Pupa

"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.

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.

Story 1/10
Very uncomfortable in some scenes. Specifically the scenes in which Yume eats out her big onii-chan brother. The incest connotations were weird and made the overall experience awkward. The story was very simplistic and easy for my miniscule thinking module to comprehend. I could feel it shrinking in size as I watched Yume moan onii chan as she lovingly ate her big brothers flesh. Overall Very strange and out of pocket.

Art 7/10
Dose drawings were pretty damn fire bro. No cap finna cop some merch bruh.

Honestly everyone guves criticism on this shows art but it honestly isn't as bad as most people say it ... is. It had a sort of charm, much like the anime of the 90s and early 2000s did with its older feeling art style.

Sound 5/10
Ok. Nothing special. The occasional moans of "onii chan" made me feel like my life has meaning. Again very peculiar. Although we see no real incest on screen the connotations are there and in full force. The creators surely intended it.

Character
Not that bad. The characters were pretty decent. My friend liked the purple Mafia government guy or whatevers outfit. It was a fine design. Yume and her brother whose name I will never remember in my life were kind of cool I guess except for when they were fucking.
In my friends words "the abusive dad is a chad. This is where you fight King Dee Dee Dee."

Enjoyment 10/10
I watched with a friend so our constant commentary added a degree of enjoyment to the show and made it a lot better than it would have been had I watched alone.

OVERALL

"But Maria is mommy, 10/10.
I wanna do mouthful mode on Maria"
-my friend Adam

Pupa is a new anime based on a bloody and gory manga created by Sayaka Mogi.
Just like the manga counterpart, the anime itself is thick laced with extreme gore and bloody effect. However, the violence was a bit toned down, and it was heavily censored once it was aired in television.

The manga itself was extremely satisfying for those hungering for bloodthirsty graphic. The anime version has also managed to almost captivated an audience like me to become entrapped in it's cycle of mayhem, but due to few reason, I had to surrendered a bit before being submissive as I am an entity that lust for ... blood, even though that it was merely drawn.

Like many people has already claimed, Pupa were considered to become one of the worst anime ever to become presented on Earth ever since Mars Of Destruction was created in 2005. Pupa is without a doubt has a problem of it's own, but it isn't superbly as awful as people make it out to be because these people that voted negatively for it, were mostly just a bunch of whiny kid that has not much to be talked about in their reality and presumably trying to take all of his/her annoyance onto everybody else available on the internet. If it was an adult rampaging like a mere scarecrow that just got his straw hat taken away by crows, then what you would see there is an epitome of an older man/woman that couldn't bothered to think that he/she should get a job instead of rumbling in thinking that some people would cared to see his/her livid presentation. MyAnimeList is filled with annoyance of these kind, but this is a Pupa review, so I would get back on track.

Pupa was presented as a short anime format, given a time constraint of 5 to 6 minutes for each episode that were broadcast for a single episode each week. Nonetheless, back before it was being screened, people were screaming on how tempting they are to witnessed the violence that would be presented. However, once people were given information of the time constraint, many were disappointed, and some even has already published their hatred by saying something like, "This is shit! I want more time to see more gore!, and so on many childish demeanour. MAL community is as bad as it is, and from which once this anime was presented, you can see how terrifyingly horrible it is was for the heart of men. The first episode were given to them whom mostly watched online without the need to pay, and 99% of the watcher dwell in rage as they doesn't have the capability to acknowledged the fact that the gore was censored and they couldn't watched more blood. Let me tell you, the people whom has witnessed the war wouldn't ever be more than willing to see more blood again, even though that he/she is a soldier. War is a deadly admission, and it would inflicted extreme psychological damage into the heart of those that can't faced it. These children that hungered for blood, are mostly savages that has never been on the battlefield and doesn't understand of the true fear of seeing a real botched up body in their eyes. The gore presented in Hollywood movies might make it out to be so realistic, but the truth is even more than capable of victimising you, scaring you enough to become crazy and then you would be hauled to the asylum. I am not a soldier, but I was to be involved in a massacre event that were remained a secret in my nation, and I'm one of the few survivor for such thing that happened when I was younger. There is no way I could provide evidence of involving in an event aforementioned, but hey, this is the internet of course. People might be lying, and an anonymous entity like me shouldn't be believed. While the downside is that I'm instead being a demonic blood hungering crude instead of being the opposite, the effect might be different for people, but still, even though the gore was censored from the animation of Pupa, it doesn't do it right to stamped that material with failures stamp just because of censorship and time constraint.

