‘Rick & Morty: The Anime’ Episodes 1-2 Review: An Interesting Mess

Adult Swim announced back in 2022 a Rick & Morty anime adaptation. It would be heavily inspired by the main series, and it also had a few anime shorts that were released beforehand on the Adult Swim YouTube channel. The show sees “Rick relaxing in a pseudo-world between multiverses, Summer helping Space Beth fight the evil Galactic Federation, and Morty falling in love with a mysterious girl who happens to be an atemporal being.” The series consists of 10 episodes and will be released in English and Japanese.

As a big Rick & Morty fan, I was excited for this, and as we’re not getting an eighth season until next year, this would be enough to fill that void. Unfortunately, this show does have its problems, with the biggest issue being the incoherent storylines. I can only describe it as a fever dream while being on acid, lots of colour and action happening all at once but at a speed that leaves you confused, to the point I had to rewatch a few scenes just to understand what was going as it was jumping from main story to sub-story at a pace I couldn’t take in.

As this is a 10-episode season, hopefully down the line it will start making a little bit more sense. Another problem that ends up being confusing is whether or not this show is canon to the main show, due to various things mentioned in the show that begin to touch spoiler territory.

As some may already know, the voice actors used for this series are completely different from the main series, and… they are alright, nothing special; they get the job done, but I will say, I do like the sort of new take on Rick. In the main series, Rick at times can be really bitter, but this version is a more chilled version of him, and I love it. As with all the other characters, they are all pretty chilled and laid-back versions of the main show characters, which I also found ok.

And although those problems do sound like a lot, what makes this show so compelling and different from the main show is its art style and soundtrack. Each scene looks beautifully detailed, with colours that pop out the screen, with anime styles and action scenes that make you forget you’re watching a Rick and Morty spin-off, with the soundtrack pairing each scene perfectly like a wine and cheese platter, so if, like me, you also end up not understanding what the hell is going on with the plot, at least you will enjoy the art style, the soundtrack, and watching things go boom.

Rick & Morty: The Anime doesn’t really offer anything groundbreaking, but if you can get past the confusing plot lines, then I do think you’ll have a fun time watching this, even if it leaves you slightly confused. This one was truly made for die-hard fans of Rick & Morty or animes.

Rick and Morty: The Anime premieres August 15 on Adult Swim.