Rick and Morty may be taking a break until it comes back with a full sixth season for the show, but that won’t stop Adult Swim from pushing the series with other content like this new thrilling anime adventure that's nearly half as long as a regular episode.
This is hardly the first anime collaboration for Rick and Morty, as the series has featured three previous anime shorts titled Samurai & Shogun, Rick and Morty vs. Genocider, and Summer Meets God (Rick Meets Evil), with the former being produced by Studio Deen and the other two being Sola Entertainment creations. Just like in previous iterations, the new “The Great Yokai Battle of Akihabara” comes with Japanese dialogue and it’s available on Adult Swim’s YouTube Channel.
“The Great Yokai Battle of Akihabara” is directed by Masaru Matsumoto and, like so many Rick and Morty episodes, it starts off with a trivial new invention by Rick. In this case, the invention is a supersmart toaster that requires a very precise Japan-made screw to be repaired. Luckily, thanks to the Japanese economy’s stagnation, Rick believes he’ll be able to find the screw. So, he and Morty head to the famous Akibahara district, where Rick set up a secret lab about three decades ago, to mark the start of a glorious 10-minute short.
Unfortunately for Rick, the modern Akibahara is not what he remembers and he even finds an old/new sworn enemy in Yamada Q-Saku, who swears revenge upon Rick depriving him of a complimentary picture at one of the local maid cafes Morty visits. The rest of the video is packed with anime references, especially in the yokai monsters taken straight from Studio Ghibli classics, and even a big mecha anime battle, only this time the animation ditches the anime visuals in favor of something much more akin to the mainline Rick and Morty art style
Without spoiling anything, the episode is quite funny, perhaps even more so than many of the season five episodes, including the one that tried to reach into anime territory without too much success in recreating the same charm of the Japanese shorts. Rick and Morty’s fifth season disappointed many fans, with a surprisingly high number of episodes receiving mixed or negative reviews, a rare feat for one of Adult Swim's biggest properties.
There’s still no official release date for Rick and Morty's sixth season, and the same goes for what kind of story the show’s creators will be pursuing now that fans have a better insight into Rick’s past.
Rick and Morty airs on Adult Swim.
Source: Adult Swim | YouTube