Story- Many people bashed it because of it's storyline was way too horrible and perhaps were non existent at all, but for me, the storyline is there, or else there would be no need to write down a synopsis at all. Let see, the storyline involved of a brother trying to save her sister that were turned into a monster that hungered for flesh. Well, I wonder where the heck could I managed to located such a short synopsis..Hmm?..Most people claims of this having no storyline are baseless, and also since many were to be seeing this series just for the sake of blood, I find myself bewildered concerning on why would these trash would be looking for a storyline in the first place. Though, it is hard to understand what it is trying to tell, as Pupa time constraint were deliberately too short. The ending were a little abrupt, but that doesn't give people the advantages to bashed the ending too. Apocalypse Zero and Genocyber also has a very weird ending, but I don't see these series being mocked all the way to the end of the galaxy.

Art - This is where Pupa greatness should be acknowledged. However, many are just too thick headed on screaming failures that they failed to see other aspect that this work should also be credited for. The art for Pupa is chilling, extremely dark and monotonous, completely surreal enough for the theme it's trying to presented. It's literally dark, the atmosphere that is that it is hard enough to see the screen once the censorship began. With the usage of pastel like graphic that Studio Deen used while making Rozen Maiden Zuruckspulen, it fitted against the anime as nice as possible, and hell, Pupa wouldn't be so much enjoyable without it for me.

Sound - Such series has presented a deliberately wonderful sound effect, if I say so to myself. The bizarre noise compelled once the feast begin are haunting, as if you were experiencing it by your own self. This series also win for the sound factor, as this is how horror anime should be given with, an extremely realistic and hart sickening sound, that couldn't easily be forgotten. Another also has beautiful and eerily ghastly soundtrack which is similar to this anime and also in the term of genre.

Character - Quite a bit of an disappointment here because each character aren't properly fleshed out and some character either gone missing later on or aren't discussed one bit. But, I wouldn't blamed you, Studio Deen, like many other incomprehensible fool around MAL. The time constraint has clearly taken a lot of toll here. However, if you were to properly analysed the main character yourself instead of watching the anime explaining itself, you might managed to guessed out a few pointer. Some people expressed their horrible "concern" of the male main character might be gay just because of the hairclip, but guess what, it was a very important material for him. But, you know, people wouldn't understand another and more likely to mocked him/her if she/he was an anime character. As for the female main character, her situation was very scary indeed, and those with no heart couldn't possibly understand the grave situation these two sibling are involving in. Hitting on her just because she always kept mentioning "Onii-chan?" Well, aren't you a bunch of sceptical and open minded being. Tried getting an adoption for a sister for once, and you understand how hard it is for a real brother to witnessed such a pain that were encountered by her beloved sister. Incest? No. The male character is a true man, trying to helped her sister in every possible way, including of giving away his body and succumbed in endless pain.

Enjoyment - Not much to be explained here. If you like watching a series that has a very minor way of explaining thing and let the viewer guessed themselves, then you might as well enjoyed this very confusing show. It is not for the gore fan though, even though it is ripe with it because it also has a storyline that it is trying to tell and a sad one too. But, people clearly doesn't get it and abolished every single factor that is available in this anime.

