Every Episode Of Star Wars: Visions Season 3, Ranked

Reader Beware: This article contains spoilers for “Star Wars: Visions” season 3.

“Star Wars: Visions” released its third season today, going back to the roots of its first season in Japan. It’s been an interesting, non-canon experiment for Lucasfilm, as they’ve been bankrolling experimental animated shorts from top-notch animation studios in Japan (or, in the case of season 2, around the world) to just tinker around with “Star Wars.” It’s given us some incredible “Star Wars” storytelling. The third season is an embarrassment of riches, and it was difficult to rank this season’s nine episodes in any order of quality. They were all just great. But order them we shall.

I want to say, though, this season was fantastic. There wasn’t a bad episode in the bunch, and each episode was firing on all cylinders. It almost felt as though all of the Japanese studios saw what everyone else accomplished after the first season had been released and realized what they could get away with, and then each of them upped their game considerably.

We’ve taken the time to rank the episodes down to the best one, as difficult a task as that was. We will dive into some spoilers, so if you haven’t watched the show, you may want to first. Ready or not, here we go:

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9. The Bird of Paradise

Produced by Polygon Pictures and directed by Tadahiro Yoshihira. The eighth episode of season 3 takes the first step toward the more metaphysical episodes. It tells the story of a young Padawan and her master who are fighting a Sith. The Padawan is knocked from a cliff and has a journey through herself, very reminiscent of Ahsoka’s journey into her mind as she was in the sea of Seatos in “Ahsoka” or Luke Skywalker’s failure in the cave on Dagobah in “Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.” It’s an existential journey where the Padawan must defeat the evil within herself. She struggles with anger and emotion on her journey, and it feels very human. It’s deep and worth rewatching, and also features “Star Trek” alum George Takei in his return to “Star Wars” as a fluorescent frog creature that fills a very Yoda-like role. It ends on a hopeful note of ambiguity, but we’re still left to wonder if she made it.

8. The Lost Ones

Produced by Kinema Citrus and directed by Hitoshi Haga, “The Lost Ones” is set on a planet ruined by the Empire’s strip mining, with the survivors rescued by a passing Jedi. Attacked by the Empire, the Jedi discovers their old master, who has turned to the dark side. So much of the episode deals with the trauma of having to cope with a mentor who turned out to be evil in ways you hadn’t expected. What do you take from the people who mentored you who turn out to be evil? It’s an interesting thing people grapple with more and more these days as they look to people who were influential to them in their younger days and discover them to be garbage people willing to hurt others. Sort of like the “Harry Potter” conundrum. It illustrates a character who stays true to themselves and the good the problematic teacher showed them and discards their dangerous rhetoric, ultimately defeating them. All in a cool “Star Wars” wrapper. And did I mention there’s a completely non-sequitur “Back to the Future” reference?

7. The Bounty Hunters

Produced by Wit Studio and directed by Junichi Yamamoto, this episode feels like the most modern in terms of animation and anime storytelling. “The Bounty Hunters” revolves around a lone bounty hunter and her droid that’s half medical droid and half assassin droid. She blunders into a situation where a major corporation hires her to bring in malcontents. This being “Star Wars,” however, things aren’t always as they seem, and the corporation’s adopted war orphans are actually slaves, and the malcontents are freedom fighters. There are double and triple crosses, and the owner of the corporation finds himself fighting inside a giant destroyer droid when everyone turns against him. Full of action and adventure with some incredible animation, this is a good episode with strong pathos, but it ends up middle of the pack for me.

6. The Smuggler

Seemingly taking cues from “The Hidden Fortress,” this installment, produced by Trigger and directed by Masahiko Otsuka, tells the story of a smuggler who finds herself hired by a hidden prince on the run with his loyal secret Jedi General protector who needs a ride off planet. But first, they have to get out of a heavily occupied Imperial territory looking for them specifically. Full of adventure, great music, and the aforementioned Jedi voiced by Judith Light, it’s an entertaining Saturday matinee serial. Dropped in the middle of the action, it has all the taste and flavor of “Star Wars” in a tight, economical package.

