The first season of Star Wars: Visions was one of the freshest breaths of air the franchise has ever had as it pulled together some of the greatest anime studios working to deliver short stories from the Star Wars universe. Now, with the first trailer for Star Wars: Visions Volume 2, it looks like the collection of international studios tapped has upped the ante dramatically. The new trailer shows off not just a plethora of prolific lightsaber and Force battles, but all the wide range of animation styles that this collection brings.
The Star Wars: Visions Volume 2 trailer landed on the last day of Star Wars Celebration, which has already had a ton of news drop (including three new movies), and the trailer features clips from what appears to be all of the nine shorts coming in this collection. Those shorts include “Sith” from El Guiri (Spain), “Screecher’s Reach” from Cartoon Saloon (Ireland), “In the Stars” from Punkrobot (Chile), “I Am Your Mother” from Aardman (United Kingdom), “Journey to the Dark Head” from Studio Mir (South Korea), “The Spy Dancer” from Studio La Cachette (France), “The Bandits of Golak” from 88 Pictures (India), “The Pit” from D’art Shtajio (Japan) and Lucasfilm Ltd., and “Aau’s Song” from Triggerfish (South Africa). If you know any of the studios’ animation styles, you should be able to easily pick out which is which, but the most obvious is the claymation of Aardman. I kept expecting Wallace and Gromit to drop in at any moment for more cheese.
While all of the shorts look striking, the standout is clearly what appears to be “Sith” from Spain’s El Guiri studios. That’s the short that opens the trailer (and claims the preview image) with what appears to be a Sith with a broadsword-style lightsaber fighting someone holding a samurai-style one. It, quite simply, looks badass, and if it’s nothing but the two of them dueling in that CGI/Ink combo style of animation, then that will be perfectly fine.
Star Wars: Visions Volume 2 will release on May 4, Star WarsDay.
