Well, maybe not, I don't know. This post title is to be silly rather than argumentative. But I do know that after having watched Star Wars in Japanese for the past few years (my kids prefer it that way) I'm used to it enough that watching it in English is a little strange.

Luckily for me I showed my kids the first film (the original first film, "a new hope") so they love it most of all. Hmm... come to think of it, I've never shown them the prequels. And so it shall remain! "What prequels?" Exactly!

The first one really is such a great film. Cheesy, but in a great callback way to Flash Gordon. Vader wasn't yet dad (this wasn't added until a late revision to the Empire script), Leia wasn't yet sister (this wasn't added till Jedi, as Lucas searched desperately for something that could shock us as much as the daddy reveal in Empire), it was just a good old fashioned mindless sci-fi adventure, like an anime.

Speaking of which!

Here's a cool trailer someone made of the first film in an anime style. To match the mood, they took audio from the Japanese release of the film.

Not to take anything away from James Earl Jones, but something about the metallic echo they give Vader's voice in the Japanese release makes him sound so much more menacing.

Here's another cool one someone did of the first film. It begins with the tail end of Rogue One which is fun to see animated. The art is a little inconsistent, but we can look past that. This gives it even more of an anime feel, complete with an opening song and a commercial break (complete with a retro commercial!)

Well, that's probably enough. There are more floating around, but that will give you an idea.

One more thing. Did you know there are some lyrics for the Star Wars theme? Here you go, sung by none other than the immortal Masato Shimon (if you ever watch any old anime, like Gatchaman, or have heard the Taiyaki song, you should recognize his voice).

If that's not the greatest thing ever I don't know what is.

David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku.

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