I've always thought that star wars is the perfect setting for literally any story you want. The galaxy being so vast and in some cases unexplored, writers can do anything with it. Great vids!
Same. There are a ton of different stories they could do. I think they should try and do some more aspirational heroes just bc they're cool and a good example. I'll never get tired of Obi wan's unrelenting fortitude. But there are characters like a Stormtrooper that they haven't made a movie centered around, or a bounty hunter that is ruthless and morally ambiguous (like Cad Bane). I think it would be cool to have a bad lead character where we don't have to agree with him but we can see a bad guy at work, ya know? Not done a lot these days w/o trying to justify them.
@@marshmallowvampire8503 Or maybe he's not a BAD bounty hunter but because he works for ruthless evil powerful overlords he has to weigh killing his targets with his moral professional values, and anyone he lets live is a risk to his own life and family.
@@Squeekysquid theirs two Anime I can think of that don’t shy away from the protagonist is a villain and a monster. Which is the later part Attack on Titan and all of Overlord. In both instances you understand the motivation but also they make it very clear their morally bankrupt and their original goal got away from them. Ainz cannot feel guilt, he’s physically incapable of it so he approaches everything from a brutally pragmatic perspective. He wants to find his friends or at the very least other players, so he needs to spread his name. He accidentally gets roped into playing the villain and as time goes on he starts being less and less gentle with others to the point that by the end of the current season he has lured innocent treasure hunters into a deliberate trap of his own making to simulate and invasion and train his soldiers, manipulated the results of a ritualistic war to brutally slaughter the army of the kingdom that houses his base so he can have more legitimate land, overthrows half a kingdom and has the other kingdom in his back pocket out of fear alone.
@@zeehero7280 *>Muh Evil overlords* _"Evil is a word used by the Ignorant and the Weak. The Dark Side is about survival. It's about unleashing your Inner power. It glorifies the strength of the Individual”_ - *Darth Zannah* Just like how the real world isn’t black and white so too is Star Wars. The Jedi aren’t the “good guys” you think they’re. They kidnap children and use them as mere tools in their war against the Sith and the fact they have no problem with using slave army (the clones), etc. And still the Jedi like the Sith aren’t muh “evil”. They’re just simply grey. I hope you understand this.
It's still really interesting to me how much star wars has influenced the modern movie culture. The best description I've heard is that star wars is our modern Odyssey with how it's both reintroduced older stories and concepts, and created a source for the future of film
Star wars is so influential, when people see the stories that inspired it they think those stories are derivative instead. Take Dune for example, a lot of my friends saw many similarities and never knew so many themes from it directly inspired Lucas
@@ileutur6863 it’s interesting in Dune’s case because both are true. The film was definitely informed by Star Wars. Star Wars the film is definitely influenced by the book Dune. Both are true.
Some of the most defining movies of our times are either remakes or heavily inspired by Japanese films--The Hidden Fortress being the one to inspire Star Wars and then there's Yojimbo(A Fistful of Dollars) and the Seven Samurai(The Magnificent Seven). Star Wars is also a re-telling of the hero monomyth(Joseph Campbell). Dune throws the monomyth on its head a bit.
@@Kinuhbud let's be real, the Dune series takes the heroes monomyth, twists it into pretzels with Paul, unknots it when presenting Leto II, shreds it into pieces with God Emperor Leto, and then uses those shreds to make a Jackson Pollock painting in the last two books.
I enjoyed Visions for exactly the scope and scale reasons you mentioned. Much like Love, Death and Robots, the tight focus really worked for me. Relatable, easy to understand stories told in visually unique ways.
Although focusing on individual struggle isn't unique to anime, I see what he means. It's why I loved Jedi Fallen Order so much and why it feels like the game developers tried going back to Star Wars' roots when it comes to tone (which imo anime doesn't retain the SW tone) as well as scope and scale. Almost everything had this original trilogy feel (aside from the clone war references). I think he definitely has a point here.
VISIONS works not because it's an anime (it certainly helps) but because it's the FIRST in the series to be creative and break out of the traditional mold in the scope of the numerical movies and be their own stories that revolve around the idea of Star Wars. Each episode is made unique to the tone and the story that's being told and though other mediums in the franchise has done this, Japanese animators are apex in the craft with visual storytelling as its been a heavy part of their culture for almost a century with animation. Though the Clones series are amazing and also have their own visual and storytelling tones that both Genndy Tartakovsky and Dave Filoni's versions provide they're still stuck in the traditional mode that's firm to the 1-3 series cannon and wrapped around sales (merch, ads, etc.). VISIONS can be it's own thing since the episodes are individual of each other and the fact that you can get something out of it in 10-22 minutes is a testament to what happens when you let creators create instead of having them on a leash.
Kotor also went off and crafted its own story outside of the restrictions of the 1-6 trilogy at its time, and it's also a beloved classic in its own respect.
This is a double edged blade as well as people really had a unique reaction to Episode 8. It was very different and more of an art film in a Star Wars film and people thought it was different and that was the problem. I love Visions though to be clear.
@@sloantempest9421 That's my problem with visions, yes it's fun to watch but it made no fucking sense in universe. When I say I want a star wars anime this is what I'm thinking about: ruclips.net/video/BblLfFqKyIg/видео.html
@@sloantempest9421 it could be 'violation of canon' or it could be simply 'art inspired by the canon'. This theme is common in religion, where the word 'canonical' comes from.
The Elder is my favorite because it fits so well into the Star Wars story. Those who made that episode specifically cared about not just the themes, but the lore as well. Which I as a fan really appreciate. I want to really imagine that these characters could really exist in the same universe as our favorite characters.
I agree, but for a different reason: Star wars has jedi with split second reaction that can intercept plasma bolts that (according to books and novels) travel at the same speed as projectiles, if not MUCH faster than that. You have cloned super soldiers and droids, you have large battleships engaging in epic space battles, and while i love the clone wars, there are many problems with it, some of which is the scale of the conflicts (as in, how many troops and tanks and all else is on screen), how fast characters move, how dumb villains are. 2003 clone wars was perfect in that sense, being an hand drawn animesque samurai jack styled cartoon meant that everything was far more expressive than anything in the movies and shows. I dare ANYONE to find a single scene that is as badass as Cpt.Fordo holding the line during the battle of Coruscant, or Mace windu shoving his hand in a Vulture droid, riding it like a flying horse, Durge vs Obi-wan, Ventress vs Anakin, Dooku training Grievous, i mean... everything was so expressive, and i think that being an anime would make most star wars shows infinitely better by default. Except Resistance, but nobody likes it.
The key is to know is that just bc they think it's for the 'best,' doesn't make them any better for it. There are many ppl, both historically, and in fiction, who do view things like genocide as 'for the better' that's the part of a good villain the audience should despise the most
The second coming of Clone Wars 2003 lol. Glad you took the time to give your thoughts on this series. As someone who isn’t exactly an invested fan of Star Wars I wasn’t sure how I felt about Visions, I just knew I enjoyed it far more than the movies. Each episode had its strong and weak points, and I personally don’t think every episode is equal in quality. But even the ones I…disliked, I did appreciate that they contributed to the overall “small scope” tone of the series. I think this may introduce fans to the true potential of the setting, and hopefully more Star Wars media going forward will be of this nature. As an aside though, I would very much be interested in your thoughts on each individual episode. As a hobbyist I personally have some strong opinions, but I’d love to hear a professional’s thoughts. This series has definitely been a learning experience for me.
