This Week in Anime
What the Hell is Going On in Pop Team Epic?
by Monique Thomas & Steve Jones,
Is it possible for lightning to strike twice? When it comes to the impenetrable weirdness of Pop Team Epic, the answer is yes. Vandalize the offices of your sponsors. Stare directly into the face of God and ask, "Are you mad?"
This series is streaming on Crunchyroll
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Spoiler Warning for discussion of the series ahead.
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Steve
Big changes this week, Nicky! But while we may have some new corporate overlords, I want to assuage any reader worries with my personal guarantee that "This Week In Anime" will be the same as it always was: bad. But with watermarks now! And thankfully, with a little finagling, I've figured out how to make them as unobtrusive and legally compliant as possible.
Big changes this week, Nicky! But while we may have some new corporate overlords, I want to assuage any reader worries with my personal guarantee that "This Week In Anime" will be the same as it always was: bad. But with watermarks now! And thankfully, with a little finagling, I've figured out how to make them as unobtrusive and legally compliant as possible.
Nicky
We at "This Week In Anime" are known masters of subtlety.
We at "This Week In Anime" are known masters of subtlety.
Some of you may recognize that the TWIA team has consisted of several "Nth Degree Shitposters," something that is a big pride point and integral to our column's success and effectiveness. We've dedicated ourselves to being purposefully strange, absurd, and toughing it out against each other in these dedicated weekly joke battles. Still, even we have to gaze in awe over the sheer power levels of one opponent's return. Watch us get destroyed this week against Pop Team Epic's second season!
That's not even a joke. These columns are the hardest to do because how do you even try to out-unfunny the master of unhumor? What am I gonna say that's gonna be better than "Let's Pop Together"? It's an exercise in futility.
For those not as plugged-in, Pop Team Epic was originally a series of short humor strips unleashed on the internet by a guy under the name of Bkub Okawa. While there's no shortage of funny internet humor or four-panel gag comics, Pop Team Epic has always been unique in its brash brand of parody, chaos, and cuteness presented by the two adorable sailor suit-clad Popuko and Pipimi.
If you think it's one of the funniest things ever, you're correct, and if you think it's stupid as hell, you are also correct, and the author agrees with you.
That said, independent of its flavor of humor, the best thing about the first season of the anime was its appropriately anarchic adaptational philosophy. It spanned many different art styles and media, boosted a broad swathe of international creators (mainly that one French dude), used different voice actors for each episode, and aired a rerun of each episode with new voice actors for each episode's second half. There was nothing else like it, and it's a tough act to follow!
That said, independent of its flavor of humor, the best thing about the first season of the anime was its appropriately anarchic adaptational philosophy. It spanned many different art styles and media, boosted a broad swathe of international creators (mainly that one French dude), used different voice actors for each episode, and aired a rerun of each episode with new voice actors for each episode's second half. There was nothing else like it, and it's a tough act to follow!
For its simplicity of being a gag series, PTE rarely feels like a low-key endeavor. It's always been dedicated to grabbing attention, whether for its confrontational attitude or the specific layers of references that could only be produced by those waaaaay deep in the culture mines. The anime creators understood this and decided the only way to do this was to take it all to the next level, and the result is what can only be described as an experiment with all of us as test subjects.
Even the second season's opening animation challenges you to try and perceive it! (Caution: the middle transition might be hazardous to some.)
Even the second season's opening animation challenges you to try and perceive it! (Caution: the middle transition might be hazardous to some.)
My god, it's full of Pipimis.
The second OP has grown on me a lot—I like how the song sounds like you smashed three anime OPs together. I also like how Bkub gets a different credit each week (we're leaving these untranslated to protect the innocent).
The second OP has grown on me a lot—I like how the song sounds like you smashed three anime OPs together. I also like how Bkub gets a different credit each week (we're leaving these untranslated to protect the innocent).
