I don't think any other show better represents where pop culture was going in 2018 than the anime "Pop Team Epic." Social media platforms were bigger than ever, including new platforms like TikTok, and increasingly subject to the opportunity for easy profit, both from the companies (invasive ads) and users (it was hard to find a single content-creator that didn't overlay with spam demanding that viewers "like, comment and subscribe"). Internet memes, and it's bizarre sense of humor and utilization of obscure pop-culture references, were also increasingly a part of the mainstream. The world's culture seemed to be devolving, into a new attitude of efficiency, to create short bite-sized art and entertainment for as little effort as possible. A world where talent and skill was irrelevant, for there's an audience for everything somewhere, no matter how poor the taste. When the world began to end in 2020, I was stunned, but wasn't surprised. The original format of "Pop Team Epic" was a 4-panel webcomic, the modern version of what you'd remember in newspaper comic strips. That made sense for the content, a series of unrelated 5 second jokes featuring the recurring pair of mascot characters, Popuko and Pipimi. But how do you extend this to a series of 24-minute episodes? By making fun of your viewers, of course. The anime version of "Pop Team Epic" feels like a giant meme, and you're the butt of the joke. Each episode really is just a series of unrelated jokes, typically 5 to 10 seconds in length. Don't dare casually have this on in the background while multitasking elsewhere, or you'd miss all the fun! The two mascot girls jump from different contexts to convey each thought, frequently breaking the fourth wall. They make fun of the animation industry, even referring to fictional sterotypes of an anime that was supposed to air instead of "Pop Team," or the show's lack of budget or time to finish background art. They frequently reference modern pop-culture, like popular movies and video games, not just from Japan, but also America. You'll either laugh or be confused to see a shot referencing the intro scene of "The Elder Scrolls V - Skyrim." There's no punchline, it just shows the game with Pipimi and then cuts to the next scene. That's the joke. That's what memes are. If you laughed, that means you're a cool kid that "gets it." Technically, each episode is not just 24 minutes of unrelated gag jokes and memes. It's about 12 minutes' worth. Then the half-episode is duplicated for the second half, but with a completely different voice cast (typically, one half has women voicing Popuko and Pipimi, then the other half voiced by butch men). I was impresesd it had the guts to do this for the first episode, and increasingly annoyed when the format repeated for nearly all 12 episodes of Season 1. Again, this feels like a deliberate attempt to make fun of the viewer, daring them to rewatch the same content twice to try to catch the possibility of minor changes between them. Was it worth seeing the new version of the joke? Or did you just waste your time, with only half the effort from the animators (just requiring an extra dubbing session by the actors)? Sometimes, the same joke is reused a third or fourth time in different episodes, with a different punchline or animation style. Recurring jokes is a common trick of comedy after all, did you laugh the fifth time? Didn't you already watch this episode, or are you just going crazy?
The visual production looks far cheaper than any professional anime you've seen. For all we know, it might have been made entirely on a kid's iPad. There are different recurring styles used, primarily the cute-chibi-cat-mouth version, but sometimes others like a deliberately ugly doodle. There are moments when the show will switch to flash animation, or CGI, live-action, or even high-quality felt-puppet stop-motion. Those variations remind me that there was effort and thought put into this production, and that the poor quality was entirely on purpose. "Pop Team Epic" is either terrible or brilliant. It might be a cash-grab with a historically-low budget, or a forward-thinking advant-garde work of art. The unexpectadly excellent opening theme makes a strong case for the latter, singing about a never-ending cycle of creation and destruction. The English dub probably had a grand time dubbing the jokes (twice, with different actors each time). Even the Funimation Bluray packaging joins in on the fun: unlike the original release, their cheaper re-release features a cover that looks like it was crumpled and thrown in the trash, and the 2nd Bluray disc is printed to look like a pirated BD-R from someone's laptop. Depending on who you ask, this might be the greatest anime of all time. But I'm in the camp that thinks "Pop Team Epic" is one of the worst. Despite making use of the new medium after transitioning from a comic, the experimental comedy didn't make me laugh or smile (except for an exceptionally clever live-action sequence in Episode 7). Memes usually do, and I think I might have laughed looking at a black-and-white sketch with text on the page allowing extra time to process the joke. But here, even the standout scenes that have been reposted online barely get a smirk from me. Even if the show is deliberately ugly, that doesn't change the fact that it looks ugly. I entered with low expectations, and was occasionally surprised by the creativity, but I ultimately gave the reaction I expected. I was left with the feeling that this was a moumental waste of time, and had the nagging feeling that the creators knew this, and was laughing at me more than I did at their show. If you think it's fun to listen to two chibi girls as they point masculine middle fingers in your face, then be my guest and watch "Pop Team Epic." I did eventually watch the whole series out of curiousity for this culturally-significant show, so I guess the joke's on me.