T5W#122-Top 5 Star Wars Stories I Wanna See as Anime

Holy Crap. Holy Crap. Holy Crap. Holy Crap. Holy Crap. Holy Crap. Holy Crap.

 

Yep, Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (Who could it be?) took its sweet time but it is coming back TOMORROW!!!!  I’m excited, like really excited.  Star Wars has been a huge part of my life since I was very young.  I dare say it is the first story that introduced me to science fiction and the limitless boundaries of the imagination.  Because of Star Wars, I found scifi, I found fantasy, I found Anime.  And since it’s Wednesday and the day before the arrival of the biggest movie of the year, i figure why not dedicate this weeks Top 5 to the land of the Jedi, Sith, Princesses in bikinis and handsome smugglers.  The Star Wars Universe is, as Motoko Kusinagi once said about the net, “Vast and infinite.”  You not only have the newly established Disney cannon, you also have the old Expanded Universe tales which spanned decades of stories after Return of the Jedi.  And on todays T5W, im counting down my Top 5 Favorite Star Wars Stores I Wanna See as Anime…just cause Star Wars and Anime should have been a given a long time ago.

#5-Rogue Squadron

The “Top Gun” of the Star Wars universe and one of the best video games on the Nintendo 64, Rogue Squadron follows the adventures of best friend pilots Luke Skywalker and Wedge Antillies and their merry band of ace pilots, set between the events of Episode IV: A New Hope and Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.  I’m not sure if ive just been missing out but, besides the still recent Macross Delta, Anime’s been short on good fighter pilot Anime like Space Battleship Yamato…or more Macross.  Actually, there was a pretty awesome Anime short dedicated to the Tie Fighter aces of the Galactic Empire that came out last year I think.  If a Rogue Squadron series could be done in that style, how awesome would that be?

 

#4-Darth Vader

The sins of the Star Wars Prequels are numerous.  Chief among them (and that’s saying a lot) is that we never got to see any of Darth Vader in his prime…just his rise from whinny slave boy to even more annoying Padawan to ear gratingly bad Jedi Knight and psudeo Sith Lord.  The Darth Vader comic series fills in some of the gaps in the eighteen year time period between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope and delves pretty into the Vader mythos.  It’s practically begging to be made into a movie.  As an Anime however, you can go all out with the intensity and violence.  The wrath of Darth Vader is relentless and definitely isn’t something best left to a young kids imagination just looking at the dark figure with the nightmarish breathing.  For us long time (and more adult and mature fans), this is the Star Wars story we want to see in some shape or form…I vote Anime, what about you?

 

#3-Doctor Aphra

Introduced during the Darth Vader comic series, Chellia Lona Aphra is an archeologist who once worked for the Sith Lord before a falling out forced her to fake her own death to evade him…for the time being.  While I haven’t read much of her own solo series, Doctor Aphra’s always been a fascinating looking new  character to the mythos.  She reminds me of a female Han Solo with a  bit more of a deceptive streak.  Plus, yes she is pretty cute.  Factor in that she’s got a psychotic Protocol and Astro Droid in her party (think if R2D2 and C3PO were psycho killers) and you’ve got the makings of a potential Cowboy Bebop or Outlaw Star type story set in the Star Wars universe.  Would actually be neat if, much like her origins, Aphra’s story started in Darth Vader and spun off from it.

 

#2-Knights of the Old Republic

Is this a given? I think it’s a given.  Jedi are basically space age Samurai.  Can you just imagine them running around getting into a mix of Rurouni Kenshin or Ninja Scroll style adventures…in space?  The best part, you could set this anywhere in the Star Wars timeline.  Go thousands of years back to the age of Sateele Shan or go to the time just before The Phantom Menace and focus on Qui Gon Jinn and his first time meeting Obi Wan Kenobi, Mace Windu and Yoda.  Old Obi Wan Kenobi once said, “For a thousand generations, the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic.”  That’s basically daring you to close your eyes, let your finger wander to anywhere in the Star Wars timeline…and start an Anime fueled journey in a galaxy far, far away you’d never forget.

 

#1-Shadows of the Empire

Shadows of the Empire was a fascinating experiment in the Star Wars franchise.  Basically, Lucasfilm wanted to see if they could market a movie level Star Wars event without making the movie itself.  The story was set in the year between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.  While Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and their friends try to find the captured Han Solo, they end up caught in the middle of a power struggle between the Empire and the Black Sun Syndicate.  Shadows of the Empire’s main plot was told across 3 mediums: the novel-the main story; the comic-the Boba Fett side of things; the video game-an N64 launch title focused on Han Solo’s temporary replacement, Dash Rendar.  But you know what?  I want the full story in one cohesive feature.  We’re probably never getting this in live action formant.  So I turn to Anime.  It would be a good reason to get Mark Hamill, Billy Dee Williams and James Earl Jones back in the chairs of their favorite characters (replacing Leia would be tough, we miss you Carrie Fisher).  It could be a series, it could be a movie, honestly im fine with either or…could we maybe let Production IG or Ufotable handle the animation so, if nothing else, it looks gorgeous as hell?