WEB EXCLUSIVE

“Pop Team Epic,” also called “Poptepipic,” is an anime littered with parodies, bad jokes and pop-culture references. The humor is definitely pinpointed towards a certain audience, since some of the jokes can either make you laugh hard, or fly over your head.

It was originally a webcomic created by Bukubu Okawa and was adapted to anime, first airing on Jan. 6, 2018. The anime stays true to some of the aspects of the originals, but because the comic strips consist of four or five frames, the anime can seem very fast-paced.

However, the anime adaptation gives the creators a little more leeway for ideas, since it doesn’t have to be summarized in four frames. Although every few skits are short-lived, the animation is very smooth. It does seem limited and still at times.

This anime follows the characters Popuko and Pipimi, who get themselves into strange and bizarre situations and have even more bizarre ways of dealing with them. Each half-hour episode consists of two back-to-back, 15-minute showings that are almost identical except for the diverse voice acting.

The first half pertains to the female voice actors, while the other half pertains to male voices. Even though this randomly small thing is changed, it almost seems like a joke in itself, which is the type of joke that gives this show its charm.

“Pop Team Epic” is already trending all over Japan, even though only a few episodes have been released. This anime embraces weird humor and likes to mock the media and its trends. I do feel like it can leave a mark on the kind of comedies portrayed by anime.