Rick and Morty is renowned for its surreal storylines and long waits between seasons. A new short clip has recently surprised fans of the show.
The irreverent Adult Swim cartoon has been acclaimed for its unique style and cynical sense of humour. With fans still waiting for the second half of Rick and Morty’s fourth season, a new short has recently rewarded patient viewers.

Season four of the science fiction animated comedy hasn’t released new episodes since mid-December last year.
With the current coronavirus uncertainty putting major television production on hold, it looks like Rick and Morty enthusiasts could be waiting several months for the season to conclude.

Thankfully, the series has been slowly releasing new content to satiate anxious fans whose patience with co-creators Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon may be wearing thin.

Produced by new collaborators Studio DEEN, rather than the series’ animation company headed by Justin and Dan, the 6-minute short appeared suddenly on Adult Swim’s YouTube channel.

Titled Samurai and Shogun, the short animation is a blood-soaked send-up of samurai films and anime, with a healthy dose of Rick and Morty’s signature surrealism.

The short is entirely in Japanese, taking inspiration from the films of Akira Kurosawa and samurai serials like Lone Wolf and Cub, and the bloody combat style will be familiar to anyone who played Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice last year.

A samurai Rick named WFM-72, complete with a white Kimono and katana, makes his way through a rice field, where green portals open up and he is ambushed by a group of Ninja Ricks and their fierce leader.

Longtime fans of the series will recognise the image of an army of Rick clones from episodes involving the Citadel, a gigantic city in space that houses several thousand Ricks and Mortys from alternate dimensions.

This Rick seems to have a bounty on his head after kidnapping a pram-bound Morty, who spends most of the short staring vacantly, but may be more powerful than he appears.

Featuring a blend of traditional and 3D animation, the short episode’s animation style looks a little different to what is usually seen on the show.

It has not been revealed whether Studio DEEN will be working on future collaborations with co-creators Dan and Justin, but the new studio contributed to the short’s more ambitious action sequences.

More brutal and even bloodier than Rick and Morty fans are used to, the 3D style is more immersive and visceral than the standard episode, and may hint at more experimental content from the series to come.

Rick and Morty have also not run into the Council of Ricks for some time, so the presence of a squad of Rick ninjas could hint towards a major altercation with other Ricks happening in the latter half of season four.

70 new episodes for the series have been commissioned by Adult Swim, including the five already aired last year and the five still to come.

Before the COVID-19 outbreak worsened and TV productions were forced to temporarily shut down, the creators of Rick and Morty promised fans the long gaps between seasons were over.
A post on the series’ official Instagram page also promised the return of season four sometime in 2020.

Unfortunately, there has been no confirmation on how much of the new season had been left incomplete before the current period of uncertainty.

Another teaser, titled Rick’s Game, released in February of this year also had fans speculating more episodes were on the way, but none have materialised yet.
For now, fans may just have to accept these small samples of Rick and Morty content as the best the series has to offer for the time being.