Pop Team Epic Returns with a New Episode Because of Fans

With the success of the Pop Team Epic collaboration with JRA (Japanese Racing Association), a new episode has been unlocked for the comedy work. Further details on this will be revealed at a later date.

The collaboration was first revealed on April 27. It was hosted on the Umabi website under Pop Team Epic Kinen and was open to fans. A special feature of the collaboration was that fans were given the chance to create their own Popuko or Pipimi avatar. They could download their avatar for their own amusement and it would be added into the stands on the site’s graphic.

Included in the site was a tally of how many fan-created spectators have been added to the stands. It was stated that should that tally reach 1 million or more, “something” would be unlocked. Apparently that something was a new episode for the comedy work.

“Pop Team Epic” made its debut in 2014 as a four-panel surreal comedy webcomic and digital manga series. Written and illustrated by Bkub Okawa, the webcomic is serialized in Takeshobo’s Manga Life Win website. In 2015, Takeshobo released the first compiled book volume in print.

The series tells of 4-year-old girls named Popuko and Pipimi and their daily misadventures. Each chapter they encounter a variety of both mundane and bizarre situations and respond to them in equally bizarre and/or exaggerated ways. Due to the frequent parodies of pop culture and its combination of surrealism, absurdity, and non-sequitur, the series gained a cult following.

It was in April 2017 that news of the anime adaptation first popped up. With animation by Kamikaze Douga and produced by King Records, the series aired between January 7, 2018, and March 25, 2018, following a delay from October 2017 due to an “error by King Records”.

Acting as the series directors of the series was Aoi Umeki and Jun Aoki who both worked as a conceptual designer and series composer respectively for the series. Kotaro Sudo, who previously worked on the “Ajin” and “This Art Club Has a Problem!” series, acted as the producer for the series. As for the music, Gin took charge of the composition.

Source: Crunchyroll News