Anime
POPEE the Performer: All 39 episodes run on New Year's Day
Kids Station will air the complete 3DCG cult series on January 1, 2027, from 1:55 to 6:00 a.m. Japan time.
The 3DCG anime POPEE the Performer returns to the Japanese broadcaster Kids Station for the New Year. In the night from December 31, 2026, into January 1, 2027, all 39 episodes will be shown back to back. Japanese broadcast time starts on January 1 at 1 a.m. and ends at 6 a.m.
The rerun was announced on October 27 via the series' official account. As KAI-YOU reports, the marathon is part of a special New Year's program. The Japanese television broadcast is so far the only confirmed way to see the complete series within this initiative. No broadcast or streaming release for Germany was announced.
An unusual anime from 2000
POPEE the Performer (Japanese POPEE the ぱフォーマー) premiered in 2000 on Kids Station. The short computer-animated series is set at the Wolf Circus in the middle of the desert. It centers on the clown apprentice Popee with his rabbit-like costume and the masked companion Kedamono.
The stories largely work without spoken dialogue. Instead, body language, sound effects and music carry the plot. Behind the eye-catching, colorful circus look lie black humor, surreal situations and at times graphic depictions of violence. Ryuji Masuda handled direction, screenplay and staging; Wakako Masuda was responsible for character design and artistic design.
All 39 episodes on Japanese television
The complete broadcast is also remarkable because, according to KAI-YOU, individual episodes were held back from reruns after the original broadcast. For the announced marathon, however, all 39 episodes are explicitly scheduled. In 2025 the production celebrated its 25th anniversary; in 2026 there followed, among other things, a collaboration with The Amazing Digital Circus and cinema screenings in Tokyo.
The marathon is another revival of older anime in Japanese TV programming: most recently, the classic Mach GoGoGo was announced on Japanese Disney Channel. The free ABEMA broadcast of numerous Pokémon films likewise targets an audience that wants to watch familiar productions again.