Nine different anime studios, nine different visions of Star Wars. Each episode rewrites what lightsaber combat can look like, what a Jedi actually means, what the Force does when you strip away the mythology and rebuild it from scratch. You're not watching Star Wars through anime's lens, you're watching anime directors use Star Wars as permission to make something entirely their own. The animation alone justifies the runtime, but the real pull is watching each studio solve the same universe in completely different ways, some beautiful, some brutal, none of them interested in fan service.

The third volume of Star Wars: Visions brings the anthology of animated shorts back to Japan, with each of its nine episodes made by a Japanese animation studio. Contributors include Production I.G., Wit Studio, Trigger, Polygon Pictures, David Production and Kinema Citrus, which handles two entries. The episodes include The Duel: Payback, The Song of Four Wings, The Ninth Jedi: Child of Hope, The Bounty Hunters, Yuko's Treasure, The Lost Ones, The Smuggler, The Bird of Paradise and Black. Every short has its own director, making for a sci-fi collection with plenty of action and adventure.