The man, the myth, the legend, the true art of Pop Team Epic or Poputepipikku. This is an anime that changed the internet for a long time, changed something that was mistaken in anime, and made the internet love this anime. Nothing else, it's about shitpost and meme which be the one thing that internet love, one thing that everybody cannot wait for the first episode, and one thing that make some different opinion on forum discussions. I heard that this anime has the deepest regrets for the director, Jun Aoki, and the staffs because they think this series is one of the most bizarre and most absurd they do. I'm not saying that this anime is not fit to watching by normies or anything and I also didn't forbid those who try to understand it. This is a great anime for everyone to watch and I also get the satirical jokes about something popular on the internet. But, you can not stop the satirical duo of badass.
It's not like you want to enjoy the story rather than find the plots. If you are looking for something to do with it, this is not your cup of tea. Pop Team Epic takes a lot of various references in the movie as well as something more mainstream or popular but makes it all in a satirical way that's funny and of course is in different contexts. It's about memes and internet that mixed together. In addition, this anime is not self-explanatory which doesn't show it all clearly as if you had some acknowledgment about the internet then you will understand the jokes. In addition, Pop Team Epic is random and sometimes you don't know it because of the weirdness you can't think what really happened. Some of which I notice without looking at reviews or references on the internet are Your Name, Skyrim, My Neighbor Totoro, Guardians Of The Galaxy, The Shining, Undertale, Street Fighter, Ghostbuster, Marylin Monroe, and Chrono Trigger. Initially, I thought that I was wrong when watching this anime on the first or there was a glitch because you'll be shown a typical romance mediocre anime and the stories that I always see in the community. But, it's in satire way at all. In addition, this anime only provides an 11 or 12-minutes collection of segments and eventually it comes the credit. However, they repeat it twice with the same story but little difference in the first half, change the seiyuu and give a satirical impression again. If all anime has a half an hour of each episode, why not repeat the first segment so that the duration is enough? The rest, maybe that's what the author thinks so the director himself also doesn't know what he wants to make.
It's a sketch comedy with the absurd sketch animation and art. This anime exceeds its own creativity and interest so there are some meta-humors that are also interesting inside. Sometimes, this anime does the breaking of the fourth wall and mocks something related to the rest of the tropes which some of it I don't understand. Sometimes, they come in various forms ranging from painted temporary, stop motion, original, quirky, fresh and others. In addition, they also have special things to do that. One of the segments I like best is when Pipimi fantasizes about a two live-action person that performer manipulating sketchbook pages but in a satirical context. It's so hard to explain how the segment works if you see it right away. The transition also always calls questions when a French animator or something like that tells about the next segment in French speech. It's not self-explanatory, again, because many viewers are trying to understand that too. At last, they come with many creativity and absurd way to make some jokes become on and on for the main focus regardless of how the context is and I agree, this is so random too.
There is a lot of seiyuu who participates in this project such as Ayana Taketatsu, Yuki Kaji, Aoi Yuuji, Yoko Hikasa, and others. There are so many of which I can't mention one by one and their roles. Even Joey Byzinger a.k.a. The Anime Man participate in this series too and you can see it in episode 9. As I said before, the first segment involving the rest of the seiyuu which is somewhat interesting and the second segment presents the same story, same character, but a few difference in seiyuu- it's being exchanged. Bottom line, it's great to know all of these popular seiyuu participate in this anime but not all can also be noticed one by one and even then you also have to hear it twice.
What are you saying about the characters? It's just a duo absurd heroine that does a lot of randomness and satirical things. Popuko the irritable short dude and Pipimi the tall unshakeable. Not much to say about these badass duos who always insinuate with each other. Furthermore, you will see characters from the segment "Hoshiiro Girldrop" which is always shown in the post-credit section and the beginning of the first episode but never participated in the story. Yeah, because it's a shitpost and you don't want that non-sense being to participate in the anime. Back again, it's just an anti-mediocre anime, predictable, and fairly recognizable to audience perspective. Love the part when this thing comes out and I can laugh as much as I see the segment.
It's about the meme, the anti-anime, and the satire. If you don't like satire then you will never like this nonsense. An anime that changes the internet forever and the internet will certainly love this anime. I remember the first time that many people are waiting for the first episode because it is one of them, one of the anticipated anime at the season. It's hard to understand the jokes in this anime because at least you must have some knowledge of something related to pop culture and internet. If you always join on the community, you'll certainly know and understand comedy like this. Some I failed to understand the jokes but once in accordance with my knowledge, I laughed out loud until I forgot all segments before. This is not anime that everyone will enjoy but you might be able to try it and your opinion is up if you say is bad or masterpiece.