Star Wars: Visions Volume 3, featuring nine shorts from nine different anime studios, is available on Disney+ today. Volume 1 of Star Wars: Visions received an Emmy nomination for the short “The Duel.” The Emmy, Lumière, and Annie Award-winning second volume featured shorts by global animation studios. For Volume 3, the animated anthology returns to Japanese animation, including sequels to Volume 1 fan-favorites “The Duel,” “The Village Bride,” and “The Ninth Jedi.” In addition, it was announced at Star Wars Celebration that “The Ninth Jedi” will be spun out into a series on Disney+ for a 2026 release.

While it’s difficult to review all nine shorts because the tone, themes, and visuals are so unique, there is undoubtedly a thread of inspiration and passion for the Star Wars franchise throughout series going all the way back to the first volume. Episodes range from 13 – 22 minutes and do not require that they be watched in any particular order. The episodes that are sequels are all worth watching. Rewatching their predecessors from Volume 1 is recommended. (The sequel to “The Ninth Jedi” is “The Lost Ones.”)

“The Duel: Payback” was given the first slot likely because it’s one of the strongest entries. After Volume 1, the central character proved popular enough to have a book entry, Star Wars Visions: Ronin. In Kamikaze Douga + ANIMA’s “The Duel: Payback,” Ronin faces off with his greatest foe, a Jedi called the Grand Master. The short is black and white with pops of color to highlight elements such as lightsaber blades or droid lights. The colors – blues, reds, purples – also evoke truths about the characters in the moment that should be familiar to Star Wars fans. The visuals are so recognizably from the galaxy far, far away yet uniquely Japanese that it almost feels like you’re watching a black and white samurai film that inspired George Lucas’ Star Wars. The former Sith Anée-san is stunning in her design.

Another favorite is Polygon Pictures’ “The Bird of Paradise” (Episode 8). Unfortunately the production stills provided by Disney+ do not do justice to the breathtaking visuals of this story. Director Tadahiro Yoshihira takes the idea of the World Between Worlds and Tree Cave on Dagobah and runs with it in a way only animation can. In the short, a headstrong Padawan is blinded in battle and lost in the wilderness. She undergoes a series of spiritual trials as she is tempted by the Dark Side. George Takei showing up as the Shinto gods-inspired Toad was perfect casting. Miyazaki fans will find “The Bird of Paradise” appealing.

An episode that might not be everyone’s cup of tea but an interesting conversation starter is david production’s “BLACK” (Episode 9). Disney describes the episode as “a psychedelic battle between past and present, light and dark, and life and death” that “plays out in the haunted psyche of an Imperial Trooper who is on the cusp of defeat.” The episode involves a lot of eyeballs and weird armless versions of stormtroopers clinging to life, set to jazz music. The episode is an impressionistic tone poem about…Well, that’s open to interpretation. You need to be in the right mood for this one. Watch it with some friends, then deliberate about what director Shinya Ohira is trying to say.

Although the weight of oppression seemed to hover over all these shorts, with massive Star Destroyers and Imperial technology taking up space on the screen, “The Smuggler,” “The Lost Ones,” and “The Song of Four Wings” latch onto the Star Wars theme of hope, which might be what we need right now. Star Wars Visions Volume 3 is available on Disney+ today.