Animated versions of Star Wars have a long, rich history. If you don’t like whichever one is currently airing , just wait a couple years and there will be another . Alternatively, you could do what one fan did and spend four years making your own, in the exact style you’ve always wanted to see it in.

Artist and animator Paul “OtaKing” Johnson spent his weekends over the course of four years devoted to creating a Star Wars short that can stand alongside early ’80s anime favorites like Space Runaway Ideon and Macross. His creation, Star Wars: TIE Fighter, combines the mischievous copyright flaunting of Adi Shankar’s recent James Bond interpolation with a meticulous sense of geeky detail. Even the music sounds spot on, tightly packed as it is with early-MTV-era guitar solos.





The video follows a bunch of the Empire’s TIE-fighter aircraft clashing with the dark forces and kicking ass with speed and intensity less suitable for children. Or in Star Wars parlance, you might say that this one’s for the Chewbaccas out there, not the Ewoks.