Kara Dennison
March 26, 2022 
Bkub Okawa’s kuso manga Pop Team Epic lived up to its weird potential in anime form. From fake-out openings to multimedia presentations, this baby was all over the place. And we’re getting more when Season 2 rolls in.
One of our favorite parts of the show has always been the rotating cast, with Popuko and Pipimi played by two different people each episodes. Your favorite seiyuu from all across the history of anime show up to take part. And yet somehow, not everyone made it in. Hopefully that means we’ll see them in the upcoming season. In particular, we have our fingers crossed for:
Megumi Hayashibara & Maria Kawamura
A little peek behind the curtain: finding actors who haven’t been in Pop Team Epic yet was pretty difficult, especially on the Japanese side of things. They’ve done an amazing job not only rustling up big names, but also pairing them off to riff on previous roles. Two we haven’t seen, though, are Megumi Hayashibara and Maria Kawamura. Either of them would be a great get on their own. But together? We could have Lina Inverse and Naga the Serpent back in action.
Hayashibara in particular is a voice people have been waiting to hear, although fans’ minds tend to go more toward Evangelion in terms of pairings. But come on. When you’ve already got the perfect Tol and Smol pairing, why mess with perfection?
Nobuyuki Hiyama & Katsuyuki Konishi
When asked “How hot-blooded do you want Pop Team Epic to be?,” our answer is a resounding “Yes.” Seeing Nobuyuki Hiyama show up as himself on-camera in the first season was great and all. But we’d love to hear him play one of the girls. And if we had our way, we’d pair him off with Katsuyuki Konishi, who played Kamina opposite Hiyama’s Viral in Gurren Lagann.
This isn’t the only place they’ve crossed paths, though. Hiyama played badass cyborg Guy Shishio in GaoGaiGar, in which Konishi also appeared. This time, he played not a robot pilot, but a robot: VolFogg, to be specific. The purple ninja mech supported GGG in stealth missions, and could upgrade into a bigger version called… Big VolFogg.
Steve Blum & Beau Billingslea
The voice acting madness of Pop Team Epic isn’t limited to Japanese. Just as in the original, the English dub brings through a parade of stars as the two leads. And if we had our way, we’d reunite Spike and Jet.
Steve Blum and Beau Billingslea are legends in their own rights, and neither has shown up in the dub yet. Pairing them off would be an absolute stunner, and give plenty of room for some pretty timely jokes. (We’re also kind of biased: we just wanna hear them together again for any reason at all.)
Of course (and to fall back on the Cowboy Bebop theme again) whatever happens, happens. We haven’t been let down by Pop Team Epic yet, and we’re sure the voices they’ve got lined up will be stellar. But. You know. In case anyone’s taking suggestions.
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