Star Wars: Five Videos That Prove Disney Should Make An Anime

4 Minute Read

Aug 14 2020

Let’s look at why Disney should totally make a Star Wars Anime.

Over the years Star Wars has been translated into a ton of formats. What started as live action movies has seen life as cartoon movies, animated and live action series, books, audio dramas, video games, live events, comics, and much more. One format that many people feel Star Wars would work well in is as an Anime. Indeed Star Wars has come close to this before when they released a manga version of first the OT, and then other stories, starting in 1998 and last being added to in 2009. However they’ve never produced a proper anime (for our purposes I’m lumping together both an American made anime styled show, such as Avatar: The Last Airbender, and an honest to god made in Japan anime show- you can debate which is better). Yet many fans have dreamed of just such a release. Some of them have even made movies showing how easy and great it would be. Lets take a look at some of them.

“STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE” Animotion Trailer

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib_4A2CG2Ag[/embedyt]

This video, by animator Ahriman gives us a super classic look at what an anime version of A New Hope might be. For the classic 90s-ish anime style to the Japanese VO with American dubs its a very pure look at what could be. Of course we might expect a modern to have updated art, but this serves as a great proof of concept. Star Wars, and A New Hope especially, owe a lot to Japanese films, so its cook to see it come full color. It also raises the question of what language a Star Wars anime should be in.

TIE Fighter – short film

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN_CP4SuoTU[/embedyt]

TIE Fighter, by OtaKing77077, is maybe the best example of a fully fan made anime style Star Wars video. This breathtaking piece was inspired by the detailed hand drawn anime of the 80s and you really get Gundam and other space/war anime feelings here. This is a just amazing video on its own, with great art and action and lot of nods to the lore. It’s worth just watching or re-watching. But it’s also got me thinking just how good a Star Wars anime that told it’s own story could be. Think about a series just following a TIE squadron, or wing, around- maybe as a TIE-in to the new Squadrons game.

Clone Wars 2003

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj07qh51zPI[/embedyt]

No talk about a Star Wars anime would be complete with looking at the Clone Wars 2003. Now you could argue that all Star Wars animated shows have drawn a little bit on anime, but its most apparent in in Genndy Tartakovsky’s take on the franchise. His art is distinct but, like Samurai Jack before it, owe a lot to anime. For me this is no where more clear then in Mace Windu’s epic show down with an army of battle droids. We are close, but also so far.

Star Wars – Anime Opening 1 (A New Hope Arc) | “Again” – Yui (FMA:B Opening) & Star Wars Anime Opening – Prequel Trilogy

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYMyysowOjA[/embedyt]

We’ve seen what a “classic” older style of Star Wars anime might look like, but what about something newer? For that we have the Star Wars Galaxy of Adventure shorts. These are a series of shorts, tending to be under 2 minutes long, that re-tell key parts of Star Wars. While not an anime, the art style is super slick and clearly inspired by anime, going for more of that hand drawn look then the clearly 3d stuff we’ve seen in the other Star Wars animated shows. The shorts are, well short, so they don’t tell anything like a real story, but some, like this one about the Jedi and the Sith are really well done. The style is so clearly anime inspired that a number of people have edited the shorts into fan made anime openings, adding some music and mocking them up as if they were the openings for an actual anime show.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvcoQ7vwr6s[/embedyt]

These are generally well done, and I know I’m technically cheating by giving you two videos here, but I like them both. One cool thing is that we get to see stuff beyond the OT, where most of the other fan vids stay put. Watch either of these vidoes and I dare you not to be pumped to watch that whole show.

Star Wars Anime (Full episode)

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gEoFNYKW30[/embedyt]

Finally we’ve got this edit by ScoundrelMedia. This takes us back to the first video in that it tries to give us a taste of what a whole episode of a real Star Wars anime might feel like. Using footage from the Galaxy of Adventure shorts it manages to cut together a “full”, if short episode, complete with opening and ending songs/credits, a recap, flashbacks and even a commercial break. Done (dubbed technically) in Japanese with English subs we are again treated to what a real Star Wars anime could be. While it short you totally get the feeling you’re watching an anime and its just… great.

I think looking at these videos we can all see the potential here, so please Disney, make it so.

Let us know if you’d like a Star Wars anime, down in the comments!

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Author: Abe Apfel

Abe is that rare thing, an Austin local born and raised here. Though he keeps on moving around, DC, Japan, ETC., he always seems to find his way back eventually. Abe has decades of experience with a wide range of tabletop and RPG games, from historicals, to Star Wars to D&D and 40K. He has been contributing to BOLS since almost the start, back when he worked at and then owned a local gaming store. He used to be big into the competitive Warhammer tournament scene but age has mellowed him and he now appreciates a good casual match. He currently covers 40K tactics and lore, as well as all things Star Wars, with occasional dabbling in other topics. Abe remains in mourning over the loss of WFB to this day.

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