Review of Pop Team Epic
It’s said that a monkey produces shit every few minutes. It takes Pop Team Epic just 30 seconds. Pop Team epic is an anime that is frustrating, crude, insane and, most importantly, self-aware. It knows that it relies on comedy that appeals to the lowest common denominator, and you can’t help but laugh along with it. Once you’ve seen the first episode, you’ve seen it all; the series will never get any more profound, or deep, or meaningful. It will still rely on being one long, random meme, and you know what? That’s okay. Not every anime needs to be a grand, beautiful, philosophical venture.Sometimes it can just be stupid fun. And for what it lacks in insightfulness, it more than makes up for with sheer ridiculousness.
Episodic in nature, each episode consists of two halves; the first has the protagonists, short and tall high-schoolers Popuko and Pipimi, voiced by female voice actors. The second is the exact same content, with minor changes to the skits- the catch being that the girls are voiced by male VAs. It’s obvious that the VAs love what they’re doing, each bringing a different feel to the characters, without feeling like they lose their essence. While the near-identical nature of each half initially felt like a farce, a few episodes in I was glad of it, as I never wanted the wild ride to end.
Episodes are composed of short skits, lasting anywhere from 15 seconds to 5 minutes. Each feels unique (to say the least), even if the short and pointless nature of a fair few left me scratching my head. Various animation styles are used, keeping the content fresh and exciting. In more than one instance, I found myself laughing like a madman, wondering all the while just why (and what) I was experiencing. PTE is best experienced when putting your brain into power saving mode.
With this anime, there is simply no middle-ground. If you love memes and stupid humour, you’ll love it. If you enjoy lavish animation, complex, thought-provoking plots, and well-written dialogue, you’ll despise it. Normally, it would take a few episodes to know whether you would like an anime or not. Here, it will take just one. Be warned, though; if you only watch one episode, you’ll be missing out on the killer opening, with a song that matches the show's tone perfectly, being an unashamedly pulse-pounding bit of electronica.
Pop Team Epic is the epitome of “different strokes for different folks." Whether you think it’s a gift or affront to the medium, there’s no denying that it is as ambitious as it is lowbrow, an obvious labour of love that deserves to be experienced by any anime fan, even if just for a little while. The best that can be said of it is that it never loses sight of what it wants to be: an absurdist comedy that capitalises on silliness, laughing at itself as much as it provides the laughs for the audience. It’s entirely comfortable in its own skin, and for that, it is worthy of commendation, if not adoration.