bbarton - 2014-03-28 08:36:17

Pupa is a "horror" manga written and illustrated by Sayaka Mogi. The anime adaptation is twelve episodes long and those last for around four minutes each.

The adaptation is handled by the infamous Studio Deen who're also the producers of Sakura Trick (another recently aired anime) but they're known for anime like Rurouni Kenshin, Fate/Stay Night and Higurashi. I'll just say that their track record isn't exactly the best.

Story 2/10

There is a common misconception that Pupa does in fact have a coherent story and plot-line. It does not and it actually has a mess that kinda resembles a book that someone ripped apart, dunked into water and then attempted to glue back together.

I'll tell you what the basic plot is though; Utsutsu and Yume Hasegawa are siblings and Yume accidentally becomes a monster who needs to feed on human flesh. Conveniently her brother also becomes infected and he lets her feed on him and stuff. If you break it down it is basically about family and looking out for each other. Other than that there are two factions who want the Hasegawa duo for research or something along those lines.

The story isn't much at all, it can be summed up in a sentence and is full of holes.

Animation 1/10

The animation is bare. The fact is that the style of the art is ruined by the atmosphere that they have tried to make. Look at the above gif, that is the censoring at play and it just looks bad. On the contrary the image below looks nice, it doesn't have any of those shadows. Sadly the anime uses the darker lighting more and you can hardly see what is happening most of the time.

Another thing to note is that the anime is for those who are fans of gradients. I doubt the lighting will get any better with uncensoring and there are some really bizarre choices made that threw the mood that they were going for out of the window.

Sound 1/10

The soundtrack is lacking, there are three tracks excluding the opening and ending songs. Most incorporate the Piano but one instead uses an Organ which gave the show some more inconsistencies and it didn't need any more of those.

Character 2/10

In this anime I only remembered the names of the two main characters. The rest of the cast (that consisted of three characters) were extremely forgettable, much like the anime itself. The only thing that I'll give it props for is developing Yume, Utsutsu and their other family members but there was something odd. They had the worst parents and their relationships felt unrealistic even more so after the flashbacks. There is close to nothing learn about the rest of the cast, a friend of Utsutsu has four sisters.

Enjoyment 1/10

I can not say I enjoyed this anime, I'd much rather watch someone train, sleep or bathe than watch this. This didn't really have a connected story, you didn't see how they got from point A to point B most of the time. There were random parts in episodes and some episodes were wasted entirely. A character suddenly became pregnant with no prior warning and then we never saw them again. There were some little tidbits that also annoyed me but I have to give this anime some credit, it did have consistent quality throughout.

Overall this anime gets a 1/10 from me, I've watched some bad anime and this one will not be remembered by me for how bad it was, the other anime actually deserve to be mentioned unlike Pupa.

lhalvorson - 2014-03-28 06:03:41

It is so rare to come across an anime so compelling, and damn right beautiful. This show is not just a bad anime, it is a deconstruction of the bad anime genre, and I think that it's amazing. The animation is sub-par to School Days, and the love story is comparable to Sakura Trick's absolute complete innocence. ily pupa

hills.julio - 2014-03-28 06:01:08

Pupa isn't just a bad anime, it is a deconstruction of bad anime.

5/5 , would recommend.

satterfield.matilde - 2014-03-28 01:23:56

IT'S SHIIIIT! It's even in the title. It's pronounced Poo-pa.

Don't watch it! Unless you like flesh eating fetish that sounds like sex. Even then, DON'T WATCH IT!

xleffler - 2014-03-28 00:39:38

Pupa was one of my most anticipated anime from the fall list and having it being bumped back to the winter list only strengthened the hype. My expectations fell short when I heard that it was only going to be 5 minutes an episode, but still gave it a chance.

STORY

The story is just OK. It had a lot of potential especially with the interesting premise, but the story didn't go very far with an ending that was different, but not exactly good. I have noticed people buzzing about the 'incest' in the show, but if it was there, they only hinted at it.

