Pupa

When I first heard of Pupa it seemed rather interesting and worth looking forward to. Based on the horror manga with the same name, Pupa tells the story about two orphaned siblings who only have each other to rely on after severe domestic violence. However, one day they are both infected with the Pupa virus which turns the younger sister Yume into a grotesque man-eating monster while the older brother Utsutsu gains regenerative abilities.

This is, to put it bluntly, an exciting premise and Pupa appeared to have all the elements to make a memorable horror anime. While there had been mixed opinions from those who ... had read the manga, I figured that at the very least it would make for an experience unlike any other in recent years.

What I personally found to be noteworthy was how Pupa appeared to be the complete opposite of the recent brother and sister relationship trend in anime that often danced around incestuous undertones. Here we would instead have an older brother who had to sacrifice his own body to satisfy his little sister’s cannibalistic hunger. Rather than a cheerful outlook it was cynical one full of dread and hopelessness.

Ironically, much like a cruel joke, it was the actual anime adaptation itself that became full of hopelessness. You see, Pupa was originally announced in early 2013 yet all buzz around it quickly faded due to a lack of news. Months passed and finally a vague air date was revealed: the fall anime season. Eventually the fall anime season approached, however Pupa was nowhere to be seen. The staff apologized for the delay and announced the series would instead air in the winter anime season 2014. At this point in time there were also some bad rumors floating around, mentioning how Pupa would be a short five-minute anime and not actually full-length.

Today, we all know the result. Indeed, Pupa ended up only being a couple of minutes per episode. As you might understand, this is a format that makes the actual horror atmosphere a disservice. It is impossible to create a proper eerie atmosphere with such little time, especially if the story is to move forward in a reasonable manner. Speaking of the story, it is nothing but haphazardly told nonsense. It jumps from one event to the next with little to no explanation and ends in the middle of nowhere.

To make the story even more difficult to follow, Pupa suffers from heavy censoring for no obvious reason. It is also incredibly inconsistent – sometimes censoring a mere knife while letting loads of guns pass – and often covers the whole screen with censor beams, effectively destroying what little that was left of the actual horror.

Exactly to who is Pupa aimed towards? Fans of the manga will be disappointed with this mess of an adaptation while anime viewers will be utterly confused. I cannot come up with any good explanation myself other than that this is the worst anime I have ever seen.

Overview:

Little can be said about Pupa that hasn't been said already. It combines some of the more...icky fetishes together into one cluster fuck, but then censors itself and fails to even entertain those few individuals it was aimed at. Imagine if the Human Centipede or Salo was censored down to a PG-13 rating. What the hell would be the point of watching?! The brilliant plot?! The splendidly written characters and dialogue? There is NOTHING left of value!

Marketing skills: -10/10

Let us do a little math. Let us say hypothetically that 1 in 1,000 people have a sibling incest fetish and 1 in 100,000 have a ... cannibalism "vore" fetish. Assuming these unusual fetishes are independent events, the number of people with both a cannibalism and a sibling incest fetish (the target audience of this show) would be a whopping 1 in 100 million people. The global population in 2015 is 7 billion, so the target audience is 70 sick motherfuckers on the entire planet, that would actually enjoy this show. I fucking hope those 70 people are happy, because we other 6 billion 999 milllion 999 thousand 930 people are NOT!

Plot: -π/10

"I'm gonna eat you up Oni chaaaan!" "Oh yes little sister, please eat me!" (chomp) (slurp) (moans of pleasure). Rinse and repeat for 12 God Damn episodes! At least each episode is short!

Art: 2/10

As mentioned above, the bright lights of censorship prevent this from even having the macabre fun of a Cannibal Holocaust. I'm convinced that everyone involved with this production simply hated Mankind.

Overall: 1/10

"What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an Angel! in apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world! The paragon of animals! And yet to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me" - EVERYONE after watching this series!

Rarely do we see an Anime that is so pathetic that it fails miserably in every aspect.
Pupa, the 4 minute short anime, succeeds in showing epic patheticness on screen.

Being a horror Anime fan, I had lots of expectations from this anime, but it failed haplessly to live up to my expectations.

Well, If you want to know how it shows epic patheticness, then read on.

Story: 2
Pupa has a story. Yes, it has a plot, but what can you expect from an anime, which has a length of 4 min per episode. The plot is heavily rushed, and as a result a lot of things get ... by without any explanation.
The story follows Yume, and Utsutsu who are siblings and have a very close relationship. Yume gets infected some mysterious virus and transforms into a flesh eating monster. Epicness follows, and Utsutsu too, becomes the same.
Thus begins their lives as flesh eating monsters.

Art: 3
The art is neither good nor bad, it is average. A lot of scenes use looped animation, like the famous flesh eating scene (Oniichan no niku).

Sound: 3
The opening and closing theme are the only good thing about this anime.
Instead of watching the anime you should just listen to the themes.

Character : 1
There is no character development.
Utsutsu is your typical big brother and would do anything for his sister. Their relationship is beyond the sibling level, and it will creep you out.
Yume loves eating her oniichan's flesh, and Utsutsu loves getting eaten.
Oh yes, his limbs can regenerate, for he is a monster.
Some side characters are also present, but nobody gives a damn about them.
Overall, characters don't have any depth.

Enjoyment: 1
Enjoyment??????
Who would enjoy such a pathetic anime.
Wanna waste 48 mins of your life? No? Good, watch some decent series instead of this garbage.
Well, the music is good, so you could listen to it if you want.

Overall: 1
The whole anime can be summed up in 3 words-
"ONIICHAN NO NIKU".

Pupa is a symbolic story of an abused maiden, Yume, who upon entering puberty develops an abominable and perilous love for her older brother Utsutsu. Seemingly a series which only caters to those who are gratified by gore and incestuous lust, Pupa actually explores, more than most other “imouto shows”, the complexities of the tabooed love between siblings.

Perhaps most importantly, understanding of the series’ themes necessitates recognizing the circumstances surrounding the siblings’ childhood, and the Freudian psychoanalyses which the author may well have been inspired by. Sigmund Freud pioneered the field of psychology during his time, and a significant portion of his revolutionary findings ... can be summarized into the notion that powerful childhood experiences, even if the subject does not remember said experiences, can subconsciously and drastically affect the development of libido and bring about what is known in psychology as “sexual aberrations”.

