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Warning. If you have yet to watch the third episode of South Park’s twenty-eighth season, be forewarned that we’ll be diving into spoiler territory. In the recent installment, South Park is struggling with artificial intelligence, as Stan, Kyle, Kenny, and Cartman deal with the fallout of the technology. As all the kids use A.I. to place one another in compromising positions, Studio Ghibli’s My Neighbor Totoro makes an unfortunate appearance. Paired with Butters, Totoro, and the classic South Park character are placed into a skin-crawling scenario. Hilariously, the Ghibli favorite is far from the only animated character to appear in the new episode.
To start, not only was Totoro featured, but the animators at Studio Ghibli visited the Colorado town themselves, demanding that their intellectual property not be abused. In traditional South Park fashion, the authorities misunderstand the situation, placing the animators in prison themselves as they believe the Butters/Totoro interaction was real. This anime crossover is far from the only crossover that the episode unleashed, with the likes of Bluey, Rocky And Bullwinkle, Popeye, and more making appearances. While South Park certainly isn’t an anime itself, the Comedy Central juggernaut has had its fair share of nods to the medium.
