In case you need a refresher, Death Note is a classic anime series that debuted in 2006 and adapts the award-winning manga by Takeshi Obata. The series follows Light Yagami, a brilliant high school student who happens to find the "Death Note," a supernatural notebook with the power to kill anyone whose name is written on its pages. Aided in passing by a Shinigami (god of death) named Ryuk, Light attempts to use the Death Note to eradicate evil and become a self-appointed god.
In the latest Treehouse of Horror, The Simpsons goes above and beyond to parody Death Note as it re-imagines the classic characters in a deftly-crafted anime style.
In an interview with Simpsons fan podcast Four Finger Discount, series executive producer Matt Selman revealed the lengths they went to in order to craft this parody.
"It is legit anime," he tells the podcast. "[It's] animated by this fantastic animation company called DR Movie, who executed the Simpsons universe in pitch-perfect Death Note anime style."
Reportedly, DR Movie did animation work on the original Death Note anime. Other notable works include Avatar: The Last Airbender and the second season of The Rising of the Shield Hero.
For this short, DR Movie pulls out all the stops in adapting the city of Springfield into a genuine-looking anime.
The short itself is called "Death Tome," an obvious nod to the original series. In this short, Lisa Simpson discovers the titular Death Tome and soon discovers its power to kill a person whose name is written inside. After earning a taste for it, she encounters a Shinigami named Steve Johnson, who encourages Lisa to use it more.
The Simpsons has never shied away from anime parodies in the past. Past couch gags and even previous Treehouse of Horror installments have featured homages to anime like Sailor Moon and One Piece. But even among parody episodes, few have gone so far as to completely revamp the series in a new art style to emulate the original work.
Whether you love this or not, it's got to be better than the 2017 Netflix adaptation.
Catch the latest Treehouse of Horror episode of The Simpsons on Sunday, Oct. 30 at 8 p.m. EST on Fox.