This analysis makes me realize why shows and movies like teen titans, and the avengers saga work so well...including but not limited to DCEU, mass effect, the witcher, GOT, Harry potter, and others; They give a small scope and medium scale..WITH the expectation of future installements/plot(teen titans was episodic while the MCU had the post credit scenes and cameos of other characters)... and then by the time we get to grand scale events, we already know what each character is about, who they are, and most of their character traits/flaws... Great vid
I love two things about Star Wars in anime. 1) The beautiful and creative art/animation styles 2) The way animation aids the audience's suspension of disbelief when craziness ensues My only criticisms are that I felt the dialogue was at times cliché and cringe-inducing for some of the episodes. I considered that it could be bad translation, but I don't think so. And to a lesser extent I felt some plots and character arcs were (while wonderfully dramatic) a bit contrived.
Yeah well the force twins one had the most awesome animation but the stupidest story. no one with half a brain would build a weapon that needs 2 siblings plugged in to fire, especially when one of them doesn't want them to fire it and is a fairly strong jedi.
I agree with you. Also too many of the stories focused on rebuilding the Jedi order, specifically by controlling light saber crystals, for some reason (I think it was more than half the episodes used this plot point, but it's been a while). It made what should have been an anthology that was all about creativity into something that felt bizarrely repetitive and was only stylistically creative. I agree with Savage Books that Star Wars works best when it's telling small-scale, personal stories, though. The Mandalorian is probably a better example of this than visions is (although I haven't seen the new season and probably it loses a lot of that small scale as it goes).
@@shinyary2 Some of the visions stories were good but some really missed the mark. however I definitely agree, Star wars was anime from the start. it just didn't know it yet.
@@zeehero7280 Yeah, I especially liked the first one with the Samurai, and I remember liking a few others. I think part of it is that I feel that Star Wars in general is way over-focused on the Jedi. To me, Star Wars is more about a specific aesthetic as well as some loosely canonical worldbuilding than it is about the Skywalker family or the Jedi in general, and I kind of feel like the Jedi have been done to death. I was hoping Visions might branch out a bit more, but it didn't, which is okay too. Visions just was more repetitive and less creative than I was hoping, but it was by no means bad.
Idk why but this got me very emotional. The way you talk through this and nailed your points, which I totally agree with, it's fantastic. Thank you. I truly love your content. How you break everything down and your explanations are amazing.
Since the first season of Mandalorian I’ve maintained that episodic television is absolutely the best format for Star Wars... I can’t wait to check out these self-contained Visions. It was by far the show I was most excited about from that list of ten we got a while back. These are stories of “long long ago...” they’re meant to sound larger than life and some are clearly more embellished than others... It’s C-3P0 telling stories in a foreign language he loaded up off his best friend and rolling corrupt flash drive R2-D2.
This narrow scope you're describing is what we saw in "Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina" and "Tales from Jabba's Palace," vignettes featuring the point of view and adventures of background characters.
I've been saying this for years! Back when Disney bought Star Wars my hope was that, being a company formerly known for their feature length 2D animated movies, they would maybe go back to those roots to tell sequel stories that don't have to do a 30 year time skip. And of course they would then have to hire expert anime artists for at least the lightsaber battles because who else would you hire for an animated sword fight? Anime has already perfected that art. But alas, that was not what happened. It was a fool's hope anyway. Disney had already abandoned the traditional 2D animation style for their movies at that point. In combination with Star Wars it would have made for one heck of a nostalgia boost to their sales. Oh well...
This video taught me something about myself. I love stories that have small scope, and that is the reason why I was never interested in the latest Star wars movies.
"The podrace to defeat slavery" I think you mean "the podrace to win money for a ship parts and as a side bet win the freedom of the kid who is racing who is just doing it to help strangers"
Scopes, literally, are to focus on a certain point from a massive view. It makes sense that a more personal out look on a grand image will always bring out a great reaction from those who take it in.
For me, there were like 3-4 really outstanding episodes where I had enough to care for as far as story. The visuals were 10/10 though as well as the playlist you used for this video cause I love that playlist. 👌🏼💯 Cheers.
Star Wars was likely the very first tensions of the East that the West saw and vice verca. Star Wars celebrates and combines Eastern and Western tropes. Its no wonder anime fits Star Wars like a glove in my opinion
“And the short run time ensures that we stay focused on what is truly important.” Me: Okay… the twins fight without any sort of EVA protection in the vacuum of space, but the droid gets a space suit. God… who wrote this, the team behind FLCL… *Looks up the studio behind “twins” * Me: To be honest, I’d have been disappointed if they DIDN’T animate this sort of acid trip for Star Wars.
I love how you use other media to show writing principles. It's been helpful to me as that's a big part of how I retain what I learn. The tight focus made the stakes of each story more personal, and I'll definitely be looking at my own writing to see if I can pick out the scope and scale I'm playing with.
I've recently come to the personal realization that I like the Star Wars Universe more than the mainline story. The games, the comics, heck the toys. As kids we played with the toys and made up our own stories, and played games like battlefront and crafted our own battles. The books, comics, shows, and especially the games are often much much better than the mainline movies. But now with Disney, every expanded universe product is tied to the main movies and neuters its creativity. It's a huge galaxy and you're telling me everything just has to be connected to locales and characters we already know? It's boring and restricts creativity to have to make everything connect. Visions was a breath of fresh air because it's completely it's own thing and hella creative and can tell the stories it wants to tell without worrying about "well how does this connect to Luke Skywalker" or "and this then ties into the sequels because of X,Y,Z Character refernce"
My favorite episode by far was the dual, everything about it was amazing, the animation, the music, the very short story that is perfectly told through the animation. I bought the novel and I freakin love it
It’s almost full circle, really. George Lucas had cited the Kurosawa film “The Hidden Fortress” as a major influence to the 1977 film. An American doing Japan, now Japan doing American. “It’s like poetry… it rhymes.”
I will say again, this is one of the best explanations of Scope and Scale I’ve ever heard, and it’s a shame more people haven’t watched and understood this video.
Thank you for discussing the sequels as such. People are so hateful about them but I love those movies and characters so much! I can tell you don’t love them like me but you discussed it in a very sensible and hard to argue with way :)
I think you've hit on the main reason the sequel trilogy feels empty to me. The Scope is so much larger than the previous material, and so there's no time to focus on specifics of characters. Thus even the main characters have the depth of the ants they look like beside the massive scope of the series. I always felt that the sequel characters were as deep as a mudpuddle, but didn't know what caused it beyond bad writing. With this video though, I can definitively say (for myself, at least) that the sequels overreached in their Scope because the Disney execs looked at the Scale of their previous material and incorrectly assumed that had to be applied to the Scope as well. The Sequels portray Star Wars the same way Museums portray History. The broad strokes, the major impacts, the birds-eye view. Very impersonal, not much information about the people involved. Meanwhile, anyone who actually enjoys History will tell you that knowing the big stuff is all well and good, but the interesting bits are the individual stories. The tales you get from veterans, or the stories of the people involved - stories like how Alan Turing helped create the machine that decrypted the Enigma Machine, or the contributions of Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson to the NASA space exploration. Star Wars has always been about the little things. It's just got a big backdrop.
