Poputepipikku 2nd Season

ANIME IS SAVED, ONCE AGAIN AND TWICE OVER, ALMOST 5 YEARS LATER.

I would like to ask you a geunine question: Do you still or even remember that Pop Team Epic was a thing back then? For context, anime back then was unlike anime today, served by the beatitudes of its long-standing genres which have come to almost define any seasonal list and stacking heaps upon heaps of mediocrity with some stand-out titles we've come to know in the new decade of the 2020s. Well, back in Winter 2018, there was a series like it, and based off of mangaka Bkub Okawa's 4-koma manga, that would ... truly define the term "avant-garde". As a sidenote, shows like Madhouse's Sora yori mo Tooi Basho a.k.a A Place Further Than The Universe broke the underwhelming season for its CGDCT-like adventure drama which to this day, is still one of the best masterpiece shows that I've watched in my entire life, period. Of course, there were other notable shows that only got the attention from the audience that they serve, but if there's one unique show that I constantly would remember being that wacky outcast, it would be Pop Team Epic.

Just a recap, Bkub Okawa's gag parody manga that got translated into the anime, the manga is very rough on the heels, but the anime that was produced by Kamikaze Douga under the helm of its director Jun Aoki (which he would later go on to form his very own studio Space Neko Company), it was unlike ANYTHING that I've seen before with its metaverse of parodies and gag humor, and would easily define as a masterpiece show, just because it's a kuso a.k.a shit-posting anime. Not to mention that Sumire Uesaka's OP was a straight BANGER in the absurd midst of thinking that HOW would a show like this get a song that is pure master-lyrical fire. The ED was also realy nice though. And that was Season 1 in a wrap back in early 2018.

And here we are again, with Season 2 greenlit right at the tail-end of 2021 after the TV re-broadcast of Season 1 a.k.a Pop Team Epic Repeat, adding in Jun Aoki's Space Neko Company to put more shame to both Takeshobo (the manga company that the source material is published in) and King Records (the anime producer). So, how does Season 2 fare against its almost 5-year old prequel season? I would say it's good, but sadly (and obviously) not at the heights of what Season 1 managed to accomplish of its surrealism, absurdity, and non-sequitur natures.

If you've watched Pop Team Epic back in the day, it was truly absurd and a super freak of even having a brain's IQ worth to assess the anime, even in minute detail, because it is the definition of "fool me once, shame on me". Also, because of its gag humor and parody, you didn't know quite what to expect being the first run-through of a show that is evidently self-aware of itself, and it doesn't care. Which is why it makes a perfect deal on it being a kuso anime. With Season 2 around, almost the entirety of Season 1 makes a return, sadly omitting the interesting Japan Mignon A-B sided French-Japanese segment with Thibault Tresca in full replacement for the Ikemen-focused B-side, which was underwhelming to say the least. Even Bob Team Epic and Hellshake Yano makes a return, which as a newcomer to the seasonal anime rut back in the day, I was in for pleasure, and got more than expected out of it. Shouta Aoi also makes a return for the Season 2's OP, and I can't say that I quite love it, but I don't hate it either. The ED is also really kinda weak, or is it maybe that because of Season 1 that I've placed too much expectation that the sequel should deliver the same as it should have been. But what matters is that the A-B sided female-to-male VA portion continues and provides fresh breath of air and different interpretations, and the art is not lost here, which I am relieved to say the least.

Pop Team Epic will always and forever be the experimentalism anime that does not care for anything or anyone in that regard, and that's why I love the series as a whole, now with Season 2 reigniting the flame from 5 years ago. It's a good follow-up, but Season 1 is still miles better IMO. Still recommended for the minority really wanting something very unique that you will not see anything like it in the history of forever.

Hellshake, Hellshake, Hellshake~~~ Yano~~~!!!!!

The legendary kuso anime has returned. You know your show is confident in its kuso-ness when the intro to one of the episodes starts with a man emerging from a toilet cubicle.

Like its first season, the show is segmented into a main anime-original part, a few straight adaptations, and some quirky one-off segments, each animated by a different team. Unfortunately, French-kun is no longer working at Kamikaze Douga, so he was sorely missed.

