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Rick and Morty has been known to push the envelope – Giant Incest Baby, anyone? – but the surprise new short that’s just dropped, Summer Meets God, aims to top the lot.
Directed by Tower of God’s Takashi Sano and animated by Telecom Animation Film (perhaps best known for its work on Lupin III), the 15-minute ‘short’ is essentially a full-fat bonus episode for those desperate to see more of Rick and Morty’s experimental side.
Taking its cues from several beloved anime, Summer Meets God starts simply enough: a spaceship on the moon. From there, it spirals out into all-out chaos, kickstarted by a looping clip of a twerking Summer playing over the ship’s screens. Summer falls in love with a new Her-esque device named Delta and Rick, as the episode description states, is "just being Rick."
Summer Meets God even piggybacks onto the most recent Rick and Morty season 5 episode, which saw the Smith family parody the Voltron franchise with its own 'Gotron'. It even finds time to poke around in a grab bag of anime touchstones – Akira’s explosions and Neon Genesis Evangelion’s overwrought existentialism feature – and fuses in some Western influences such as 2001: A Space Odyssey to create what might, for some, rank up there as an instant all-time Rick and Morty classic.
Much like the show proper, it even has a third-act twist – one that we daren’t spoil here. It’s authentically Rick and Morty too, as the Japanese voice cast portray Jerry’s pathetic tones, Beth’s earnestness, and Rick’s mad scientist tones with unerring accuracy.
The new short follows on from a pair of anime mini-episodes released in 2020. Samurai & Shogun was well-received, as was the slightly longer Rick and Morty vs. Genocider. Now, the projects are edging closer and closer into full episode territory. The future of Rick and Morty might, hopefully, see more and more of these shorts come to fruition, each with their own director attached to provide their own flourish. But they might to tone down the familial relations a little bit. Just saying.
Find out when the next Rick and Morty episode drops with our Rick and Morty season 5 release schedule.