Overall- This show astounded me, as I'd understand of the theme and the hard to grasped storyline. Pupa clearly need a lot more investment into it though in order for it to developed more, as the time constraint given for this show is what driven most of the best part into the wall. Pupa need a lot more time to properly explained itself, and I bet that even Studio Deen would agreed on this. I do hope for a reboot of this show someday. This show is not at it's best at the moment and I do hope that some people would understand the sadness and trial faced by the two sibling that is the main character for Pupa, but all I get is nothing but grief and baseless mockery. Well, I guess that's what you get if you were to given anime to a bunch of children that never learn to appreciate something and were spoiled. Like some of the review here had mentioned but I'd reversed the sentences, very easily does we see a bunch of anime fan that failed in every aspect of trying to judge a series that were should be acknowledged throughout every session inside and out. MAL community are evolving at it's out most extreme patheticness < This is not even a word and some has typed this down and that review has received the most "Helpful" vote. Really?

By the way, please be at least knowing to the fact that people would be finding that this review doesn't helped at all. The more "touchdown" I get, the more I shall laugh.

ALRIGHTY XD REVIEW #2!!! LEGGO.

I would like to start by providing a HUGE warning for the faint-hearted. I.e; People who dislike the sight of blood, twisted story lines, or simply dislike psychologically inept characters. Ultimately, that's all this anime is. A orgy of everything you could possibly consider morally wrong, combined with a massive blood bath of the like. However, I loved it. Take that as you will.

First off, the story. Despite my love of mass murder, action, and blood, the plot line was a bit confusing at first. In the first episode, you automatically jump into a school setting, then to a ... park, where the seemingly sweet and innocent sister, transforms into some sinister, demonic, murderer. WAIT- what? Was my first reaction, however in later episodes it goes on to give a somewhat detailed synopsis of the main sibling's tragic, abused background. Although I enjoyed the feel of the story, my main issue is the half-heartedness evident throughout the plot. Characters like the researcher Maria-san, and her crew were introduced, leaving the watcher obviously expecting a relevant contribution to the plot, but you're left hanging. It seems as if the creators had an idea they started on, that could've been promising, but sort've left it hanging dry, making you think," Uhm, what was the point of that?" Senseless obstacles can sometimes be entertaining, but in this case, the creator's habit of jumping around without fully developing a point would have to deduct points from the ultimate enjoyment.

The art was very good! Modern, and the animation itself was well done, as well as intricately paid attention to. You can especially see this in scenes where Yume is feasting on flesh, as not only is her expression not neglected and left blank, but as her jaw moves through a chewing motion, her expression follows suit. Small details such as this make for better quality. Nevertheless, the censors on objects such as the blades, or knives is puzzling, and irritating.

The music was appropriate for the scenes, such as darker music would be paired with murderous scenes to provide a more eerie feel. However at some parts, too many background noises were apparent, taking away from what was actually happening on screen. Also, in a sentimental scene, which is crucial, the background music was too loud, overpowering the scene itself, when it should be there for support, and as a gentle accent to the character's actions.

I feel as if the characters were well developed, due to the fact that the watcher is easily able to see what caused a certain action. The blatant appearance of cause and effect, is extremely well played out, but at the same time not overdone. You don't get the feeling the creators were merely adding things as a bonus, but it flows, and fits well with plot.

Finally, what I DIDN'T like, and the reason certain categories were deducted points although my commentary is positive, is the justification for Yume's insatiable hunger, thus forcing her to feed off of her brother, Utsutsu. The creators attempted to create a strong bond between the siblings, Utsutsu, being the type to do anything for his sister, even sacrificing himself as live bait, which fit well with the main themes. Nonetheless, in scenes where Yume was feeding off of Utsutsu, it was HIGHLY UNNECESSARY to create such sexual imagery, and eroticism. It completely contradicts the main point of the story, and does NOT help the plot whatsoever. Additionally, in episode 12, when Utsutsu states," I love Yume's erotic face when she's done eating. Being live bait isn't so bad.", was just downright disturbing. We've had 12 episodes of full-on hardcore killing as a product of a vicious virus, and all of the sudden it turns into some romantic duty of a loving brother in an incestuous relationship?!? No. Unneeded, and uncalled for.