I agree with all your points... except your conclusion. As someone who's been pretty invested in Star Wars for 20 years until 2017-2018, I believe that the one single thing that's hurt this franchise the most is people definitely stating what Star Wars is about. Saying "Anime is everything Star Wars is meant to be" and "the core of Star Wars is the personal struggle underneath the battle amongst the stars" is forgetting that a lot of the Star Wars narrative fabric is spent exploring the connection between the personal conflict and the galaxy-wide conflict. How one affects the other and vice versa. How the actions of a single being alter the course of the galaxy's future and how the individual must sometimes wrestle against what the galaxy dictates. How we are all connected to everything else through the Force. Hell, KOTOR 2 is all about what happens if one breaks this connection, including all the personal *and* galactic ripples that it creates. Visions tells very interesting stories, some good Star Wars stories, other bad Star Wars stories. "The Elder" and "The Ninth Jedi" are excellent short Star Wars stories, alluding the greater context without getting lost in it and maintaining scope. "Akakiri" and "The Village Bride" are good stories, but lack this connection to the whole to feel like they are good Star Wars stories. They work though, and they could definitely be developed if the format had been longer. "The Twins" and "T0-B1" fail as Star Wars stories, to me, because they are cut off from the greater universe. You cannot connect them to the whole without breaking everything else. It's all good because nothing is cannon and they're definitely a fun watch, but the way they depict their personal conflict makes them feel more like "anime with lightsabers" than actual Star Wars anime. If you say that personal struggle is the core of Star Wars, you're essentially saying that any story fits in Star Wars, as any story can boil down to the personal conflicts it describes. What makes a story a Star Wars story then? Is it the lightsabers? Is it the jedi and the sith? Is it the Force? Visions, if nothing else, is a great exploration of what stories work in the Star Wars universe, how much you can stretch the constraints it's set. The only episodes that didn't work for me were the ones that disregarded the other events that had been established to happen before, during and after them. Everything else basically works. So, to me, Star Wars is no longer meant to be about anything in particular. It's not about the Skywalkers, the lightsabers, small or large scale conflict, or even the Force. It's just a setting. If your story is good and it works within the continuity of what's already been established, it's a good Star Wars story.
I had thought the first few episodes of visions were kinda meh, like most star wars stuff these days, but you convinced me to give it another try. Also I very much like how when you were explaining scale and scope how I temporarily forgot this was supposed to be about anime, but was still just as engaged. You're a good writer!
Star Wars was an anime even before visions that disney made called Galaxy of Adventures seres where it was reanimated scenes of the movies in shorts placed into a anime style format as it reimagines certain scenes amazingly in an action packed way. It's fantastic and all on disney's youtube channel called Star Wars Kids which I would HIGHLY recommend for everyone to watch. There was even a manga of A NEW HOPE illustrated by Hisao Tamaki that beautifully drawn and stylized in a very appealing manner that fits perfectly for star wars in a manga format that is transitioned pretty well. I would heavily recommend everyone to go and read it if they have a chance because the artwork depiction is amazing!
Star wars was basically anime from the very beginning. all Visions did was show us the truth. Also Dark is not evil, Light is not good. that is important. The Dark side is not inherently evil but it does very easily lead to evil.
Agreed. Some of my personal favorite MCU movies are the Antmans and Spidermans. And while Doctor Strange is inter-dimensional and stuff, I really enjoyed the personal story and seeing a new side of the MCU.
These small stories were exactly what I was missing from Star Wars. Even in mainline movies, we had some smaller worlds and stories teased - Tatooine society, and various gangs inhabiting it, worms living in asteroids, wealthy gas giants mining cities, small tribes of smart creatures living their life and believing in their gods, planet inhabited by two inteligent beings, always in conflict with one another, bug-like hive mind civilisation, and much more. Tho we never had time to properly get into these. Visions takes their time in exploring these smaller worlds, and breathes a new life into the same old formula. Culture of remote planet and their weird connection to the force, asteroid belt full of relics of the past. New myths, new planets, far future, far past, or right before episode 1. Let's take this lightsaber and turn it into an umbrella, and make the two siths fight each other. Let's make a pinoccio story with a droid wanting to be a Jedi! It's an absolute sandbox of creativity, that still fits star wars (other than that one episode where studio Trigger did what they do best - run entire thing on crak).
I liked your video on homelander. I am now subscribing to you from your video on Visions. You’ve highlighted things for me that I never realised/thought about. Your deep perspective is very captivating. Thank you, sometimes evil RUclips algorithm
This was amazing video, I think you have made me a better storyteller just by your discussion here. I am looking forward in watching more of your videos
Marvel's Agents of Shield is my example of scope and scale. In the aftermath of Thanos's conquest for power, someone must be responsible for cleaning the mess. My favorite episodes are those which have regular people interact with regular people immediately after a larger event. After the Battle of New York, there is an episode where they have to clean up the damage and find an alien disease. These interactions that remind us that the consequences of the gods effect their people, but showing it makes it real.
Star Wars is inspired on samurai films I mean look at darth Vader suit you can see it looks so much like a shoguns armour. George took inspiration on Akira Kurosawa films and decided to reference samurai in the films
What's so good about it is that it really has this "do whatever you want" vibe for the studios. I don't love all the episodes, but I feel none of the board-of-directors writing style influence that's so prevalent from Disney. Hell, I don't even think it's even really canon. Just fun stories, some lighthearted, some deep.
Wait wait wait… the scale and scope of Star Wars Visions isn’t unique to anime as a format. Telling a story on a smaller scale is universal storytelling technique that isn’t at all limited to whatever WAY you tell that story. Heck you could carve an in-depth character-driven story into the sides of random pottery, but that doesn’t make ceramic art the “destined and true” form of Star Wars.
How else are you going to get that subtly clickbait title which appeals to a large demographic? {sarcasm over} I completely agree with what you are saying, the issue of scale and scope is completely on the part of the writer, the medium is not vital to the issue. Animation obviously offers the writer a lot more freedom than film (see framerate usage in "Into the spider-verse") but that still requires good writing else you get screaming for minutes to fill time.
It’s double edged sword-appealing to people who idolize anime as “the superior media form”, and annoying idiots like me who nitpick generalized statements in the RUclips comment section
No that’s the point, I feel swindled. Hoodwinked. Bamboozled. Cheated. Outright lied to. And yet I just remain here, complaining in the comment section which-in the long run, is just keeping up the retention rate
I love visions, because its creative short stories, and there is just something about coming full circle back to the samurai films George took inspiration from.
This was really great, because I hate anime, and largely am highly critical of Star Wars. But now I want to watch Star Wars Visions. I originally thought this was going to be about how SW was inspired by Samurai and Western movies, and how those genres inspired anime, but it wasn't. Instead I learned much more than I thought I would and heard a compelling argument entirely separate from my thoughts, which only doubles it's validity to me.
I love anime, but hate that most of it has turned into "special high schooler knows how special, or must learn how special they are". But I grew up in the 90s when there was some weird stuff out there. Give me Ninja Scroll, or GoGo 13 over Naruto any day. And I like Naruto, but come on... it is just Dragon Ball with a mask on.
Exaggeration has to fit the story. In the case of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, it was well suited because the story was built around the Spiral Nemesis. In the case of Star Wars, I struggle to defend bouncy Yoda from the Prequels, Starkiller Base from the Sequels, as well as the Lightsaber Parasol and Am/Karre breathing/fighting in space from Star Wars Visions. For Star Wars, the scope is fucked by exaggeration.
Okay, first off, while CGI was used a lot in the Prequels, it's not like they didn't have practical effects. A lot of it was done practically, where possible.
Some of the Visions were very good. I'm glad they didn't stick too closely to lore and just went for a Star Wars theme. It made for something way more interesting.
Ehhh. I don't share this take. I believe that, more than anything else, Star Wars is Industrial Light and Magic. VFX is what made Star Wars such an influential phenomenon in 1977, and I think the series is at its best when it recalls that legacy and tries to push the visual medium forward, as was done brilliantly in The Mandalorian.
Oh so clone wars and fallen orden are shit because they don't break the mold in terms of on movie VFX? Evolving the vfx Is one thing, but if you don't have substance in writting then no one Will give a shit about the cool effects (specially if most of them aged poorly like jar jar or cg tarking). Just ask James Cameron avatar with His groundbreaking effects and bland characters and story. Even fucking lucas said it : "special effects are a tool. Without a story and characters everything Will feel boring" PS: they should cast Sebastián Stan as young Luke skywalker at the end of the mandalorian, because Mark hammil deaged face look like shit.