ANIMATION

The animation was actually (for the most part) nicely done. It was pretty much all watercolor-type animation which was pretty, but unfitting for the vibe I was getting from the show. Also, the censor bars were annoying. If I'm supposed to be watching a gore anime, shouldn't I see gore?

SOUND

Since the OP and ED were only a few seconds, you can imagine that there wouldn't be much of an in-episode OST which there wasn't. But from what we got, the sound was satisfactory and I didn't find any issues with the voice actors.

CHARACTERS

5 minutes an episode doesn't leave much room for character development. So, consequently, there was little to none. The characters were ultimately 2-D and uninteresting.

ENJOYMENT

Since Pupa had such short episodes, there wasn't really room for me to get bored, but it still wasn't that engaging.

I recommend watching all of Pupa in one sitting which would take about an hour or so. You will probably like it much more. Definitely not a must-watch but if you have an hour to kill, go on ahead.

raymundo40 - 2014-03-05 23:17:40

It's horrifying how bad this anime is.

What's even scarier is that everyone's watching it simply because it's so short.

Either that, or because it's SO BAD that NOT WATCHING IT would be a DUMB DECISION. People tend to like trash since it makes the mediocre look like God Tier Animoos.

To be fair however, the voice acting is pretty well done, save for the parts involving cannibalism. The only time I've heard a boy scream like... that, was when I happened upon a Yaoi Drama CD. If you weren't watching, you would think you were listening to some super weird smut. Actually, I don't think it would be too ridiculous for smutfic writers to use the script from Pupa Episode 6 as direct inspiration. When you see episode 6, you will understand. The entire thing was uncomfortable.

The thing I'll defend this show on is the fact that the people complaining about the lack of substance in each episode have clearly never read the manga. There's not much of a story to tell, making the show a full half hour would be dumb. The whole story COULD be told in two and a half episodes. I'd also like to throw in that the story is actually a good and interesting one. I'm a big fan of the manga.

To summarize, Pupa has a good story. It's a real shame the anime was executed so poorly.

cathrine91 - 2014-02-20 07:11:57

Story:

There isn't one. this girl turns into a flesh eating monster, and the brother apparently wants to save her, but so far has shown no interest in anything but getting eaten by her. I only know he wants to save her because I read the blurb. There is a terrible attempt to give the characters some backstory, but it is completely boring and generic too. The short episodes ruin any chance to have any proper backstory, and so it feels rushed and uninspiring. I would have expected a show such as this to establish a plot early on and constantly advance it, like any other show. Instead, they give us a vague idea of what is going on, and waste time on simply throwing gruesome scenes at the audience.

Animation:

This is possibly the only enjoyable thing in the entire show. The scratchy and rough art style works for the content of the show. Whether that was on purpose or they were just in a hurry to get it out, I don't know.

Sound:

Squelch squelch!

Not much to say here really. Voices are alright, but the sound effects aren't great.

Characters:

The main character is completely generic, other than the mark on his face which is never explained and I assume is just there to make him look different, as well as a hair clip which makes him look completely stupid. The younger sister is much more of the same. Generic as they come.

kohara - 2014-02-17 22:51:17

Older brothers have it hard theese days(no dick pun intended).The cute little sister who obviously has a crush on this fine gentleman she calls "Onii-chan"(brother) is no new thing in the anime world.Now,before you go on and just dive into Pupa cuz Wincest FTW obviously,let me tell you first.

This is an anime about a little girl who eats the living flesh and blood of her brother.There is nothing than sheer PLOT to expect from such a show.

bernier.norwood - 2014-02-02 05:56:24

All I see is people complaining about the shortness of the episode. While it is annoying people have failed to mention how awesome it is.

dlangosh - 2014-01-20 21:31:07

There was such a huge hype going around, and it ended up being a disappointing, 5-min short. I was expecting a lot more than what was given.