Rick and Morty: The Anime Explores New Dimensions

Tower of God director Takashi Sano takes on the behemoth of Rick and Morty and reinterprets its universe in Rick and Morty: The Anime. Based on the first two episodes, the anime series is a refreshing new take on the decade-old series. Director Takashi Sano‘s charming designs and fluid animation style breathe new life into Rick and Morty, presenting an entirely different take on the franchise while keeping true to its characters and diverging storylines. After seven seasons of the original franchise, this spin-off faces the uphill battle of unrelenting comparisons to the main series.

Rather than being an addition to the series of the same name, Rick and Morty: The Anime is meant to be an entirely separate series, emphasized by the recast of the English voices. None of the voice actors from the original series reprised their character’s roles, and Sentai Studios did the English dub. There will be a small adjustment period to tune your ear to this cast, but the voice acting and direction are consistent with how the characters are represented in the franchise.

Jason DeMarco, SVP of Adult Swim and Warner Bros. Animation, made it clear at the SDCC 2024 panel that this show has always been designed as an extension of Rick and Morty. “This show is a little weird as a spin-off of a popular franchise because it’s not designed as a spin-off; it’s designed as an expansion.” Given the dimension-hopping exploration in the original series, the reality where the characters exist in an anime fits right in with their canon. “For us, we wanted Director Sano to be able to tell his own Rick and Morty show and make it seem like the Takashi Sano show.”

Right off the bat, there’s a noticeable tonal shift from the series’ well-known cold opens. There’s a sense of unfamiliar calm as we see the familiar faces of Gromflomites from the Galactic Federation preparing to overtake a planet. Rather than the quippy banter with guns blazing, the episode builds tension and provides exposition, indicating diverging from the usual Rick and Morty episode structure. True to the referential nature of Rick and Morty: The Anime has plenty of callbacks to pop culture and other episodes in the series.

Other than the obvious change in visual style—from the character designs, animation, and intricate backgrounds—the dialogue sounds akin to a localized English anime dub screenplay. The “anime” portion of the spin-off’s title is easily heard through the emphasis on interspersed sighs, grunts, and other noises inherent in an anime character’s speech patterns. Because Sano also worked on the writing, the flow of conversation is his interpretation of the characters, including minor ones. The second episode smoothes out any noticeable clunkiness as the overarching story unfolds.

The anime is easy to jump into without catching up on the seven seasons of Rick and Morty. However, eagle-eyed fans will catch every tiny reference and easter egg. Sano is also a self-described fanatic, as he confessed to watching every episode several times during his panel. If you’re a diehard Rick and Morty fan, think of this as a dedicated season of Interdimensional Cable.

At SDCC, Sano mentioned how naturally the influences from his previous works will flow into this season. After years of working on Lupin III, it’s no surprise that one of the Ricks looks like a blue-haired Goemon while Rick and Morty run just like Lupin and Jigen. His eye for movement and color allows him to show an incredible amount of visual information on screen with contrasting lines, shadowless flat shading, and in as few frames as possible.

“When I designed the characters, rather than having a black outline and then color it, I actually started with a brown color,” said Sano at the Rick and Morty SDCC panel. “I would then think about how to populate the world and its colors. When that’s decided, it’s trial and error to come up with the art direction in terms of the background and determine what fits the characters and the colors.”

Sano creates smooth yet intricate sequences without wasting a single shot when transitioning from one motion to the next. A standout quality of Sano’s signature line art style is the texture, often buried in other animated series that rely on shading and shadows to look polished. Although he stated he didn’t intentionally take any inspiration from any particular franchise he’s worked on, he credited anime’s inherent deformation and stretching action style.

Considering the tumultuous transition between seasons six and seven, naysayers and disinterested parties will likely overlook the entirety of this spin-off. From these two episodes, Rick and Morty: The Anime appeals to both anime and new Rick and Morty fans. Sano incorporates his version of the characters as he understands them while keeping in line with the previously established canon. Similar to the main series, stay until the end for some post-credit scenes.

Rick and Morty: The Anime will premiere an English version on Adult Swim at midnight on August 15, and will stream on Max the next day. A subtitled Japanese-language version will then be broadcast on August 17 at midnight on Toonami‘s programming block.