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Main Characters
Popee
The devil himself
Popee is the titular 17-year-old and the main protagonist in Popee the Performer.
Popee is a psychopathic, violent, and easily angered clown trying to master various acts and magic tricks.
- Ambiguous Gender Identity: Word of God is the reason we know Popee's gender identity is more complex than male or female.
- Ax-Crazy: He goes insane in almost every episode.
- Bad People Abuse Animals: In addition to his constant terrorizing of Kedamono, Popee has also tried to poison Paola and has even chopped her up at one point.
- Berserk Button: Getting upstaged, whether by Kedomono or his own father. Popee's most deranged moments generally come after someone outperforms him.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: While not always plain malicious, he does not seem to understand the difference between playful and vengeful violence. He often cares much more about his circus acts than anything else, even his own safety.
- Character Tics: When Popee gets really aggravated, he starts biting his thumb.
- Likewise has a tendency to put his head in his hands and stomp dramatically when he's frustrated with somebody (or himself).
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: His ideas on what circus performances are supposed to be range from ridiculous to violent.
- Comedic Sociopathy: Being quite psychotic, Popee's actions can lead to this whenever someone is on the receiving end of his violence, at least when it's funny.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Popee will not mess with Kedamono on his birthday, and is genuinely angered when Frog does.
- For the Evulz: The only reason he does half the things he does. The other half seems to be pure curiosity.
- Green-Eyed Monster: A lot of his rampages are set off when Kedamono (unintentionally) demonstrates he's a much more skilled performer than Popee, inflicting extreme envy. At best, Popee will attempt to copy Kedamono's act, often to hilariously disastrous results. At worst, he goes completely Ax-Crazy.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: It takes very little to set him off.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Manages to impale himself by swallowing a sword too large for him.
- Jerkass: Selfish, overconfident, and terrorizes everyone he knows.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite his terrible behavior, Popee occasionally shows some redeeming qualities. In the episode 22, "Prediction", he helped the Frog without searching for a reward and didn't do anything wrong.
- He also intervenes to help Kedamono get his birthday cake back from the Frog, at great personal risk.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite his terrible behavior, Popee occasionally shows some redeeming qualities. In the episode 22, "Prediction", he helped the Frog without searching for a reward and didn't do anything wrong.
- Kick the Dog: Usually terrorizes Kedamono Once per Episode when he hasn't done anything to set off Popee on purpose.
- Light Is Not Good: Looks pretty friendly and harmless for a deranged, unstable lunatic.
- Murder Is the Best Solution: In Popee's mind, of course.
- Real Men Wear Pink: He is very prone to doing dangerous stunts, is very violent to the point of reaching Ax-Crazy levels, has a Hair-Trigger Temper, and isn't feminine-acting overall. He also wears pink clothes, a hat with bunny years, and according to Word of God, he wears Girlish Pigtails underneath the hat.
- Slasher Smile: Popee does this when they go off the deep end.
- Sociopathic Hero: Maybe not an outright sociopath, but he definitely doesn't care much about the characters surrounding him (at least not during a rampage), even his own father whom he won’t hesitate to kill during his rampages. To be fair, his father isn't exactly the best parental figure someone can have.
- Teens Are Monsters: He is seventeen years old according to Wiki
- Too Dumb to Live: Frequently uses dangerous objects such as knives, swords, and bombs in his actions, which often result in his demise.
- Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: He's portrayed as so dangerous and deranged that when he's on the receiving end, it's hard to feel bad for him.
- Vengeful Ghost: Becomes this in more than one episode. Once it even serves as a mild Shout-Out to the video in The Ring.
- Villain Protagonist: A terrible person and one of the main characters.
- Villainous Harlequin: A maniacal circus performer with a flamboyant costume.
Kedamono
Kedamono
Kedamono is a purple wolf who wears orange boxer shorts with yellow stars. He helps Popee by performing alongside him, but usually Popee snaps and things go wrong. Though he has a face of his own, he always keeps it mostly hidden underneath a huge set of masks with expressions drawn on; when his emotion changes, one simply falls off to reveal the next underneath.