Despite that, I did enjoy this anime. Again if you enjoy action, and gore as much as I do, this is an anime for you!!

So I watched Pupa uncensored, and all the episodes 1-12 straight like a 38 minute movie. I noticed many reviews here on MAL with extremely low ratings and decided to watch it because I had 38 minutes to waste on a terrible full length story. Instead I actually enjoyed it.

Story 9/10
In my opinion the pacing was perfect. In fact there were times when I thought it was a little slow. Honestly if it was a 20 minute series I wouldn't have been able to sit the whole thing especially since I'm not fan of horror or gore as well.

Art 8/10
The watercolor background visuals were nicely ... done and the highlight was probably the cute designs of the Hasegawa siblings. I only gave it an 8 because I have high standards, also there were times when the flow of animation was off.

Sound 10/10
It was a laugh the way they could make a scene that should be appalling seem very sweet with a playful soundtrack.

Characters 9/10
Nothing to do with complex character development, but at the same time I didn't expect any in the first place. I have to say that the way the author brings out their 'ugliness' is probably the reason why I rate this aspect so high.

Enjoyment 9/10
As someone who isn't a fan of gore, I couldn't give this a full 10 but it was definitely enjoyable. Wouldn't watch it again, although trying to figure out what happens next kept me going.

Overall 10/10
Its not for everyone, probably aimed at the minority of people who enjoy this kind of content and it does a great job for that minority.

EDIT: Just want to make a statement that before and while writing this review, I was clearly at my peak of boredom at that time; therefore my score is quite exaggerated. I don't particularly like the series and remain neutral to it even now, but there's nothing wrong to how twisted it is.

First off, the score i give for it is high, compared to the average, but I got reasons

The story is that it follows the lives of a brother and sister, one being a monster that eats human flesh, while the other has insane healing powers. Not the greatest, but definitely not the worst. It excels in being something different.

For the art, its not great, but for a 4 minute animes, it is leaps and bounds better then Chitose Get You! and Sparrow's hotel. You can't really compare 1 5-min anime to 24 minute animes by Bones, or Trigger.

Sound: The chewing is unsettling and the OP ... and ED's are good.

Character takes a hit, just because of the run time. Can't flesh out a character.

Enjoyment is high just because of the premise. How many other animes are their that have cannibalism as a theme?

In conclusion, the scores for this animes are horribly underrated. This anime coming out is a feat, as it deals with cannibalism. Its 4-mins long, and will have 12 episodes. 48 minutes isn't a long time. Try it, and you may enjoy it.

Pupa is only recommended to people who really enjoy horror, like me.
It's a very special series, that not so many people could enjoy, unless they understand that it is unique.

Ok, hear me out: Pupa sucks. And it does so greatly. HOWEVER, it might just be another piece of media that suffers from the "The Room" syndrome, aka it's so bad it becomes kind of good.

I mean, the story is all over the place, nothing really ever gets explained, and the characters sometimes just act straight up weird for no apparent reason.

It also becomes clear really quick that the studio had no idea what events from the story it should prioritize (I'll clarify, though, that I haven't read the manga; just assuming it wasn't so chaotic), which is especially clear in the last two episodes ... where we just get a whole bunch of nothing, which is pretty weird considering the fact that our main characters were in potentially deep trouble just a second ago.

In other words, don't expect anything good out of this show. Just watch it with a bunch of friends over discord at something like 3 AM and you're in for an enjoyable ride.

Also, pupa means ass in Polish

Review rate (unbiased, mostly): 6.6
Personal rate:1 (mainly due to horror terrifies me.
English Subtitles

Story
Word choices for the credits along with introduction were clearly well thought out. If you break down plot's psychological illustrations you can see the connections.

Story used great metaphors. Like as one we can fall but as two or more we can stand tall.