@@motor4X4kombat Well that is a heck of a take. I didn't say those things were shit. I said I didn't think they were Star Wars at their best. And maybe it's worth remembering that Avatar was one of the most profitable movies ever made.
@@yosoyunapina oh so avatar Is better than shawshank redemptiom, the godfather and friggin empire strike back because it Made More money? Sure and the twilight books are better than the game of thrones books because they earn More money .... You are delusional kid.
@@motor4X4kombat Are you doing alright, bud? You know that different people like different things, right? You know it's okay for someone online to have a different opinion about Star Wars than you? You don't have to respond with hostility and name-calling. You can just say that you don't agree, maybe we could have had an intelligent and level discussion about our personal feelings about Star Wars and how they might be different, and then we could just live our lives in peace?
@@yosoyunapina Tell that to all the sequel haters that bully the shit out of their fan. And all the Gina carano simps stalking and sening death treats to the lucasfilm crew because of caranos dumb agenda.
Homie just boiled down why I like anime so much without even realising after a decade of consumption; I can't really grasp emotions as well as the next guy and it exaggerates feelings and emotions in the visual spectrum, whether its stylised or not I can actually grasp the feelings and well... emotions of the scenes... thanks man
The original 6 films are basically anime. Especially the prequels. That's why I get so immersed in those 6 films. And Disney hasn't ever gotten this right,
The way you describe how some writers destroy a setting as a way to artificially raise the stakes made me realize that Your name does exactly that in a way that actually works! Throughout the film you spend most of the time in Mitsuha’s body and thus in Itomori. We get to learn it’s culture and grow closer to the people we know in it, so that when the inevitable tragedy happens it hits hard!
Scope and scale in anime narrative is fluid and subjective at the same time. Two of my favorite anime productions are deft mixes of microcosm and macrocosm: "Key the Metal Idol" and "Witch Hunter Robin". The narrative in both cases focuses on an adolescent female (the "android" Tokiko Mima and the apprentice witch Robin Sena) trying to sort out their own identities while engaging with a massively oversized enemy. Of course the large part of the narrative requiring a Hidden Agenda has been pretty much an anime staple ever since Evangelion, but these two sagas handle it very well.
I didn’t even like Visions I still don’t think it’s a good show is it creative yes but do the stories mainly make sense not really everything kinda pays off too fast
There's more to Star Wars than you might know. I'd suggest checking out the SW content of Rick Worley, Style is substance, Paul Duncan and anomaly inc.
And then there is the EmperorBoo fancanon, (quick little side note here, EmperorBoo is the title and guardian spirit that accompanies gLiTcH as they both take care of me, [Name Redacted cause I am not going to reveal my real name on the internet]. So while their names are interchangeable because of that, I will try to make sure to make the distinction between them whenever I am referring to the colony of ghosts in the fancy suit gLiTcH and to the "bootleg" King Boo from Luigi's Mansion) which takes the every Star Wars story in my direction and with my own spin on it, a type of comedic "Looney Toons" pseudo-analog-horror in which the main focal character haunts the characters and gives them opportunities to grow in different and to have branching narratives whilst focusing on the main narrative. It still does follow the personal struggle and all the other rules that you have established to make a great Star Wars story, it just constantly dips you into intense scenes of nothing and everything, the Maniacal nonsensical wonderland feel of the character of gLiTcH being mixed with George Lucas' Star Wars as gLiTcH single handedly shows victims of corrupt systems of power how those systems can be manipulated and cleansed out of their corruption through the most twisted carnival theme park attraction-like comedy that, through the perspective of gLiTcH's main antagonist which is the dark side itself, or from his world, the state of mind of people when they have had their minds warped beyond any hope of coming back to sanity, the Shadow World itself (which is a kids friendly euphemism for You-Know-Where). EmperorBoo himself has a huge haunted Mansion led by Spirits and other supernatural creatures who have agreed to help him with care keeping the Mansion (well, relatively speaking, it's still kinda supposed to look like a haunted mansion and anyway, they can't really physically "fix" the mansion, though gLiTcH is usually just fine with it looking fixed) which he can use as a base of operations. He does have other family and friends though throughout the most of the fanfiction animated series only Shep really volunteers to help him, and it's usually after his first through fifth story. These are less of a description of the kind of story I want to make and more brief strokes over where the stories would go. I could pick apart some stories at the comment section's request and write a general script over how things could go.
This Hit the nail in the head! i hope Lucas Films takes heed and of what was done with Visions, story wise, stylistically and take a risk to really move the story forward with what happens to the future of the Star Wars franchise post the latest trilogy.
12:05 Ehhhhh please don’t compare the AMAZING Clone Wars Micro Series to Visions. The CW micro series knew what it was doing from beginning to end with a massive amount of love and care for the world, story and character. Most of the Vision Shorts are bog standard generic good man with sword vs bad man with sword. XD
Please never under any circumstances say "fertile mind bosom" ever again
You didn't even mention that the fertile mind bosom belongs to George Lucas
We all blacked out by that point.
@@jamwrightiam Of course, how could I possibly forget that it is not just any old fertile mind bosom, but George Lucas's fertile mind bosom
I've heard worse, in the words of a LP channel "Breaking my Nut Hymen!"
_Fertile_
*MIND*
*_BOSOM_*
I've always thought that star wars is the perfect setting for literally any story you want. The galaxy being so vast and in some cases unexplored, writers can do anything with it. Great vids!
Same. There are a ton of different stories they could do. I think they should try and do some more aspirational heroes just bc they're cool and a good example. I'll never get tired of Obi wan's unrelenting fortitude.
But there are characters like a Stormtrooper that they haven't made a movie centered around, or a bounty hunter that is ruthless and morally ambiguous (like Cad Bane). I think it would be cool to have a bad lead character where we don't have to agree with him but we can see a bad guy at work, ya know? Not done a lot these days w/o trying to justify them.
@@marshmallowvampire8503 Or maybe he's not a BAD bounty hunter but because he works for ruthless evil powerful overlords he has to weigh killing his targets with his moral professional values, and anyone he lets live is a risk to his own life and family.
As we have witnessed with Both with the Genndy animations and the Mandalorian Westerns and Kung Fu are both valid genres for Star Wars as well.
@@Squeekysquid theirs two Anime I can think of that don’t shy away from the protagonist is a villain and a monster. Which is the later part Attack on Titan and all of Overlord. In both instances you understand the motivation but also they make it very clear their morally bankrupt and their original goal got away from them. Ainz cannot feel guilt, he’s physically incapable of it so he approaches everything from a brutally pragmatic perspective. He wants to find his friends or at the very least other players, so he needs to spread his name. He accidentally gets roped into playing the villain and as time goes on he starts being less and less gentle with others to the point that by the end of the current season he has lured innocent treasure hunters into a deliberate trap of his own making to simulate and invasion and train his soldiers, manipulated the results of a ritualistic war to brutally slaughter the army of the kingdom that houses his base so he can have more legitimate land, overthrows half a kingdom and has the other kingdom in his back pocket out of fear alone.
@@zeehero7280
*>Muh Evil overlords*
_"Evil is a word used by the Ignorant and the Weak. The Dark Side is about survival. It's about unleashing your Inner power. It glorifies the strength of the Individual”_ - *Darth Zannah*
Just like how the real world isn’t black and white so too is Star Wars. The Jedi aren’t the “good guys” you think they’re. They kidnap children and use them as mere tools in their war against the Sith and the fact they have no problem with using slave army (the clones), etc. And still the Jedi like the Sith aren’t muh “evil”. They’re just simply grey. I hope you understand this.