Yume and Utsutsu grew up with an abusive and sadistic father, their only solace lying in each other. Utsutsu seeks comfort from his sole purpose of defending his beloved sister, whereas Yume is soothed only by her brother’s protecting arms. Yume is, metaphorically, a pupa containing the unnatural feelings imprinted into her subconscious during her childhood. Fast forward to puberty, and these feelings undergo a metamorphosis into a “monster”, in this case her monstrous lust for her brother. Both Yume herself and her surroundings realize the abominable nature of her love, yet Utsutsu remains in complete denial as Yume’s love has always been a natural and pivotal part of his life.

There are several factors which gives rise to this interpretation. Yume morphs into a monster in a set time-cycle, and requires feeding in this cycle. This is comparable to the menstruation cycle which initiates during puberty, and the cyclical inclination to sexual activities which arises from it. While this depiction is blatantly simplified and even sexist, it is not completely unjustified as a symbolic representation of an especially anomalous case. The infamous feeding sessions are, as many suspected, metaphors for sexual intercourse. Both parts are reluctant to this act; Yume is afraid of hurting his brother for her own selfish desires, while Utsutsu is unable to derive sexual enjoyment from intercourse with his sibling, hence his suffering during feeding. Yet, he is unable to leave his sister in misery, and Yume imminently succumbs to her lust. Interestingly, neither characters perceive the act as perverted or sexualized, further proving the psychological derangement of them.

As Yume and Utsutsu fall deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole, their conflicting feelings are depicted as outside forces which seek to interfere with their relations. Both are chained and tormented by unknown institutions, which they are eventually forced to confront and demolish. Perhaps they shatter the barrier erected by the morality of society, as symbolized by the slaughtering of the soldiers? Or do they overcome the innate biological repulsion toward incestuous acts, symbolized by the malign scientists? Yume’s and Utsutsu’s struggles with themselves as well as each other are undoubtedly convoluted, and Pupa provides an interesting and unconventional depiction of this strife.

Any analysis above is only that of the writing and themes, and it is important to keep in mind that the anime is an adaptation by studio DEEN of the manga original. As is widely established, the animated Pupa’s production values are certainly not top-notch. While the animations are completely inexcusable, I personally do not find the art or sound too terrible considering that most shorts are not visual spectacles. Though this is rather inconsequential in its evaluation. More importantly, the short length of the adaptation has simplified the story to the point that it scarcely contains anything beyond vital plot elements. Add to this the frequent interruption of the narrative and the pacing problems it imposes, it becomes rather difficult to form an emotional attachment to the characters or the story.

In conclusion, I do not think Pupa deserves all the ridicule and hatred that is being dished out. It provides a fascinating and unique symbolic illustration of the overused incest trope, complete with a hint of psychoanalysis that it deserves. Yet, when subjected to the magical touch of studio DEEN, it becomes a terrible series from every perspective other than the psychological.

If there was ever an anime that screams "most terrible anime of 2014" then pupa will be known as the anime to fit this title. This was an anime that was supposed to premiere in the fall and it got a lot of hype for having a really interesting story based on the synopsis and being a psychological horror. Then bad news hits this series with about as much subtlety as a brick to the face.

First, it went from being a 23 minute runtime per episode to about 4 minutes. Now with that in mind one would assume that they did this to preserve ... animation quality. But this only works with comedy series where a 4 minute runtime isn't completely unreasonable. Because this is a show that's supposed to have a deep story and plot, there would need to be time dedicated to telling a backstory in this world and all the complexities it presents. By having the entirety of the series be the length of two episodes (48 minutes) of a normal anime, This would lead to extremely fast pacing and a story that will either never be explained properly or having the original story gutted for the sake of time with characters that will be left as boring and underdeveloped by the end of the series as they are right now in the beginning. With story elements aside people would at least think animation would be decent if the story is told terribly.

This sadly would be an assumption that most people would get wrong as this shows second biggest problem is the art and animation. The art is so crude and poorly drawn at times that it makes me wish to watch an anime series from the early 90's rather then this crap. Sure there are moments where the art is above average but only for mere seconds, nowhere near enough time to appreciate it. And during the first episodes' most climatic moments, it gets heavily censored with a giant horizontal black bar that is faded at the edges leaving the impact of the moment to be nonexistent. there are moments like these all throughout the series. The character designs are also really boring and bland, the only thing the main character of the show has is a scar or mark below his eye and aside from that he's your typical high school teenager who wants to make sure his sister is safe.

Sound is the best thing about the show but that's like having a broken hand and saying you like the index finger the most because it's the only thing that isn't completely screwed up. The opening is mediocre at best and the background music they use comes off more corny and cliche than creepy like it intends to be.

My personal enjoyment? There is none.... None whatsoever for this series. If anyone reads this, do yourself a favor and watch literally ANYTHING (and I mean anything) but this garbage. I know there's an unspoken rule that you shouldn't judge an anime until you are at least three episodes in but I feel this one series in particular is the exception to the rule.

This series gets a 2 out of 10 on the whole solely because the opening music ranges from Meh to mediocre

Ugh... Where do I even start... This series shouldn't even exist... It's a perfect example of ruining a good idea. This anime got a lot of hype and what we got is crap. Thank god episodes are only 4 minutes long or I would have to shot myself. Nothing, seriously nothing in this anime is good. Story doesn't exist, art is meh, sound is pretty bad as well. I don't think biting into a raw meat sounds like that. Characters don't have any personality at all. Please, do not watch this. I'm done after episode 6, which consist only of Yume eating her brother, while ... the whole script can be written in two words: "Oni-chan..." and "Delicious".
1/10

"Alone. Yes, that's the key word, the most awful word in the English tongue. Murder doesn't hold a candle to it and hell is only a poor synonym.” ― Stephen King

Perhaps horror is long gone absent in the animation industry. The same symptom of films has affected anime as well; deaths often play a humorous role with irony and poor presentation (Another, Blood-C) and over-reaching plots makes crystal clear as day that they wanted to make the audiences shit themselves in fright (though instead they only made shit themselves). But who would've thought that one of the most intelligent, philosophical and ground-breaking anime lies ... in an entry that MAL considers 'utter shit (4.62)' and has a length of only four minutes? That's right, the sophisticated, goose-bumping machine 'Pupa' is here, the most clever thriller since Monster and GitS.

