Popee the Performer

Popee the Performer is a Japanese 3D CGI animation series created by Ryuji Masuda. It aired on Kids Station between 2000 and 2003.

Premise
Set in the middle of a desert, in a place called Wolf Circus, the show follows two characters, Popee the clown, and his wolf sidekick Kedamono rehearsing their circus performances. In each episode the rehearsals go awry and devolve into often violent and/or surreal situations. The second season introduces Popee's father, Papi, the senior clown of the Wolf Circus, who often acts as the instructor for the other two, but his lessons he tries to teach don't go as planned, and sometimes, he only makes things worse.

Production
Popee the Performer was originally aired in 2000 on Kids Station, a television station in Japan. The anime was created by Ryuji Masuda and his wife Wakako Masuda, and there is a manga adaptation created by his wife as well. Ryuji Masuda created the show to fill a five-minute slot on Kids Station. The show had a budget of 100,000 yen per month. Due to the low budget, the series had no voice actors and was set in a desert to avoid rendering complex scenes. The show had three people working on it: Ryuji Masuda, Wakako Masuda, and a 3D animator hired from a video game company. Production began three months before the show aired. The 27th episode, "Knife Game", featured Popee, Kedamono and Papi playing the titular game, and the episode was not aired for fears that children would imitate the game.

The entire series was made through the use of 3D computer graphics and animation. Many shortcuts were taken to save on labor and rendering costs, such as the reuse of patterns and scenes. Each episode's animation took between 9 and 13 days to produce.

Reception
Popee the Performer has been described as "a twisted mockery of children's shows" and a "dark, messed up series" due to its violence and unintentional horror; the visual style has also been called "offputting". In addition, it has been called a "trauma anime" and a show that "should not be searched online" in Japan. However, the show has been praised for its comedic appeal despite its lack of dialogue.

The show has been compared to Looney Tunes due to its slapstick humor.