Pupa

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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This work was ranked a respectable second in watch mojo's ranking of the worst anime of all time. It depicts the ultimate sibling love between a sister with cannibalistic desires and an older brother whose body regenerates quickly. There are few anime that deal with cannibalism. While it is commendable that the company decided to go ahead with an anime adaptation, it is clear that the budget and length of the film are insufficient. Perhaps this is because they decided that it would not be profitable to spend the budget on an anime dealing with cannibalism and make it in a 12-episode structure with 24 minutes per episode. But it's better to go a little further than to have such a cheap result. What's so terrible about it? The problems are obvious. The drawings are worse than those made by a university doujinshi club. The story is too short and disjointed. It includes a grotesque cannibal scene that makes a strangely unpleasant and uncomfortable sound. In the end, the ambition doesn't even show up in the cannibal scenes.

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.

Pupa is an anime series that dives headfirst into disturbing and grotesque content without any semblance of narrative coherence or meaningful storytelling. It is a prime example of shock value gone horribly wrong, leaving viewers disgusted and questioning the purpose of such a repulsive and poorly executed anime.

One of the most glaring issues with Pupa is its gratuitous and excessive use of graphic violence and disturbing imagery. The series revels in showcasing explicit scenes of blood, gore, and cannibalism, seemingly for the sake of shock value alone. These scenes are not only disturbing but lack any narrative purpose or artistic merit, making them feel gratuitous and exploitative. Pupa's attempts to shock and disgust its audience ultimately come across as juvenile and desperate, devoid of any meaningful substance.

The animation and art style in Pupa are subpar at best. The character designs lack detail and consistency, and the overall visual presentation feels uninspired and amateurish. The animation itself is stiff and lacks fluidity, failing to engage the audience on a visual level. Pupa's lackluster production values further contribute to the overall disappointment of the series.

Narratively, Pupa is an incoherent mess. The story is disjointed, with disjointed and disconnected scenes that fail to form a cohesive plot. The lack of clear exposition and world-building leaves viewers confused and frustrated, unable to invest in the narrative or connect with the characters. Pupa's attempts at psychological horror and suspense fall flat due to its inability to establish a strong foundation for its storytelling.

The characters in Pupa lack depth and development, rendering them one-dimensional and uninteresting. Their actions and motivations are poorly explained, leaving the audience with little reason to care about their fates. The lack of emotional investment in the characters further hampers any potential engagement with the series.

Furthermore, Pupa's episode length is disappointingly short, with episodes lasting only a few minutes each. This severely limits the storytelling potential and hampers any attempt at meaningful character development or plot progression. The truncated episodes feel rushed and incomplete, leaving viewers with a sense of dissatisfaction and confusion.

In conclusion, Pupa is a disastrous and disturbing anime that fails on multiple fronts. Its gratuitous use of violence and shock value, coupled with its lackluster animation, incoherent storytelling, and underdeveloped characters, make for an abysmal viewing experience. Pupa's attempts at psychological horror and suspense fall flat, and its lack of narrative coherence leaves viewers frustrated and repulsed. This series serves as a cautionary tale of how shock value alone cannot compensate for a lack of substance and thoughtful storytelling.

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.