There were many elements that inspired George Lucas in Star Wars, from westerns to gangster flicks to Flash Gordon. Of course, what truly inspired Lucas was Japanese cinema, most notably citing Hidden Fortress and Yojimbo as influences. Jedi, essentially being Samurai with lasers, his universe was built for anime. Independent animators have delved into this possibility before but never had any major backing from any studio, until now. What amazes me about this series is that is does a great job treading the line from canon and non canon, as many of their stories cleverly tie into the overall history