Pupa

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i think the manga itself is much better than the anime or shit show
look i recommend you to read but this manga contain gore and horror elements and some abusive stuff so be careful
and i've feel like this manga have lack of story not much, you’ll ultimately find yourself oddly sympathizing with the main characters and just wishing for a happy ending
look straight to the point
it's your choice to read this or not
but i will recommend you
The story itself suffers from a couple pacing issues, but does its best to try and show how Utsutsu and Yume deal with terrible situation after ... terrible situation. It's easy to say that until the final pages of the last chapter, nothing at all goes right for either of them. Pupa is basically a "Us vs. The World" story, but The World really, really, really hates Utsutsu and Yume. What Pupa gives in heartwarming reunions, it dishes out 3 times as much in absolutely insane situations to prove just how much Utsutsu and Yume need each other (more so how much Utsutsu needs Yume), to the point where if one was lost, the other can't live on.

[Spoiler free review]

Pupa, widely known as a shit show on the anime side. But when we look at the manga side of things, it becomes immediately obvious that it isn't your average bad manga, but rather something in a different tier of itself.

Pupa is a horror/psychological manga that delves into the messed up life of 2 siblings. It is filled with gore, and the story itself is excruciatingly bleak and full of nauseating concepts.

I'll be honest, I really didn't like Pupa, it was a very exhausting read; the only reason I managed to force myself to read through it is because of it's small size ... of 34 chapters. But even if I personally didn't like it, I can't deny its originality and uniqueness. This makes Pupa a special read among the countless mangas out there, it's something you can never forget after reading it once.

⚪ Art:

One of the main parts of the manga that makes it what it is. The art itself isn't that good, but the way it presents its gore is what makes it unique. The paneling also invokes feelings similar to reading a Junji Ito manga, yet while being a completely different style of art.

The art is grotesque when it needs to be, and I can confidently say the last few chapter’s panels will certainly leave a mark on your mind after you finish reading them.

⚪ Writing/ Story/ Characters:

To describe it in one word…’bad’ is the word I’d have to use. But under the bad writing there is a certain art to be found, especially when the story delves into the depths of any of the characters' minds. As you read through the story, even though the writing and story itself is bad, you’ll ultimately find yourself oddly sympathizing with the main characters and just wishing for a happy ending (you’ll also find yourself praying for the manga to ‘just end already’).

⚪ Conclusion:

This manga will be worth a read (not a waste of time) if you like unique reads, especially something that delves into madness like Junji Ito or Haruki Murakami (don’t go expecting anything of their level though). Don’t expect any solid base to the story, it’s just a jumbled mess of the author’s nightmares/dreams (that’s honestly what it felt like reading it). Just expect an overall experience of ‘wtf did I just read?’, because the manga only gets crazier the further you go.

*Disclaimer: If you start reading this manga, you WILL have the urge to finish it, or it’ll haunt you until you do. Once you go in, there is no escape until the end.

I'll admit, I went into this knowing I wouldn't like it. I'd watched the anime to boost some stats for achievements so here we are. Curiosity got the better of me.

Also, I won't be breaking this into a standard review. I think I'll limit this to one slate rather than breaking it into Story, Art, Character, etc. It's simply unnecessary.

With that said--

It's funny how a common discussion about the anime is that the convoluted and confusing nature of the story is likely due to the lack of actual content. Being a 5 or so minute show it's greatly limited by the amount of content it ... can actually cover. Yet, even with 34 chapter, Pupa never measures up to anything worthwhile. In fact, it's almost more confusing and more convoluted.

Characters seem to teleport, locations don't really have an identity, and the pacing is a mile a minute with the restraint of an elementary school student who just discovered Naruto (I'm not bad mouthing Nardo, just the theoretical person above which actually includes myself lol). Choices in the narrative are made simply because, "Well, that's cool! Let's do that!" and I get that, I really do. In fact, I agree that some concepts in this story are quite interesting, but that's because I'm thinking back to the conceptual stage and not engaging with the final presentation.

Which, by the way, is really bad. The art for this manga is janky and boring. The backgrounds are 90% white and the art that actually takes precedence is only fine. Sometimes I would see a panel or 2-page spread and be left wondering what's actually happening. This is alleviated later as the mangaka improves, but it doesn't save anything about this manga.

I haven't said much of anything about the actual story, just about the structure and presentation, so maybe I should get into that.

It's bad. Real bad. It's exploitative, extreme, vile, and I think the real sickening aspect of this narrative is that it brings to light a very dark and twisted heart that the author has. Now, this will sound so judgemental and inappropriate coming from me (as a huge fan of Berserk) but let me clarify before I head into my main thoughts.

Extreme content is like anything else in a story. With enough care and respect to the content itself, one can do anything with their story and I feel it will largely be acceptable. This does not open the floodgates to writing something pornographic, but it means that if someone were to write something sexual, there are certain stipulations that allow it to be functionally appropriate and respectable to the content, characters, and your intended audience. The same works for horrific acts of violence. In fact, this is more commonly used and often written better, but we've all experienced something that was either A) poorly written (like a bad death or unnecessary death that ruined a story) or B) read something that was far more gratuitous and bordered on snuff/exploitation.

I would argue that a story like Berserk respects this foundation (save for maybe 1 scene. And no, it's not the Eclipse). A story like Pupa, however, does not. With overly erotic scenes between perceived siblings, gore for the sake of gore, characters who do heinous acts with little reason, and certain plot points that make you go, "What the heck!?", you're ultimately stuck with a story whose author has a few screws loose.

To return to my first defining characteristic, the "Well, that's cool! Let's do that!" aspect of the mangaka, the issue comes in when you have certain acts within this story that, honestly, shouldn't be considered cool in the first place. And the reason I use a lame term like 'cool' is that I don't think she felt that it was anything other than cool. And I get that, some of these things have an edge to them that's shiny and reflective and I want to get so much closer but when you're writing like a child, someone has to tell you that you're running towards a knife. Don't do that.

I think this covers most, if not all, my thoughts on Pupa. There's some other stuff I could say specifically but I'm not here to rail on the story's specifics. I wanted to detail the failings of it's concepts because I feel like that hasn't been totally touched on in other reviews. So hopefully you found this educational. =3

But yeah, don't read it. It's boring and a waste of time.