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Rick and Morty vs. Genocider is a Rick and Morty short inspired by anime.
Production[]
The video is 8 minutes and 35 seconds long. It was produced by Deen Digital. Takashi Sano served as director and screenwriter.
Plot[]
Rick leaves Morty at the Citadel of Ricks, and heads for Tokyo. The Citadel, under the control of Evil Morty, tell Morty that Rick is being hunted by a group called the "Genociders". They are destroying life by changing memories, with the intention that only Rick will be left at the end. However, the Genociders are really the Citadel themselves, who are hunting Rick.
Morty is sent to Japan in search of Rick. When he gets to Japan, people start to disappear. Morty remembers Rick explaining how reality is mutually determined by the interaction of people's memories. Morty drops a mobile phone that the Citadel were going to use to track him, and activates a floating raft previously given to him by Rick. This takes him to the last place in Japan where there are still people, Shinjuku Kabukicho, a neighbourhood of pleasure and vice. Perhaps Rick and by extension those around him are immune to the genocide technique, or else Rick has chosen to situate himself among people with vivid experiences whose consciousnesses are not easily erased.
Morty finds Rick, who explains that he invented the technique of changing reality through altering memories, using a substance excreted by the alien parasites who appeared in Total Rickall (incidentally showing that time travel, much maligned by Rick, is pointless). But the Citadel had abused it. He reassures Morty that they will be together again soon and have more adventures. He gives Morty a test tube with a potion, saying it will turn him into "Rip Van Winkle" - a mythological figure who slept for a long time. (In the spoken Japanese, the figure referred to is instead "Urashima Taro", who found himself displaced to hundreds years in the future after returning from a magical realm.)
Rick finishes by addressing Morty as "Rick Sanchez!", to Morty's confusion, and we see Rick's reflection overlapping Morty's face. Rick blasts off, transforms himself into "Super Rick" and destroys an attacking UFO-like vessel sent by the Citadel. Rick seemingly dies in the process, but reappears to taunt Evil Morty that "his timeline sucks". The building with Rick's office, where Morty is, floats in a protective bubble in the sky, surrounded by drifting ruins from the battle.
We see Rick getting a phone message from Jerry that Morty has been born. Rick hears the message, and takes a drink from his flask. We then see him putting down Morty's test tube. The potion had given Morty Rick's memories up until the point when Morty was born, transforming Morty into Rick and the world around him into the world at that time. Morty's memories could easily alter the rest of reality, as he may have been the only person left alive on the planet from his dimension. The old Morty must now continue as Rick. The audience assumes he retains some of Morty's old memories and knows what has just happened. Presumably, he will be able to avoid repeating the experience in some years' time in an endless loop.
Cast and characters[]
Main Cast
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Guest-Starring
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| Non-speaking characters
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Notes[]
- If this episode is viewed as a prequel to the main continuity, it sidesteps the issue of where Rick was in Beth's life in the years before Morty was born, as this time did not actually happen.
- The episode is a play on the popular fan theory that Rick and Morty are the same person.
- While the Ricks in the Citadel are explaining to Morty how finding Rick is like "finding a needle in a haystack," a Rick dressed in a red and white striped top with a wooly hat is visible in the background. This is a reference to the Where's Wally? series.
Episode references[]
- Total Rickall - Featured the alien parasites who introduced themselves into the other character's memories. Also introduced the Mr. Poopybutthole character, who appeared to have been a long-standing friend of the Smith family despite never appearing in the show before.
- Morty's Mind Blowers - Shows Morty's memories being removed and stored in test tubes
- Rick has expressed a disdain for time travel in other episodes, such as the Vat of Acid episode.
- In the anime short, Rick says to Morty, "They want my brain." In Close Rick-counters of the Rick Kind, Evil Rick tried to copy the contents of Rick's brain. Evil Rick was also shown to be controlled remotely by Evil Morty, who crushes the transmitter underfoot at the end of the episode. Likewise, in the anime short the Rick piloting the Genocider vessel is shown to be controlled by Evil Morty, who also crushes his transmitter.
Videos[]
| Video | Creator |
|---|---|
 Rick and Morty vs. Genocider A Special Rick and Morty Anime Short Adult Swim Con |
Adult Swim |