This year’s installment of The Simpsons’ annual Treehouse of Horrors — which air every Halloween — parodies the classic manga and anime, Death Note. A 41-second clip was released on Monday (October 25) and three screenshots on Tuesday (October 26). Lisa Simpson finds in it the eponymous “Death Tome”, a book that allows you to kill people by writing their name in it.
In the Twitter clip, an anime version of Lisa Simpson can be seen walking the streets of what appears to be a major Japanese city. Then the “Death Tome” suddenly falls out of the sky and right at Lisa Simpson’s feet. This interrupts her inner monologue about human disgust and the impending end of human existence – and she begins to read the book. “Any person whose name is written in the DEATH TOME will face death…and die,” is the first rule in the book. Before the clip ends, Lisa is heard saying, “This is obviously a silly joke.”
The first clip from ‘The Simpsons’ parody of ‘DEATH NOTE’ has been released.
It is animated by DR Movie who also worked on the original series. pic.twitter.com/mmM7IbXc6K
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) October 25, 2022
Another reason why the video looks so good is that the South Korean studio DR Movie, which worked on the original Death Note, has now also worked on this Simpsons special.
Screenwriter Carolyn Omine also announced that she would be sharing more “easter eggs” on Twitter during the Halloween episode’s airing. The “Treehouse of Horror” episodes are always divided into three parts. In addition to “Death Note”, the Australian psychological horror film “The Babadook” and the American sci-fi western series “Westworld” are also parodied.
First look at Lisa, Marge, Homer and Bart in ‘The Simpsons’ parody of ‘DEATH NOTE’. pic.twitter.com/9b0AMHNG9L
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) October 25, 2022
The plot of “Death Note”
The manga series, published from 2003 to 2006, is about the high school student Light Yagami, who one day sees the “Death Note” falling from the sky. He picks it up from the ground, reads the rule “The person whose name is written in this booklet dies,” and at first thinks it’s a joke. Nevertheless, he takes it with him and tries it out out of curiosity and finds out: the book actually works. His father is a policeman, which has given Light Yagami a bizarre sense of justice, as he gets the names of the imprisoned people of Japan, whom he kills one by one. This doesn’t go undetected, so detective “L” takes on the case and a Sherlock Holmes-esque game of cat and mouse begins.