There is no darkness but ignorance.
-William Shakespeare-
Overview
Pop Team Epic (ポプテピピック, 'Poptepipic') is a 4-koma manga series by Bukubu Okawa, serialised on Takeshobo's 4-panel comic website Manga Life WIN. As of April 2021, four volumes have been published.
The blurb for the book reads: 'The best shit 4-koma manga ever!!' on the middle of the book's jacket. This is exactly how it is advertised, without any exaggeration or slander.
It is a comedy manga with a cute... well, if you look at it carefully, a fucking disgusting drawing style, and it can be anything and everything: topical, parody, one-liners, satire, nonsense, slapstick, callback, etc.
It is basically a surrealistic, relaxed style. The direction of the gags is characterised by a lack of context, such as when a current topic is mentioned and then an old parody is suddenly inserted. In one case, it took advantage of the trend and copied a line from a popular manga that had been made into an anime.
No explanations are given for parodies or topical jokes, which makes them extremely entertaining for those who know what they are talking about, but for those who don't, they often cannot even understand at all. It is a work that has a mixed reputation, from those who say they don't know what's funny, to those who say that it is too much of a hit-or-miss between funny and boring material.
It has been adapted into anime in 2018 and 2022, produced by King Record and Kamikaze Douga.