You don't need a billion episodes. You don't even need twelve full episodes; 3 minutes of material in a span of 12 weeks is more than enough to realize the glorious masterpiece DEEN has given us. Lots of people complain that it's not long enough at all; "They have their priorities straight with Sakura Trick". Yuri lickers are disgusting, I mean who would want to see 12 episodes of two girls cuddling in bed? Pupa need not 20 minutes to develop a sense of agony, despair and suspense as its presentation and world-building pretty much exceeds in perhaps life itself. Pupa is that strong.

The plot follows the ultimate incest story revolving a brother and a sister. They find themselves alone. In life. In darkness. In the universe. And one day, Yume, the sister, finds a ever so strange and out of place butterfly. Perhaps because it was red. But nevertheless, the impact of seeing such a sophisticated and impacting butterfly contrived her to undergo an extraordinary yet unusual metamorphosis that implants her life in stake; a cannibal monster that eats humans. Her brother attempts to save her from the utter despair that bestowed on her, only to be stirred in unsettling situations, events and occurrences that gives his life a twist and turn of fate and mystery.

See how deep the synopsis is? And this is only the summery. It passes Evangelion of deep, and Utena of symbolism to the point where both seems like 4-piece puzzles. And from browsing the MAL forums (lol), a lot of responses to Pupa usually varies from "dont get et" to "wat hapend :(" and even "FUCK YOU DEEN I HATE YOU WAAAAA BWAAAAA". Of course, there are people who see this as exaggerate, and it's saddening to see how low MAL has dug their grave but only 200 people on MAL has seriously seen the light, including Rog.

One of the many strong components of this extraordinary story is the way they handle its incest commentary. Remember Ore no Imouto? Me neither. Pupa bubbles a series of questions in which involves the boundaries of crossing the line of incest. How far should you go in saving your sister? To the point of spilling your guts out and regenerating a cycle of pain, despair and hopelessness in order to satisfy your sister's stomach (and possibly pussy), while she faithfully repeats "Onii-chan~" about seven dozen times? The bond between their relationship is not of a typical 'i wuv you pls wug me' but instead exceeds with a bond so complicated yet fractured, corrupted while constructed all in their minds, that describing this makes my sentence wobble to the pont wear it aons't maek senasfo32?{'#$*()

The psychologicalness is relentlessly high in this sophisticated animation too. The writing offers so much in its concept and messes around how human nature behaves past the borderline of death, and beyond. The pain yet bittersweet comfort of seeing your sister in a monstrous form. The choice of suffering while helping another in order to avoid suffering. Abuse of inhuman abilities within society. Capturing happiness under the conditions of midget police forces and strange pregnant women who wants to capture you. Getting a boner when your sister with tight shorts eats your guts while lewdly touching you and saying 'onii-chan' in your earphone, as the audience reaches for those tissues and- and- and undergoing surgery due to sub-consciously cutting themselves for the trauma or the scarce the anime has caused them.

Pupa.

The art style references various infamous paintings and sculptures in the last 10 centuries. The paintings includes "Théodore Géricault - Anatomical Pieces", in which has disembodied body parts which Pupa references from the cannibalism imagery blocked by stylish and symbolic shadows (some people call this censoring - ignore them). "Odilon Redon - Smiling Spider" is symbolized from Yume's character, in which she's seemingly a monster that can still earn happiness. "Francisco Goya - Saturn Devouring His Son"; back to face with the relationship of family, in this case brother and sister. "Francis Bacon - Painting" is something creepy but it has bacon, mmmm. But yeah, art is nic

Sound give s a creepy, unsettling y et unimaginably po werful at mosphere. Th e use o f s ilence an d dis turbanc e ma kes thi s a nime r ather u n comforable, but ef ffortaleslys enggaing at the smae tmie. Ecah snuod ecfect is uesd wtih esae, form fosetpots to carkeinclg. Not only it starts your body processes of perspiration by stimulating your sweat glands, releasing liquid substance and evaporating on your skin to cool down the body (aka sweating), it gets your mind mentally repaired and stabbed, making you dizzy and shifjeianc UNIAFEXABFaekfocjsngonsncrof And the voice of [ (/ +add_yume(mc)=>_('o')_l:'"Onii-chan~~~ *breathes extremely lewdly and gives bonerlizing stimulation energy to genitals"':-exit_command ) ] from the remarkable scripting that no person has ever topped makes this anime one of the most cleverest, intellagent and thought-provoking stories written of all time.

If traditionalized Japanese animation has, with countless of trials and errors, finally carved a place for its name in the caveman wall of history of the extraordinary story-telling world, surpassing the efforts of every psychological thrillers, social commentaries, incestial talks and any sort of non-fiction/fiction/de-fiction, then thank Pupa. Thank DEEN for saving the medium that died long ago. Thank God, for the beginning of life that led our imagination and creativity to show impact and succession in our fullest potential in human nature. My review may not reach to convince enlightenment to those readers out there, but I hope you at least by mere curiousity to check the practically Jesus of story-telling.

Pupa is the anime we need; not the one we deserve.

HELLO and WELCOME to "HOW TO RUIN AN ANIME 101". In today's episode, let's discuss how to ruin an anime called "pupa".

First off, let's delay the series for one whole line up! People are expecting something non-moe and unique to change the pace, no? That's why it's a GREAT idea to make them wait 3 more months! It will make them confused and wonder why?

Done? Good. Next step is to shorten the length of the anime. 23 minutes? Pfff. 4 minutes is the hit! You say this is for gag animes only and not for deep anime? WELL WE DO NOT CARE as our ... goal is to destroy the anime as much as possible.

What else is left? Let's put the plot so confusingly no one will get it and all it will be about is "onii-chan, onii-chan" and gore. PERFECT. Viola~ A perfectly ruined anime.

***

Now that you heard out some kind of satyric joke attempt of me... let's get to the point.

pupa is the sole anime I would legitimately label "trainwreck" just because of how butchered it was. It is so bad yet I just can't stop watching it...just to see how bad it gets.

Why?

If my satyric joke hasn't hinted it to you yet, it's because of what was originally expected from the anime and what it became. I'm not even a type to give in to premises and expectations and rate anime low if they aren't met, but pupa is a dissapointment even with just having the basic ones.

