Production I.G's The Ninth Jedi Team on Star Wars Influences
The interview shows a Production I.G team treating the Star Wars catalog as working reference rather than fan service, with Kamiyama and Tada openly favoring the recent Disney+ series and Ito citing Clone Wars and Star Wars Outlaws as his textbooks.
Reporting from 1 source: Anime News Network.
Anime News Network spoke with supervising director Kenji Kamiyama, series director Shunsuke Tada, and producer Hitoshi Ito about Star Wars: Visions Presents - The Ninth Jedi. The three discussed their first encounters with Star Wars, from Kamiyama's Episode IV viewing at twelve to Ito's theatrical start with The Phantom Menace in eighth grade, and named Clone Wars and the Star Wars Outlaws game as their main preparation.
The interview ran three hours and covered the origins of the color-changing lightsabers, the philosophy behind the series, and how this team's read on the Jedi differs from earlier takes. Tada said he was drawn to newer directors' work, naming The Acolyte, Ahsoka, and Andor, while Kamiyama admitted he has never played a Star Wars game or read the novels and has stuck to the films and the live-action shows. Ito rewatched Clone Wars and played Star Wars Outlaws to rebuild his feel for the universe.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.
Sources
- Anime News Network Interview: A Deep Dive into the Creation and Philosophy of The Ninth Jedi