Star Wars: Visions, the beloved anime inspired series, returns with a new season and plenty of new visions of the galaxy far, far away…
Visions continues to “wow” with impressive animation and tales of the light and dark, spanning vastly different art styles and core themes. Three fan favorites return, continuing the stories in “The Duel,” “The Village Bride,” and “The Ninth Jedi” with “The Duel: Payback,” “The Lost Ones,” and “The Ninth Jedi: Child of Hope,” respectively. These new chapters in their respective stories are all interesting, but “Payback” is an incredibly impressive step up from its already fantastic volume 1 predecessor. Of the returning bunch, “Child of Hope” isn’t as strong in comparison, but it still features an emotional story that will cause fans to eagerly anticipate its own spinoff series next year.
As announced at Star Wars Celebration Japan earlier this year, the new banner of “Star Wars: Visions Presents” will be used to tell longer form stories of Star Wars: Visions shorts. The first of these longer stories is Star Wars: Visions Presents – The Ninth Jedi, animated by Production I.G. and releasing on Disney+ in 2026.
Star Wars: Visions Volume 3 releases October 29, 2025 on Disney+.
Official Synopsis
“Star Wars: Visions” will return to Disney+ for a third installment on October 29, 2025. The award-winning anthology of animated short films celebrates the mythology of Star Wars through unique cultural lenses. “Star Wars: Visions” Volume 3 features nine shorts from nine different anime studios—david production, Kamikaze Douga + ANIMA, Kinema citrus Co., Polygon Pictures, Production I.G, Project Studio Q, TRIGGER, WIT STUDIO—to further demonstrate the diversity and creativity of Japanese animation.
Volume 1 of “Star Wars: Visions,” which premiered in 2021, received an Emmy® nomination for the short, “The Duel.” The Emmy, Lumière, and Annie Award-winning second volume was released in 2023 and featured shorts by global animation studios, including Aardman, Cartoon Saloon, Triggerfish, and Punkrobot. With Volume 3, the animated anthology returns to where it all began with nine shorts from nine different anime studios to further demonstrate the diversity and creativity of Japanese animation.
Review – Star Wars and Japanese Animation Bring Beautiful Animation with an Emotional Punch
“The Duel: Payback” is the most visually and viscerally striking of the episodes to receive a follow up. Considering the fact that the original episode caused a stir amongst fans for its many iconic moments, it’s hard to imagine that the sequel could improve upon it, but animation studio Kamikaze Douga + ANIMA and director Takanobu Mizuno deliver. One of the reasons that Star Wars: Visions is thrilling, aside from infusing Japan’s cultural lens into the Star Wars universe, is the ability for creators to play within the sandbox of Star Wars without being beholden to canon. Ronin, the Sith hunter from the original short, pauses his current hunt and forms a truce when a Jedi from his past, The Grand Master, enacts revenge. The Grand Master will stop at nothing to kill Ronin. Aside from revenge being a very un-Jedi like characteristic, The Grand Master’s design and movements are eerie. The Jedi as a group are also crusaders in this story. Seeing a Jedi in this light is uncomfortable, but exciting at the same time. Watching a menacing Jedi, hellbent on murder, is something extremely uncommon for Star Wars.
This season also marks the first silent Star Wars short, with “Black”, written and directed by Shinya Ohira and from the studio david production. The short is a harrowing exploration of the damage that war leaves on the human psyche, via a Stormtrooper nearing his final breath. The episode also features excellent jazz music throughout; highlighting both the chaos of the battlefield, and that of the tortured mind. “Black” is one of the most moving shorts in the new season, eliciting feelings of disgust, but also sadness and wonderment, at the tortured story being portrayed with such beautiful animation. This is also one of the few shorts to be situated in a familiar point in the Star Wars timeline, providing us with a new perspective on Stormtroopers, and the familiar battles being depicted.
The order of the episodes is a slight source of confusion, without knowing how they will be chosen to be listed on Disney+. Just like with the first season, the final episode of volume 3, “Black,” (as described above) is easily the most emotionally heavy. So if you’re planning a binge, consider throwing “Black” somewhere in the middle of your list. One option is to watch “The Song of Four Wings” as the final episode for a more wholesome and uplifting finale with the most adorable baby Gigoran companion. Seriously, the baby is one of the most adorable things to be introduced into Star Wars. The short, directed by Hiroyasu Kobayashi from Project Studio Q, brings mecha to Star Wars, reimagining what battling an AT-AT with an X-Wing would be like when the X-Wing foils are your own wings. That episode also follows the “The Duel: Payback,” which felt a bit disjointed tonally, going from very serious story to one with so much heart.
Other episodes focus on themes of family, forgiveness, and resistance. Even with episodes that were admittedly not as interesting from the drop, every short manages to tell a compelling story that emotionally entangles you with new characters. One of the most wholesome Visions shorts is “Yuko’s Treasure,” from Kinema citrus Co., which features a droid bear named Billy and a very young child, Yuko. Yes, there is an episode featuring a Droid bear (with a microwave oven built into his chest), that will hit you in the feels as you learn the reason why a child is in the care of a robot bear.
“The Bounty Hunters” by WIT STUDIO, directed by Junichi Yamamoto, is among one of the titles that unfolded into something deeper and much more emotionally resonant than expected at first glance. At first, a story about a bounty hunter named Sevn, and her medical droid turned bounty-hunter sidekick, IV-A4, seemed relatively straight forward, but to my surprise, it told a very emotional and touching tale in ways I didn’t expect.
A Star Wars: Visions review would not be doing the series justice without mentioning my favorite of the new episodes: “The Bird of Paradise,” a beautiful depiction of self-reflection and growth. The short by Polygon Pictures and directed by Tadahiro Yoshihira follows a hot-headed Jedi Padawan, Nakime, after she was blinded in battle, undergoing a series of spiritual trials, and battling with the dark side. The episode opens with the life changing lightsaber battle, setting the stage for a beautifully animated story with an emotional punch. “The Bird of Paradise” explores a Force user’s newfound experience of life now that they’re blind, which is something we haven’t quite seen in Star Wars. While Kanan Jarrus becomes blind in Star Wars Rebels, his newfound life experience isn’t touched upon very much. In “The Bird of Paradise” however, the artwork visualizes how the padawan senses the world around her, and accepts who she is, while forgiving her past brashness and also exploring the Force in an interesting visual way. In addition to the bright, colorful world and the stunning character design, the form of the episode is just as fascinating. This is the first short to have sub-sections or chapters, splitting up her journey into days, which helps the viewer form an attachment to Nakime by giving the illusion of more time passing. Hopefully this won’t be the last we see of Nakime, or the last of Star Wars: Visions.
Rating – 4.5/5 Pocky
Jorgie is a Senior Writer at POC Culture and a passionate pop culture fan. Jorgie loves learning about visual effects, production, film, and art, and how they all come together to make epic films like Star Wars.
