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Pop Team Epic Hawks 'Crap' at Winter Comiket

Anime News Network's merchandise coverage sponsored by Tokyo Otaku Mode.

The Pop Team Epic team is capitalizing on its no holds barred attitude at this weekend's Comiket event. The series is setting up a self-described "crappy" booth that imitates a dilapidated building where it will sell similarly themed crappy merchandise.

Items include a "Crappy New Year's Set" that includes traditional New Year's items like a wooden sign board (ema), bamboo rake charms (kumade), and fukuwarai game; similar to Pin the Tail on the Donkey, and wrapping cloth (furoshiki). The "Crappy Set Kai" is a revised version of the Summer Comiket set and includes a clear file, bromide art, acrylic key chains, and the "Takeshobō no Kakera" (Fragments of Takeshobo).

The mysterious "fragment" was also sold at Summer Comiket and confused buyers when it was first announced. The item is as absurd as it sounds and looks to be a piece of concrete.

Takeshobo is the publisher of Pop Team Epic and sometimes the butt of the manga's jokes. When the anime was announced, the key visual included the tagline "Remember Takeshobo..." as if the publisher no longer existed.

The Pop Team Epic booth will also sell karuta cards, t-shirts, and towels. There will also be a donation box set up where visitors can make an offering and pray for the anime's success. Fans can also catch a glimpse of the manga and anime's leads on a Pop Team Epic bus that will make stops in Shinjuku, Akihabara, Ikebukuro, and Shibuya during the event's first day.

The series' "crappy" designation also originates with the original manga. The surreal four-panel manga centers around two 14-year-old girls, the short Popuko and the tall Pipimi. The story summary on the anime's website quotes William Shakespeare's Tweflth Night play, "There is no darkness but ignorance." The anime adaptation will air in January.

Source: Comic Natalie