Revenge of the Sixth? Don't Sleep on This Dark Side 'Star Wars' Gem

May the Fourth has come and gone, but that doesn't mean you have to stop celebrating Star Wars. And, depending on how one counts, May 5 and May 6 are sometimes called "Revenge of the Sixth," a play on the 2005 Revenge of the Sith. And if you're looking for something unique to watch to celebrate the darker side of the Force, then it's a good time to watch Star Wars: Visions, specifically, the stylish 2025 episode "The Duel: Payback."

If you slept on this gem, this animated short was a sequel to the 2021 episode "The Duel," which featured the former Sith character, the Ronin, a Samurai-inspired Star Wars warrior. But how did this epic Star Wars tale come about? Men's Journal got some fascinating insight from anime studio Kamikaze Douga, and they revealed why one of the goals here was to create a villain even more chilling than Darth Vader.

In "The Duel: Payback," the Ronin has to face off with a former Jedi called the Grand Master, part of an avenging group called the Jedi Crusaders. In this cracked-mirror version of Star Wars, the Jedi are relentless, and not painted as all that heroic. And, as character designer Takashi Okazaki points out, the whole idea behind frightening, somewhat robotic Grand Master was to put a strange spin on the most iconic Star Wars villain of all.

"The concept for Grand Master was to create a 'Light Vader,'" Okazaki explains. "You could see how his path could have been a possibility for Anakin. At the same time, since Ronin is a heretic Sith, I conceived of this character as a heretic Jedi, so you could also see his conflict with Ronin as Ronin confronting another possibility for himself."

As this episode plays out, there are several homages to the classic trilogy, but with a decidedly darker spin. "The Duel: Payback" makes the Ewoks hardcore in a surprising way, but the overall vibe of this installment is deeply connected to the George Lucas tradition, with a very specific anime flavor.

"I especially loved the speeder bikes racing through the forests of Endor, which inspired me to take up motorcycling myself later on," director Takanobu Mizuno explains. "I was also inspired by the Japanese science fiction anime of the time, and I suppose Rintaro's Harmagedon: Genma Wars may have been a particular subconscious influence that slipped in as well."

Producer Junpei Mizusaki also made it clear to Men's Journal that the overall goal of both "The Duel" and "The Duel: Payback" was to push the aesthetic of Star Wars into a new, dynamic direction without breaking the galaxy.

"This isn't official by any means, but our personal approach for the mindset is of thinking of it as a kind of meta-world," Mizusaki says. "Since Star Wars is said to draw inspiration from Japanese period dramas, what would it be like if that undercurrent had been a little stronger? How might another work, based on the same galaxy, have turned out?"

This story was originally published by Men's Journal on May 6, 2026, where it first appeared in the Entertainment section. Add Men's Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

2026 The Arena Group Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.

This story was originally published May 6, 2026 at 2:17 PM.