5. The Song of Four Wings

If there’s a single word to describe this episode, I would use “adorable.” There’s something so inherently “Star Wars” about it, though. When making “Return of the Jedi,” one of the mantras George Lucas repeated on set and to the various departments was “Dare to be cute.” This installment, produced by Project Studio Q and directed by Hiroyasu Kobayashi, has that in spades. It’s about a princess, much like Leia Organa, whose civilization has been destroyed and devoted herself to the cause. She puts herself in danger to rescue the most adorable baby Gigoran named Woopas, who had been a victim of the Empire’s tyranny, and uncovers an Imperial plot to strip mine a planet. With her droid that transforms into a personal X-wing-like situation, he single-handedly saves the planet. It’s got a relentless fun to it, and it just doesn’t get cuter than this.

4. Black

The episode “Black” was produced by David Production and directed by Shinya Ohira. If you were to put some incredible hand-drawn animation in a blender with inspiration from MTV’s “Liquid Television,” Disney’s “Fantasia,” and the Canadian Film Board short film “21-87” that inspired “Star Wars” and made a “Star Wars Visions” short out of it, you might get close to understanding what “Black” is. It feels like the fevered last moments of a Stormtrooper with their life flashing before their eyes as we move through images from a galaxy far, far away, some full of beauty and serenity, some full of the brutality of war. It’s unlike anything “Visions” has so far produced, but it’s so wonderful and experimental, I want it to produce more like this as well. It’s truly a work of art and would not feel out of place playing on an LCD screen in a modern art gallery, but nor does it feel out of place in this series or in the milieu of “Star Wars.” It feels very right and makes it a very welcome addition to this series.

3. The Duel: Payback

This episode,  produced by Kamikaze Douga (and ANIMA) and directed by Takanobu Mizuno, in the hands of a lesser studio or group of artists could have been nothing more than a mish-mash of Kurosawa and “Star Wars” references scotch taped together in a very beautiful package. But “The Duel: Payback” inverts so many things we expect out of both and repackages them in fascinating ways. As a sequel to one of the best shorts from the first season, we have the return of the Ronin, a Sith who hunts former Sith and collects their kyber crystals. That gets sidetracked in this adventure, though, when they’re attacked by the Crusaders and the Grand Master, a Jedi who is more machine than man — very much this universe’s version of Darth Vader. We also have Ewoks who live in the snow and fight in the water, aiding the Sith, and some of the most elaborate and beautiful-looking fight scenes of the series. It turns things upside down, like an AT-AT, and is one of the must-watch episodes of the new season.

2. Yuko’s Treasure

If there’s an installment of “Visions” in its third season that embodies the vibe of classic Saturday morning cartoons, it’s this one. Produced by Kinema Citrus and directed by Masaki Tachibana, “Yuko’s Treasure” tells the story of a giant bear droid with a microwave in its stomach named Billy, who is the guardian of a young orphan named Yuko. Set in the familiar environs of Mos Eisley on Tatooine, this short embodies as much of the zaniness of “Looney Tunes” as it does the heart and pathos of Pixar films and blends them together in such a wonderful balance. It has a core to it that is extraordinarily “Star Wars” as well; Sola, the slightly older orphan at the center of the story, is down on his luck and doesn’t have a droid looking out for him. He’s working for a pirate named Fox Ear (voiced in the English language version by Steve Buscemi), and he ends up selling out Billy and Yuko. Turns out, he has a heart of gold he didn’t realize and turns on the pirates to help the younger orphan and the bear droid, and is able to join their little family in an incredibly heart-warming moment.

1. The Ninth Jedi: Child of Hope

Produced by Production I.G. and directed by Naoyoshi Shiotani, “The Ninth Jedi: Child of Hope,” is a sequel to one of my favorite episodes from the first season, and the only episode that’s been announced as getting a continuation with the new series of “Visions” longer format spin-offs. It’s about a young sabersmith’s daughter who has joined a group of Jedi running from the Sith. Her father was kidnapped, so she’s been trying to find him, but her quest continues on. In the latest adventure, she’s separated from the group on an abandoned space station. It’s the most emotional of the episodes and drew tears — in fact, it was the only episode that packed enough of an emotional punch for me to do that. Beautifully animated and ending on such a compelling cliffhanger, it would have been a shame if it hadn’t been continued. The standout character, though, has to be the droid Teto — his role is perfect and his ability to emote through the animation is stunning. In the English-language version, Teto is actually played by Freddie Highmore as well, who brings a depth of soul to the role that adds immensely. This episode tops the batch for me for its emotion, its encapsulation of what “Star Wars” means through themes of sacrifice and care, and just great storytelling. This is the high watermark.

“Star Wars: Visions” season 3 is available to stream on Disney+.

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Read the original article on SlashFilm.