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On Thursday, February 2, 2023, it was announced that Star Wars: Visions volume 2 will debut on May 4, once again featuring shorts from worldwide animation studios. Spearheading the project’s second incarnation is the Japan-based American-run animation studio D’Art Shtajio, best known for their work on The Weeknd’s Snowchild music video.
Several other studios from around the world will be contributing to the 2nd volume of Star Wars: Visions, but D’Art Shtajio is the only Japan-based studio currently announced as part of the project. It’s likely that they’ll remain the only Japan-based studio, given that the latest announcement has seemingly covered all upcoming episodes.
Star Wars: Visions set to return on May 4 or Star Wars Day, with nine new anime shorts
Coming from the franchise’s official website, the Star Wars: Visions announcement confirmed that the project will stream exclusively on Disney+ again. While the first volume consisted of work from several Japanese creators and anime studios, the upcoming second volume focuses on getting worldwide creators involved.
This has led to D’Art Shtajio being the only studio from Japan that is making a new short. Their contribution will come in the form of the short titled The Pit, which was produced in conjunction with Lucasfilm. The first volume debuted in September 2021, with famous anime studios such as Trigger, Kinema Citrus, Production I.G, and more producing shorts for the volume.
More recently, the world-famous Japanese animation studio headed by Hayao Miyazaki, Studio Ghibli, produced a hand-drawn animated short for the franchise. The project, titled Zen - Grogu and Dust Bunnies, began streaming on Disney+ on November 12, 2022, following a cryptic teaser from the Studio Ghibli Twitter account.
The full list of shorts and animation studios for the second volume of Star Wars: Visions is as follows:
- “The Pit” by D’Art Shtajio and Lucasfilm
- “Sith” by El Guiri from Spain
- “Screecher’s Reach” by Cartoon Saloon from Ireland
- “In the Stars” by Punkrobot from Chile
- “I Am Your Mother” by Aardman from the United Kingdom
- “Journey to the Dark Head” by Studio Mir from South Korea
- “The Spy Dancer” by Studio La Cachette from France
- “The Bandits of Golak” by 88 Pictures from India
- “Aau’s Song” by Triggerfish from South Africa
The Star Wars franchise is one of the most popular media franchises in the world, boasting nearly a dozen feature films and several television series across less than five decades. The Visions project, however, is the franchise’s first major foray into the anime world of animation, with the second volume seemingly set to continue that effort.
Be sure to keep up with all anime, manga, film, and live-action news as 2023 progresses.