Conclusion wasn't really a conclusion in terms of it being direct. It was one of those see what you want to see happen. Not only that but the last episode wasn't meant for plot but for backstory character progression. Which was kind of great to see. Not because it revealed some ... sort of question i wanted answered but for it was tame/kind and soaked in blood.

Art
Artistic choice of using a teddy bear was not only cute but greatly appreciated. Parent on kid violence is brutal no need to see that in any actual realistic form.

Overall it is a short animation tv show. Could have been a movie i agree given how the next episode begins were the other left off. But with horror stories some people find it alarming to take all cruel nature in one sitting. The idea of short episodes is a good pausing way to remove toxins before more occupy host.

I really liked the anime, and before explaining why, yes, I read the manga. The manga is better, but the anime is also good (not as good as the manga but ok). First of all, if you've never read the manga, do not watch it. Because you won't understand and will hate it. After reading the manga, you can enjoy this pretty small anime, acclaimed by critics. The opening and ending song are just awesome and soft, and for me the animation was a gift for those who read the manga, like having the "taste" of a real anime. After all, Sayaka Mogi is a ... new mangaka, and as I searched (not sure) this was his first manga. I think it was proposital to do not explain all in the anime, otherwise the animation wouldn't have 4 minutes of duration~ hope you guys enjoy pupa

It's odd how universally hated this one is.

I mean, I guess not entirely odd. It's kind of a rushed clusterfuck of good ideas and concepts, sprinkled with generous amounts of incest hints, so I can see how people would fail to see the core beauty that lies in this cesspool of gorey goodness. Much like a very good cake that fell on the floor one too many times and now looks like nothing but a big pile of shit. But hey, it's still sugary and creamy and whatever-flavour-suits-you on the inside, despite looking like crap and not being too pleasing on the eye.

Not sure if ... that analogy works at all but I guess what I'm trying to say is that Pupa isn't really that terrible to look at. It is terrible in terms of me squirming the fuck out of my chair whenever there's living tissue being devoured but I'd wager that's pretty normal, and was otherwise pretty interesting, nearly captivating, to see. Well animated, even. Heck, the soundtrack was kinda cool and VAs weren't fucking annoying as hell.

As a not necessarily relevant point, I'm 104% sure there is a vast amount of people getting off to this shit. For every one of my "nopes", there's a person getting a happy ending.

It's been much too many years since this aired, so there's little point in trying to point out how not-entirely-horrible this one is but I guess i just wanted to put it out there. Not so bad. Short enough to be worth a watch.

*no spoilers review*
This show is incredibly good compared to her rating. i came with no expectations and it turned out really good.
the sad thing is, each episode is 4 minutes, and the opening and outro take another minute, which makes it 3 minutes per episode. the show still managed to make due with what time it had but sadly it didnt get enough time to actually show enough.
the short episode format does work well tho. idk if the writers managed to match the format to what they had or if the show is just complimented by it so much. if the episodes were around 8-12 ... minutes and we had more episodes this wouldve been so much better.
hella recommended for horror lovers.
some episodes were even too nasty and difficult for me to watch and thats rare af. the raw pain and gore in some episodes is just insane.

tl;dr - good show too short but still recommended for horror lovers

If you have a strong constitution, please do not shy away from this anime. I find that it is a much under-rated show, and with it only being a total of less than 45 minutes, even if you are a bit weak-stomached you can still make it through.

It may be that I went into watching this anime with absolutely the worst expectations that I could have, but in the end I really enjoyed watching Pupa. I found the story to be entertaining and captivating, with the art and sound to be a bit more than fair. I would have liked to have seen more ... character development as we see the reference of where Maria thinks that the children would really like to meet their actual parents. Also would like to see where the story line would have gone with the monster that Maria is breeding. In addition to seeing the story continued, the other aspect that could be improved on would be that the story is a bit discontinuous, but I have seen animes that are much more disjointed.