Star Wars: Visions | Season 3
(2025)

Star Wars: Visions - Season 3 ✨ 

The critically acclaimed anthology series Star Wars: VISIONS is back with its third season as it once again unites with nine highly decorated anime studios to bring a galaxy far, far away into the hands of some of the world's best animated storytellers.

For season three Lucasfilm teamed up with David Production (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure), Kinema Citrus Co. (Made in Abyss), Production I.G (Psycho Pass, Haikyu!!), TRIGGER (Cyberpunk Edgerunners), and WIT Studio (Attack on Titan, Vinland Saga) to continue to explore the world of Star Wars in whatever way these studios deemed fit. This season also hosts the continuation of three fan-favourite stories from the first season, including the Emmy Award-nominated visual masterpiece ‘The Duel’ (from Kamikaze Douga), Kinema Citrus’s sequel to ‘The Village Bride,’ and the one episode to get its own full-season spin-off series, Production I.G.’s ‘The Ninth Jedi.’

It’s safe to say that Star Wars: VISIONS as an experiment is a roaring success. I feel like this series is a great reminder that the fantasy worlds we know and love shouldn’t be handcuffed by rules of lore, fandom, and formulas but instead built upon and stretched beyond one’s imagination—which is how they came to exist in the first place.

The one thing I noticed in this season is that you can tell the anime studios are starting to use what’s meant to be singular, self-contained episodes as pilots for potential fully fledged series, whereas season one felt like they unloaded the entire chamber with creative storytelling, cinematic scores, and some of the most godly animation to ever be seen on the small screen.

That’s not to negate the quality of the season because it’s still a treat to watch all these different interpretations of Star Wars.

'The Duel: Payback' was the episode I was most excited for this season, and even though I’m obsessed with the ink-wash animation style and Akira Kurosawa-inspired story, it did not match the high from the first installment. Again, this goes back to my earlier guess of these studios not wanting to showcase the best of what they had creatively in the hopes of getting to make a full season out of their short stories.

Anime Shonen fans will get a serious kick out of 'Yuko’s Treasure' which is one of the episodes from this season that feels ripe and deserving of further exploration.

'The Ninth Jedi: Child of Hope' continues its excellence from season one by showcasing that Kara's story is ready to go beyond the confines of the anthology world it was born into and dive even deeper into this else-worlds version of Star Wars through its well deserved spin-off series set for 2026.
All I have to say for this episode is shoutout to Teto, gone too soon…

Then we have what I thought was the most ambitious story of the season, which was 'The Bride of Paradise'. It had a Mononoke (2006) vibe to it as it dived into the psychological battle of a Jedi who was internally navigating the light and dark after losing their eyesight. The animation style wasn’t for me, but I did appreciate what the story was attempting to do.

Last but definitely not least is 'Black'. Unlike 'The Bride of Paradise', which I couldn’t connect with on its animation, the fever dream nightmare from hell captured in this story about a conflicted stormtrooper battling the shadows of war is maybe one of the best pieces of animation I’ve ever seen—and once I did more research on the episode, I figured out why. Shinya Ohira, one of the key animators of Akira (1988), Spirited Away (2001), and Ping Pong: The Animation (2014) was at the helm of this, and his genius-level artistry showed why he is one of the great master animators of his generation.

This season may have leaned too heavily on the bounty hunter and cliché Star Wars orphan stories for me to love and didn’t dive deep enough into the force like in previous seasons, yet it still ended up being a wicked time just for the vibrant cinematic spectacle of it all.

Enjoy!

7.9/10 🍿 🎥

Runtime: 10-20mins

Episodes: 9

Where: Now Streaming on Disney+
Star Wars Visions Review (2025) The Richmond Reviewer - October 31st, 2025.

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