Popee the Performer

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Popee the Performer
"Y'know, for kids!" - Nostalgia Critic
Genre: Comedy Slapstick Running Time: 5 minutes Country: Japan Release Date: January 3, 2000 – December 28, 2001 (reruns were available from 2002-2003) Network(s): Kids Station Created by: Ryuji Masuda Distributed by: Zuiyo Co., Ltd. Starring: Ryuji Masuda Wakako Masuda Seasons: 3 Episodes: 39 (1 Special)

Popee the Performer (Japanese: ポピーザぱフォーマー Popī za pa fōmā) are a series of Japanese 3D anime shorts created by the husband-and-wife team, Ryuji and Wakako Masuda. It broadcasted and aired on the all-anime satellite television channel KIDS STATION from 2000 to 2001 and reruns were available from 2002 to 2003.

Plot

The show centers around the bizarre and surreal adventures of Popee, a 17-year-old apprentice clown who lives in an empty circus located in the middle of the desert along with his wolf colleague that wears a mask, Kedamono, his father Papi, and the rest of the residents.

Why It Intentionally Can't Perform

Note: This show itself has no commitment with the quality of a common kids show, so it's possible that it was made as a joke.

1. The animation for this show is terrible, clanky, and ugly. Also for 2000-2001 standards. It is indescribable. The art style is repulsive and the mostly warm color palette is too bright and it hurts the eyes, not to mention the low poly of circular objects and animation errors.
   • Just like Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, the show deliberately resembles a typical western cartoon, instead of anime.
   • The characters have extremely jerky movements, as if they were animated by the guys from Dingo Pictures or even Xing Xing Digital.
   • Also, some of the more uglier CGI cartoons from the 1990s (like Gaither's Pond or Donkey Kong Country) had better and more fluid animation than this. Especially when this show came out in the early 2000s.
     • Even Pecola, which was another CGI show made in Japan, looks better this.
2. Despite being aimed at children, the anime has a lot of blood, gore, murders of the characters, and other disturbing stuff that would give Bring Me The Head Of Charlie Brown and Happy Tree Friends a run for their money. This is likely because Japan has different views on what is acceptable and what is NOT acceptable for a young audience compared to other countries like the United States, Canada, the UK, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, or New Zealand; with "Swallower" being a good (and the most infamous) example of this.
   • These deaths shown in the show have lead to a compilation video on YouTube. 73 times! That right there is saying a lot.
   • For all these reasons, it counts as a "kids" show with the "It's made for kids" excuse. (Already discussed on WIC'P#3).
3. Similar to Herman and Katnip, the Gene Deitch era of Tom and Jerry and the Looney Tunes shorts from 2003, this show relies too much on gratuitous over-the-top violence instead of slapstick, but it is taken so far up to the next level.
4. The character designs look like ReBoot, Stickin' Around and Toy Story rejects and/or generic, out-of-day porcelain dolls, mostly china dolls.
5. Annoyingly, frustratingly, horribly composed, and sung "catchy" theme/ending song that will be stuck in your head at once when you hear it because of how repetitive it is. Also, why is the show called Popee the Performer when the song is saying "Popee the Clown"?! The rest of the soundtrack is also at times creepy, very weird, and psychedelic.
6. Nitpicky, but show can be seen as a cheap Looney Tunes rip-off while still nitpicky yet it does share many similarities but much more violent slapstick (as will be mentioned later).
   • Popee himself can be seen as a Bugs Bunny clone with his costume and he has a bit of Daffy Duck's personality. Especially during his bad miscast as an evil villain.
7. Most of the characters (especially Popee himself) are unlikable and mean-spirited in this show.
   • Popee is always envious, just because Kedamono and Papi do better than him, so he just attempts to kill them with either knives or bombs with scary-looking women faces that are full of nightmare fuel.
   • Papi is more of a weirdly perverted, lustful, pedophilic, sadistic, and incestuous father figure than a proper one.
8. The episode plots are too nonsensical and unwise, even for a slapstick-induced show.
9. It got a manga series, which had nothing but filler-infested chapters that once even had a story where Popee shot a bazooka missile in Papi's butt. How did they get away with that?

Qualities That Can Perform

1. Some of the episode plots can be interesting and enjoyable.
2. The soundtrack is decent.
   • The theme song is also catchy.
3. With that said, there are some funny moments.
4. Kedamono is the only funny and likable character, despite being the butt monkey.
   • His constantly changing face masks are a very clever and consistent detail.
5. Some good episodes, such as "Face" and "Loneliness", the former of which was a decent finale for the series.
6. Surprisingly good pacing.
7. Due to its quality, it's possible that show was made as joke as mentioned above. It can also be "so bad it's good" to some people, given that the series wasn't supposed to be as good as the likes of Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon and other anime.
   • That said, in terms of surrealism, this anime looks fantastic and magnificent when compared to this monstrosity.

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Episodes With Their Own Pages

• Swallower
• Monocycle

Trivia

• Before 2016 or May 2017, it wasn't a very well known anime or even a recognised anime, but it had a cult following in both Japan and other parts of the world since the day the episodes were uploaded on YouTube. However, after May 2017, this show blasted on Twitter after some user publicly talked about it, and it also blasted on Instagram, Tumblr, DeviantART and even YouTube. This caused a minority of users being recommended to watch Popee the Performer-related videos, and ended up with them accidentally discovering this show and later having an addiction to it (that usually cools down after a whole while).
• Despite Japan's strict copyright laws, all the episodes are free to watch on YouTube.
• Similar to Pyro from Team Fortress 2, Popee is one of those rare characters whose gender is currently unknown. Ryuji Masada himself has not confirmed Popee's gender, but it's likely shown that Popee is possibly a male since he has some male traits in him.

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