Star Wars Visions Presents – The Ninth Jedi Review: Anime Style Meets Classic Star Wars Tropes
Lucasfilm’s new eight-episode animated limited series, Star Wars: Visions Presents – The Ninth Jedi, is now streaming on Disney+. After watching all eight episodes, here are my thoughts on this long-awaited continuation.
When “The Ninth Jedi” debuted in the first volume of Star Wars: Visions five years ago, it was a huge story just waiting to be expanded. Production I.G’s short introduced a distant future in which the Jedi were scattered, lightsabers were rare and a secret saber-smith carried on the ancient craft. It was bold, surprising and refreshingly unconcerned with established continuity. The striking final image of an asteroid unleashing a beam of light stuck with me far longer than the rest of the shorts.
The musical score by Nobuko Toda and Kazuma Jinnouchi is our favorite among the Visions season 1 shorts. For that reason alone, we were excited when the story continued in Visions season 3 with “The Ninth Jedi: Child of Hope” before expanding into this limited series.
About The Ninth Jedi series
Once again, young Padawan Lah Kara travels with Margrave Juro, Jedi companions Ethan and Homen, and the obligatory droid Gramps. They are pursued by the Sith leader Nawaam, who has imprisoned Kara’s father, Lah Zhima, and forced him to forge weapons for the dark side.
Here is the voice cast listed for Star Wars: Visions Presents – The Ninth Jedi.
- Lah Kara — Kimiko Glenn (English) / Chinatsu Akasaki (Japanese)
- Margrave Juro — Andrew Kishino (English) / Tetsuo Kanao (Japanese)
- Ethan — Masi Oka (English) / Hiromu Mineta (Japanese)
- Homen — Patrick Seitz (English) / Hinata Tadokoro (Japanese)
- Lah Zhima — Simu Liu (English) / Shinichiro Miki (Japanese)
- Gramps — John Paul Karliak (English) / Chō (Japanese)
- Nawaam — Young Mazino (English) / Japanese performer not listed
- The Narrator — Neil Kaplan (English) / Akio Otsuka (Japanese)
Review
The animation remains beautiful, and Kara and her companions are easy to root for. Unfortunately, the story feels less inventive than the original short, with several episodes echoing familiar Star Wars films.
Episode 1, “A New Threat,” features Nawaam’s droid army invading a city, forcing our heroes to infiltrate the command ship and shut down the army’s central control system—a plot lifted almost directly from The Phantom Menace. Episode 2 introduces an immensely powerful Kyber-fueled weapon reminiscent of the Death Star’s construction in Rogue One. We initially loved Nawaam’s striking, chrome-like helmet, but as the series progresses, it appears increasingly black, and the character resembles Kylo Ren in both appearance and philosophy.
Anime fans may be more forgiving of these familiar story beats. The Ninth Jedi sits squarely in the center of the Venn diagram between anime and Star Wars, and its visual style remains one of its greatest strengths. The costumes are especially inventive. Kara wears an adorable pink hoodie-dress – a rare splash of pink in the Star Wars galaxy. Cosplayers – this is a COMFY cosplay!
Although a composer is not currently listed for the series, the music preserves the beauty and grandeur of the original Visions short.
I wanted this series to recapture the excitement and originality of “The Ninth Jedi.” While it delivers attractive animation, likable heroes and plenty of lightsaber action, it ultimately feels more familiar than visionary.
Star Wars: Visions Presents – The Ninth Jedi is now streaming exclusively on Disney+.
