Pop Team Epic Takes on Smart Phone Gacha Gaming

The parody series “Pop Team Epic” is now entering the world of smartphone gaming with a newly released gacha game.

Titled as “Takeshobo Quest: Pop Team Epic Assaults”, it is a self-described “crappy app” that is available for Android and iOS smartphones. The game has players taking control Popuko and Pipimi as they cut through endless waves of Takeshobo employees with a gacha mechanic that allows players to capture and recruit Takeshobo employees.

“Pop Tea, Epic” is a four-panel surreal comedy webcomic and digital manga series by self-professed “crappy manga boy” Bkub Okawa. It was in August 2014 that the series began serialization on Takeshobo’s Manga Life Win website. The series is currently running and had around two volumes released.

On February 18, 2016, a “second season” on the Manga Life Win website. Then on October 10, 2017, a “third season” was released.

The manga tells of two 14-year-old girls named Popuko and Pipimi as they go through misadventures involving a variety of both mundane and bizarre situations and respond to them in equally bizarre and exaggerated ways. With its frequent parodies of pop culture and its combination of surrealism, absurdity, and non-sequitur, the series has developed a cult following among both Japanese and Western audiences.

An anime adaptation of the series by Kamikaze Douga and produced by King Records was released in January 2018. The series ran for a total of 12 episodes before ending in March 2018. The series was directed by Aoi Umeki and Jun Aoki who worked on “Hanebad!” and “Oshiruko – The Summertime Mischief” respectively. The latter also worked on the series composition of the anime.

The series took on an animated skit format and featured a variety of animation styles, most often CGI, professional-looking 2D animation, and idiosyncratic animation from AC-bu. Another thing to note with the series is that it had a variety of voice actresses playing the main characters and had different opening and endings for a number of episodes.

Other than the manga, anime, and now game, the two girls have been seen featured in different marketing works. One of their most recent collaborations was with Japan Racing Association as a Pop Team Epic Kinen campaign was launched Umabi.jp website. During this campaign, users could create a customized avatar of either Popuko or Pipimi as a virtual spectator.

Source: Crunchyroll News