Pop Team Epic

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About

Pop Team Epic (also known as Poptepipic) (ポプテピピック, Poputepipikku) is a 4koma absurd comedy manga series by the doujin artist bkub, known online for his Touhou Project comics and his portrayal of the character Chen. The series gained a significant following in the West after it a translated version was released in late 2014, inspiring several parodies.

History

On August 29th, 2014, doujinshi artist Ookawa bkub debuted his new series Pop Team Epic on the online magazine Manga Life Win, by the editorial Takeshobo.^[5] The series follows the bizarre adventures of the 14-year-old highschoolers Popuko and Pipimi, and features absurd comedy and heavy meta jokes on the manga and anime industry.

This picture features the short, blonde Popuko and the tall, blue-haired Pipimi, the main characters of the series.

2018 Anime

On April 1st, 2017, after the tease of several strips, an anime series was announced, expected to premier on October 2017.^[7] The same day, the announcement was reported on Anime News Network.^[8] On August 10th, 2017, it was reported that the series was delayed for January 2018.^[13]

On January 6th, 2018, the first episode of the series was released, receiving generally positive reception due the absurdist comedy and the references to other media such as Kimi no Na wa, Berserk and Skyrim (shown below). The same day, Reddit user woonie submitted a thread on r/anime to discuss the episode, gaining over 1770 points and 650 comments in two days,^[15] and the hashtag #ポプテピピックbecame trending topic on Japanese Twitter.^[14]

The first episode streamed for free on YouTube channel Freedom Weekly, gaining over 70,000 views (shown below, left). On January 6th, YouTube channel Tokyosaurus uploaded a review and explainer of the show, gaining over 59,000 views (shown below).

[This video has been removed]

Fandom

On November 1st, 2014, Tumblr user sirlorence uploaded a translated strip of the comic,^[1] and started uploading translated strips to his Tumblr account and Danbooru. On August 13th, 2015, sirlorence uploaded a strip featuring Popuko asking for an hamburger and replying "You are mother fucker" after being corrected on the pronunciation, gaining over 104,000 notes in the following year.^[6] In the following months, several comics strips were posted in Tumblr, with several of them going over the 10,000 notes mark, being one of the highest a strip posted by user Yaku-Zai on March 16th, 2016, gaining over 11,900 notes in the following year.^[9]

On several online image-boards, like 4chan, several panels from the series have been used as reaction images. In similar vein, some of the comics have been redrawn, featuring characters from other series like JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and Undertale.

The series has also gained a cult following online. As of April 11th, 2017, the Japanese artist community Pixiv leads to over 840 results under the keyword "ポプテピピック".^[10] The series also has a following on communities like 4chan^[11]^[12] and Tumblr.^[3]^[4]