It's still really interesting to me how much star wars has influenced the modern movie culture. The best description I've heard is that star wars is our modern Odyssey with how it's both reintroduced older stories and concepts, and created a source for the future of film
Star wars is so influential, when people see the stories that inspired it they think those stories are derivative instead. Take Dune for example, a lot of my friends saw many similarities and never knew so many themes from it directly inspired Lucas
@@ileutur6863 it’s interesting in Dune’s case because both are true.
The film was definitely informed by Star Wars. Star Wars the film is definitely influenced by the book Dune.
Both are true.
Some of the most defining movies of our times are either remakes or heavily inspired by Japanese films--The Hidden Fortress being the one to inspire Star Wars and then there's Yojimbo(A Fistful of Dollars) and the Seven Samurai(The Magnificent Seven). Star Wars is also a re-telling of the hero monomyth(Joseph Campbell). Dune throws the monomyth on its head a bit.
@@Kinuhbud let's be real, the Dune series takes the heroes monomyth, twists it into pretzels with Paul, unknots it when presenting Leto II, shreds it into pieces with God Emperor Leto, and then uses those shreds to make a Jackson Pollock painting in the last two books.
I enjoyed Visions for exactly the scope and scale reasons you mentioned. Much like Love, Death and Robots, the tight focus really worked for me. Relatable, easy to understand stories told in visually unique ways.
And just like LDR 90% of the episodes weren't any decent...
@@tincano-beans2114 you really didn't like LDR? What episodes made up the other 10%
Thats the best description of LDR I have ever read
Although focusing on individual struggle isn't unique to anime, I see what he means. It's why I loved Jedi Fallen Order so much and why it feels like the game developers tried going back to Star Wars' roots when it comes to tone (which imo anime doesn't retain the SW tone) as well as scope and scale. Almost everything had this original trilogy feel (aside from the clone war references). I think he definitely has a point here.
VISIONS works not because it's an anime (it certainly helps) but because it's the FIRST in the series to be creative and break out of the traditional mold in the scope of the numerical movies and be their own stories that revolve around the idea of Star Wars.
Each episode is made unique to the tone and the story that's being told and though other mediums in the franchise has done this, Japanese animators are apex in the craft with visual storytelling as its been a heavy part of their culture for almost a century with animation.
Though the Clones series are amazing and also have their own visual and storytelling tones that both Genndy Tartakovsky and Dave Filoni's versions provide they're still stuck in the traditional mode that's firm to the 1-3 series cannon and wrapped around sales (merch, ads, etc.). VISIONS can be it's own thing since the episodes are individual of each other and the fact that you can get something out of it in 10-22 minutes is a testament to what happens when you let creators create instead of having them on a leash.
Kotor also went off and crafted its own story outside of the restrictions of the 1-6 trilogy at its time, and it's also a beloved classic in its own respect.
This is a double edged blade as well as people really had a unique reaction to Episode 8. It was very different and more of an art film in a Star Wars film and people thought it was different and that was the problem.
I love Visions though to be clear.
you do realize this entire show is a violation of the years of established lore that's independent from the movies?
@@sloantempest9421 That's my problem with visions, yes it's fun to watch but it made no fucking sense in universe.
When I say I want a star wars anime this is what I'm thinking about:
ruclips.net/video/BblLfFqKyIg/видео.html
@@sloantempest9421 it could be 'violation of canon' or it could be simply 'art inspired by the canon'. This theme is common in religion, where the word 'canonical' comes from.
The Elder is my favorite because it fits so well into the Star Wars story. Those who made that episode specifically cared about not just the themes, but the lore as well. Which I as a fan really appreciate. I want to really imagine that these characters could really exist in the same universe as our favorite characters.
It's almost as if innovating on visual effects was *the* thing Star Wars was always known for
I agree, but for a different reason:
Star wars has jedi with split second reaction that can intercept plasma bolts that (according to books and novels) travel at the same speed as projectiles, if not MUCH faster than that.
You have cloned super soldiers and droids, you have large battleships engaging in epic space battles, and while i love the clone wars, there are many problems with it, some of which is the scale of the conflicts (as in, how many troops and tanks and all else is on screen), how fast characters move, how dumb villains are.
2003 clone wars was perfect in that sense, being an hand drawn animesque samurai jack styled cartoon meant that everything was far more expressive than anything in the movies and shows.
I dare ANYONE to find a single scene that is as badass as Cpt.Fordo holding the line during the battle of Coruscant, or Mace windu shoving his hand in a Vulture droid, riding it like a flying horse, Durge vs Obi-wan, Ventress vs Anakin, Dooku training Grievous, i mean... everything was so expressive, and i think that being an anime would make most star wars shows infinitely better by default. Except Resistance, but nobody likes it.
Fantastic analysis of Visions and Star Wars as a whole.
Most of the best "evil" characters are usually doing what they think is good or best or necessary
The key is to know is that just bc they think it's for the 'best,' doesn't make them any better for it.
There are many ppl, both historically, and in fiction, who do view things like genocide as 'for the better' that's the part of a good villain the audience should despise the most
The second coming of Clone Wars 2003 lol. Glad you took the time to give your thoughts on this series. As someone who isn’t exactly an invested fan of Star Wars I wasn’t sure how I felt about Visions, I just knew I enjoyed it far more than the movies. Each episode had its strong and weak points, and I personally don’t think every episode is equal in quality. But even the ones I…disliked, I did appreciate that they contributed to the overall “small scope” tone of the series. I think this may introduce fans to the true potential of the setting, and hopefully more Star Wars media going forward will be of this nature.
As an aside though, I would very much be interested in your thoughts on each individual episode. As a hobbyist I personally have some strong opinions, but I’d love to hear a professional’s thoughts. This series has definitely been a learning experience for me.
I FULLY AGREE!😆🙌
Me praying to the stars for papa George to, one day, cradle me within his fertile mind bosom.
That's a horrible sentence, have a nice day.
That's what Star Wars is. What more do you want?
This analysis makes me realize why shows and movies like teen titans, and the avengers saga work so well...including but not limited to DCEU, mass effect, the witcher, GOT, Harry potter, and others;
They give a small scope and medium scale..WITH the expectation of future installements/plot(teen titans was episodic while the MCU had the post credit scenes and cameos of other characters)... and then by the time we get to grand scale events, we already know what each character is about, who they are, and most of their character traits/flaws...
Great vid
I love two things about Star Wars in anime.
1) The beautiful and creative art/animation styles
2) The way animation aids the audience's suspension of disbelief when craziness ensues
My only criticisms are that I felt the dialogue was at times cliché and cringe-inducing for some of the episodes. I considered that it could be bad translation, but I don't think so. And to a lesser extent I felt some plots and character arcs were (while wonderfully dramatic) a bit contrived.
Agreed🙌
Yeah well the force twins one had the most awesome animation but the stupidest story. no one with half a brain would build a weapon that needs 2 siblings plugged in to fire, especially when one of them doesn't want them to fire it and is a fairly strong jedi.
I agree with you. Also too many of the stories focused on rebuilding the Jedi order, specifically by controlling light saber crystals, for some reason (I think it was more than half the episodes used this plot point, but it's been a while). It made what should have been an anthology that was all about creativity into something that felt bizarrely repetitive and was only stylistically creative. I agree with Savage Books that Star Wars works best when it's telling small-scale, personal stories, though. The Mandalorian is probably a better example of this than visions is (although I haven't seen the new season and probably it loses a lot of that small scale as it goes).