The main anime original segment is generally a step up from the first season. They are longer now and are usually guest-animated to parody different styles of anime, which lends the show ... a great deal of variety. A personal highlight is episode 3's B-side, where the ad-libbing elevates the short into something truly special. The 4koma adaptations by Space Cat and Kamikaze Douga are fine as usual. As I've mentioned in my earlier review, the jokes don't translate well into an animated format and really only work in a 4koma format. They are fine for what they are, but honestly I feel they are mostly there so the show can have some form of similarity to its source material. Sometimes the seiyuu ad-libbing can provide a new experience to the adaptation, but rarely does it exhibit the creativeness and imagination seen in the original segments. There are certainly less of them though compared to the first season.

The other segments are hit and miss. Pop Team Epic Boy's Side is funny the first time, and not really subsequently. The show does recognize this and kills it off in a hilariously PTE fashion, but the replacement being random ad reads isn't much better. The after credits segments are a treat. King Records does release an extended (but timed) version of this as a bonus on their Youtube channel which has the seiyuu pairs talk freely for about 3 minutes. These are charming and it's often nice to hear from older, less active seiyuus talk about their performances. Outside of that there is a lack of other creative segments outside of these. Pop Team Cooking has a few runs, and the stop motion dancing only appears once, the faux video game style a few times. But that's all in terms of memorable segments. I don't play FFXIV, and I know bkub loves the thing, but I just didn't get the FFXIV segments. The ad reads are...questionable. The out of place guitar shop in the middle of nowhere in Episode 7 was hilarious, but everything else was just a straight ad read. Didn't like those.

Bob Epic Team is brilliant as usual. Nay, it is the greatest thing in the entire year. Episode 7 is some miraculous legendary episode that has to be experienced first hand without spoilers.

As with the first season, the show is practically a seiyuu showcase show. King Records must have some deep pockets to even hire seiyuus not even contracted with them. There are a bunch of dream combinations here, and hell, they even got Char to voice one line as a gag. Not all performances are equal, some of them are basic line reads, but the best of them feature unique ad-libs and references to the pair's own work and why they were chosen in the first place. As a seiyuu fan, it's always fun to hear from seiyuus you don't normally hear from anymore due to the industry constantly focusing on up-and-coming talents, and older seiyuu being more expensive to hire.

Despite its occasional shortcomings, Pop Team Epic still shows it can still be relevant in the new nightmare world that is 2022. Surreal, mad, yet sometimes comforting, it provides an experience quite unlike any other that does test the notion on what "anime" really is all about.

I still miss Hoshiiro Girldrop though. Maybe in the OVA...

"Well, your happy little fairytale future... doesn't exist!"

-- the following is a discussion on how the landscape of not only anime, but animation itself has been altered. reader discretion is advised. --

Names that frequently fill the minds of people when they think of "animation" vary from person to person. Whether they be founders, directors, artists, voice actors, or anything in-between, the pillars of this industry aren't agreed upon universally. With something as subjective as media, it makes sense for there not to be one individual at the top of the totem poll... well, until now.

Shouta Aoi has crafted something once deemed impossible with "Endless Love", ... a show that'll be recognized from here on out as a milestone in the medium. Frequently, new shows emerge that are expected to attracts fans from far and wide, crowd-pleasers, but never to this scale. Aoi has taken something many "visionaries" before were afraid to tackle, the subject of time. Time is a daily occurrence. It's passing as I type this, it's passing as you read this, and who possibly could be monitoring it? Well, I hope it isn't the fiends at Time Patrol, the evil doers who're trying to control time! It's a flow, something that should go on without any outside intervention, but the Time Patrol sees it as something to be harnessed, to defy the law of time itself. Imagine a world where time isn't left to exist independently, a world where time is monopolized and treated like something personal when, in fact, its universal. Luckily, Aoi is here to put a stop to these meddlers. Equipped with his signature pocket watch, dastardly good looks, and a killer voice, nothing can stop him. An object in motion stays in motion unless acted upon by an unbalanced force, or so they say because I haven't seen Aoi stop yet! He can transform into a being of otherworldly proportions, a hero we need but don't deserve. Selflessly chucking himself into the heat of danger, there's never a dull moment or emotion wasted. Your heart will yearn as he defends the innocent, your fists will pump when he puts the bad guys behind bars, and your eyes will rain tears when it finally ends.

... and that's how I feel now. Aoi wasn't around for long, he left too soon. All good things must come to an end. Nothing great lasts forever. We can just be happy that it happened. Thank you, Aoi. From me, on behalf of everyone, thank you.

Now what the hell is a "Poputepipikku"?