With its heavy use of silhouettes during the moments where Ahsoka is reliving her past, you can readily spot the visual parallels between “Shadow Warrior” and the combat sequences from “Kagemusha” (see the above image). According to Tran, she and Filoni strove for “heavy saturation and silhouettes” in these scenes, with Filoni telling ICGM that he particularly wanted to evoke the “color and surrealism” of the nighttime battle in Kurosawa’s film. Filoni explained his reasoning as follows:
“The silhouettes of the clones moving in a fog of memory. Q and I got together with the previz team and we staged [all of episode 5] together so it was all realized before we ever got to the stage. We both felt that because it was such an abstract episode, we wanted to be certain of the images and their impact when we went to capture them.”
One may notice “Kagemusha” makes use of unnaturally — but strikingly — bold colors during its action scenes, as opposed to the comparatively realistic shades used in “Shadow Warrior.” In point of fact, most of “Ahsoka” is relatively visually grounded, even when depicting wondrous planets and locations like the World Between Worlds. It’s a creative choice more than anything, though it’s also one of the many reasons why “Star Wars” animation enthusiasts like myself wish that “Ahsoka” had been an animated show rather than live-action (given that Filoni has typically been willing to utilize bolder and more pleasing colors in animation). Be that as it may, “Shadows Warrior” certainly boasts its fair share of eye-catching imagery. As is so frequently the case with “Star Wars,” you can thank Akira Kurosawa for that.
“Ahsoka” season 1 is now streaming on Disney+, with season 2 currently in active development.