YMMV / Popee the Performer

• Demographically Inappropriate Humor: The entirety of the show seems better suited for an older audience.
  • In episode 17, "Poison", Papi has an incredibly sexual scene where he deepthroats a knife and kisses Popee on the lips. Keep in mind, Word of God confirms Popee is his child.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Eepop and Onomadek, Popee and Kedamono's mirror counterparts, despite only appearing once, are rather popular with the fanbase.
  • Nightmare Popee, due to his terrifying appearance.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The show has a sizable fanbase in the west, even though it never aired outside of Japan (and isn't really commercially marketable in the West). Case in point, Toby Fox (creator of Undertale), is a noted fan of the show, and in turn Popee's director Ryuji Masuda is an Undertale fan (itself a case of Germans Love David Hasselhoff in Japan), so much so that Ryuji's wife drew fanart of Sans hanging out with Popee.
• Harsher in Hindsight: In the episode "Mimic", Popee puts on a gorilla mask that belongs to Kedamono and gets brainwashed into thinking he is a gorilla, and Kedamono has to shoot him since he was acting too wild. 15 years later, Harambe is shot and killed for acting too wild next to a three-year-old boy.
• Ho Yay: Papi has a tendency to get involved in this, especially in episode 17, Poison, where he kisses Popee on the lips - even though it's only to get rid of the poison, the way it plays out can lead to other interpretations.
• Memetic Molester: The Anime-Planet.com forums tend to link Popee and Papi with various forms of rape and sodomy.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "KEDAMONO NO KAO WA!" ^Explanation An infamous scene from Episode 39, Face, where the Frog suddenly speaks up to tell the cast that Kedamono's face looks like his mother's. This, combined it with the fact that it's strange out of context, made the clip memetic, resulting in people parroting the phrase in videos or posts related to the Frog.
  • The facial expressions on Kedamono's masks have often been compared to Saitama due to the way they're drawn.
• Quirky Work: It would hard to describe a five minute CGI cartoon where the characters do nothing more than inflict as much harm and chaos on each other and their environment like Tom and Jerry on steroids as anything other than a "Weird Japanese Thing".
• So Bad, It's Good: The bizarre animation, writing, and character designs gave it a fanbase (though whether it's ironic or not depends on the person).
• Special Effect Failure: Nary a minute goes by without awkward movement or clipping.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: Popee and Papi are Jerkasses alright and can do whatever to torture poor Kedamono when he does nothing wrong, and many of the characters suffer a Cruel and Unusual Death, to the point the show is unwatchable.
• Values Dissonance: The fact that this show is intended for children might be initially very shocking, given the relatively constant blood and more-violent-than-usual Amusing Injuries, Black Comedy and elements of Surreal Horror. However, it's important to keep in mind that in Japan, the show's home, extremely stylized and unrealistic violence isn't typically treated the same way as graphic, realistic violence; in essence, the show's bizarre art direction and surreal elements defang the violence enough that in Japan, the show is seen as perfectly acceptable for children. However this can be a double case of values dissonance, as a lot of viewers who grew up watching the show are shocked that it was aimed at children, not to mention graphic violence in Japanese children's media is a lot less common than it was in the past.
  • Surprisingly enough, the only real problem the network had with the series was not the violence, but the fact that Popee had three fingers because they were getting complaints from viewers with disabilities. The episode "Knife Game" was created to show that Popee had five fingers all along, but ironically enough it got banned for imitable acts of violence.
• Viewer Gender Confusion: First-time viewers often mistake Popee for a girl because of him being somewhat androgynous, his wearing pink and red, as well as his name being similar to the usually feminine name Poppy.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: The series was meant for all ages, yet it has a lot of violence, blood, and death. The nightmarish imagery doesn't help.
  • According to a Word of God in an interview, the creator never even made it with children in mind in the first place, and didn't even know what kind of network Kids Station was because he couldn't afford the channel. The person in charge of the channel arbitrarily decided that it can be shown to children.
• The Woobie: Kedamono. Throughout the course of the show, he has been tortured, shot at, and vivisected (among other things) multiple times by both Popee and Papi. What doesn't help is that he is one of (if not the) kindest characters.

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