The anime was delayed for a season for the purpose of IMPROVING. If THIS is what I get for waiting a season, then I'd rather get each anime one season early so they're worsened to the better.When there's a delay, some nifty animation or sound is expected; however, there was no animation that was out of the ordinary; sound was good but I think it didn't need the necessity of one whole season either. If it was budget reasons, then Pupa should have waited a while longer before aiming for an anime, or should have indefinitely postponed the whole thing to make it look somewhat decent, even if not worth the wait

More than the delay, which can be so simply forgiven and tossed aside, the length of the episode turned out to be completely unsuitable to the genre. Pupa was probably supposed to be a deep anime with much thinking, peering inside the characters, more exciting moments... but ended up bringing in just the gore and the "onii-chan" as if to make the anime bad on purpose. I don't know what happened there at Studio DEEN but I'm not liking it at all.

Maybe induced by the length, maybe not quite, the story is trimmed down just to the key-elements - in fact, I'm not sure if they even are key; and many of the matters miss an explanation in time. The characters remain anonymous from the inside, and become rather insignificant. The length doesn't provide enough depth to give any of the inside matters of the characters more than a mention. It's like a extended summary of osmething people might have seen, but it's something new...so it's unacceptable.

I really can't see away for this to be anyhow enjoyable, apologies for those who do... Only if you like just gore, or watch it ironically with a group of friends that then go biting in some meat going "onii-chan" with squeaky voices.

People must be overreacting. There’s no WAY Pupa is as bad as everybody says. There must be SOMETHING good about it… right?

Now I’m the type of person who whenever I hear about a show everybody says is bad I get this sudden urge where I have to watch it and see just how bad it really is. And before I started Pupa I sat down and said to myself “Okay, I don’t care what people say. There must be something good in this show and I’m going to put my full effort into finding everything good in this anime! I’m gonna find something to enjoy!” ... Sadly my strategy did not go as planned. After about a minute in, the show quickly turned into a disgusting, messed up gore fest. “But I’ve seen plenty of messed up shows and movies before that were still good! So if I just look past all the gore in this then I should still be able to enjoy Pupa for the story and characters!” Well… That plan didn’t work so well either.

The story is utter crap. So much so that I almost don’t even know what the show was about other than Yume and her brother Utsutsu Hasegawa get infected with the “pupa” virus that turns Yume into a flesh-eating monster and gives Utsutsu the ability to regenerate from any damage no matter how severe. And because of this regeneration ability, he has to serve as her… food source. Pupa is 12 episodes and each episode is only 4 minutes long. So as you would probably expect from such a short show, the story is rushed. Very… VERY… rushed! The show is constantly jumping around from plot point to plot point with almost no connection between scenes. And apparently the writers also thought it would be a good idea to have practically every episode introduce a new major plot point that raises many big questions but then completely drop said plot point after the episode and never go back to it or bother to explain anything.

Did I mention this show was messed up? Because holy crap is this show messed up and overflowing with disgusting gore! But not messed up in a good way like Higurashi but rather messed up in a way that just makes you think “WTF am I watching?” There are three cannibal scenes in this show that are all very graphic and one of them is literally an entire episode of just Yume eating her brother. Now this could have been a rather thrilling or creepy scene but they portrayed it in a sexual way and he seems to enjoy being eaten by his sister and all I can say to that is… “Who gets turned on by this!?”

How could I describe the characters? Let me see uh… Flat. Boring. One-dimensional. Hollow. Bland. Idiotic. Unrelatable. Unrealistic. Unlikeable. And absolutely NO character development whatsoever! Honestly that’s really all there is to it. I mean what can I say. The characters were TERRIBLE in every possible aspect.

The soundtrack was also crap. Neither the intro nor the outro were anything special and the only track that stood out was the piano instrumental that they played whenever they showed Yume eating her brother and the only reason it stood out to me was because of how unfitting it was to the scene.

The art style in this show was… interesting… but I hesitate to call it “good” Now I’ve heard a lot of people complain about the censorship in this show. However I was lucky enough (and by that I mean unlucky) to see an uncensored version on YouTube in glorious 1080p and the art style was certainly graphic and… detailed (at least in the gore) so I’ll give it that.

Now for the verdict. Pupa is an abomination and as I mentioned before I tried to find good in this show. I really did. I spent the entire show desperately searching for even the tiniest thing besides the art style that I could call even halfway decent thinking “Come on Pupa! Give me something good! Please! Anything I can praise! ANYTHING! AT! ALL!” But as much as I tried to find good, every waking second of Pupa was complete and pure badness and I do not recommend this show to anyone unless you’re like me and like to watch shows just to see how bad they are. Even if you’re into this type of messed up gore there are still plenty of shows out there that are messed up and still have great stories and a cast that doesn’t suck. Or even if you are into cannibalism then just go watch Silence of the Lambs or High School of the Dead or listen to the song Evil Food Eater Conchita. Anything! Is better! Than Pupa! I mean if you really want to see something that's messed up and still good then go watch A Clockwork Orange.

Thanks for reading.

This anime, I think, can't be understood literally.

It's a story about complicated and extremely painful relationship between brother and sister who were abused by their father since early childhood. The siblings are alone in whole world, adults are some kind of threat for them; so they begin to build their own world, their... cocoon of maturity.

The beginning of anime underlines: it's a story about siblings' love, and, actually, there IS a lot of love. Maybe, too much. But children haven't ever known what "normal" love should be. Their father abused them, their mother ignored them, and such type of relationship was "so it ... be" for them. They are used to be beaten and to protect each other; now they are alone, they are closer to adults by age (but aren't adults YET), they can be free of abusing... More than it, their abuser wasn't interested in them during some time.

But they love each other so, so much, how should they express it? They were beaten and protecting each other before; now they are not beaten, can't feel pain and take more pain to protect the other.

And yeah, there is the virus, "Pupa" (which seems an allegory of being teenager, not child and not adult), and sister must hurt her brother to stay a human, not a monster. Literally she _eats_ him, but he's regenerating from time to time - he is also infected, regenerating is his only possibility.

