Thursday, April 02, 2015

Star Wars Anime-"TIE Fighter"


This is a short film (7:30min) in anime style, depicting the Star Wars universe from the point-of-view of The Empire. It's pretty awesome.




The animation was done by Paul Johnson, aka MightyOtaking, aka OtaKing77077. It took him 4 years worth of weekends to create, and his effort resulted in a stunning depiction of the Imperial Navy going into battle with Rebel forces.

There are a lot of visual references to the classic 1990's computer game TIE Fighter, which I played constantly when I was in high school. In this video, the cockpit design of the TIEs, the Interdictor-class Star Destroyer (with gravity well generators, to prevent hyperspace jumps), the different TIE Fighter styles, and other details are reminiscent of the game & other aspects of the Star Wars expanded universe.

The only thing I wasn't really crazy about was the crazy guitar soundtrack. I guess it fit with the anime style animation, but I would have preferred some John Williams orchestral music. Otherwise, it is an impressive piece of Star Wars fan art.

On a related note, the name T.I.E. Fighter stands for "Twin Ion Engine". George Lucas's views of futuristic technology were prescient. Researchers are currently developing ion propulsion systems for a new generation of spacecraft. It is an extremely effective mode of accelerating vehicles or unmanned probes. It's just one of the ways Star Wars, like other science fiction visions, can be manifested into reality.

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