The Mandalorian And Grogu Has Fallen Victim To The Worst Anime Movie Trend

We are less than a month away from the release of the first "Star Wars" movie in years, yet it feels as if the excitement is non-existent. "The Mandalorian and Grogu" should be a sure-fire winner, yet the fact that the movie is a feature-length film based on a TV show easily available on Disney+ is definitely at least part of the problem. Recently, Jon Favreau revealed that "The Mandalorian" Season 4 got reworked and its Thrawn storyline thrown away. 

The reason? Favreau had to rethink the story when "The Mandalorian and Grogu" became a reality, in order to appeal to general audiences that don't watch the show. That meant focusing on archetypes and a broad story rather than specifically following up threads from previous seasons. The problem is making a standalone movie that even casual fans understand while ignoring what came before feels quite similar to the worse anime movie trend — telling non-canon side stories.

There's a reason the two most successful anime movies of all time are "Demon Slayer" movies. They are direct continuations of the "Demon Slayer" anime, adapting the next storyline from the manga rather than telling an original non-canon story. Audiences enjoy when they're given a story they should care about. "The Mandalorian and Grogu" doesn't seem to have that. Indeed, there hasn't been anything in the marketing so far that sells this as a must-watch movie rather than just an extended filler episode of television. And this is a problem that's plagued anime for years.

Anime is a medium, not a genre. There are as many anime movies of all genres and formats coming out in a year as there are live-action Hollywood movies being released. There's everything from tiny-budget independent fare like "On-Gaku: Our Sound," to blockbuster productions like "The Boy and the Heron." There are adaptations of manga like "Akira," original ideas like "Your Name," and a metric ton of movies based on popular anime.

This last bit is important. I'm referring to, for example, the 25 (and counting) "Pokémon" movies of varying quality, the 24 "Dragon Ball" movies," the 11 "Naruto" movies or even the 45 (!!) feature-length "Doraemon" movies.

Movies based on TV shows are nothing new. Hollywood has done it for decades, with films like "The Brady Bunch Movie" or "South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut." The difference is that Hollywood movies based on TV shows are often based on sitcoms or shows without much continuity. In anime, the vast majority of shows that get the feature film treatment actually have a continuity. Shows like "Dragon Ball" and "One Piece" are heavily serialized and every episode does build up to the next one, as they are adapting a serialized manga.

Movies based on this kind of show, however, are not adapting the manga. Instead, they tend to be fluff side adventures with zero impact to the overall plot. They can be fun, for sure, but they're mostly examples of fan service and show moments and character interactions fans want to see but don't often get in the main show. It's why the "Demon Slayer" and "Chainsaw Man" movies were so popular: They actually adapted storylines from their manga into film rather than tell non-canon stories.

Remember when LucasFilm announced they were going to make "Star Wars" anthology movies, to be released in-between the big episode films? These "A Star Wars Story" movies were going to tell smaller stories based on supporting characters. Of course, as we now know, we only got two of these before "Solo" proved so disappointing that the whole idea was scrapped.

"The Mandalorian and Grogu" opting for a side story without much consequence for the main show feels similar. Sure, this is still a big screen "Star Wars" movie, but why should audiences care about the film if it doesn't continue the story fans followed for four years? At least non-canon anime movies at times tease some big development coming up in the anime, like that time "One Piece Film Red" offered the first look at Luffy's Gear 5 transformation.

So far, it doesn't seem like there's any story reason to watch "The Mandalorian and Grogu" on the big screen rather than wait for Disney+. Sure, it will likely have cool moments, and we are getting a bunch of cameos from characters making their jump to live-action. Those who are following the overall MandoVerse story and want to see how it all ties together, however, may not find much of note here.

It doesn't help that the last time we got a new chapter of the MandoVerse, with "Ahsoka" Season 1, we got a big threat in the form of Thrawn, and the promise of a massive event movie to take care of him and the Empire Remnant. That we're getting what is likely just a side story with Din Djarin and Grogu instead feels like a wasted opportunity.