Po Pi Po - ぽっぴっぽー

About

Po Pi Po (ぽっぴっぽー), also known as the Vegetable Juice Dance, is a dance meme based on a Miku Hatsune video in which that character is seen dancing in a peculiar motion, typically swinging up her left knee to the right when her right hand goes upward and vice versa, while following the beat of her singing a song about green vegetable juice.

As for Vocaloid's popularity being strong among fans and the easy-to-replicate dance moves, that meme spawned various remixes, MADs and videos from people doing their own draws from the dance.

The initial video

On December 11 2008, famous NND user Lamaze-p, well-known for his previous work on the Geddan meme and not yet well-known again for his further work on Fukkireta, uploaded a video, entitled 【初音ミク】ぽっぴっぽー【本店だよ！！】 [Registration required] to Nico Nico Douga.

Here is a Youtube version :

And another version with English subtitles/audio transcript :

The song, its lyrics, as well as the animation, are fanmade by Lamaze-p himself. The Nico Nico Douga video has gained more than 1 million views to date.

Dancing trend

Having its own appeal among Nico Nico douga users, the song would be featured in many other depictions from the dance, starting the same month it took off :

The "official" PV video

The 30th of January 2009, Nico Nico Douga user 砂吹 (Sunafuki P) posted his official PV video [Registration required].
It featured some kind of a funny commercial about green vegetable juice hosted by Miku Hatsune.
The video has gained more than 1 200 000 views to date.

Among many versions reposted on Youtube starting the same day it appeared on Nico Nico Douga, the following version, dating from the 2nd of February 2009, has gained more than 1 200 000 views there :

That PV video sparked its own set of MADs and parodies :

Other MADs

As a common occurance with every Nico Nico Douga meme, the song itself was used in many MADs as well :

Odotte Mita

It's another common fad coming from Nico Nico Douga's dance memes. Odotte Mita (踊ってみた) or "I've tried dancing it", involves real life people trying to recreate the dance, or to make an advanced version from it, and posting their result to Nico Nico Douga.

The first of its kind featured a group of 3 girls [Registration required] and was uploaded the 30th of January 2009.

Many other dancers quickly joined in, both Japanese and Western :

Utatte mita

In addition to the "I've tried dancing" phenomeon, there have also been another common, though lesser, one called Utatte Mita (歌ってみた) or "I've tried singing it", happening when confronted to a song meme with lyrics.

Several Nico Nico Douga users gave their voice to try to be as accurate as possible with the song's rhythm :

49 people singing in unison

While others were more about… experimenting things, with a bit of silliness :

Western covers exist as well, like the following English fandub :

Po Pi Po MKII

Po Pi Po MKII (ぽっぴっぽーMKII) is a sub-meme from the initial animation. The 22nd of January 2009, Lamaze-p uploaded another video called 【重音テト】ぽっぴっぽーMk-Ⅱ【ライバル店】 [Registration required]. It featured a remix version from the initial song and Kasane Teto doing the same dance while seemingly flying at the same time.

Youtube version :

That animation has spawned its own amount of derivatives based on it :

Appeal outside of Japan

MADs, remixes and parodies weren't restricted to the Japanese web. Here is a few Youtube examples from Westerners :

National recognition

The song was featured during the Miku Hatsune holographic live concert which took place in August 2009 :

It was also a playable track for Project Diva 2nd, a PSP music game released in July 2010 :

Google Insights

External links

• Nico Nico Douga article about PoPiPo
• Nico Nico Douga article about PoPiPo MKII
• Kyourankyodai.com article about the Vegetable Juice dance phenomenon
• Deviant Art results for Po Pi Po