The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror Halloween Specials have been an annual tradition since the series’ second season in 1990. The specials see the titular family in various non-canon horror themed shorts, most of the time resulting in characters either dying or encounter very improbable situations and creatures. Many times they parody popular horror films and tropes.
When speaking to Entertainment Weekly about the 2022 edition of the popular Holiday episode series producer Matt Salman said:
“‘Treehouse of Horror’ is our most popular episode of the year. They’re a great match after football with football fans, scary violence. Also, we’re tired of being constrained by the six-minute stories. It’s so hard to tell a full story. In fact, we could barely cram the ‘It’ parody into the half-hour format. People really love those things so much, so why not expand the ‘Treehouse of Horror’ brand?“
This year the Treehouse of Horror will consist of two separate specials. The first being a parody of Stephen King’s IT, while the second special takes us on a journey through three parodies of other horror themed stories. The first being The Babadook, the second being Westworld, and the third and most surprising of all being the popular Shonen Jump manga/anime series Death Note.
The segment, called “Death Tome”, sees Lisa Simpson find a version of the Death Note called the ‘Death Tome’. She becomes the equivalent of Death Note‘s protagonist Light Yagami and she meets a version of Ryuk named ‘Steve Johnson’ and becomes power hungry with the might of the tome.
What’s turning heads is the fact that the segment is animated in the style of the series its parodying. Quite the extra mile when they could have easily just done a similar story.
It is quite the sight seeing the Simpsons done in this hyper-stylized setting. The quality is obviously high-production, meaning it must have been very expensive to make. You have to admire the dedication to the bit.
This isn’t the first time we saw The Simpsons collide with the world of anime. In 2014 they paid tribute to Studio Ghibli.
The special is set to air on October 30th. Are you ready for some spooks in Springfield?
Source: ColliderÂ
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