@@shinyary2 Some of the visions stories were good but some really missed the mark. however I definitely agree, Star wars was anime from the start. it just didn't know it yet.
@@zeehero7280 Yeah, I especially liked the first one with the Samurai, and I remember liking a few others. I think part of it is that I feel that Star Wars in general is way over-focused on the Jedi. To me, Star Wars is more about a specific aesthetic as well as some loosely canonical worldbuilding than it is about the Skywalker family or the Jedi in general, and I kind of feel like the Jedi have been done to death. I was hoping Visions might branch out a bit more, but it didn't, which is okay too. Visions just was more repetitive and less creative than I was hoping, but it was by no means bad.
You can literally fit any kind of story into the Star Wars universe. It’s almost a blank canvas.
Idk why but this got me very emotional. The way you talk through this and nailed your points, which I totally agree with, it's fantastic. Thank you. I truly love your content. How you break everything down and your explanations are amazing.
Couldn't have said it better😎
Since the first season of Mandalorian I’ve maintained that episodic television is absolutely the best format for Star Wars...
I can’t wait to check out these self-contained Visions. It was by far the show I was most excited about from that list of ten we got a while back. These are stories of “long long ago...” they’re meant to sound larger than life and some are clearly more embellished than others...
It’s C-3P0 telling stories in a foreign language he loaded up off his best friend and rolling corrupt flash drive R2-D2.
You made me giggle irl at the flash drive quip
This narrow scope you're describing is what we saw in "Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina" and "Tales from Jabba's Palace," vignettes featuring the point of view and adventures of background characters.
The idea of anime as exaggerated emotion makes so much sense. It's why I enjoy it. Oh. I should include this in my works.
I've been saying this for years! Back when Disney bought Star Wars my hope was that, being a company formerly known for their feature length 2D animated movies, they would maybe go back to those roots to tell sequel stories that don't have to do a 30 year time skip. And of course they would then have to hire expert anime artists for at least the lightsaber battles because who else would you hire for an animated sword fight? Anime has already perfected that art.
But alas, that was not what happened. It was a fool's hope anyway. Disney had already abandoned the traditional 2D animation style for their movies at that point. In combination with Star Wars it would have made for one heck of a nostalgia boost to their sales. Oh well...
This video taught me something about myself.
I love stories that have small scope, and that is the reason why I was never interested in the latest Star wars movies.
"The podrace to defeat slavery" I think you mean "the podrace to win money for a ship parts and as a side bet win the freedom of the kid who is racing who is just doing it to help strangers"
14:18 wow, you just nailed why I love Visions
Scopes, literally, are to focus on a certain point from a massive view. It makes sense that a more personal out look on a grand image will always bring out a great reaction from those who take it in.
For me, there were like 3-4 really outstanding episodes where I had enough to care for as far as story. The visuals were 10/10 though as well as the playlist you used for this video cause I love that playlist. 👌🏼💯 Cheers.
Star Wars was likely the very first tensions of the East that the West saw and vice verca.
Star Wars celebrates and combines Eastern and Western tropes. Its no wonder anime fits Star Wars like a glove in my opinion
Maybe with film. But west and east have always been influencing each other.
@@verskarton true. But I think its more apparent in Star Wars.
Just feels right to see Star Wars as an anime ya know
Animation is the perfect medium for Star Wars. If done correctly with maturity and creativity it can be top tier Star Wars.
“And the short run time ensures that we stay focused on what is truly important.”
Me: Okay… the twins fight without any sort of EVA protection in the vacuum of space, but the droid gets a space suit. God… who wrote this, the team behind FLCL…
*Looks up the studio behind “twins” *
Me: To be honest, I’d have been disappointed if they DIDN’T animate this sort of acid trip for Star Wars.
I love that they did two episodes that basically boil down to "the serious one" and the "how absurdly Studio Trigger can we make this one" lol
“Eleventeen” made me feel warm inside
Brought back memories of KND.
I love how you use other media to show writing principles. It's been helpful to me as that's a big part of how I retain what I learn.
The tight focus made the stakes of each story more personal, and I'll definitely be looking at my own writing to see if I can pick out the scope and scale I'm playing with.
I really love that Twins eps took the best looking scene in TLJ and turned it into a spectacle that breaks logic
Visions is amazing. Bringing back to the scope was really great. I feel like that’s why they’re so lovable
I've recently come to the personal realization that I like the Star Wars Universe more than the mainline story. The games, the comics, heck the toys. As kids we played with the toys and made up our own stories, and played games like battlefront and crafted our own battles. The books, comics, shows, and especially the games are often much much better than the mainline movies. But now with Disney, every expanded universe product is tied to the main movies and neuters its creativity. It's a huge galaxy and you're telling me everything just has to be connected to locales and characters we already know? It's boring and restricts creativity to have to make everything connect.
Visions was a breath of fresh air because it's completely it's own thing and hella creative and can tell the stories it wants to tell without worrying about "well how does this connect to Luke Skywalker" or "and this then ties into the sequels because of X,Y,Z Character refernce"
My favorite episode by far was the dual, everything about it was amazing, the animation, the music, the very short story that is perfectly told through the animation.
I bought the novel and I freakin love it
It’s almost full circle, really.
George Lucas had cited the Kurosawa film “The Hidden Fortress” as a major influence to the 1977 film.
An American doing Japan, now Japan doing American.
“It’s like poetry… it rhymes.”
Put simply, you've hit the nail squarely on the head, as usual.
I will say again, this is one of the best explanations of Scope and Scale I’ve ever heard, and it’s a shame more people haven’t watched and understood this video.
I freaking loved Visions. So cool to see the galaxy expand and to see smaller stories
I love how you always bring it back to Last Airbender
Thank you for discussing the sequels as such. People are so hateful about them but I love those movies and characters so much! I can tell you don’t love them like me but you discussed it in a very sensible and hard to argue with way :)
I think you've hit on the main reason the sequel trilogy feels empty to me. The Scope is so much larger than the previous material, and so there's no time to focus on specifics of characters. Thus even the main characters have the depth of the ants they look like beside the massive scope of the series. I always felt that the sequel characters were as deep as a mudpuddle, but didn't know what caused it beyond bad writing. With this video though, I can definitively say (for myself, at least) that the sequels overreached in their Scope because the Disney execs looked at the Scale of their previous material and incorrectly assumed that had to be applied to the Scope as well.
The Sequels portray Star Wars the same way Museums portray History. The broad strokes, the major impacts, the birds-eye view. Very impersonal, not much information about the people involved. Meanwhile, anyone who actually enjoys History will tell you that knowing the big stuff is all well and good, but the interesting bits are the individual stories. The tales you get from veterans, or the stories of the people involved - stories like how Alan Turing helped create the machine that decrypted the Enigma Machine, or the contributions of Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson to the NASA space exploration.
Star Wars has always been about the little things. It's just got a big backdrop.
I agree with all your points... except your conclusion. As someone who's been pretty invested in Star Wars for 20 years until 2017-2018, I believe that the one single thing that's hurt this franchise the most is people definitely stating what Star Wars is about. Saying "Anime is everything Star Wars is meant to be" and "the core of Star Wars is the personal struggle underneath the battle amongst the stars" is forgetting that a lot of the Star Wars narrative fabric is spent exploring the connection between the personal conflict and the galaxy-wide conflict. How one affects the other and vice versa. How the actions of a single being alter the course of the galaxy's future and how the individual must sometimes wrestle against what the galaxy dictates. How we are all connected to everything else through the Force. Hell, KOTOR 2 is all about what happens if one breaks this connection, including all the personal *and* galactic ripples that it creates.
