Pupa Episode 01 - I Wish It Were All A Dream - Emergence

So remember that show I've been dreading?

It's a little gem called Pupa. It's about... well according to the very brief wiki entry on it, it's basically about the love between a brother and sister. And by 'love' we mean "he lets his sister eat his flesh after she turns into a horrible man-eating monster".

The manga is, uh, it's pretty bad. So I am going to warn you now: DO NOT GOOGLE THAT SHIT EVER. Not unless you are into Guro.

And nobody is into Guro.

If you don't know what Guro is? Keep it that way. Trust me. You'll thank me for saying that when you figure it out.

Final warning: While this episode is relatively 'tame', I'm going to be erring on the extremely safe side of things by tagging this as NSFW. When really I should be tagging it NSFL.

Yes. For LIFE.

... consider that a tag now.


So. Let's review. You have an utterly horrible concept. It is five mangas long. You need to turn it into an animated adaption. Okay, cool. We got that. Anime are cool and hep with the kids and totally on the great side of cool. But of course there's not really enough material to go around, so what do you do?

You break it all up into three minutes of story, told in twelve parts is what you do.

Process that for a moment if you will.

Twelve parts.

Three minutes.

That is a total of 36 minutes. Give or take. Essentially, two episodes worth of material.

Now it would seem as though this is the kind of format that is relatively common. That is, if your show is basically a comedy sketch. Think Azumanga Daioh!, or something along those lines. Those work because they are very short stories, and stand on their own.

This show? Oh christ where do I even begin.

Right, let's start with the utterly horrendous opening. This thirty second (yes, thirty seconds!) introduction is a bunch of images that just constantly pan down. They're all pretty weird and probably are ripped straight from the covers of the manga themselves, and feature characters who are probably part of the story (I hesitate to call this a 'show'), and are somehow getting naturfied or some shit. Also, one of the chicks is totally naked with tig ol' bitties.

So when the show starts, some people are at school, and we get introduced to our main character, I guess, after classes. His name is Utsusu. His little sister Yume has come to see him.

Just ignore his incredibly f***ed-up face. Everyone else
seems to.

She's come because she thought that maybe they could walk home together, what with school being over and all that. So he's like "yeah sure whatever, go wait in the park." Also, we see it's not just his face that has had some sort of accident with a renegade cooking appliance - his arms are also pretty messed up. Lovely.

Not even thirty seconds into the show itself and this
is looking less and less promising by the second.

By the way, what the hell is up with the crappy colored-pencil backgrounds? They look like shit, but then again so does the rest of the show so really what was I expecting here. Anyway, she plays the role of the good little sister and heads off to the park to go wait for her brother. Along the way, she meets some big-tittied lady wearing black and holding a cat and who totally looks like a goddamn witch that is just standing there. No real reason. Except that the plot demands she simply be standing there waiting to talk to Yume.

What do you mean I look like a child predator
I have a kitty and everything it's totally okay.

She stands completely stock still until Yume passes, and she tells the girl to 'go home'. Yume stops, and the woman continues: Before you see the red butterflies.

Someone looking like that tells me to go home?
I GO RIGHT THE F**K HOME.

By the way. I should take a moment to show you this next image, because it is a very clear indicator of just how messed up this show is likely going to get in very short order.

This cat's head is stitched together. Stitched. Together.

What would normally appear to be a cute cat likely named spot takes on an incredibly dark twist, as you begin to wonder is that even the same cat's head. But don't worry: absolutely none of your questions will be answered.

A perfectly normal response to a crazy person with a
f***ed-up face if ever I saw it.

Then there's a red butterfly. Followed by lots of them in the park. Yume thinks they are pretty. And then a poor dishevelled-looking puppy crawls out of a nearby bush, sounding like a dog who sounds like a thirty-year chain smoker whose esophagus just gave out on him. It's kind of more accurate than you'd think.

Yes this just screams 'poor puppy'.

She asks if the critter is hurt, and then approaches.

And promptly gets face-raped by its eyes and intestines.

While the face-rape is implied, it's hard to imagine what else could happen when you see a disgusting writhing mass approach a character's face followed by an immediate wipe of red. Immediately after, we get to see her brother standing over her while other people appear to give absolutely zero shits that a little girl is lying on the ground in the middle of the park. While missing a shoe.

Ah I'm sure she's perfectly fine.

Then we see some dude lazily backhand a little girl in the dress (presumably the sister oh noes), and then some dude saying some thing that makes zero sense without any kind of context whatsoever. Which you're not getting.

Uh, a little girl? Who do you think you are? Mr. Big Man?

The flashback fades out and we see Yume just kind of laying there cradled in her brother's arms, and then some chick walks up beside him (possible the one a couple images back I dunno we never get to see).

Oh, and then Yume's stomach suddenly grows a giant black spike out of it.

... I'm sure she's okay.

Now we get to see Yume standing with a teddy bear.

See? Perfectly okay.

And then a close-up of the bear.

Very astute of you.

Oh but then the bear rolls its head up to look at her and talk.

Uh. What.

Now there's a second bystander just casually chilling behind our siblings, and then his sister just kinda explodes. Oh, and that lady who was standing nearby? I think she might need a doctor of some kind.

I'm sure she'll be fine with some first aid.

Then Yume is all looking down at her brother, wondering just what is up with him.

He's fine. She's fine. They're all fine.

Oh, but she gets a look at her hand and realizes something isn't right.

Eh, I'm sure it's just a phase. She'll grow out of it.

End episode.

Did that make any sense to you? Good. Because it didn't make any to me either. Or rather, it probably would if they'd have bothered to take the time to, you know. Try to tell the story in a slightly longer segment.

By the way. The ending? Is another spectacularly shitty song that doesn't fit the theme whatsoever. And is thirty seconds of Yume wearing a shirt that goes from bleach white to drenched in ketchup.

On second thought maybe it's tomato paste.

It just pans around and we get to see an oddly suggestive... something. I don't even know what the hell.

What the f**k is this even I dont

Congratulations, Studio Deen. You have managed to make something so spectacularly crappy it actually defies belief. In a larger format, I'm sure it would have been mediocre at best. But this? You honestly expect someone to be looking forward to watching this next week?!

This... animation (because I refuse to call it a 'show') is, without any sort of exaggeration a complete and utter waste of time. Because it quite literally fails on every possible level you can imagine. Why do they spend so much time on an intro and outro? 25% of your total screen time is a lot of time. Especially when that time is four minutes and one second exactly.

Do not watch this. Not ever. Not even if someone tells you to watch it as a joke. It is literally not worth the four minutes of time spent watching it. Because as soon as it's over? You're going to forget everything that just happened.

Because none of it has any context and it is not amusing or engaging and the only thing you will be able to remember is a little girl got face-raped by a puppy's intestines and then talked to a creepy-ass teddy bear.

The end.