The first OP is also an absolute banger and an all-time favorite of mine, and both of them can only exist to baffle the viewer with the question of "WHY DOES THIS GO SO HARD?" Something I routinely yell regarding Pop Team Epic.
And while you could make a lot of comparisons with Pop Team Epic to other parody series, like some viral YouTube videos or even something like Robot Chicken of the early 00s. The amount of flexing and the deep cuts that really deal critical damage to my humor organs keep me on my toes with each vignette.
And while you could make a lot of comparisons with Pop Team Epic to other parody series, like some viral YouTube videos or even something like Robot Chicken of the early 00s. The amount of flexing and the deep cuts that really deal critical damage to my humor organs keep me on my toes with each vignette.
An oversized commitment to the bit is the name of the game when it comes to this adaptation. The dumbest punchline you can think of will receive magnitudes more care and elbow grease than it deserves, and that, in itself, becomes part of the joke. Look at the pitch-perfect tokusatsu parody that kicks off the season. They got actual artisans and actors from the series it's making fun of, and it put them together for a 2-minute bit that we have yet to return to. I love that so much.
Building on the ongoing joke from the first season that actual actor/voice actor Shōta Aoi is a time-traveling entity complete with its plot twists that even pop up in the spiritual-sibling series Gal & Dino, also directed by Jun Aoki. (Some of which I highlighted here).
Hey, on that note, can we get more people watching Gal & Dino? Spiritually, it's Pop Team Epic season 1.5, except with a little less acidity and a little more cute dinosaur antics.
I definitely won't disagree with the Dino. It's like if you took PTE and ran it through the dryer where it's all fluffed and warm. It's the same brand of artistry and experimentation with added comfort. Though, I also can't say that I don't absolutely adore our two pop-girls or that PTE is all about being edgy shock humor and video game in-jokes. What's notable about S2 is that there's something oddly wholesome about PTE.
Provided you keep a safe distance away from these two bug-eyed cognitohazards, I agree!
Let's start with Popuko and Pipimi; their cute anime schoolgirl aesthetic is meant to be a cartoon-y caricature of moe archetypes pervasive in anime and manga but with the twist that they're kind of ugly little gremlins with little care for things like good taste or morals to create a severe juxtaposition. And yet, they're still so damn cute! I could never be mad at them. These little entities.
Yeah, but c'mon, we've already had a whole season of these goblin girlfriends and their reign of adorable terror. We desperately needed some new blood this time around. And that's what the B-side is for.
Somehow, you can take the same Pop Team Epic sketches, swap in some handsome dudes with those haircuts, and it's still funny. It might even be funnier. I don't know what humor is anymore. Is it this? It must be this.
Somehow, you can take the same Pop Team Epic sketches, swap in some handsome dudes with those haircuts, and it's still funny. It might even be funnier. I don't know what humor is anymore. Is it this? It must be this.
The B-Side segment has also been particularly rewarding for those who are insane enough to watch the episode re-run with the male voices even when they're up against some legends like Romi Park, who's also pretty well known for voicing male characters. Just hearing the little nuances is fun!
What's also neat trivia is that most of the voice actor pairs have a history from other series like Yūma Uchida and Junya Enoki. They also starred as Megumi Fushiguro and Yuji Itadori in Jujutsu Kaisen. It feels like a nice excuse to make people get together and go totally off-script, like in the Dora the Explorer parody segment.
What better bonding activity than giving comeuppance to a sexually-harassing farmer by sawing his genitals on a lumber mill? Twice!!
What's also neat trivia is that most of the voice actor pairs have a history from other series like Yūma Uchida and Junya Enoki. They also starred as Megumi Fushiguro and Yuji Itadori in Jujutsu Kaisen. It feels like a nice excuse to make people get together and go totally off-script, like in the Dora the Explorer parody segment.
What better bonding activity than giving comeuppance to a sexually-harassing farmer by sawing his genitals on a lumber mill? Twice!!