Visions tells very interesting stories, some good Star Wars stories, other bad Star Wars stories. "The Elder" and "The Ninth Jedi" are excellent short Star Wars stories, alluding the greater context without getting lost in it and maintaining scope. "Akakiri" and "The Village Bride" are good stories, but lack this connection to the whole to feel like they are good Star Wars stories. They work though, and they could definitely be developed if the format had been longer. "The Twins" and "T0-B1" fail as Star Wars stories, to me, because they are cut off from the greater universe. You cannot connect them to the whole without breaking everything else. It's all good because nothing is cannon and they're definitely a fun watch, but the way they depict their personal conflict makes them feel more like "anime with lightsabers" than actual Star Wars anime.
If you say that personal struggle is the core of Star Wars, you're essentially saying that any story fits in Star Wars, as any story can boil down to the personal conflicts it describes. What makes a story a Star Wars story then? Is it the lightsabers? Is it the jedi and the sith? Is it the Force? Visions, if nothing else, is a great exploration of what stories work in the Star Wars universe, how much you can stretch the constraints it's set. The only episodes that didn't work for me were the ones that disregarded the other events that had been established to happen before, during and after them. Everything else basically works. So, to me, Star Wars is no longer meant to be about anything in particular. It's not about the Skywalkers, the lightsabers, small or large scale conflict, or even the Force. It's just a setting. If your story is good and it works within the continuity of what's already been established, it's a good Star Wars story.
Very well said, Mate. I have to agree🙌🙌🙌
I had thought the first few episodes of visions were kinda meh, like most star wars stuff these days, but you convinced me to give it another try.
Also I very much like how when you were explaining scale and scope how I temporarily forgot this was supposed to be about anime, but was still just as engaged. You're a good writer!
Well, I need to check out Visions now! Didn't really know what it was, but you've portrayed it here as very much in my wheelhouse. Thanks!
Star Wars was an anime even before visions that disney made called Galaxy of Adventures seres where it was reanimated scenes of the movies in shorts placed into a anime style format as it reimagines certain scenes amazingly in an action packed way. It's fantastic and all on disney's youtube channel called Star Wars Kids which I would HIGHLY recommend for everyone to watch.
There was even a manga of A NEW HOPE illustrated by Hisao Tamaki that beautifully drawn and stylized in a very appealing manner that fits perfectly for star wars in a manga format that is transitioned pretty well. I would heavily recommend everyone to go and read it if they have a chance because the artwork depiction is amazing!
I wonder if there are story analyses people that do not use Avatar as an example for narrative element X done right
Star wars was basically anime from the very beginning. all Visions did was show us the truth.
Also Dark is not evil, Light is not good. that is important.
The Dark side is not inherently evil but it does very easily lead to evil.
It does make some sense that Star Wars need anime. Considering that George Lucas's inspiration came from Japan.
Superhero movies need smaller scales stories every now and then
One strong example of a smaller scope/scale superhero movie I can think of is Logan.
Agreed. Some of my personal favorite MCU movies are the Antmans and Spidermans. And while Doctor Strange is inter-dimensional and stuff, I really enjoyed the personal story and seeing a new side of the MCU.
This is a great explanation of the difference between Scope and Scale, and how each impacts stories.
Love this video. I truly hope we get more Visions content one day too.
Came for the anime, stayed for the Star Wars analysis.
These small stories were exactly what I was missing from Star Wars. Even in mainline movies, we had some smaller worlds and stories teased - Tatooine society, and various gangs inhabiting it, worms living in asteroids, wealthy gas giants mining cities, small tribes of smart creatures living their life and believing in their gods, planet inhabited by two inteligent beings, always in conflict with one another, bug-like hive mind civilisation, and much more. Tho we never had time to properly get into these.
Visions takes their time in exploring these smaller worlds, and breathes a new life into the same old formula. Culture of remote planet and their weird connection to the force, asteroid belt full of relics of the past. New myths, new planets, far future, far past, or right before episode 1. Let's take this lightsaber and turn it into an umbrella, and make the two siths fight each other. Let's make a pinoccio story with a droid wanting to be a Jedi! It's an absolute sandbox of creativity, that still fits star wars (other than that one episode where studio Trigger did what they do best - run entire thing on crak).
"Mind bosom" 🤗 That's got a great Anglo-Saxon poetry sound to it, like "Word Hoard".
U went off on such a tangent I forgot u were even talking about visions
Superb analysis and explanation.
I liked your video on homelander. I am now subscribing to you from your video on Visions. You’ve highlighted things for me that I never realised/thought about. Your deep perspective is very captivating. Thank you, sometimes evil RUclips algorithm
This was amazing video, I think you have made me a better storyteller just by your discussion here. I am looking forward in watching more of your videos
I’ve never thought about anime that way - the stylization of emotion.
Never forget Gary Kurtz is part of why Star Wars is good
TRIGGER part looks amazing as always.
Marvel's Agents of Shield is my example of scope and scale. In the aftermath of Thanos's conquest for power, someone must be responsible for cleaning the mess. My favorite episodes are those which have regular people interact with regular people immediately after a larger event. After the Battle of New York, there is an episode where they have to clean up the damage and find an alien disease. These interactions that remind us that the consequences of the gods effect their people, but showing it makes it real.
Star Wars is inspired on samurai films I mean look at darth Vader suit you can see it looks so much like a shoguns armour. George took inspiration on Akira Kurosawa films and decided to reference samurai in the films
I was in the fence about this series feeling Disney has literally milked my nostalgia dry. Because of this review, I will watch this, thank you.
What's so good about it is that it really has this "do whatever you want" vibe for the studios. I don't love all the episodes, but I feel none of the board-of-directors writing style influence that's so prevalent from Disney. Hell, I don't even think it's even really canon. Just fun stories, some lighthearted, some deep.
I understand the scope as a camera lens, you can zoom in or out, to see the big or small problems.
Wait wait wait… the scale and scope of Star Wars Visions isn’t unique to anime as a format. Telling a story on a smaller scale is universal storytelling technique that isn’t at all limited to whatever WAY you tell that story. Heck you could carve an in-depth character-driven story into the sides of random pottery, but that doesn’t make ceramic art the “destined and true” form of Star Wars.
How else are you going to get that subtly clickbait title which appeals to a large demographic? {sarcasm over}
I completely agree with what you are saying, the issue of scale and scope is completely on the part of the writer, the medium is not vital to the issue. Animation obviously offers the writer a lot more freedom than film (see framerate usage in "Into the spider-verse") but that still requires good writing else you get screaming for minutes to fill time.
It’s double edged sword-appealing to people who idolize anime as “the superior media form”, and annoying idiots like me who nitpick generalized statements in the RUclips comment section
@@sammiller4862 You still clicked on the video.
just saying.
No that’s the point, I feel swindled. Hoodwinked. Bamboozled. Cheated. Outright lied to. And yet I just remain here, complaining in the comment section which-in the long run, is just keeping up the retention rate
@@sammiller4862 anime has been a very good media in large part because its not Hollywood, with a different culture behind it, hope its kept that way.
I love visions, because its creative short stories, and there is just something about coming full circle back to the samurai films George took inspiration from.
10:37 This random and has nothing to do with the videos, but this is the first time I noticed how cool that creature design is.
This was really great, because I hate anime, and largely am highly critical of Star Wars. But now I want to watch Star Wars Visions.
I originally thought this was going to be about how SW was inspired by Samurai and Western movies, and how those genres inspired anime, but it wasn't. Instead I learned much more than I thought I would and heard a compelling argument entirely separate from my thoughts, which only doubles it's validity to me.
