In one of the deeper layers of the Star Wars nesting doll of a franchise is The Ninth Jedi, a spin-off of Visions, which was itself an anthology spin-off. Continuing the adventures of the daughter of a lightsaber creator, it makes sense that this story expanded beyond its short format. The characters have a lot of potential to step right into the familiar tropes of heroes, villains, and bringing order to the galaxy. While The Ninth Jedi doesn’t exactly tread any new ground in this regard, it does have an enduring quality in its combination of a firmer focus on Jedi philosophy and a pleasing-enough anime production from director Kenji Kamiyama (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex).

Set in a future without Jedi, the young Lah Kara finds herself on a similar path to Luke Skywalker. As the daughter of the lightsaber craftsman Lah Zhima, she seeks out her dad with the help of a colorful ensemble that ranges from the stoic Jedi Juro to the plucky young Ethan to the quirky droid Gramps. Their mission is to rally the scattered Jedi forces of a dissolved order to fight back against the galaxy’s latest masked threat, the cold Nawaam. Although Nawaam has a tragic backstory that led him down a path of nihilism, he repeats the pattern of the Sith lords he claims he’s above. A deeper focus on the flaws of being numbed by chaos might’ve been compelling, but this action-centric anime takes the worn route of having the villain amass a giant weapon that can blow up planets. It’s predictable, even with the more intriguing aspects of integrating Jedi tech and lore, but it’s serviceable enough for the grand moments of mass starship combat and daring duels with lightsabers.

The animation looks crisp and clean for coming out of Production IG, but it still inherits many of the hills and valleys that come with anime. Some episodes boast expressive, fast-paced one-on-one combat scenes, while the busier war scenes always feel a little stiff in their intensity, as though the animated characters are struggling to hit their marks in the choreography. For being based on a short that came out of the highly experimental Visions anthology, there’s a tragic truth to why this entry was given an expanded story. It looks and feels most like an anime that could easily meld into the sea of shows that flood out of Japan every year, harboring all the same strengths and weaknesses.

Despite the workhorse framing, The Ninth Jedi does have a compelling enough philosophy to overlook its inevitable road to the lightsabers clashing and ships that go boom. Kara’s journey to becoming more of an accomplished Jedi than a cautious companion has her facing off against the rage of revenge and the conflicting morality of killing. She wants to protect people, but lets her emotions get the better of her, which often leads to fatal errors on both sides of the Force. She grapples with cutting through the barbaric traps that come with finding justice and the proposed meaninglessness by the disillusioned Nawaam, aiming for more nothingness than order. Watching Kara try to find the cleverest ways to use her Jedi powers in a manner that is more zen than hack-and-slash made her a more enduring character than just a cute anime girl variant of a Skywalker.

While Kara’s plight made the show engaging, the abundance of other characters doesn’t add much to the mix. Most of the series finds the characters speaking in stern tones of exposition and seriousness, giving little room for comic relief despite the many avenues presented. I was hopeful for some snarky sass from Gramps, but there’s little of that as he goes from smart-mouthing his doubters to casually taking orders. Juro does little to differentiate himself from the likes of Qui-Gon Jinn or Obi-Wan Kenobi in how he mentors Kara, passively going through the motions of the many Jedi before him without much distinction. While I didn’t expect this show to go so gung-ho Gungans or as traditionally absurd as C3PO, there is something to be said about how serious this show takes its detour to a planet of odd-looking duck people.

The Ninth Jedi mostly works as a solid anime extension of Star Wars, despite being a battle between old tropes and refreshing philosophies, where the philosophical mostly wins. The characters work well enough, and the story has enough space-opera appeal to sustain its eight episodes. The show is a more solid entry compared to the deluge of Star Wars shows in how it embraces more of the ethos of Visions, trying to tell its own story rather than map out all the connections to other Star Wars media. While still using the old playbook, it doesn’t stick to the old plays and manages to find a little more of that sci-fi fantasy magic rather than just craft a new Darth Vader that looks more like Char Aznable from Gundam.