Viewers watching Sword Art Online on Toonami the night of March 28 were in for a surprise. Instead of a commercial break in the middle of the episode, they were treated to a six-minute Rick and Morty anime short film titled "Samurai and Shogun." For those who missed it on TV, Adult Swim uploaded the short on YouTube, where it's already amassed millions of views.

The short takes place in a parallel dimension in the Rick and Morty multiverse, identified as Dimension WTM72. It showcases one samurai Rick wandering with a shogun Morty in a weaponized wooden cart and violently facing off against an army of ninja Ricks. Viewers familiar with Kazuo Koike's Lone Wolf and Club manga series and/or its series of film adaptations will recognize the direct homage.

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"Anime" gets thrown around a lot as a marketing term in the age of Netflix's Castlevania and other "anime-esque" Western productions, but this Rick and Morty short is not merely an homage, but an actual Japanese anime production. Kaichi Sato is the director. Studio Deen, known for such shows as Ranma 1/2 and Hetalia, produced the animation. The voice actors Yohei Tadano and Keisuke Chiba are the regular Japanese dub voices for Rick and Morty respectively.

Visually, the short doesn't look like what you might expect "anime Rick and Morty" to look like. The character designs aren't altered to stereotypical anime style but, instead, are faithful to the show's art style. The big difference from the show's regular look is in the method of the animation itself; instead of 2D animation, it's done entirely in cel-shaded 3D computer animation.

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Rick and Morty is not the first Cartoon Network show to collaborate with anime talent. Director Masaaki Yuasa and his Science SARU studio made the surreal "Food Chain" episode of Adventure Time. Studio TRIGGER contributed to the Steven Universe episode "Mindful Education", which was co-written by Takafumi Hori, and animated the opening themes to both OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes and Season 2 of Adult Swim's Black Dynamite. Studio 4°C animated part of the Amazing World of Gumball episode "The Fury."

We still don't have any news in regards to when the second half of Rick and Morty Season 4 will air. The surprise release of "Samurai and Shogun" throws a bone to fans patiently waiting for the show's return, and serves as evidence that Adult Swim and Toonami, in particular, know how to keep viewers on their toes.

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