Mar 31, 2018
Do you remember going on the internet a couple years ago and seeing bits and pieces of a simplistic manga posted on random forums like tumblr or 4chan, usually they had no context and the jokes seemed very outlandish but not over the top. If you remember that, chances are you already know what Pop Team Epic is.
The Manga started back in 2014, and 4 years later, we finally get an anime adaptation.
I see a lot of people label this series as "a shitpost" but that's really the most general (in my opinion, normie) interpretation of the series. It's subversive, anti-humor style was not something
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many people were expecting, and due to that, many people are quick to dismiss the strange style of humor as "lol so random" or, again, a shitpost. I'd say the best comparison I could make to this show is the Eric Andre Show(and I'm not the first to say this), the show has that out there, over the top feeling that it has, but the humor in the Eric Andre show relies on the "shittyness" of it all, the same goes for Pop Team Epic. The manga and anime both constantly acknowledge how dumb the show can get, and take every opportunity they can to poke fun at some of the dumb tropes in anime, like the power of friendship, the cute animal sidekick, and stories that we've seen in other shows(this is usually the Space Cat Company skit in every episode).
In my opinion, I would say the series as a whole adapts the absurd style of the manga perfectly, unlike most 4 panel anime adaptations, the bulk of this show is mostly 30 sec. to 1 min. sketches that for the most part are lifted straight from the manga rather than take the characters from 4 panel manga and put them in 23 minute stories. Something that adds to the sporadic nature of the show is the multimedia side of it all with the show seamlessly having 2d and 3d sketches, puppet shows, a flipbook story, watercolor styled sketches, and even French Sketches.
My main gripe is how lopsided the episodes can feel. Most episodes follow a similar format. You have the opening sketch, the long sketch(usually the Space Cat Company sketch, with the exception of the Bobnemimimmi sketch in episode 7), then the last 4 minutes is a few 30 sec. to 1 minute sketches. Throw in 2 Bobnemimimmi sketches and then you have the first part done, and then they repeat the episode with male voice actors with variations of the sketches we just saw. To the show's credit, they do put enough variation in the second part to justify watching those sketches again.
Overall, it's a solid show, and a show I wish I could recommend to others, but it's a very acquired taste show, not something the average anime fan can walk into and think it's good, it's something that you would probably already know going in how to feel since if you like that more absurd, shitty style of humor, you would've already heard of it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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