8 Times The Simpsons Referenced Anime
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The Simpsons is no stranger to pop-culture references. Seemingly nothing is off limits, with plenty of movie parodies over the years (especially The Godfather), well as plenty of weird and slightly outdated video game references. However, those pesky nerdy comedy writers love getting their anime knowledge in there when they can.
There are some surprisingly deep cuts as the writers flex their geek muscles, so here are the best anime references in The Simpsons.
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Naturally, the episode where The Simpsons visit Japan has an anime reference in it. Surprisingly, only the one though, as the episode instead focuses on other areas of Japanese culture, like their humiliating game shows.
In it, Bart switches over the TV to an animated kids' show, where harsh flashing lights cause the entire family to have a seizure. It’s a very strange joke if you don’t know what it’s referencing, which is an incident in the Pokémon anime where Pikachu and Porygon’s attacks collided, causing harsh red and blue flashes on the screen.
It was reported to have induced epileptic fits in many viewers at the time, and the episode has been banned from broadcast ever since.
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Naturally, there has been a couch gag for anime at some point, placed in front of a Christmas episode of all things.
Each member of The Simpsons family arrives on the couch dressed as a different anime character. We have:
- Homer dressed as Ultraman
- Marge dressed as Jun from Gatchaman
- Bart dressed as Astro Boy
- Lisa dressed as Sailor Moon
- Maggie dressed as Pikachu
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This is a very odd joke buried in an emotional moment. Following the death of Bleeding Gums Murphy, Lisa plays his song on the radio, and the clouds form into a vision of the man himself saying thank you to Lisa. Then various other characters like Mufasa and Darth Vader appear for a quick joke.
In that moment, Mufasa mistakenly says the name “Kimba” before correcting himself to “Simba”. This is a reference to the story that originally inspired The Lion King, a 1966 anime known as Kimba the White Lion.
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Treehouse of Horror is a place ripe for parody and references, and it’s gone to the anime well on more than one occasion. As you may have guessed from the name, this is a parody of Into the Spider-Verse, so naturally we saw lots of different versions of Homer, including an anime version.
He doesn’t seem to be based on any specific character (at least not that we could identify), but he gets the opening and closing joke of the segment as he does battle with a streak of delicious bacon.
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This is a quick gag, but there’s a lot to it as we get to see the whole family in anime gear – even Santa’s Little Helper gets in on the action.
This segment from the 25th Treehouse of Horror is about the ghosts of the classic Simpsons designs taking their revenge on the modern family, and it ends with many other versions of the family showing up. One of which features all the characters as anime characters. There is:
- Homer as Zorro from One Piece
- Marge as Rangiku from Bleach
- Bart as Naruto
- Lisa as Mikasa from Attack on Titan
- Maggie as Pikachu (again)
- Santa’s Little Helper as Haku from Spirited Away
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Kumiko was introduced in Season 25 as a love interest for Comic Book Guy, and has become a regular member of Springfield ever since. As a fellow nerd, she often appears in cosplay, and has naturally appeared as Sailor Moon on more than one occasion.
In Married to the Blob, she dresses as a unique Sailor Scout with her original hair colors in Sailor Moon’s style. However, later on in Season 31’s The Winter of Our Monetized Content, she appears in more traditional Sailor Moon gear, with Comic Book Guy next to her dressed as…the moon.
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Kumiko isn’t the only one who gets to have fun in Married to the Blob. In an effort to convince Kumiko’s dad to let her marry Comic Book Guy, Homer takes him drinking, which results in a strange hallucination sequence, where the residents play characters from various Studio Ghibli films.
The Kiwk-E-Mart walks around on mechanical legs, Otto becomes Catbus, Moe is Turnip-Head, Krusty is Jigo, the list goes on.
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This Treehouse of Horror segment is especially cool, as it was animated by the same team that made the Death Note anime.
Lisa takes the role of Light Yagami, as the “Death Tome” falls into her possession. Moe plays the Ryuk role, and the segment plays around with the Death Note’s rules to work better in an 8-minute comedy segment. For example, the Death Tome’s rules state you can’t kill the same way twice, whereas no such rule exists in Death Note.
It’s also arguably the best rendition of The Simpson’s characters as realistic humans, with pink skin and proper hairlines. It may not be the strongest writing ever, but it’s worth watching just for the visuals.
