Popee the Performer Countdown Special

The Popee the Performer Countdown Special (ポピーザぱフォーマー　カウントダウンスペシャル) was a special aired to celebrate the new year, 2003. The special followed an airing of 10 episodes fans chose as their favorites, and is included on the POPEE the MANIAX boxset along with the 10 episodes chosen.

The special is comprised of 8 shorts, and it's theme is PoPiPa no PEE, sung by Aoyagi Tsuneo.

### Characters

* Popee
* Kedamono
* Papi
* UFO Girls
* Alien
* Paola
* Frog

## Opening

A count-down starts, followed by Popee, Kedamono, and Papi's heads appearing onscreen as PoPiPa no PEE begins to play. In this short, Kedamono watches on as Popee and Papi stand opposite one another as they pull seemingly endless flags out of their mouths. They go too far, however, and become withered and shriveled up. At the end, they lie on the ground, flat and withered with large piles of flags at their sides, and Kedamono mourning them.

## Goodbye, 2002

A screen with "Goodbye, 2002" (さようなら, 2002年, *sayōnara 2002 nen*) appears, then cuts to the UFO Girls dancing with the words "GOODBYE 2002" on the television screen. Kedamono's laughing and enjoying the show while he eats his favorite fried chicken, but Popee and Papi are both struggling to stay awake. When Kedamono turns to look at them, he finds them both asleep. He kindly gets a blanket, and goes to cover them, but then he notices that there's snot starting to drip from Papi's nose...which is right over Popee's mouth.

As the snot starts to drip lower, a countdown appears at the top left corner, starting from 10 as Kedamono anguishes over what to do. As the seconds tick away, Kedamono panics, running all over. He tears through his chest to find something to prevent the inevitable, and he does! A tissue box! Except...it's empty.

With just three seconds on the clock, he finds a spoon, and he knows what he must do. As the counter ticks to 1, Kedamono books it, running and then lunging with the spoon held out. As the counter hits zero, Papi and Popee both miraculously wake, and Papi sniffs, rendering Kedamono's entire crisis pointless.

As they wake, Papi and Popee see on the TV that it's officially the new year, with "HAPPY NEW YEAR 2003" on the screen before a rainbow background. Kedamono collapses from his completely frazzled nerves, and Popee and Papi bow to each other in respect of the new year.

The short ends with Popee and Papi enjoying the UFO Girls on TV with the words "WELCOME 2003" on the screen, and Kedamono miffed and choosing to sleep instead.

## クレー射撃 (Clay Target Shooting)

Kedamono tosses a plate into the air, and Popee cleanly shatters it with a bullet. Kedamono throws another plate, and Popee shoots that one, too. He turns to Papi, putting a hand up as if to ask "Well? What do you think?" and when Papi smiles and shrugs, Popee gets suspicious.

Papi takes out his cellphone and speed-dials someone, making Popee and Kedamono wonder what he's doing. Suddenly, as PoPiPa no PEE starts to play, Alien's UFO appears in the sky behind them.

Popee and Kedamono start shooting Alien's UFO, and Alien laughs at them from the inside as their bullets have no effect.

Papi shakes his head, and Popee and Kedamono turn around. Papi shows them another method: he takes a voo-doo doll made of straw and pokes a needle through it's heart. Up in his spaceship, Alien grabs his chest and runs around in pain, and then accidentally hits a big red button.

Alien's UFO explodes, becoming a burning, flying wreckage. Popee and Kedamono applaud Papi in awe as he smirks.

## ボウリング (Bowling)

Papi focuses, and then sends his ball down the alley, getting a strike. He turns to Kedamono, who's clapping like the good sport he is, and Popee, who claps reluctantly.

Behind a nearby pillar, Alien hides, watching them. Kedamono takes his turn, making the ball bounce, and Popee laughs at his blunder as Alien quickly crawls towards them.

Popee cracks his knuckles. Just before he comes to the ball return, Alien places a bomb among the balls, and Popee unknowingly takes it.

Alien takes cover as he waits for it to explode. Popee rolls the bomb, and gets a strike—but the bomb doesn't explode.

As Popee celebrates his strike, Alien sneaks over to see what's going on, crouched behind the ball return.

The bomb returns to the ball return, and Alien notices right before it explodes, blowing the four of them up.

## 古式泳法 (Old Style Swimming)

Popee, Papi, and Kedamono are swimming in water, doing some synchronized moves as Alien rows by. He gives each of them a brush and a wooden pallet with paper on it.

They are playing shiritori: each must write a word starting with the final kana of the previous word. Words ending in ん are not permitted because no Japanese word starts with that character.

Kedamono goes first, writing "apple" (りんご, *ringo*). After him is Papi, who writes "gorilla" (ゴリラ *gorira*). Finally, it's Popee's turn, and he writes "lion" (らいおん, *raion*), causing him to lose. As a penalty, Alien places a cinder-block on his chest.

A second round begins.

Kedamono continues from Papi’s *gorira*, writing "rakkio" (らっきょ, pickled scallion). Next, Papi writes "yokubou" (よくぼう, desire/appetite), and Popee follows by writing "udon" (うどん, udon).