Hell, the season begins with possibly the most powerful example of PTE's stunt casting yet: reuniting Aya Hirano and Minori Chihara, a.k.a. Haruhi and Yuki. It's not just a fun bit of trivia; it's legit sentimental to see them work together again. It's almost enough to make you believe this show might be a force for good.
What's fun is that the stunt casting runs the whole gamut. You'll get veteran voice actors who have no idea what the show is or what it's supposed to be doing. You'll get friends who shoot the shit in the post-credits. And you'll get duos who know exactly what show they're on and use that as a license to go off-script as much as they want. It's all great.
This goes beyond voice actors, too; I mentioned in our alternative animation article that PTE has always had a backbone of giving money to small indie studios like the stop-motion-based UchuPeople or just letting studio AC-bu do whatever they want with the even more random and grotesque Bob Team Epic segments, and even some individual animators for other specialties. I was shocked to see them get legendary mecha director Masami Ōbari to go all out on an expensive transformation sequence that defeats one of their Major Production Committee companies, King Records.
Like I said: commitment! To! The! Bit! Obari's style is oft parodied and referenced, but to hook the man himself for your shitpost anime? That's commendable. Along those lines, there's the equally stupid "Train Battle" sketch, where Flat Studio applies its glossy photorealistic sheen to PTE's waddling nightmares.
The Square Enix bits (get that contractually obligated bread) are also turning into another font of stylistic spoofs. They began with Final Fantasy stuff—no surprise there—but I'm thrilled they've moved onto lampooning increasingly esoteric games in the company's oeuvre.
My platonic ideal of Pop Team Epic is an anime that appeals to so few people it may as well appeal to nobody, and I'm pretty sure the creators share that ethos.
The Square Enix bits (get that contractually obligated bread) are also turning into another font of stylistic spoofs. They began with Final Fantasy stuff—no surprise there—but I'm thrilled they've moved onto lampooning increasingly esoteric games in the company's oeuvre.
My platonic ideal of Pop Team Epic is an anime that appeals to so few people it may as well appeal to nobody, and I'm pretty sure the creators share that ethos.
Even some "normal" non-guested segments go pretty hard, animation-wise, or have experimental flares. There's a segment where a talk-show-style English lesson becomes a metal ballad about a hero's tale of legend with these super lavish illustrations.
Even slightly looser variations grant a lot of texture to the humor, like going full sketch mode while busting out a solo on a recorder.
Even slightly looser variations grant a lot of texture to the humor, like going full sketch mode while busting out a solo on a recorder.
I do miss some of the variety we got in the first season. The lack of stop-motion animation and gratuitous French segments make for big holes in my Pop Team Heart. But I also can't complain when we're lucky enough to get a new AC-bu cartoon each week.
They might understand PTE better than even Bkub. It's a scary thought.
They might understand PTE better than even Bkub. It's a scary thought.
That kind of routine surrealism makes PTE feel welcome and familiar to me. As much as PTE relies on deep cuts, net humor, and anti-humor, you don't have to "get it" to enjoy it. There's something comforting about sitting down and letting the bizarreness wash over you, even when a segment doesn't make you laugh.
It also manages to surprise me despite the expectation of weirdness, which is pretty awesome. Like this week, the dating sim/Tokimeki Memorial spoof in the A half takes a turn for the otome in the B half, with new art, dialogue, and everything. They didn't have to go that extra mile, but they did, and now I'm uncomfortably attracted to sweater bread Pipimi.
Seriously, please help me.
Seriously, please help me.
It ends differently than the first half by putting in a tongue-in-cheek joke about Bkub's real-life marriage that took place this year. (Congrats!) I didn't expect to see a segment be so different after only a few entries in the first season.
Perhaps most importantly, the show continues to be a valuable source of timeless reaction images.
Some things change, and some stay the same, but Pop Team Epic remains a classic. Whether you love or hate this "kuso-anime," the unique vibes of Pop Team Epic are something to look out for. Especially when they eventually break into your house at night and start smashing all the windows.
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