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The Star Wars: Visions panel at Star Wars Celebration 2025 has wrapped up and it has this anime fan tingling with excitement. We got to see the first footage of several episodes in Volume 3, but none took our breath away quite like 'Black,' the upcoming episode from legendary anime director and animator Shinya Ohira. We saw a still image of his episode, which is being produced by David Production, and it had our jaws firmly on the floor.

Shinya Ohira has been involved in some of the most iconic anime of all time. From Akira to Studio Ghibli films to One Piece episodes, the man is an icon in anime, so the news that he would be writing and directing an episode of Star Wars: Visions Volume 3 was exciting news to all of us. At Star Wars Celebration 2025, we got to see the first footage of Black and it was every bit as chaotic and intense as we hoped.

The is creepy backward music that accompanies an intense bout dogfight between TIE Fighters and X-Wings in what looks like the Death Star trench. This leads to a scene of Stormtroopers being shot and mangled to an upbeat jazz score. All of it with the free-flowing, surreal, fluid animation that Ohira is known for. Our eyes were firmly glued to the screen the entire time the footage was on the screen. We didn't always know what was happening but it was beautiful to watch unfold.

We don’t know many plot details for Black, but we do know that it will follow Stormtroopers closely. The vibe we got was that it will frame them as somewhat tragic figures, corrupted and controlled and used by the Empire as disposable foot soldiers. It seems likely that the episode will try to give us a new side to Stormtroopers – before they are inevitably killed because that’s their lot in life.

Star Wars: Visions Volume 3 is out October 29, 2025 on Disney+.

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