Adaptation Displacement: The anime is considerably more well-known than the manga due to all the added wacky elements absent in the original source (such as the frequently changing voice actor cast and song inserts). Fans tend to be much more familiar with the anime version of certain manga skits as a result. The anime goes in such a different direction from the manga that some readers may be surprised it started out as a relatively simpler gag strip that's devoid of some of the anime's iconic aspects.
The "Pop Team Story" segments are more well-known in its anime format, leading to the simplified version in the manga throwing off newcomers.
If you see fan comics referencing a strip in the manga, it might be done with extra bits from the anime added (the "what will you do if I get older" strip is usually drawn with the violent laughter present in its adaptation, for example).
Any strip adapted into Bob Epic Team will rarely be remembered any other way, with the strongest contenders being the zoo, Hellshake Yano, and "Eisai Haramasukoi" strips.
Awesome Art: For a sketch show-styled anime, the animation is impressive, especially during the opening.
For a one-off joke, "Drop Star" is an unironically quality Cliché Storm of an opening for Hoshiiro Girldrop, having all the typical but beloved components of a good idol anime song.
Despite it being a one-off joke for the Season 2 opener and a Toku parody, "Endless Love" from Shouta Aoi is very entertaining and epic which is on par with the genre it's parodying.
The Season 2 opening PSYCHO:LOGY by Shouta Aoi is a hardcore techno/rock song, complete with epic guitars and eery vocals that make it sound very badass.
Season 2 Episode 5 gives us the insert song "Shining Shoulder", which is a song parodying the power metal genre and contains dramatic instrumentation and impressive vocals. Part A's version is especially good due to the vocals from Junko Minagawa and Yuki Kaida, both of whom display fluent English throughout.
Hellshake Yano only appears in a few gags at best, with one gag mention and one "backstory" reveal in a "Bob Team Epic" sketch in Season 1. Due to the hilarity of the original gag and the epicness of the sketch detailing his backstory, however, he became an instant hit with fans. The anime staff took note of this and ended up dedicating an entire episode in the second season to telling the tale of his comeback, with said episode being done mostly all in one take.
Despite the "series" Hoshiiro Girldrop being the butt of jokes since it never gets to properly air in the anime and is relegated to next episode preview gags, many Western fans have a soft spot for the heroine Sosogu Hoshifuri and legitimately want a spin-off of her series.
Fan Nickname: The anime quickly got the nickname "Dank Memes: The Anime" and "Shitposting: The Anime" due to its gag sketch nature. Before the anime's release, some people referred to the manga as "Shitposting: The Manga".
Faux Symbolism: In Episode 12, while the King Records council discuss things using heavily Techno Babble, you can see at some point a picture of the Tree of Life on the background for some reason.
Friendly Fandoms: Fans of the series sometimes overlap or are good terms with fans of The Eric Andre Show for their similar bizarre and surreal senses of humor. Many fans have been calling for Eric and Hannibal to voice an episode of the English dub.
Heartwarming Moments: Despite the gag nature of the series, anytime Pipimi supports Popuko when things get rough can be surprisingly heartfelt.
A standout example is a skit in the first episode, in which Pipimi declares to Popuko that she is God and she will answer any question she has. Popuko asks how much does Pipimi love her, and she turns off her God powers to answer normally, "A whole lot." Complete with Luminescent Blush and a rather cute expression (for these characters anyway).
Generally any of the skits where the punchline is "Popuko and Pipimi are good friends who love and support each other no matter what" are endearing. One example is Popuko asking Pipimi if her "Eisai Haramasukoi" dance will catch on and despite not actually believing so, Pipimi says yes because she imagined Popuko crying if she said no.
The OP and ED are both songs about the duo's friendship, with the OP being a vow that they'll see the endless universe together no matter what, "Poppy Pappy Day" in particular being about flipping the bird to people that hate them and refusing to let their time together be soured.
I Knew It!: Given the characters' tendency to destroy the HQ of Takeshobo, some viewers correctly suggested that the final episode of Season 1 of the anime would have Popuko and Pipimi destroy the HQ of King Records (the producers of the show).
Memetic Mutation: The comic is a Fountain of Memes among the anime community, and it's definitely not uncommon for characters of different series to be drawn in situations similar to the stuff Pipimi and Popuko get into.
One comic ends with Popuko being "arrested for YouTube crimes". The final panel is often used out of context. When Bkub's Twitter account was suspended, fans joked that he was "arrested for Twitter crimes."
