Rick and Morty returns with new short, a new rival, and an exploding toaster

Rick and Morty has returned with another surprise anime short – which also introduces a new nemesis for the mad scientist.

Directed by Masaru Matsumoto and produced by Sola Entertainment, "The Great Yokai Battle of Akihabara" features the Japanese voice cast reuniting for an adventure that takes in Halloween, exploding toasters, and a hunt for screws – of all things – that leads Rick and Morty to the Tokyo electronic district of Akihabara.

Along the way, Rick bumps into his self-proclaimed "eternal rival" Yamada Q-Saku and even finds time to playfully poke at anime tropes: outlandish coincidences, inexplicable mecha battles, and nonsensical flashbacks are all skewered during the 10-minute runtime.

This is the fourth Rick and Morty anime short to be released. This August saw the mind-bending "Summer Meets God" hit YouTube, while the Adult Swim series originally branched out with a pair of Japanese language mini-episodes in 2020.

Much like Rick and Morty’s brief expansion into live action with Back to the Future actor Christopher Lloyd, the new anime short offers a way for fans to get a schwifty slice of the dimension-hopping duo’s adventures without slowing down any work on the main series.

Rick and Morty season 6, meanwhile, is on the way – but no release date has yet been confirmed. This past August, writer Cody Ziglar tweeted out that things had wrapped on season seven, indicating that at least part of Rick and Morty season six was in the can.

Relive some of the show’s finest hours with our rundown of the best Rick and Morty episodes.