All of us can understand the subtext of biting, eating and drinking blood - a sexual desire. The scenes between brother and sister, when he "helps" her, looks more like sex, than like anything else. They are partially naked, they are moaning, touching, she hurts him, he is bleeding, like a virgin girl - gender roles are vice versa, and this is the dark side of incest, like in manga "Berserk" (Serpico and Farnese), there a girl is absolutely dominant. But in "Berserk" we have other setting, the sexual desire's expressing more literally, and the parents are not so abusive - as a result, Serpico and Farnese are not so crazy for pain. They can express their love with other tools.

Brother and sister in "Pupa" can't. Why? Because they are only pupas, cocoons. So their relationships are painful and horrible - they are not used to normal life, normal love, all is complicated and causing pain... now.
But their cocoons may become butterflies someday - this is meant to be an adult.

You can understand "Pupa" only with allegorical thinking - and tremendous scenes from series are just footprints of reality, fantasies built around feelings grown in sadistic family.
Fantasies, in which brother sacrifice his body for sister - not vice versa. He is her victim, her food, her desire, her crucified love; all we know that men can be cruel and love in one time. Women can too - anime shows it.

Here we have a system of forbidden motives - incest and awful bloody love as the strongest. But it's definitely LOVE, mixed with desire and need in own sibling to be alive, to be a human; our morality's protesting, because most of us have good parents and don't know how is it to be beaten every day.

With the fact that this anime is short (imho it's good; I could understand the main idea and like it, now I'm interested in manga) and that it's thought to be a horror, not a family drama about teenagers who are siblings and love each other in forbidden way... I think it's not strange that it is underrated.

Personally I had my pleasure to watch it - story and characters are real for me, I liked music and art... And extremely liked subtext of the story.

"Onii-chan, you're delicious." ~ Yume

Pupa, otherwise known as Onii-chan the anime, is a so-called "anime" which I first stumbled upon in the review section on MAL. It caught my attention when I saw the low scores it got. I thought to myself "It can't be that bad.... Right?"

I could not have been more mistaken.


Pupa's story revolves around the brother-sister relationship of Utsutsu and Yume. Two orphaned siblings who have to support each other to live on. That is, until a deadly disease dubbed- "Pupa" infects Yume (much like the way this show infected the anime community, ironically). This new disease causes Yume to have a ... insatiable hunger for humans. And the first person she eats, is none other than her brother, who comes back to life after being infected as well.

The story has a surprisingly decent premise, which promises a decent anime of the horror genre. Unfortunately, that was the only positive part of this entire anime.

Now for the laundry list of flaws.

While the premise of the story is good, the actual story is rushed to an unimaginable level. This is mainly due to the fact that each episode is no-more than 5 minutes long, yes, only 5 minutes per episode. It's plainly visible why the story is so rushed. It is impossible for the writers or anyone to explain the story to the viewer when every episode has a maximum of 4 minutes of actual story, the rest being OP and ED times.

Speaking of the writers, the script of the show is the most unintentionally hilarious thing you can imagine. The script for every episode contains at least two lines of Yume saying - "Onii-chan" in the most incestuous way possible. This failure of scriptwriting can easily be found in the infamous episode 6. The entire 4 minutes, it shows Yume, eating her brother, and saying Onii-chan, OVER, AND OVER AGAIN. For the entire episode.

Now on to the technical department of the show.

Seeing as each episode is so short, you would expect every episode to have at least tolerable animation. But no, of course not, life isn't fair. Even the animation is a victim to the lazy disease that seems to have affected everybody involved in the show.

The music of the show is tolerable. The opening isn't half bad, and considering the size of each episode, the music isn't terrible either. But unfortunately, the disgusting lack of talent that went into the voices of the characters is what drags the score down. It's probably not the fault of the Voice actors that the characters suck, more so the writers faults for giving them such shitty lines to read.

As for the characters, I've got nothing to say. None of the characters go through any kind of development, and how could they when every episode is only 5 minutes long?! If I had to say anything about the characters it's that Yume and her "Onii-chan" are two of the worst characters anime has seen.

In all honesty, I'd suggest this anime to everyone. It needs to be seen by all, as an example of how to not make an anime. Who knows, you might even enjoy it, although I highly doubt it.


Pros:
+...Uhhh... Good incest ?

Cons:
-Short episodes
-Hurl-Inducing art and sound
-Inexcusable scriptwriting
-Terrible characters.

What do those Cons spell? SHIT.

Have you ever felt that itch in the rims of your ass crack that happens when you don’t wipe long enough? If there were ever an anime to signify that horrible itchy feeling in the most monstrous example of that region, Pupa would no doubt fit that description.

Never has there been hype so decimated after a rocky development schedule, season after season. It will go down in the books of how not to screw up your production schedule, or it will bite you and your credibility. People like me were curious to see what Pupa had to offer in the horror genre in anime because ... it’s not often we get to see much horror-themed anime come out these days. Then all of our expectations suddenly dropped when this was announced only to be three minutes long. Judging by how I viewed the 36 minutes of content through the whole show’s run time, this was something that was just not finished.

Why may you ask? The art style looks inexcusably low-budget, even for three-minute show standards. Hell, Ai Mai Mi looked like it had quality production compared to this. Especially the background artwork, where the colors look almost like an elementary school student painted it with a thin paintbrush. The characters' designs are at least slightly tolerable, considering they look like actual people in most cases.

Now the animation part is where it gets hilarious. There is one instance where an ambulance car is driving, and you can tell, even from the crappiest quality stream imaginable, that the wheels are not moving whatsoever. It almost looked like the animator didn’t bother to put any frames on any part of the car, so he dragged it with the mouse. These are only a few of some of the glorious hilarity that transpires from the lackluster animation. Unfortunately, the networks airing it felt embarrassed to bother showing the animation, so they decided to censor almost 80% of it.

I usually don’t discuss censorship in the shows I review, only because they’ll eventually release the uncensored Blu-Rays later. But considering how universally panned this show is, I can’t see this ever having that kind of royalty shortly. It is often a cringe-worthy experience to sit through censors in a horror anime that covers up the disgusting gore and blood, but with Pupa, the way they censored certain aspects felt disjointed. For instance, there is one scene where Yume eats her brother’s flesh, and obviously, they edited this outright. Then in another episode, we are shown a room filled with dismembered bodies scattered in a hallway, badly drawn by the way, yet it isn’t censored. Why? Was it because it wasn’t in motion? Or was the animation so horrible from Yume’s flesh-eating that they demanded that no one see it fully? Either way, it felt like an unnecessary decision.

