Based on the eroge by Petit Ferret. The eroge for which this anime is based was made famous outside ecchi circles for its role in the creation of the internet Caramelldansen meme, which continues strong to this day.
But who cares about any of that. Boobs!
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Download Links
Torrent. Seeders needed! Please seed for as long as possible when finished.
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Series Information
Production Company: SHAFT
Vintage: Summer 2003
Nipple sightings from other SHAFT produced anime:
Mahoromatic , Shina Dark (OVA) , This Ugly Yet Beautiful World , Dance in the Vampire Bund , G-On Riders , He Is My Master
Other notable / recently relevant (non-nude) mainstream anime from SHAFT:
Puella Magi Madoka Magica , BakeMonogatari , Ef series, Negima?! , Nisekoi , Sasami-san@Ganbaranai , Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei , MoonPhase , Natsu no Arashi! , Arakawa Under the Bridge
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Notable Seiyuu:
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Thoughts on the anime
Back in the day it wasn’t unheard of to show nipples in TV anime, but if you really wanted to make a true fanservice anime, you usually went the OVA route on DVD or VHS. Only a small handful of TV anime showed gratuitous nudity while in a TV format, and when they did, it was usually of the innocent variety (bathing, changing, etc.).
In 2001, Mahoromatic set the bar for such fanservice in a TV format. Nudity occurred in a majority of the episodes, and nude scenes could at times be fairly lengthy, especially by the standards of the time. Mahoromatic was also produced by SHAFT, in tandem with GAINAX. Those companies would work together on nude ecchi several times. When SHAFT greenlit Popotan, it would be the first nude ecchi series they’d create flying solo.
In terms of fanservice, Popotan is a spiritual successor to Mahoromatic, in that just about all the nudity comes from bathing scenes. This time however, the quantity of those bathing scenes went up dramatically- with about twice the frequency of nudity that Mahoromatic had. Even widely known ecchi series that came a year later (Ikkitousen, Girls Bravo) did not have as much total nudity as Popotan did.
It’s kind of amazing to think that SHAFT ever drew for nudity. Has any anime company raked in more cash animating TV series than SHAFT has over the past five years? I seriously doubt it, in fact I doubt it’s even that close. The Monogatari franchise kicked off by breaking sales records, and has rolled on with several follow up series, each one making bank. Madoka Magica is one of the biggest hits of the past decade as well.
Because of this enormous and well deserved success, SHAFT has received the kind of prestige usually reserved for companies like Kyoani, and that prestige means pretty much everything they do will be “cool to like,” which means awesome sales of course. Animating for nudity, even on a throwaway project, would threaten that reputation so I wouldn’t expect SHAFT to go back to their nipple drawing ways any time soon.
It’s not always easy to see in the anime, but if you look at some of the key visuals and promo art for Popotan you can see a resemblance to the art and character design style made more famous by SHAFT in future series like Bakemonogatari.
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Thoughts on the fanservice video
Not the best source, it’s an honest DVD rip. DVD source is usually very low resolution, and this hasn’t changed all that much even in recent times. Roughly 400 pixels is usually pretty standard for DVD in most cases.
Not too many fancy shenanigans in the edit here. Just a few repeats, and with quality / resolution that low I was kind of afraid to zoom or mess with things too much.
The total amount of nudity is pretty impressive, only a handful of ecchi series have produced more nudity volume in a single season. Non-nude fanservice is in short supply, most of the service here comes in the innocent bathing scenes. It seems to be the only nudity scenario SHAFT could think of (Mahoromatic was a similar story).
I’m sure ordinary anime fans were annoyed by the characters jumping in the bath every 15 minutes, but I could watch a 12 episode ecchi series that never leaves a bath, personally.
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Favorite Character
Mai. She had it on looks to begin with, but add to that a visible sports bra and boy shorts to her default character design. I think she was intended to be the hottest character, as they teased her nudity the most at the start of the series.
