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When I decided to take this journey to watch Rick and Morty The Anime, I really wanted to challenge myself. To think about what made those Takashi Sano-directed shorts so special and why Adult Swim found the need to greenlight a whole series based around them. At the time that I wrote the episode review for the start of the series, the shorts didn’t click with me. I didn’t hate them, but they weren’t amazing, at least not to me. However, after watching three episodes of this show and having a miserable time, I decided to go back and rewatch those shorts, and I found myself pleasantly surprised that the shorts were far more inventive and creative than what the series was doing. I was concerned that Adult Swim may have interfered at a point to tell Sano not to do the same thing he did with those shorts because those episodes gave a horrible first impression of the series. They were unfortunately very bland and forgettable, not really something I want coming from those well-directed and creatively made shorts. Thankfully, episode four is much better, and while it isn’t what I’d call great, if the quality can improve from here then surely, so can the show as a whole, right? Well…
The episode continues from the previous one, with Morty and Summer off to find Rick while Rick deals with his reality colliding with various Ricks from different universes. It certainly was a more interesting episode, one where something is always happening but still having a focus on Rick. I find that Rick’s characterization in this show continues to add new layers to his character. In watching it, calling him complicated is probably the most accurate description. It’s easy to tell that Rick cares about his family but is easily distanced from it and that’s true of the various other Ricks as well. To be fair, that’s not a new thing, as Rick has his sentimental moments, but it still all serves the purpose of his experiments. In this it feels less like that and more that he’s distant because he knows that at any point his family could be in danger. I like that with this Rick because it fleshes out his character much more than the first few episodes where it just felt like the same Rick from the American show, only from the perspective of a Japanese storyteller instead. I also found the Morty scenes far more entertaining, especially by the end where he does a mass prison break and destroys the Gromflomite headquarters station on some planet. Things might be starting to come together with this show after a slow start, but we’ll see where the rest of the show lands. I hope it can get better, but I think it’s probably too little, too late. First impressions mean everything these days and those first few episodes left a negative impression for many.
Just the other day, I rewatched the first few episodes of Space Dandy for the first time in probably ten years as I didn’t check out the full rerun back in 2018 and I haven’t seen the show since it premiered in 2014. Yet, Space Dandy’s first episode and the following ones after are fantastic! It does everything right by setting a tone, establishing the characters, and is just laugh out loud hilarious. In terms of the context of when it premiered, that was nuts. Regular Toonami viewers knew nothing about this show outside the fact that legendary anime director Shinichiro Watanabe was attached to it, so to watch the premiere and find out it was a zany sci-fi pulp comedy was a big surprise! Those first few episodes (minus the boob alien episode) all held their ground and still hold up today. Space Dandy held my interest till the very end in 2014 and it’s because those initial episodes that consist of the “first season” were so well crafted and wonderful.
I bring up this mini review of Space Dandy because first impressions make or break any series. They give the viewer an idea of what the series is and what’s in store for them. The unfortunate reality Rick and Morty The Anime faces is that if those episodes don’t resonate with an audience, people can and will drop the show quickly, and in this case, those first three episodes are crap. I’m certainly not saying everyone is going to drop it, as there will likely be stragglers who will want to watch it until the end, but for the vast majority of people, likely those considered to be the casual watcher, there’s a high chance that they’ll drop the series after three episodes because those episodes set the tone, and as such, they may not come back to watch the show even if it improves. While this episode was a massive improvement to those before it, I still don’t find it great, and I think rewatching those shorts changed my perspective. Where the shorts were so fluid and had loads of creative elements, the animation in the series just doesn’t meet that same standard, with things feeling choppy. Although it isn’t distracting by any means, it’s certainly noticeable.
It’s going to take a lot in order for things to get better and unless Rick and Morty The Anime can pull off a miracle by having a really hype scene or even just a consistent string of fantastic episodes, I feel it will have lost viewers for good and honestly, that’s a shame because at this point, episode four is the best out of all episodes that have aired thus far. That isn’t a high bar to clear, but it’s also difficult to win people over when you have a string of poor episodes one after another. I’m still interested to see where things go from here, but I’ll continue approaching this show with caution.
7/10