Pupa’s plot leaves a lot to be desired, which is the understatement of this entire review. I would complain profusely about how unfocused the whole structure is and how each episode does not feel connected to each other in the slightest. Reading these negatives might leave the impression that it is poorly written. However, it almost feels like an unfinished product once you watch Pupa. Almost as if they were initially going to go for a standard 23-minute episode show, but somehow their work got corrupted halfway down the line. Considering they had to delay this for another season seems like the most logical reason for this.

Could Pupa have been a great show had they been more careful with their development schedule? Who knows. That other reality is all but shrouded in mystery from our own, and we may not ever see that happen if they decide to remake the entire adaptation and make one that is more faithful to the source material. I would put this up as a grand cautionary tale for people who want to get into the business of TV production. Will this be considered one of the great classic bad anime alongside Mars of Destruction or considered an avant-garde masterpiece like Tsui no Sora by trolls? I would argue that the latter would be the most likely scenario. God help us.

Grade: …………

Ah, infamous anime, my favorite. I recently had the pleasure to experience Pupa. Scratch that, because it wasn't a pleasure at all, it was a nightmare.

When i first heard of this anime i thought it wouldn't be so bad, since the horror genre in anime is usually quite the enjoyment. I was wrong on so many levels.

Story: 1
Very little development. It was hard to follow. Useless dialogue. I mean who need dialogue anyways? We can just have an episode of pure "onii-chan... onii-chan.." I mean the episodes aren't too long. 4 minutes in fact. Minus of course the time of the OP and ED totaling ... in 3 minute episodes. Yes the creators still had the nerve to include the OP and ED in every single episode! I still have no clue what the story was about. The only episode I enjoyed story wise was the last episode. In fact if the series was like the last episode I wouldn't mind at all

Art: 2
I actually liked the art, although it could have been way better. Imagine very little movement, and sometimes the voices being out of sync with the lips of the characters. At Least we got some nice animated violence right? let me touch up on that. THE CENSORSHIP WAS HORRIBLE. It was weird how they would censor out some things like a guy pulling out a knife but then they would show some guy getting his eyes plucked out. I'm not sure why even censor anything at all.

Sound 3:
There wasn't much sound, thats why there is such a low rating. It would be a 1 if it wasn't for the music. Not much to talk about.

Character: 1
No development. Characters were all pretty typical, and the ones that seemed interesting had very little on screen time. It was a cliche older brother who loves his sister and little sister who depends on her older brother. It got old, quick.

Enjoyment: 1
There was no time to enjoy, like i said before. The episodes were so short, and confusing, it was hard to digest. It was supposed to be scary but i found myself laughing at times wondering "what in the world am i even watching."

Overall: 1
Maybe I am missing something big. Some sort of physiological message is supposed to be embedded in my mind now or something. Maybe I am too young to understand something like this. Perhaps one day in my dying bed I will remember "Pupa" and figure out that "Pupa" infact told me the meaning of life, and i just now understood it. We will see, I'll keep you guys updated if i figure out something. I don't know. This is all personal opinion, It was a waste of time. But the hour of viewing time went by so fast, I didn't even feel time move.

If you have a spare hour and want to experience the wonders of Pupa, by all means go ahead.

Will I ever want to experience Pupa again? Probably not.

Any feedback is much appreciated on this review. I am a total noob at reviews, I am seeking to become much better.

Well .. where do I even start .. the thing is that there are anime so bad, that you actually find them good.. like Mars of destruction .. what i mean is that some anime are so bad but because of being so bad they are also funny.

This one, Pupa.. is so bad, that it is bad at being bad. Did you get that?


One sentence to resume the anime: Wtf just happened ?

12 eps long, each one with 2 min lenght, i wasn´t expecting for something good .. but this? No this is the SHIT. Let's get started..

Story: 3/10. This shit ... makes no sense, i mean plot holes, missing parts, stories left behind, anything that you can imagine.

Some few examples..

Yume, since she was born, she had a virus. Well that's okay .. so why the virus only awaked after 14 years or whatever her age is. She only turned into a monster after 14 years.

Her brother, gets infected when Yume bites him. Surprisingly he gets the same powers so why he does not have to deal with the sister's problem (she only can eat humans in order to calm down the monster inside of her), is he special or something?

She was born with all her teeth, clearly normal doctors will find it really weird (it is theorically impossible to born with any kind of teeth). But fuck normality, here they didn´t gave 2 fucks about that.

A secret team of scientists arrests Yume and her brother in order to investigate them. They knew what they were, but still there is no protection at all. They operate an monster with no precaution .. ofc they would get killed.

There is even more of this.

Art: 6/10. Well at least something had to be good. Even though 60% of the show is composed by single frames and the background is almost non-existant, the gore is well made and i actually enjoyed it. WATCH THE UNCENSORED VERSION.. the censured version the only thing that you see, is a black screen.

Sound: 4/10. The opening is acceptable. But the OST .. wow .. you gotta watch the 6th episode with censure. The tracks that they use to ease the anime are so pathetic .. just .. really bad.

Character: 2/10. Well .. what characters? I just didn´t gave 1/10 because we do have a background story not so bad. The characters are at least pathetic. Their reactions, their emotions.. Yume basically says "Oni-chan" throughout the entire show, and her borther only says "Yume", that's all i know about them..

Enjoyment: 2/10. Bad .. really bad. The last episode I was literally with my mouth opened because I just couldn´t understand what i was watching. The overall anime just looks pathetic.

Overall: 2/10. Well, this anime is really bad for sure. But .. i reccomend it. Why you ask? Because i defend that we have to give a chance to great anime , the top anime and also the worst anime out there.. we have to taste the great and the bad, in order to really know what is good and bad by contrast. By doing that i think we can get our judgment more accurate.

Another thing is that everyone who calls themselves "anime watcher" should have the worst anime on their lists ..

I really hate making reviews in which I'm criticizing so bad an anime but Pupa is just the worst anime I've ever watched so I had to make a review.

