The Simpsons love to celebrate special holidays and to reference pop culture as much as possible. Whilst the series before has had ties before, with a tribute to Hayao Miyazaki, this year’s Treehouse of Horror (XXV) episode has the family dressing up in various costumes and styles for the series’ Halloween special. One such theme is the family dressing up as different iconic anime characters with:
- Bart Simpson as Naruto Uzumaki from Naruto
- Marge Simpson as Rangiku Matsumoto from Bleach
- Homer Simpson as Roronoa Zoro in One Piece
- Lisa Simpson as Mikasa Ackerman from Attack on Titan
- Maggie Simpson as Pikachu from Pokemon
- Santa’s Little Helper as Haku from Spirited Away.
Alongside the anime costumes is a claymation version of America’s favourite family. It doesn’t stop there as the Simpsons reappear again in various other forms to celebrate the holiday, including Pendleton Ward’s Adventure Time, Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s South Park, and Adam Reed’s Archer.
The Simpsons are a media franchise created by Matt Groening that began in 1989 on Fox. Since its beginnings the cartoon has become a household name and has been considered one of the greatest televisions shows of all time. There has been over 550 episodes across 26 seasons, in addition to a film in 2007. There has been various other media adapted from the series, such as comics, video games, merchandise and even theme park rides.
So what do you think about the various references in the episode?
“The Simpsons”, images and all associated brands and titles © 2014 Matt Groening and Fox