- The Ace: Downplayed. He seems to be a natural at every circus act he tries with the only exception being a sword in a barrel trick in "Ghost" where he ends up accidently killing Popee.
- Beware the Nice Ones: The character least likely to get angry, but when he does, he can be just as ruthless and violent as Popee. The Alien and Frog found this out the hard way.
- Berserk Button: Destroying his chicken. When Alien does just that in "Escape Show" and proceeds to mock him for it, he loses it and attacks the latter in a violent rage.
- Black Bead Eyes: His real eyes are these when viewed from a certain angle.
- Butt-Monkey: Almost always on the receiving end of Popee's violent outbursts.
- The Chew Toy: Usually serves as this in each episode and gets abused, injured and killed most of the time.
- The Dog Bites Back: Occasionally, he will get so fed up with Popee's crap that he will fight back.
- Expressive Mask: Kedamono's masks change constantly to show what he's emoting at the moment.
- Fatal Flaw: Gluttony. If there's food involved, Kedamono will often prioritize getting it over anything else, even killing Popee once when manipulated by Alien in false exchange for chicken.
- Goofy Print Underwear: It's all he wears besides his mask.
- Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: He only wears his orange boxer shorts and mask.
- Hyper-Competent Sidekick: Even though he's supposed to be Popee's sidekick, he often outperforms Popee in any circus act. This irritates Popee, leading him to either up the challenge to throw Kedamono off...or just kill him, whichever is more convenient (or funnier).
- Nice Guy: Kedamono is probably the kindest person in the whole show.
- Not So Above It All: When push comes to shove, he can be quite greedy and violent. This, along with his gluttony, are usually what lead to his undoing.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Any moment where Kedamono's mask doesn't change...but his face underneath does.
- Older Sidekick: Is said by Word of God to be 25 years old.
- Reality Warper: Kedamono is so gifted at pantomime that he has achieved this, able to interact with objects (staircases, walls, cars) that aren't really there.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Every once in a while, things go well for him. For example in "Samurai" where he doesn't get harmed in any way and is happily eating candy at the end of the episode.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Kedamono loves chicken, and will gladly risk his life for it.
- The Unreveal: Frog sees Kedamono's face and says "Kedamono's face looks like... ...his mother's." We don't see what his face looks like, though we do know that the White Wolf is Kedamono's mother.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: Often whenever things appear to go his way, someone, usually Popee, will ruin it for him. An example that doesn't involve Popee is in "Karate Show" where the Frog eats his birthday cake, and when it spits the cake out and he is happy to have it back, a giant cockroach lands on it, ruining the food and making him cry in despair.
- Your Mind Makes It Real: His pantomime abilities; by imagining the actions he does, Kedamono makes them occur for real.
Papi
Papi is a senior clown and Popee's father who teaches Popee and Kedamono circus tricks and magic. He is very talented and can perform many magic tricks. He debuts in the first episode of the second season, becoming one of the three leading characters.
- Abusive Parents: He's teaching his son how to do dangerous things, is prone to getting into serious fights with him, and he even seems to be into Parental Incest, or at the very least he's showing affection in a sexual manner.
- Archnemesis Dad: Popee seems to view him as one, anyway.
- Berserk Button: Do not ignore him when he's trying to perform; the sun outfit he wears can produce copious amounts of light and heat when he's angered. Also do not hurt his pet elephant, Paola.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Is somehow more bizarre and strange than his son.
- Extreme Omnisexual: According to Word of Gay, Papi's sexuality is "everything in this world".
- Genius Ditz: Implied. Definitely smarter than his son and Kedamono, and he is able to outsmart his son's tantrums on multiple occasions. During one such moment, we see his genius illustrated by equations flying past him onscreen.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: Spends his first few moments on screen by chainsawing himself in half only to magically fix himself shortly after.
- Hidden Depths: Apparently skilled at giving CPR, to Popee's evident horror.
- Incest Subtext: Papi locks lips with his son no less than three times. He also tries force Popee into acting like an infant. Somewhat Played for Laughs.
- In Touch with His Feminine Side: He acts incredibly flamboyantly, in contrast to Popee and Kedamono.