The final panel of a comic with Popuko stating "Ah. You are mother fucker?" is a very popular reaction image.
Pop Team Epic is the best anime of 2018. Explanation 50% Sarcastic 50% genuine response commonly said by people who watch only one episode and never heard of the source material. Also parroted by fans who have in the same tone, usually sarcastic due to the 2018 anime season having just started when it premiered.
"Are you mad?"/"I'm not mad."note The skit where Popuko punches Pipimi and then ask if she's upset about it, and Pipimi responds that she isn't, became very popular to recreate after the anime came out.
"Shut the fuck up and die."note Referencing a strip where a particularly annoying character talking in chatspeak tries to joke with the girls, prompting Pipimi to chop through his head and say the phrase. Fans insert whatever thing particularly annoys them at the time into his speech bubble.
Justifying Self-Fanservice fanart of Pipimi and Popuko as the "blu-ray version"◊ is a popular joke. Often done with them flipping the bird.
"Sorry, I was thinking about Hellshake Yano."note Everything concerning the AC-bu version of the skit, from the flipbook to the art style to the ending phrase, was parodied after Episode 7 of the anime.
"Seen it."/Disappointed Popuko. note The "Bob Epic Team" version of the zoo strip went well among Japanese fans, where they put the things that were "seen" before in place of the animals Popuko and Pipimi kept visiting. On a minor note, they also liked how ridiculous the English dub of the segment sounded.
"Eisai haramasukoi!" note This references a strip where Popuko makes up a dance, then asks Pipimi if it would catch on (who says it will, not wanting to make Popuko cry by saying that it won't). Appears in Episode 8 and 11, the former during a "Bob Epic Team" skit and the latter replacing the OP, being a club mix instead. That episode also featured the gag as a surprise add-on to the Bob Epic Team version of the "letters" skit. Since then the dance became one of the most recognizable action from the anime.
Shouta Aoi to the rescue. note Shouta Aoi's surprise appearance at the end of Season 1 Episode 12 cued a ton of macros about him coming to the aid of doomed characters in other well-known series (the Puella Magi, Olga Marie, and Orga, to name a few) usually depicted as him running up to them just before their fatal scene. Becomes an Ascended Meme in Episode 14.
Shouta Aoi is the fourth Time Jacker.note Since both shows aired in the same year, Shouta Aoi's appearance and abilities shown in Season 1 Episode 12 soon tied him up with said gang inZio among Japanese netizens for trying to change the past in their favor. The joke also comes to full circle in Episode 14 and the Opening of Season 2.
"I...will...kill...you!" note The song "Heart Tree" from Season 1 Episode 12. People on Nico Nico Douga tend to quote this line on the official video whenever it is sung.
The Popuko clone factoryExplanation A clip of this scene became a popular gif to repost in response to anything perceived as excessively carbon-copied, often with a caption describing the gif's target.
"Aah, so it's like that, huh. I understand everything now." ← (Doesn't get it at all)Explanation A cropped panel that shows Popuko acting like she understood what was being said by confidently nodding and crossing her arms. It's commonly used as Self-Deprecation for the poster when they admit to not understanding a topic, and is alternately used to call out a Know-Nothing Know-It-All.
Older Than They Think: Crazy and bizarre series that likes to experiment with different animation styles and media for the fun of it? The series Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei had done episodes like this over a decade earlier.
Self-Fanservice: The "Blu-ray" versions of the main duo (aka the girls drawn in a more normal and typical anime style) are popular to draw, making them cuter as they're typically portrayed in canon. Pipimi gets the brunt of it, going from long-necked middle schooler to busty high schooler.
Signature Scene: Certain scenes are very iconic even among those who don't read or watch the work, depending on the audience and adaptation.
For western readers, it's the hamburger skit or the cuckoo clock skit.
In regards to the anime, the most well-known scene is the "Are you upset?" sketch, by sheer virtue of it being the opening skit (helps that the anime redoes this scenes in different styles later on).
A scene in the first episode of the anime features Pipimi saving Popuko from a facility that was keeping the latter in a pod, with the background music sounding very similar to "Come And Get Your Love" by Redbone. This similarity was definitely intentional, since a "Pop Team Epic" title card in the style of the Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) title card appears in the scene, and "Come And Get Your Love" plays in the opening scene of that movie.
A scene parodying Chrono Trigger has a melody being very close from that game Millenial Fair theme.
Season 1 Episode 4 of the anime has a felt stop-motion parody music video, "Let's Pop Together", that sounds extremely similar to Earth, Wind & Fire 's "Let's Groove" but changes the melody just enough to be lawyer-friendly. The sketch even has visuals similar to EWF's music video.
