Pupa (Anime Series Review)

Pupa

Review by QuartzWolf
Originally started sometime around November 2014, first posted 10th of October, 2016

I was curious about it, so I read some reviews and decided to check out the manga. The manga turned out to be surprisingly good in some ways (I was expecting total garbage), so on one of my many sick days I marathoned the whole series of animated shorts, sometime just before Crunchyroll's license to stream it expired. (With JManga now defunct, it's also impossible to read the manga in English legally now, at least as of posting this, so Pupa has functionally disappeared. The official site for the anime is also no longer extant, so this review is actually mostly pointless at this point.)

Holy crap, it's awful. (I say, with a horrible sideways smirk plastered over my face...) I wasn't exactly expecting a new, 2 minute Elfen Lied, but... Holy hell, this is awful.
 

I wanted to put a screen of the red butterflies here, but didn't have one.
Can't go back and get one now...

Animation: 3 of 5
It's beautifully animated at times, but wow, what a waste. What a horrible waste. It succeeds in having the look of a psychedelic horror, but there's no substance to it. And while one scene or episode might have smooth and detailed animation, others scenes are so bad they almost look as if they belong to another show. However, since it's so short, it's hard to judge it on this.

--Avoid AIDS joke.--

Music: 2 of 5
I thought there were times when it was almost catchy. Sort of. But I'm not sure we really want to catch that...

"Onii-chan..."

Sound: 2 of 5
The 'gross sounds' almost succeed at what they were meant to do, but I found them so repetitive and gratuitous that it totally ruined the effect. Sorry if I'm just repeating here what most other reviews of this have already stated... But really. I just can't find any other way to put it.

She's actually eating his back muscles. It only looks like sex.

Voice Acting: 1 of 5
One episode was almost nothing but "Oniichan..." being whispered seductively(?) for maybe about two minutes. Interspersed with aforementioned 'gross sounds'.

It's quite likely that no one who watches this series through will ever be able to hear "Imouto" or "Oniichan" quite the same way again.

I can't rate it 0 of 5 because there were, in fact, voices.

Pupa, the anime, summed up.

Story: 1 of 5
It teases at having one, but ultimately goes nowhere. It doesn't follow the manga particularly well, either.

Censobears

Horror/Psychology Elements: 2 of 5
It doesn't handle horror well, especially in comparison to the source material. An important element of horror, like with comedy, is to poke fun at, satirize, or bring into the open things that are difficult or forbidden to normally deal with. (In fact, most often, there's a strong but subtle overlap between horror and comedy. A good horror is most often self-aware enough to poke fun at itself, the audience, society, whatever.)

It's really easy to see that the 'devouring' and insatiable hunger of our monstrous Miss Imouto is a metaphor for sex, but what is it really trying to say? Is it mocking the audience for enjoying watching this? Not really. Is it punishing the audience? Is it warning against any of this? No, not really. Is it even encouraging us to indulge in watching it? It doesn't even really succeed in being eroguro just for the sake of eroguro.

Don't worry, it's not a real little boy.

The metaphorical use of teddy bears in place of some of the worse of the actual violence against minors looked like, and had the potential to be, a great touch. Something potent, something that strikes deep into the psyche. It could have been a beautiful way to deal with censorship, but it was quickly abandoned in favour of "Oniichan... (slurp) Oniichan..."

Speaking of censorship, the censorship was all over the place, and wildly inconsistent. In one episode, a scene of terrible violence against a minor would be shown fully. In another, it would be blocked out with black or our good old friend, 'convenient white fog'. In another... teddy bears from hell.

I was convinced for a portion of this scene
that he was not holding a sharp object, but a dildo.

Bottom Line:
Sometimes beautifully animated pointless, creepy, exploitative incest fantasy. Well, maybe it's someone's cup of tea... If you enjoy eating(?) tea out of your sibling.

It never reaches the point of being 'so bad it's good again', and lacks any kind of self-awareness. Is this a fetish show? Is it a horror show?

I'm not even left with a feeling of having been trolled... It's just plain bad.


PS - The manga contains an ear rape scene. Yes, ear. Of the protagonist (Oniichan), by a man made out of butterflies. Nuff said.

PPS - No, that's not enough said. That was the most hardcore wet willy I've ever seen.