- Skewed Priorities: Often times he values putting on a show and teaching a trick more than his own life, as well as the lives of those around him.
- Super-Strength: In episode 21 he threw the moon at Popee to one-up him in a strength contest.
- And in episode 29 he cuts the sun in half.
Supporting Cast
Frog
A green frog that pops up every now and then.
- A Dog Named "Dog": Frog isn't just his species name but his actual name.
- Butt-Monkey: The most abused character in the show, and that is really saying something.
- Suddenly Voiced: In the final episode Frog not only speaks, but earns the dubious honor of being the only character in the entire show to speak.
Paola
A bizarre elephant with the body of a three-wheeled wagon. She is Papi's pet and mode of transportation.
- The Dog Bites Back: Frequently gets abused by Popee, but almost always fights back and beats the snot out of him.
- Jerkass to One: She seems to get along with everyone except for Popee who she is shown to be extremely aggressive towards. Considering the person he is though, it's not surprising why she would act that way.
- The Smurfette Principle: Since Popee's little sister, Marifa isn't in the show, she's the only female character that regularly makes a proper appearance.
Alien
Alien is a minor character who appears in few episodes. It is friends with Papi.
- Ascended Extra: He appears sparingly in the series, but gets more screentime in the New Year special shorts.
- Aliens Are Bastards: He is shown to be an extremely violent and rude individual who often threatens to shoot Popee and Kedamono.
- The Greys: Is depicted as a classic grey alien with the grey skin, round bald head, and black eyes.
- Jerkass: Could give a Popee a run for his money, it is an overall unpleasant and violent alien who abuses everyone but its friend Papi.
- Manipulative Bastard: In "Escape Show", he offers Kedamono chicken in exchange for injecting Popee in the forehead with a syringe so he can dissect him, only to laugh and blast the chicken piece to the bone. Kedamono, in a rare moment, doesn't take it well.
Other Characters
Eepop
Eepop
The mirror version of Popee, as shown in Episode 33.
- Ambiguous Gender: If it wasn't for Word of God, no one would know whether Eepop was male or female.
- Palette Swap: Looks like Popee but has Kedamono's color palette.
- Sdrawkcab Name: To their canon counterpart's (if only in the English translation).
- Shrinking Violet: They appear to be somewhat more meek and fearful of Onomadek than Kedamono is of Popee.
Onomadek
Onomadek
The mirror version of Kedamono, as shown in Episode 33.
- Ambiguous Gender: No one knows for certain whether Onomadek is male or female.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: While resembling Kedamono, they act like Popee; the character is often seen throwing bombs, which is also what they're first seen doing.
- Palette Swap: Looks like Kedamono but has Popee's color palette.
- Sdrawkcab Name: To their canon counterpart's (in the English version, at least).
Nightmare Popee
An Evil Counterpart of Popee that only exists in Popee and Kedamono's Shared Dream.
- Ghostly Gape: He entirely lacks eyes.
- Intangibility: He phases up from the ground when he appears.
- Nightmare Face: Has this 24/7.
Wall Audience
A sentient wall with paintings of various creatures on it that is capable of Black Speech.
- Black Speech: It makes bizarre chanting to communicate.
God
A huge living stone head that rests near the circus.
- Ambiguous Situation: Is it THE God or just A god? Unsurprisingly, the show never clarifies this.
- Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: Popee learns this the hard way: by aiming to throw bombs at God, the latter shoots him away with its Eye Beams.
- Eye Beams: Anger it and it will fire powerful beams of light from its eyes.
- God Is Good: As long as you don’t taunt it, harm its followers, or steal from it; this is a very benign deity.
The White Wolf
A colossal white wolf that summons a fleet of bomber planes whenever she appears.
- Ambiguous Situation: And just like God, there’s no answer to what exactly this wolf even is other than that she's Kedamono's mother. Does she summon the bombers or merely arrive with them? What even is this thing?! Good luck figuring it out.
- The Dreaded: Even the normally unflappable Papi is absolutely terrified of her.
- Monster Is a Mommy: She's been confirmed by Wakako Masuda to be Kedamono's mother.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Has ferocious and piercing red eyes.