I love anime, but hate that most of it has turned into "special high schooler knows how special, or must learn how special they are". But I grew up in the 90s when there was some weird stuff out there. Give me Ninja Scroll, or GoGo 13 over Naruto any day. And I like Naruto, but come on... it is just Dragon Ball with a mask on.
I loved the original Clone Wars Animated movies. It was the most exciting Star Wars content I’ve seen up to this point
Exaggeration has to fit the story. In the case of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, it was well suited because the story was built around the Spiral Nemesis.
In the case of Star Wars, I struggle to defend bouncy Yoda from the Prequels, Starkiller Base from the Sequels, as well as the Lightsaber Parasol and Am/Karre breathing/fighting in space from Star Wars Visions. For Star Wars, the scope is fucked by exaggeration.
Watching this high feels like therapy
Okay, first off, while CGI was used a lot in the Prequels, it's not like they didn't have practical effects. A lot of it was done practically, where possible.
Some of the Visions were very good. I'm glad they didn't stick too closely to lore and just went for a Star Wars theme. It made for something way more interesting.
Great contribution. Thanks.
sheit, I was just trying to get to the dark visions comic... now I got this to check out--alright!
What do you mean, Star Wars is already an anime. Episode 1-6 that is.
Ehhh. I don't share this take. I believe that, more than anything else, Star Wars is Industrial Light and Magic. VFX is what made Star Wars such an influential phenomenon in 1977, and I think the series is at its best when it recalls that legacy and tries to push the visual medium forward, as was done brilliantly in The Mandalorian.
Oh so clone wars and fallen orden are shit because they don't break the mold in terms of on movie VFX? Evolving the vfx Is one thing, but if you don't have substance in writting then no one Will give a shit about the cool effects (specially if most of them aged poorly like jar jar or cg tarking). Just ask James Cameron avatar with His groundbreaking effects and bland characters and story. Even fucking lucas said it : "special effects are a tool. Without a story and characters everything Will feel boring"
PS: they should cast Sebastián Stan as young Luke skywalker at the end of the mandalorian, because Mark hammil deaged face look like shit.
@@motor4X4kombat Well that is a heck of a take. I didn't say those things were shit. I said I didn't think they were Star Wars at their best. And maybe it's worth remembering that Avatar was one of the most profitable movies ever made.
@@yosoyunapina oh so avatar Is better than shawshank redemptiom, the godfather and friggin empire strike back because it Made More money? Sure and the twilight books are better than the game of thrones books because they earn More money .... You are delusional kid.
@@motor4X4kombat Are you doing alright, bud? You know that different people like different things, right? You know it's okay for someone online to have a different opinion about Star Wars than you? You don't have to respond with hostility and name-calling. You can just say that you don't agree, maybe we could have had an intelligent and level discussion about our personal feelings about Star Wars and how they might be different, and then we could just live our lives in peace?
@@yosoyunapina Tell that to all the sequel haters that bully the shit out of their fan. And all the Gina carano simps stalking and sening death treats to the lucasfilm crew because of caranos dumb agenda.
I think Aangs conflict was with defeating Ozai until the second to last episode when they made it about how he would defeat Ozai
Homie just boiled down why I like anime so much without even realising after a decade of consumption; I can't really grasp emotions as well as the next guy and it exaggerates feelings and emotions in the visual spectrum, whether its stylised or not I can actually grasp the feelings and well... emotions of the scenes... thanks man
13:16 i started feeling some kind of way here, I don't know what way exactly, but a good way.
The original 6 films are basically anime. Especially the prequels. That's why I get so immersed in those 6 films. And Disney hasn't ever gotten this right,
The way you describe how some writers destroy a setting as a way to artificially raise the stakes made me realize that Your name does exactly that in a way that actually works! Throughout the film you spend most of the time in Mitsuha’s body and thus in Itomori. We get to learn it’s culture and grow closer to the people we know in it, so that when the inevitable tragedy happens it hits hard!
Scope and scale in anime narrative is fluid and subjective at the same time. Two of my favorite anime productions are deft mixes of microcosm and macrocosm: "Key the Metal Idol" and "Witch Hunter Robin". The narrative in both cases focuses on an adolescent female (the "android" Tokiko Mima and the apprentice witch Robin Sena) trying to sort out their own identities while engaging with a massively oversized enemy. Of course the large part of the narrative requiring a Hidden Agenda has been pretty much an anime staple ever since Evangelion, but these two sagas handle it very well.
I thought this when watching rise of the Skywalker. I literally said, "Star wars would make a great anime." And it did."
nothing beats 2003 clone wars
This was already on my list but now it's at the top
Great video!
Thanks for another awesome video
Totally agree!
I didn’t even like Visions I still don’t think it’s a good show is it creative yes but do the stories mainly make sense not really everything kinda pays off too fast
There's more to Star Wars than you might know. I'd suggest checking out the SW content of Rick Worley, Style is substance, Paul Duncan and anomaly inc.
A truly fantastic video on Scope and Scale. Every aspiring writer should watch this.
May St. Algorithmas bless your channel with growth!
nah nah the audio book of the first star wars visions episode is amazing
And then there is the EmperorBoo fancanon, (quick little side note here, EmperorBoo is the title and guardian spirit that accompanies gLiTcH as they both take care of me, [Name Redacted cause I am not going to reveal my real name on the internet]. So while their names are interchangeable because of that, I will try to make sure to make the distinction between them whenever I am referring to the colony of ghosts in the fancy suit gLiTcH and to the "bootleg" King Boo from Luigi's Mansion) which takes the every Star Wars story in my direction and with my own spin on it, a type of comedic "Looney Toons" pseudo-analog-horror in which the main focal character haunts the characters and gives them opportunities to grow in different and to have branching narratives whilst focusing on the main narrative. It still does follow the personal struggle and all the other rules that you have established to make a great Star Wars story, it just constantly dips you into intense scenes of nothing and everything, the Maniacal nonsensical wonderland feel of the character of gLiTcH being mixed with George Lucas' Star Wars as gLiTcH single handedly shows victims of corrupt systems of power how those systems can be manipulated and cleansed out of their corruption through the most twisted carnival theme park attraction-like comedy that, through the perspective of gLiTcH's main antagonist which is the dark side itself, or from his world, the state of mind of people when they have had their minds warped beyond any hope of coming back to sanity, the Shadow World itself (which is a kids friendly euphemism for You-Know-Where).
EmperorBoo himself has a huge haunted Mansion led by Spirits and other supernatural creatures who have agreed to help him with care keeping the Mansion (well, relatively speaking, it's still kinda supposed to look like a haunted mansion and anyway, they can't really physically "fix" the mansion, though gLiTcH is usually just fine with it looking fixed) which he can use as a base of operations. He does have other family and friends though throughout the most of the fanfiction animated series only Shep really volunteers to help him, and it's usually after his first through fifth story.
These are less of a description of the kind of story I want to make and more brief strokes over where the stories would go. I could pick apart some stories at the comment section's request and write a general script over how things could go.
This Hit the nail in the head! i hope Lucas Films takes heed and of what was done with Visions, story wise, stylistically and take a risk to really move the story forward with what happens to the future of the Star Wars franchise post the latest trilogy.
Star Wars Visions is proof that the best thing that Disney can do with their IPs is let other people use them
12:05 Ehhhhh please don’t compare the AMAZING Clone Wars Micro Series to Visions. The CW micro series knew what it was doing from beginning to end with a massive amount of love and care for the world, story and character.
Most of the Vision Shorts are bog standard generic good man with sword vs bad man with sword. XD
i have never and was never ever interested in star wars not even slightly until i saw 1 gif of visions on twitter LOL
0:47 there’s one bootleg star wars musical free on RUclips. It’s called ANI: a Star Wars parody.