Starting with the story... Wait, what story? I mean, yeah, the plot exists, but what can be expected from a 4 minute episode where the opening and the ending represent half of the time? Nothing. The action is so rushed that you barely understand a thing, especially when there are also flashbacks. I didn't read the manga (although I was recommended to) so I had no idea what this anime was about, and after I finished ... it, I still have no idea what this is all about.

Art is meh. Nothing special. I could say that the gore parts are not that horrible and the characters have a decent look but this is really not important relative to the whole series.

Characters: awful.
Utsutsu and Yume have this well-known brother-sister relationship where the big brother would do anything for his lil sister. He even lets her eat his flesh which is way too awkward, especially when Yume is rather happy and doesn't see any problem in eating her brother. Oh..those family bonds..
Again, the episodes are so short that we can't see any development of the characters, just one episode (or 2) dedicated to their past so we learn a bunch of useless and incomprehensible things.

Enjoyment: NO
What should I enjoy about this? I remember this episode when, for 2 minutes, I had to watch Yume eating his brother while saying "Onii-chan". It was pathetic. I like gore animes but this one, even if it is some kind of gore, is a joke! Basically, there is no point in watching this anime. I saw about 10,000 people planning to watch it. DON"T. It's a total waste of time and there are lots of good animes out there.

Overall I rated 1. I would've rated it 0 if I could. Seriously.

There's Mars of Destruction and there's Pupa. I remember hearing about Pupa when the project was starting, and I remember the disappointment when hearing it was going to be shortened to four-minute episodes. The show looked vaguely interesting and I assumed that it was going to be shortened because the content was going to be so severe, possibly having some of the most messed up scenes in anime. However, that isn't quite what we have here, and one's feelings to the shortening of the series might suddenly make more sense upon watching it. If I had to guess why it was shortened to such an ... extent, I would guess the reasoning is because Pupa is pretty bad. People misuse the term "edgy" all the time, but Pupa is one of those anime that reminds us that there is still use for the word.

Pupa gave people the impression that it would be one of the most brutal and gory anime around, but it would be a lie to say it met that marker. When the show was decidedly shortened, it also felt as though the budget itself was dropped for funding each minute of screen-time. The animation, at its best moments, is just about average for anime series back in the 2000's. The art style (not the style the characters are drawn in terms of line-work, but the actual art style of shading and the color scheme) doesn't have character and just feels cheaply made. There are many moments where the animation will look a bit shoddy. The "gory" moments are where the animation is at its best, and this usually involves our beloved imouto eating human flesh. Is an imouto eating a handful of opaque, purple goo considered gory? If not, that is basically the goriness of this series.

The sound of the series is average, and most of the music tracks will likely not be too memorable. However, the opening song is very catchy and Pupa should be given a thumbs-up for that. The ending song is also alright, but for the type of song it is, a shortened version doesn't do it justice. The music itself carries electronics with drumbeats to it, along with some piano. The music serves its basic purpose to the series, but rarely sounds good enough to the level of pulling the viewer in. Switching to the sound effects, Pupa fails to an extent. There are many times where a scene will be almost silent and the only sound playing will be the character's voice. In those moments, the atmosphere will feel very plain. Pupa tries to hide this by playing a light soundtrack song to cover up the silence, but the songs being so light most of the time makes this phenomenon still noticeable. In terms of audio and sound, Pupa stays around an average level.

The story of Pupa is about a monster needing to maintain its cannibalistic desires, and the spread of this monster's disease. That will lead to some light gore of cannibalistic behavior, and some other disturbing scenes of people trying to stop the monster. By the end, none of this is explained in the smallest detail and what I state is where that plot element stays throughout. What also doesn't develop is the characters. The main, sibling characters barely develop in their relationship, even though it's basically all they talk about the entire time. No character here is sensible, and the character roster relies heavily on tropes and archetypes. The story is very simple with flat characters and, even though its elements don't even attempt to become understood, another issue rises with the series' closure. The ending of Pupa is entirely unsatisfying and doesn't give closure to any of its characters or any information to its basic, plot elements. The story also ends in a very unfinished state from what it considers to be a reasonable ending. The main characters get out of a dilemma and escape for a brief moment, but for some reason they choose to end it there. The ending shifts the stories focus to the sibling's understanding of their love (not to incest level) for one-another, which they seemed to already know long before these series of events even started.

Pupa tells a story that allows the creators to fill it with gore to be disturbing, but without even the attempt of explaining the elements that allow the gore in the first place, making it all feel forced and as if it was the only selling point of the series. Also, with the lacking budget in place, not even the gore is carried out well enough to be worth watching for that alone. The animation is average, and there are many moments with barely any animation whatsoever, even with this series only totaling to thirty-seven minutes in length. The art style is basic and feels incomplete for the type of style it wanted to represent. The music serves its place, but the lacking sound effects can make entire scenes feel incomplete with moments of literally no sound effects whatsoever. The characters are plain archetypes with some carrying inscribed symbols on their faces for an aspect of uniqueness, but that only makes their roles feel even more plain as you stare at their out-of-place tattoos that give them the extent of their uniqueness. No character goes beyond their archetype and there are even moments of pure stupidity, like a soldier calling out the lost torso of his ally's legs. Those moments go laughably near the level of Mars of Destruction. Yet, one plus Mars of Destruction has over this series is that it's half as long, and its elements were so conventional that it could all be considered stupid fun. Pupa's elements aren't compatible with fun, but only with the inclusion of gore. Without a proper disclosure as to why it's that way: Pupa feels plain, desperate, and self-conscious as one of those anime that deserves to be labeled with the term "edgy". Should one watch Mars of Destruction or Pupa? Mars of Destruction, if imoutos aren't all that.

If you're in dire need of a Pupa viewing, watch this Pupa instead: http://vimeo.com/96882171

*Disclaimer: This is my first review*

From the very first lyric of the opening theme,
"Don't go past here(Going past here is dangerous)"
that should have, ironically, told me enough about this anime.

Its dangerous alright, and not in the way they intended it to be initially, NOOOO, its dangerous in a completely different way.

I am a fan of a good horror anime, especially the ones that are just psychologically fucked up, that it creeps you out just by thinking about it.
Surely enough, Pupa is one anime that could screw you over psychologically... in different ways
...
So what we have with Pupa is an anime that actually LOOKS pretty decent.
Think of it as a dish made by, lets say, Onodera(Nisekoi) or Himeji(Baka To Test), we know the dish looks amazing, but eating the dish is a totally different thing in general.