Once again, Popee fails, and another cinder-block is added to his stack.

The next sequence of words written comes in rapid-fire, but the translations are in order as follows:

Kedamono: Unagi (うなぎ, eel)

Papi: Ginza (ぎんざ, shopping center)

Popee: Zanpan (ざんぱん, garbage)

Kedamono: Zaru soba (ざるそば, soba served on a bamboo draining basket with dipping sauce)

Papi: Bakugeki (ばくげき, bombing)

Popee: Chirin (きりん, giraffe)

Kedamono: Kiichigo (きいちご, raspberry)

Papi: Gokiburi (ごきぶり, cockroach)

Popee: Ribon (りぼん, Ribbon)

Finally, the characters are shown again, and Popee has amassed a very tall stack of cinder-blocks on his chest. He tries to stay afloat, but they're too heavy, and the others look on as he sinks.

## マラソン (Marathon)

Popee, Kedamono, Papi, and Alien are running a marathon in the desert. Under the hot temperatures and burning sun, Kedamono and Popee appear to be faring particularly poorly. Luckily, there's a table with drinks prepared for them so they can keep going.

Popee, Papi, and Kedamono take and drink their glasses, but when Alien finally catches up, he finds his in on the ground, spilled, making him angry.

At the next table with drinks they come across, Alien pushes through everyone, grabs his cup, drinks it, and then knocks all the other cups to the ground, spilling them as revenge.

The others despair at the loss as Alien childishly taunts them. But the others are shocked as a twister comes out of nowhere and pulls Alien into it, catching him inside.

Popee, Kedamono, and Papi watch as Alien is taken by the twister, past the finish line and beyond.

## 障害物競走 (Obstacle Course)

Popee, Kedamono, and Alien stand before an obstacle course comprised of many hurdles. Papi puts his finger in his one ear to muffle the sound as he shoots upwards, signalling the start of the course.

Everyone goes. Alien is easily in the lead, cleanly jumping over every hurdle, with Kedamono in second, as he clears hurdles a little slower, and Popee in third, as he knocks every hurdle over when he tries to jump them.

Unknown to Alien, his ankle catches a tripwire. As he continues running, from out of nowhere, something comes and he's gone.

In a replay, it's shown that Alien was hit with a large rock with punji sticks sticking from it, swung from a net.

Popee and Kedamono look back at Papi, who simply gives them a thumbs-up.

In the next scene, Popee and Kedamono run around frantically as they try to avoid explosions. Kedamono's ankle snaps another tripwire, and the ground beneath him breaks away, revealing a pit with punji sticks sticking up like spikes. Luckily, he catches the side of the pit, and is unharmed.

Just as Kedamono's caught himself, Popee hits another tripwire, and this time, more punji sticks shoot down from the sky, stabbing the ground as he runs to avoid being impaled.

As he's running, Popee notices he's hit the finish line, and he runs forward in victory, breaking the ribbon—and as he does so, the screen cuts to white, and the noise that signaled each trap from earlier plays again just as the short ends, implying he's just set off yet another trap.

## ゴルフ (Golfing)

Popee's focusing as he aligns his golf club with the ball. Behind him, watching, are Papi, Kedamono, who is holding a sign that says, in english, "QUIET", and Alien, who appears to be a caddie.

Finally, Popee swings his club, hitting the golf ball high into the air. The group watches as it ricochets off a barrel, Paola, and many others things, before finally heading towards the hole.

PoPiPa no PEE begins to play, and the group despairs as the ball appears to veer off to the side. Then, the ball appears to right itself, heading straight towards the hole.

The ball gets closer and closer, and just as it's about to fall into the hole, Frog pops out of the hole and swallows the ball with a "wa".

## 剣道 (Kendo / Swordsmen)

Popee shakes as he holds his katana and stands opposite Papi, who is calmly wielding a katana of his own. Kedamono and Alien watch from the side, sitting on cushions.

Papi finally puts his hand up, signalling Popee to stop. He turns and walks away, and then a Japanese sunken hearth is shown with a pot boiling over it. Suddenly, there's a traditional Japanese-style room partially around them, and Papi's kneeling in front of the hearth as Popee stands behind him with his katana, confused.

As Papi tastes what's cooking over the hearth, Popee becomes angry, and PoPiPa no PEE begins to play. Popee throws a tantrum and then lunges at Papi with his sword.

Papi grabs Alien out of nowhere and uses him to block Popee's blade from slicing him, cutting into his forehead. Popee appears to show remorse, not having intended to hit Alien, and performs a dogeza, asking for forgiveness.

## Trivia

* During the "Old Style Swimming" segment, the characters were playing "Shiritori", a Japanese word game in which the players are required to say a word which begins with the final kana of the previous word. The major rule of the game is that a player who plays a word ending in the mora *N* (ん) loses the game, as no Japanese word begins with that character. The joke was that Popee was constantly choosing words that end with that kana, which result in him being punished by being placed more bricks on his chest until he sank on the water.