Pupa

Title:Pupa
ピューパ (Japanese)
Overall:Watch
Keywords: , , , , , , ,
Notables: KIDO Ibuki
SHIMAZAKI Nobunaga
Growing up with an abusive father, Utsutsu is highly protective of his younger sister Yume. One day, Yume sees a red butterfly and contracts the strange Pupa virus. She begins to sprout grotesque wings and to indiscriminately attack both animals and humans. Hoping to find a way to stop the advance of the virus, Utsutsu seeks out Maria, a researcher who knows the secret of Pupa. He decides to sacrifice his own body as live bait for the sake of saving Yume.
(Synopsis courtesy of ANN)

12 episodes; based on a completed Shounen horror manga series with 5 volumes from 2011-2013.

"ピューパ" ("puu-pa"), being written in katakana, isn't a Japanese word but the Latin/English term "↗pupa" or chrysalis.
The names of the siblings are probably symbolical: "utsutsu" ("現つ") = "reality, consciousness", "夢" ("yume") = "dream". The scars indicate the abuse by their (divorced) father.
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Avoid 6 5 6 5 2 2 Ggultra2764 [series:2857#1552]
Lazy is about the only word that I can proclaim after watching this. Dividing this series up into 12 four-minute shorts had to be the most baffling and stupid decision I ever seen from Studio Deen as setting up Pupa's plot in this type of format leads to really sloppy and rushed storytelling and character development being mostly nonexistent in this mess as characters of importance are mere cutouts in terms of personality. While I wasn't too turned off by the show's violence, this animated take on Pupa seemed to have episodes exist only to show off its gory violence and Yume's eating of her older brother carries with it some rather creepy incest undertones with how suggestive the predicaments may look and sound. This baby is easily the worst work I've seen from Deen in my 12+ years as an anime fan.

Last updated Friday, December 19 2014. Created Friday, December 19 2014.
Watch Stretch [series:2857#628]
(All episodes watched):

Somehow, I don't think the short format was appropriate for this series. I started watching assuming it would be a full 23 minutes long, and was both surprised and frustrated when Pupa cut off after five minutes or so. WTF was this all about? Why do people have scarred faces to begin with? Is all this gratuitous bloodshed a dream, or a metaphor, or is it really supposed to be happening? Weird and gross things happen to people, but there is not a hint of an explanation. Most of the synopsis above has yet to be revealed. Stuff which bewilders me doesn't register in my memory, and I'm left doubly confused when the next episode comes along.

OK, what do you do when your beloved sister is transformed into a hideous, insect-like creature? Her mind still exists, but she now has an almost irresistible urge to devour people ("Why are the people I killed so very delicious?"). But before he can even think about the matter (which might have been intriguing), Utsutsu seems to meet a similar fate. Or did he? He doesn't start cannibalizing. I forget. And again we are left with no idea where this is going. Again, short format is frustrating, because we seem to get a cliffhanger every five minutes, and must struggle for a week to make sense of what the F is going on here. But if this was all imaginary, Utsutsu wouldn't be talking to the transformed Yume, would he? For all my confusion and frustration, I must admit I had a modest curiosity to see where this would go. If it warped my mind too much I would quit, but I would like to get a grip on what the hell the story is here.

Unless some sort of time warp has occurred, episode five seemed to set the original brother-sister pair aside and start a new plotline involving different people; will the two plotlines come together later on, or are we finished with the first one (which would be rather disappointing)? No, instead this alternate timeline seems to be dropped after one episode. What was it all for in the first place? Again, I forget (if I ever understood). The show was confusing enough even before this happened. In episode six the story is back to Yume and Utsutsu, but basically the entire episode consists of her munching on him and repeating his name over and over--we learn nothing new, and if this was supposed to be emotionally moving it just seemed tedious to me.

And that's pretty much how Pupa progresses; while I'm modestly curious, I don't understand much and can't remember what happened last week when a new episode comes along. And I guess episode 11 marks the climax and resolution of the story, since episode 12 is a sort of comedy omake episode--it didn't seem like much of a climax, since the basic problem seems to remain unsolved and unexplained. Or did I just forget something important within five minutes or so? It seems like a manga was cut to pieces and a few shreds--perhaps chosen completely at random--were given to someone to slap together some sort of storyline; and with little to work with, little was accomplished. I'm sort of tempted to try to reverse-engineer Pupa back into a manga of sorts and see if I could do any better.

Last updated Monday, April 07 2014. Created Thursday, January 16 2014.

Community Anime Reviews

anime mikomi org