'Rick And Morty' Goes Back to Its Anime Roots -- Again

Move over, live-action Doc and Marty Rick and Morty – Just weeks after the beloved Adult Swim cartoon paid tribute to its Back To The Future roots in the show's fifth season finale, the beloved series has reconnected with yet another one of its pop culture influences – Anime. In honor of spooky season, and well, probably the fact Cartoon Network can only make so much money from facilitating endless autumnal re-watches of Dante's Inferno at The American History Museum On Shrooms Over The Garden Wall, it seems Dan Harmon and co. have stepped up as the heroes we need and deserve in these trying times, creating an anime-inspired Rick and Morty special to mark the scariest time of year. 

Entitled The Great Yokai Battle of Akihabara, the new Halloween special has all the gloriously nonsensical makings of a Rick and Morty special, featuring inter-dimensional travel, giant brain-powered robots, and decades-long vendettas – except its Wubba Lubba Dub Dub-ed in Japanese with English subtitles. Centering around the duo traveling to Japan in search of a specific screw to fix their interactive toaster – an appliance that should be a staple in every kitchen – the dynamic, pickle-adjacent grandpa/neurotic grandson duo find themselves on an 11-minute epic which may or may not leave Tokyo destroyed, and Rick without the perfectly-browned breakfast staple. 

Yet as Collider noted, this is far from the first time Rick and Morty has gleaned inspiration from Anime. Just like Back to the Future and the insufferable pocket of its fandom that believes in all fairness, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Rick and Morty, etc., the show, which is currently working on its sixth season, has long paid homage to the art form, releasing anime-inspired specials and one-off episodes from time to time.

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