Pop Team Epic Season 2

As has been the case since its first season in 2018, the comedic content of Pop Team Epic is hit or miss to most viewers. Its humor is very eccentric, often shitposty, and full of references such that, while some episodes had me laughing all the way through, others stood out as being largely composed of duds.

However, while it is certainly a comedy show, my favorite element of Pop Team Epic has always been its focus on assembling a wide assortment of creatives to experiment and bring their unique vision and techniques to the table, and season 2 continues to ramp that up even further. PTE may be a compilation of shitposts, but it's really high effort shitposts the likes of which you'd never see anywhere else. The passion its creators put into it is palpable and had me constantly excited to see what surprises they served up with each new installment.

Just like in the first season, our first episode begins with an opening sequence for an entirely different, fictionalized series, this time a live action tokusatsu show called "Endless Love" - though now it's not as much of a fake-out as it is upholding a tradition and one-upping the prior season. The second episode was mostly dedicated to an extended mecha sequence animated by Sunrise and directed by Masami Oobari with magnificent designs and transformations. A personal favorite of mine, episode seven, was an ENTIRE EPISODE expanding on the Hellshake Yano segment seen in season one with a full set, a faux-ad break, and opening/ending credits delivered via flipping sketchbook pages in the bathroom.

Then there are the Boys' Love segments, the retro delinquent anime segment, one ending credits sequence animated by Kekeflipnote, the list goes on. One detail I really liked was the inclusion of a post credits section where the voice actors for that episode have what seems like a semi-improvised conversation, which also contain some running gags between episodes. It was thanks to these that I realized the often very intentional choices of Japanese voice actor pairings - for one episode, Popuko and Pipimi share the same voices as Killua and Gon from Hunter X Hunter 2011, another the voices of Solid Snake and Raiden from Metal Gear. If you think a certain episode's voices sound familiar to you, you might like to look them up and see if you know what they're from!

I would also be remiss not to mention the final episode. I believe it's best experienced blind, but it delivers in a way I never thought the series would and ties together PTE S2 in a finale that's surprising as ever.

Having said all of this, I'm not going to say Pop Team Epic is a 10/10 or will blow your mind. I like to say it's my favorite 4/5 star anime - it's a fun, shitposty time that offers something no other anime does. If you just go in wanting hilarity, you might be disappointed, but if you properly set your expectations and go in with a curiosity for what strange things it has to offer, it can be a fantastic time.