Rick and Morty: The Anime Isn’t Funny Like the Original (And That’s Ok)

Summary

• Rick and Morty: The Anime introduces new adventures between Rick and Morty in anime style.
• The series had its start is a series of shorts.
• The anime has a different sense of humor compared to the original series, skewing towards more typical anime humor.

Rick and Morty: The Anime is a spin-off of the popular Rick and Morty series. The anime has had quite a bit of history in the making, having actually gotten its start in a series of shorts. At first, the series might seem like the perfect thing for both fans of anime and the Rick and Morty series, but there is the question of just how different the anime is when compared to the original series. More to the point, is the anime just as funny as the original?

At first, the two series already feel like they simply have two different senses of humor. The original series is typical of an adult animated series from the West, while the anime adaptation naturally draws more on what viewers could probably expect from an anime. As with any adaptation, characters, and their interactions with each other, can also be different. Let’s explore whether or not Rick and Morty: The Anime has the same funnybone as its parent series.

What Is Rick & Morty: The Anime?

The anime takes place between the original series’ fifth and sixth seasons, during a point where the characters can’t travel through portals. It revolves around an alternate version of the Smith family. That said, the story is a standalone one, introducing new characters while revisiting old ones.

While given an anime influence, the character designs greatly mimic the designs of the original series. This is made all the more notable when compared with the late-night anime fare that Adult Swim and Toonami is known for. Many of the Japanese voice actors from the original series reprise their roles, but the English dub features a brand-new cast.

Where Did the Series Come From?

The spin-off has its origins in a series of shorts that first came out in 2020. These involved all sorts of stories, like “Samurai & Shogun,” which saw Shogun Rick protect Morty, his ward, and “Summer Meets God (Rick Meets Evil),” which sees Summer encounter a supernatural being that takes the form of a smartphone while Rick fights with an evil version of himself.

Series director Takashi Sano worked on two of the shorts, “Rick And Morty vs. Genocider” and “Summer Meets God (Rick Meets Evil).” TMS Entertainment, which also worked on both shorts, also animated the series through Telecom Animation Film.

In a conversation with Comicbook, executive producer Jason DeMarco said,

“We had always at Adult Swim leaned into the idea of working with independent animators or animators from around the world to reinterpret our shows. And
Rick and Morty
was so popular that we knew we wanted to do different interpretations.”

The Anime & the Original Have Different Styles of Humor

In general, the spin-off plays like a typical anime comedy instead of trying to emulate Western adult animation. There is a lot less focus on NSFW humor or dialogue. Similarly, while the original series liked to break the fourth wall and subvert story tropes, the anime can be wacky, but usually plays things straight.

For example, one story has Morty encounter a VR game complete with two characters, Elle and Frank, who let him experience different lives in virtual reality. While viewers are treated to different realities, the idea is mostly played straight, with a theme of making sense of the world you’re in. The idea of alternate realities is a recurring element in the Rick and Morty series, but there is usually some twist.

In some ways, the characters also skew more towards typical anime characters than their original counterparts. Rick comes off a lot less abrasive in the anime, for example, being more of an eccentric than an anarchist. This also reflects how the characters interact with each other. The original series would have the characters insult Jerry, but the story gradually vindicates their criticisms.

The anime still makes jokes about Jerry, like having him repeatedly complain about the toilet or having him be left out of a family photo, but the other characters usually don’t comment on it. In other words, the anime takes a more direct approach to belittling Jerry, with his actions already being the joke.

Still, the anime clearly had the fans of the original in mind, as it’s filled with references to popular gags from the original. One clip, for example, has Jerry from the “Cronenberg” universe serving as a protector in Rick’s absence, facing off against Mr. Nimbus, Rick’s memetic Atlantean nemesis. On the other hand, this means viewers who aren’t too familiar with the original series probably aren’t going to understand these references.

Is the Anime as Funny as the Original?

Ultimately, while the series has a different style of humor when compared to the original, fans of the series probably won’t find it as funny, though the series was clearly made with them in mind. At the very least, they won’t find the types of jokes that got them to like the show in the first place.

Fans who also like anime might enjoy the series’ format and appreciate a look at a new medium. Even then, some anime fans probably would’ve liked the series to have tried to imitate an anime more stylistically, as opposed to an art style similar to the original cartoon. Ultimately, some fans might prefer to stick with the original shorts.