Anime-inspired Star Wars shorts are coming in new Disney+ anthology

Watch the trailer for Star Wars: Visions, a series of SW short films created by leading Japanese animation studios.

Between the Obi-Wan Kenobi show, the Ahoka Tano show, the Rogue One spinoff and more, there are a lot of new Star Wars series on their way to Disney+. Amid that flood, you’d be forgiven for overlooking Star Wars: Visions, a series of nine short films set in the Star Wars universe but made by specialists in Japanese animation. But just the other day, Disney dropped a new behind-the-scenes glimpse at the series, which looks worth a second look:

If all goes well, it may even be worth nine more looks, since that’s the number of short films studios like Kamikaze Douga, Twin Engine, Trigger, Kinema Citrus, Science Saru and Production IG are working on. The films will cover a wide variety of genres. “The Elder,” “The Twins,” and “The Duel” seem like pretty traditional Star Wars stories, albeit with some noticeably Japanese flavor, what with the Jedi wielding their lightsabers like samurai swords, which we can fully get behind.

But then there’s stuff like “T0-B1,” which looks inspired by Astro Boy, a pioneering show in the world of Japanese animation. “Tatooine Rhapsody” is described as a “rock opera,” which is intriguing from the jump; obviously there is room in the galaxy for a Star Wars musical.

And also anime Jabba the Hutt looks pretty fun.

All nine episodes of Star Wars: Visions will drop on Disney+ on September 22.

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