Season 1 Episode 5's ending theme gets a "Route 66 remix," with the opening riff of Steppenwolf's "Born to Be Wild". It's even noted when Tomokazu Sugita begins to sing the popular "Itsumo no ramen" misheard version of the song.
The main skit of Season 1 Episode 9 begins with a few bars very similar to the intro of Van Halen's "Jump".
"Bansaku Needer" barely qualifies as not-a-Cover Version of "I Wanna Love You Tender". The melody for the chorus is directly copied, and the rest is only slightly modified.
Watch It for the Meme: More than likely, you've discovered this series through the various memes rather than the actual content.
Woolseyism: Some of the language or cultural jokes are less entertaining if translated literally from Japanese, so fan and official translations often substitute them for something wittier or more relatable in the new language.
"Barabara Tai-chan" is a skit involving the protagonists as body parts, with the barabara translating to "scattered", tai translating to "body (parts)" and "Tai-chan" sounding like a name. To fit a similar double-meaning in the translation:
The English fan scanlation retitles it Dismembered Body-buddies.
The official translation of the manga calls it Dismembered Body-chan.
The Italian subtitles of the anime version call it "Smembrando il Corpo Umano" note "Gutting the Human Body", a pun on "Esplorando il Corpo Umano" ("Exploring the Human Body", the title used in home video releases of Once Upon a Time... Life)
AC-Bu's segments in the anime are titled "Bobunemimimmi", a butchered pronunciation of the show's Japanese name Poputepipikku.
To match the official English name Pop Team Epic, this segment is officially titled "Bob Epic Team" by translators.
The Italian subtitles romanize it as a different but similar-sounding title, Bob Neam Emim.
In Season 1 Episodes 3 and 8, Popuko mimics the PriPara catchphrase "Gotcha!" (Kashikoma! in Japanese).
In the Italian subbed version, this is replaced with "Okily Dokily!"
Funimation's English dub of Episode 3, rather than replacing the "Gotcha!" part, adds in a reference right beforehand by having Popuko say "that hit me right in the feels," a popular piece of internet lingo from the early 2010's.
In the English dub, in order to match the tune of the Japanese version's, the Japanese nursery rhyme used in the original is replaced with "Little Bunny Foo Foo".
The manga translation, not having issues with the tune, replaces it with "Row row row your boat".
In Episode 11, there is a sketch Popuko asks Pipimi if she wants to know what she's reading: Pipimi says she's interested, and then transforms into a tree. In Japanese, this is a pun on the phrase "Ki ni naru", that can mean either "be interested [into something]" or "become a tree". Multiple translations change the pun to make it work better in the new language:
In the Italian subtitles, this is changed in Popuko alerting Pipimi to not look at whatever she's reading about, since it could make her angry, replacing the original pun with one based on the Italian word "Inalberarsi", that can mean "getting angry" but also "hiding inside a tree", keeping the joke.
In the English subtitles, the joke is kept by having Popuko ask "would you like to read it?" and Pipimi answering "I would" (which sounds like "I wood").
Funimation's dub has Popuko asking, "Would you like to know what I'm reading?" and Pipimi answering, "I'm in-TREE-sted."
In the Italian subtitles of Season 1 Episode 5, the scene where Pipimi and Popuko do the "Char's Gelgoog Dance" is changed into "practicing their strafe running".
The official English translation of the manga takes a bit more freedom to localize certain strips:
In one strip where Pipimi asks Pokupo to do something funny for a short Internet video, Popuko delivers a rapid-fire delivery of a rakugo routine. In the English release, she instead recites from The Divine Comedy.
One strip is a reference to the Lassen Gorelai videoclip. In order to make the gag more comprehensible, the translation completely rewrites the strip to have Pipimi discussing about how clonation and free will don't go together, with the dance routine being reinterpreted as Popuko cloning herself and all her clones mindlessly following Pipimi while claiming they are doing that for their own choice.
The strip featuring size-swapped Popuko and Pipimi has short Pipimi complaining about her (as unofficial translations called it) "white akita-dad's mom". As the joke is basically incomprehensible for non-Japanese speaking audiences, the official translation changes the target of her complaints to the Aflac duck.
The official translation of the "missing background" strip replaces Popuko's proposal to go to "Japan's Macchu Picchu" with the "Snoopy Rock" in Sedona, Arizona.
, and it is a fun and catchy techno pop song.
