Oh, I do love when a Star Wars project exceeds all expectations, offering something fresh, intriguing and, best of all, surprising. Watching the galaxy far, far away’s first full-length anime series, Star Wars: Visions Presents – The Ninth Jedi, I felt as excited as I did when I first discovered the original Star Wars movie, when I watched Din Djarin meet Grogu, or when I witnessed the Narkina 5 inmates stage the most courageous prison break ever put to screen in Tony Gilroy’s Andor.
Like the best recent franchise stories, The Ninth Jedi is Star Wars through and through, but it’s also something new; a chance for the brand to explore its virtually limitless narrative potential — and explore, it does. The Ninth Jedi is the first full spinoff created under Lucasfilm’s new Star Wars: Visions Presents banner, continuing the story introduced in Production I.G’s first two Visions anthology shorts: season 1’s “The Ninth Jedi” and season 3’s “The Ninth Jedi: Child of Hope.”
Crucially, Star Wars: Visions’ stories aren’t strictly considered canon, giving director Kenji Kamiyama (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit) and his team the freedom to experiment with Star Wars‘ pre-established lore. The Ninth Jedi is set in the galaxy’s distant future, when the Jedi and the Sith have “all but disappeared.” All that remains of the ancient Order is a handful of masterless Jedi, including Margrave Juro, Lah Kara, Homen, and Ethan, all intent on protecting the galaxy from the fearsome masked conquering general known only as Nawaam.
In true Star Wars fashion (and after a brief but welcome recap), The Ninth Jedi begins with a chase through space, as the Jedi’s humble ship is tracked by a much bigger vessel, one belonging to the last remaining Sith. The Sith’s relentless pursuit forces the Jedi to lead their enemy straight to a massive, spectacular black hole — their pilot droid, Gramps, is a genuine delight — hoping that its powerful gravitational pull will destroy their adversary’s ship once and for all.
This opening scene offers a brief but fulfilling taste of the beautiful shots and sequences on display in The Ninth Jedi. It’s more than enough to become invested in this newly imagined version of the galaxy and Kara’s and her fellow Jedi’s heroic adventures. Stick around for all eight episodes, and you’ll be treated to a classic Star Wars story wrapped in a stunningly animated and emotionally satisfying package.
Star Wars & Anime Are A Match Made In Heaven
For a franchise with such a long and celebrated history with animation as a storytelling and artistic medium, it’s genuinely surprising that it’s taken this long for Star Wars to produce a full-length anime series. The Ninth Jedi proves beyond a doubt that Star Wars thrives in a proper anime format. It’s visually stunning and unique, recognizably Star Wars in every way, and yet the designs for the characters, the ships, the planets, even the Jedi’s lightsabers all feel completely new. It captures the same feeling of awe and imagination as the original Star Wars movie did, a sense of nostalgia and belonging despite the fantastical setting.
I’m especially fond of the way The Ninth Jedi treats the franchise’s all-important lightsaber duels. While anime lends itself to being more bombastic and over-the-top, especially with fight choreography, the duels between the Jedi, the last remaining Sith, General Nawaam, and Kara’s kidnapped father, sabersmith Lah Zhima, feel more grounded, weighted somehow. Yes, the show’s strongest Force-wielders still flip around and make massive leaps through the sky, but every move, every strike has a purpose.
The Ninth Jedi has made me even more excited about the possibility of additional future Star Wars anime series.
The duels are both fast-paced and easy to follow, suited to the characters’ personalities and their developmental arc. Kara’s growth as a Jedi and as a Force-user can be tracked through every single battle; one of my favorites occurs in the second half of the series when she confronts one of the Sith Hunters who kidnapped her father in the original “The Ninth Jedi” short. The way the scene builds its tension, with Kara teetering on the edge between the dark side and the light only to discover a brand-new part of herself is masterful.
Kara isn’t the only compelling and well-developed character in The Ninth Jedi, either; not by a long shot. Most of the show’s leading players get an earned hero or villain moment in keeping with traditional anime storytelling tropes and Star Wars’ most important themes. Nawaam’s backstory is genuinely surprising; a strange impressive blend of some of Star Wars’ most imposing villains including Kylo Ren. Nawaam is a great anime antagonist but I could also easily picture him in a live-action Star Wars story (and in a TikTok fan edit).
If anything,The Ninth Jedi has made me even more excited about the possibility of additional future Star Wars anime series. Setting up Star Wars: Visions Presents as a separate label is one of the best moves Star Wars has made in recent months. Kamikaze Douga’s “The Duel,” Studio Trigger’s “The Twins,” Kinema Citrus’ “The Village Bride”; after The Ninth Jedi, I’ll happily watch any other full-length Visions spinoffs Lucasfilm may have planned.
The Ninth Jedi Highlights Star Wars’ Greatest Strengths
Credit: Disney+ via MovieStillsDBOn the surface,The Ninth Jedi’s plot is aStar Wars tale as old as time. A dictatorial Force-wielding tyrant intends to rule the galaxy with the Jedi leading the fight against him and his army. It’s the Separatists versus the Republic, the Empire versus the Rebellion, the First Order versus Resistance all over again. There’s even a planet-killing super-canon. While this invites obvious comparison to most famous Star Wars stories told in galaxy far far away these similarities are actually The Ninth Jedi’s greatest strengths rather than its biggest weaknesses.
It makes story feel more accessible familiar allowing show drop viewer into middle conflict without slowing down pace with slow exposition. It also leaves room for anime’s most original ideas to stand out including way it defines what it means to be Jedi how it explores different connections to Force what lightsaber represents in Star Wars .
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The Ninth Jedi Character |
August 5, 2026 Hulu, Disney+ Shunsuke Tada
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