Pupa

This is probably going to be the worst anime of the year.

It honestly makes me wonder what the guys at DEEN were thinking when they decided to make this adaptation, "Hey we have so much money, let's just animate this crappy manga" is probably an accurate assumption to make.

Because really, let's judge it from every possible perspective: Animation: Not good at all, like really, incomplete scenery, crappy censorship (for example, there was a scene where they censored a knife for some reason, but at the next scene it was shown explicitly), horrible, and I mean HORRIBLE, art style and both the OP and EDs are, literally, still images.

Sound: This is at least the only decent aspect of the anime, the opening song is pretty catchy and so is the ED, nothing especially good, though. The background music does not fit the atmosphere, given that it's a horror anime, you hear violins that, at first, sound like some country music song.

Story: Pfhaha, don't even get me started on this one, the story is by far the most ridiculous one I've ever seen. Like, taking the first and second episodes as example, Utsutsu, right after he saw his very own sister turn into a demon and eat two live persons, he just casually goes to it (her) and just tells her to "go home". What kind of terrible writing is that? It also leaves several plot holes, but for the sake of not-spoiling, I'll just leave it there.

Characters: I have no idea what anyone is. Like really, there's a witch scientist, a demon zombie monster girl, a guy and a scientist. That's all. No character development has been seen so far either. The character design is plain and boring.

My conclusion is that this anime shouldn't even exist. That is all.

Pupa is an anime so catastrophically bad it defies belief. It takes what could have been a disturbing psychological horror story and drags it through the mud, leaving behind a four-minute-per-episode abomination that fails at every conceivable level.

The premise alone is tasteless: forced cannibalism between siblings, combined with a weird undercurrent of incestuous tension. Rather than exploring these disturbing themes with depth or maturity, Pupa revels in shock value but can't even execute that properly. The gore looks cheap, the "emotional" moments are hollow, and the pacing is nonexistent.

Animation quality is among the worst ever broadcast: static images, off-model characters, and amateurish direction. The sound design is equally horrendous, with flat voice acting wasted on incoherent dialogue and music that barely qualifies as background noise. And when it ends, there's no catharsis, no resolution... just relief that it's finally over.

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POSITIVE : The only mercy is that it's short, so you suffer less

NEGATIVE : Laughably bad animation and static visuals / Absurdly short episodes that ruin any narrative flow / Tasteless mix of cannibalism and incest with no purpose or payoff / Zero tension, zero atmosphere, zero emotional impact / One of the worst adaptations ever made.

A true failure on every level

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Just watch episode 6 and you'll get forever traumatized. And i really wanna know who gave this anime a 10/10 score and why, it's impossibile that someone liked this.

I kind of have a soft spot anomalous wretch of an anime.

I like how one dimensional simple the characters are. They have no depth and you could characterize solely as being brother and sister. They never waver or look inward, they have no other intrest or goal simply their own embrace, you could almost call this relationship "wholesome."

I enjoy the look of animation, cheap I know but it's almost dreamlike a feeling that you feel constantly when you are watching this.

The story is bizarre and underdeveloped. It feels like someone madlibbed the story and had to put it together into a narrative. It makes some terribly ballsy moves like a lot of the show is dedicated to "incest cannibalism" like given how little time we spend on the story we sure do spend a lot of time to the girl eating her brother alive it goes to comedic lengths. Not say the story's good, the show care just as much about the plot as we do. I honestly couldn't care less who has it in for these two or why. Also this is way too short for almost any serious story let alone horror. There are episodes that cut to credits on the most insane moments I can't keep a straight face. It's almost as if they're playing you for one big joke.

I compare this to "Manos: Hands of Fate" where it's an interesting idea and it would've made something surreal and creepy, but they were so incompetent. Like these where people who shouldn't be allowed to make movies because they can't, but what they did make was so laughably bizarre in concept and execution that its unbelievable and weirdly sort of entertaining in a very abstract way. I wouldn't actually recommend this to anyone because it's not a good show.

IT'S NOT A GOOD SHOW.

I'd much rather that they actually try to make something worthwhile and develop their characters and story so they aren't so uncooked. I'd actually much rather this be good than a complete mess, but at least when it's a mess, I can look back and say, "WOW, what were they thinking!" It's the worst anime I've seen by a country mile. I wouldn't've seen it if it wasn't so short, but even then, I probably wasted my time.

I remember hearing about Pupa when the project was starting, and I remember the disappointment when hearing it featured 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 carrying some of the most grotesque scenes in anime. However, that isn't quite what's here, and one's feelings to the shortening might suddenly change upon watching it. If I had to guess why it's this way, I would guess the reasoning is that 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.