Then, said dish has to be eaten 4-5 minutes at a time, over and over... just... ughh

From the incredibly complicated, and all over the place plot(if you could even call it that), to the clunky animations, the INCEST, the lack of common sense between characters(despite popular belief, shouting at a severed pair of legs, repeatedly, isn't going to make it stand up, and reconnect itself to the owners torso.), and most of all, the friking length, Pupa is a class A example of the word "Dreadful".

Its a total mystery how I was able to watch all 12-episodes of this god-awful mess of an anime.

So do yourself a favor, and go watch it.

Yeah you read that right, watch Pupa. Think of it as a survival game, how long can you possibly watch it?

Ladies & Gentlemen, I now present to you the best anime of all time "Pupa". Directed by Tomomi Mochizuki and produced by Studio Deen. It has great animation, great characters, a deep story and I really was surprised to the point I go defenseless. Never mind let's get onto the review.

Pupa is an anime about Yume and her "Onii-chan" and you know I hate them. I will only give one positive thing in this anime. The opening theme and the ending theme were ok. The opening theme gives a tone that is creepy and the ending theme gives a sad tone. The rest of the ... anime can be summed up in 5 simple words: "I DON'T GIVE A ****!" From the story, characters and animation. They put nothing into this anime, they just shot it right out saying "Here, anime fans, eat our crap!".

Sorry, for the outrage. I can't forgive anime companies like that. I don't care if it is Winter Season or not. A crap anime is a crap anime no matter what you say. Crap anime should not be made. I have never been as angry as I was since I reviewed "Ultimate Girls", one of the worst anime I watched.

First, was Ultimate Girls in 2005.
2nd, Amnesia in 2013.
And now, Pupa.

How dare you do this to us.

STORY (1):

There is no story. The story just jump from scene to scene sporadically with no continuity in the episodes. Not only that the episodes are just 4 minutes long each. For slice of life or comedy, it is all right. But it is not all right when doing it in an action, mystery or horror anime. In fact, the main story glorifies incestuous cannibalism. The younger sister eats her elder brother and that's the story. It is basically a romance story, not even a horror anime.

ART (1):

The animation looked god-awful. The animation was like a 9 year old started painting or maybe the animation was made with murky toilet water or acid. Not only that there is unnecessary censorship like the guy holding a knife in episode 8 was censored.

SOUND (1):

The opening and ending songs are boring and dull to listen to. Even though the opening and ending theme gave some tones, I still find the opening and ending boring to listen to. Even the music in the anime. I don't have to go into detail because it's not worth talking about.

CHARACTER (1):

Huh? Where are the characters? They're just puppets. They're not even characters. Puppets do not have any connection.

CONCLUSION (1):

This is what is wrong with the anime industry. They keep releasing shitty anime in the winter season. Why is that? I really feel terrible for everyone in the anime community after watching this anime.

If the anime industry continues to release shitty anime in winter season, I am now starting to feel worried about what will happen in the near future in the anime industry.

I feel that it becomes a much bigger rant than has nothing to do with the anime. But I have to say it is so bad that I have nothing more to say. I already summed it up. The anime has terrible animation, wooded characters, no chemistry or bond between any of the characters. The story is weak. This anime is a huge steaming pile of s**t.

And for the 1st time in a year I give it a solid 1 out of 10. Terrible from start to finish. The worst anime I have seen. Avoid this anime like the red butterflies.

Studio Deen, notorious for producing anime nobody likes, yet again delivers another shitty anime. I was prepared for disappointment when I watched the first episode, knowing not to expect anything from Studio Deen. How do you produce an anime when all you've got is 99 cents and a rapidly declining animation business? Well, Studio Deen can answer this question with their latest anime - Pupa.

This anime is the epitome of pathetic, nothing more. From start to finish, I was contemplating sending a dead fish to Studio Deen's headquarters. For starters, Pupa was delayed for an entire season in the first place. The soundtrack was ... something I could produce while farting into a microphone. Sure, the opening and ending themes were mediocre at the best, but other than that the soundtrack makes my ears bleed. The art had entered a new, unimaginable dimension of lousiness. The background art was painful to look and the colors were flat to say the least. At certain scenes, it looks like a bunch of scribbles all over a toddler's coloring book. The animation was so stiff that it made me stiff to just look at. A damn pole has more flexibility than that horrid animation. That's not all. The characters were basically non existent. Since the anime is the length of my penis (which doesn't exist), there was never a chance to fully introduce the characters, and therefore there was little to no character development. We never really got to know the characters to begin with. On top of that, the character designs were the definition of boring. Despite this, Pupa itself has a decent plot, and I understand what's it's trying to project towards the audience, but nonetheless it was poorly executed (thanks, Studio Deen).

This anime production can easily be reproduced by a preschooler blasting explosive diarrhea all over an empty sketchbook. The sight of this anime makes me want to descend deep into Earth's mantle and disintegrate into millions, possibly trillions, of pieces. I am beyond the realm of disappointment. Jesus died for your sins, and this is how you repay him, by making shitty anime?! Shame on you, Studio Deen.

(This is like my 90th time reposting this review.. bear with me.)

Is this the worst anime ever? Even worse than all Bible Black or Violence Jack titles put together? You bet! Next to this POOPA, School Days would win a best writing award. I will keep my review short (but not so sweet).

Story: there is no plot. Imagine several pieces of cloth put together to form a little tacky scarf, and you might get an idea of just how poor the story is. The fact that each episode is only four minutes long only aggravates this problem.

Art: We would expect a short episode anime to at least have some good animation, but no. Character design, ... backgrounds and animation are all terrible, and gore scenes are censored on purpose (not by the show's producers, of course), so the only thing you have left is a Microsoft Office assistant looking-like girl chewing her brother's flesh through the magic of Nintendo 64 graphics.

Sound: Horrible and predictable voice acting. PUPA's seiyuu cannot possibly think saying Onii-chan and chewing SFX is not good acting. On a lighter note, the opening theme is acceptable and even tasteful if you enjoy the genre.

Character: Pathetic characters, no development whatsoever.
Enjoyment: none.

If you are thinking of wasting more than half hour of your life on this, please: DON'T. This is animated POOP.