| Director: | Takashi Sano |
| Num Seasons: | 1 |
| Num Episodes: | 10 (+ 5 shorts) |
| Executive Producer: | Jason DeMarco Joseph Chou Maki Terashima-Furuta |
| Producer: | Maki Nagano Max Nishi Takenari Maeda Koji Iijima |
| Runtime: | 17–26 minutes |
| Network: | Adult Swim |
| Last Aired: | present |
| Related: | Rick and Morty (franchise) |
Rick and Morty: The Anime is an adult animated science fiction sitcom series created and developed by Takashi Sano and produced by Studio Deen, Sola Entertainment and Telecom Animation Film for Adult Swim. The third series in the franchise, based on the animated series of the same name by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon, set between the fifth and sixth seasons of the main series, it stars Yōhei Tadano as Rick Sanchez and Keisuke Chiba as Morty Smith, reprising their roles from the Japanese dub of the original series. None of the cast of the English version of the original series reprise their roles for its English dub.
Following five short films released from March 29, 2020, to November 12, 2021, the series itself premiered on August 16, 2024. It received mixed reviews from critics.
Rick and Morty: The Anime revolves around the adventures of the Smith family, in particular mad scientist Rick Sanchez, and his grandchildren, the 14-year-old Morty Smith and the 17-year-old Summer Smith, whose parents, Jerry and Beth Smith (Rick's daughter), disapprove of their adventures. As Morty meets "time warrior" Elle, parallel storylines set between the fifth and sixth seasons of the main series (while portal travel is shut down) explore the final months of the lives of the alternate reality spacefaring hero "Space Morty", and Morty's original father Jerry Prime.
Different versions of the characters (including the bespectacled genocider, President Morty Smith) inhabit other dimensions throughout the show's multiverse, with their personal characteristics varying from one reality to another.[1] [2]
A six-minute short film titled Samurai & Shogun aired unannounced on Adult Swim's Toonami programming block on March 29, 2020, during the hiatus of the fourth season of Rick and Morty, before being uploaded to Adult Swim's YouTube channel the following day. Written and directed by Kaichi Sato, and produced by Koji Iijima and Studio Deen and executive producer Maki Terashima-Furuta, the episode features a different animation and art style than usual, and is heavily themed around anime, specifically Lone Wolf & Cub. The short stars Yōhei Tadano as "Rick WTM-72" and Keisuke Chiba as "Shogun Morty", the pair reprising their roles from the Japanese dub of the animated series.[3] [4] The English subtitles were produced by Sentai Studios, who would later produce the subtitles the rest of the short films.
Another eight-minute short film titled Rick and Morty vs. Genocider aired unannounced on Toonami on July 26, 2020, debuting on YouTube slightly after. Written and directed by Takashi Sano, produced by Sola Entertainment, animated at Telecom Animation Film, and starring Tadano and Chiba as Rick and Morty, Manabu Muraji as Jerry, "AI Driver", and "Hologram Transvestite", and Yuki Minami as "Hologram Girl", the episode explores the conflict between President Morty and Rick C-137.[5] [6] [7]
A third short film, titled Summer Meets God (Rick Meets Evil) and also written and directed by Takashi Sano, was released on YouTube on August 2, 2021, and aired on Adult Swim the following day. A fourth short film, titled The Great Yokai Battle of Akihabara, directed by Masaru Matsumoto and written by Naohiro Fukushima, was released on YouTube on October 10, 2021, and aired on Adult Swim the following day. A fifth short film, titled Samurai & Shogun Part 2 and featuring the return of Samurai & Shoguns Kaichi Sato as writer and director, was released on YouTube on November 12, 2021 as part of the 2021 Adult Swim Festival.
In May 2022, Adult Swim announced a 10-episode order for Rick and Morty: The Anime, an anime television series from Telecom Animation Film.[8] The series is written and directed by Takashi Sano.[9]
The anime series premiered on Adult Swim English dubbed on August 16, 2024 and on its Toonami programming block in Japanese with English subtitles on August 18.[10] Both the English dub and sub were produced by Sentai Studios.
The premiere episode received 192,000 viewers.[11]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 50% of 6 critics' reviews for the first season were positive, with an average rating of 5.8/10.[12]