Pupa - A Disaster of Biblical Proportions

Where do we begin with this one? I mean, honestly, where could I even begin?

There are bad shows, and then there are shows that frankly never should have seen the light of day. And then, there are shows like Pupa.

I... I'm honestly at a loss here. I don't know where to even begin talking about this mess. But I promise I'll try.

This is Pupa.

Studio DEEN. What needs to be said about these guys? They have put out some incredible work in the past. Glancing over their record, a few shows stick out to me: Patlabor, Fruits Basket, Star Ocean EX. Ruroni Kenshin. Shadow Skill. READ OR DIE. This is a studio who has definitely put out some incredible works of art in the past. Fate/Stay Night? That was Studio DEEN. Higurashi? DEEN.

How in the world is it possible for a studio with a track record like that to greenlight a project that was doomed from the outset? How desperate must they have been? Who did they think they were fooling?

Make no mistake. Pupa is a failure on every conceivable level. From planning to development to release, every single aspect of this doomed this project from the outset. Higurashi. HIGURASHI. DEEN has shown us that they can handle the horror genre so why in the world would they botch this so badly?

The only answer I can come up with is because they realized they had a bum deal and just wanted to shove it out the door as quickly as possible, make whatever cash they could off of it, and move on. That is literally the only explanation I can come up with.

Art & Animation

At one point, I think they must have pretended to care. Admittedly, Pupa started out strong, albeit unquestionably horrible, a part of me wants to believe that when they began the project they must have wanted to at least live up to their name. There's only so much a person can critique such a short show. That said, it's glaringly obvious how little they cared later on.

At first the animation, limited as it was, seemed to shine most during the most grotesque sequences. That nightmare-inducing part from the end of the first episode when the puppy explodes and all that, this was without a doubt a completely horrifying experience in every way. It was disgusting and repulsive, and probably the best animated thing in the entire show.

It was also the last time you'd actually get to see any of this shit. Which might normally be a blessing in disguise, except for the fact that this was your show's entire selling point: the grotesque horror.

Quickly, the quality of animation took a drastic dive, to the point where they began throwing in photoshop-filtered live footage and throwing it into the show in an attempt to look 'artsy'. It doesn't come across as artsy, especially when it is obvious how much better it looks than everything else in the show. You have a three minute window to show us what you have to offer. That is the time you allotted for yourselves, which means you cannot afford to waste it by using static images with only sound effects to guide us on this mystical journey of psychological horror.

And yet that is precisely what you do. The worst part of this entire thing are the muddy, desaturated colors that permeate the entire show. While this effect can be used to emphasize certain emotions, it is and effect completely lost when your entire piece consists of it.

Furthermore, when you are forced to basically censor 75% of any given shot because nobody else will air your show otherwise? You should probably really reconsider your distribution model.

This category gets an F+, but only because there were one or two moments where the animation was actually decent. If a bit grotesque.

This is literally the worst possible thing that can happen
to your show. You've rendered it LITERALLY unwatchable.

Story & Plot

This category should really be labeled 'lack of', but whatever. There's no real meat to this show. No real point to it. No impact, no presence. It's all shock value and no substance. It's meat-flavored water with some kind of greasy gravy mixed in, and tough bits of meat which may or may not be pieces of rubber.

Kids go home from school. Little sister sees a butterfly, gets attacked by some kind of demon puppy. Oh except this was planned from the start? The plot quickly goes from surreal to just flat out not making any sense. Instead of trying to go somewhere, say, to set up for a larger show or something, instead they just keep toddling along and focusing on the horror of LITTLE GIRL EATING OLDER BROTHER ALIVE OH NO.

Nothing that happens in Pupa is ever truly explained. Things happen, then other things happen, and things keep happening without any real rhyme or reason, and then the show ends. Worst of all, no empathetic bonds are ever created between the viewer and the main characters, making their attempt to focus on the psychological horror aspect fall completely flat, because not only do things never make any sort of sense, they contradict themselves as more time goes on.

Considering that the manga only consists of a handful of installments, and that this show is so short, that they might be able to keep track of what's going on. But nope. Nothing meaningful is ever actually revealed, and the entirety of this series can best be summarized as "things happen, then stop happening".

F-. There is nothing of substance here to be found. No real saving grace. This show seems to have been created for the sole purpose of appealing to the guro crowd, and even then they're not allowed to show that stuff on TV.

Also, if you've never heard of guro, let me save you the horror and just give you the Urban Dictionary definition. And yeah, it's pretty much the most disgusting thing on the face of the planet. Don't EVER image-search that. EVER. I mean it. Just don't. There are not enough words in the English language to describe how utterly repulsive that shit is.

Yeah. Just. Yeah.

Music & SFX

Not much to say here, so we'll just rip it off like a bandage and get it over with. The music sucks. The main theme is annoying, and doesn't fit with the tone of the show at all. The ending theme doesn't really fit either, and it's basically an afterthought it seems like. I can't even remember any other music, because for the most part, unless it's a squishing noise, there's not much to hear.

Sound effects come in two varieties: Screaming or squishing. There's not a lot else going on here. In fact there were two episodes dedicated to nothing BUT just the squishing noise.

F-. This show just completely fails to deliver any meaningful audio period.

Character Design & Theming

*sigh*

This is the extent of their creative license.

I will give them credit where it is due. The character designs, while atrocious, do seem to be at least somewhat accurate. The older brother has clearly suffered great abuse, what with all the scars and lighter burns on his arms and all that. So I give them props for actually incorporating that into his design, and not actually skimping out on this relatively important detail.

As for themes though? They aimed for Tokyo and landed in Kiev. For those of you not familiar with geography, those are in totally different countries. Just in case you were confused.

The tactic of using a cute child's toy as a means to show something horrible can be used effectively, when used sparingly. NOT EVERY FREAKING EPISODE OF YOUR SERIES OF FOUR MINUTE SHORTS.

Combined with the massive censorship, this comes as a real slap in the face, because it feels just like another cop-out, like they had to put something in at the last minute or else they'd be showing three minutes of giant white blurs with audio laid over it. You know what they call that? An audiobook. Not a friggin' anime.

D- for this category. While it is true they managed to faithfully depict someone who has been through some serious shit, the fact of the matter is that the artwork for this show is basically atrocious, and instead of coming across as an important detail, it gets washed away and excused for some time as just another horrible art choice, rather than an important detail.

Final Grade: F-

Honestly, is anyone surprised at this grade? Like, anybody?

I have constantly stated that this should never have been released on TV. It shouldn't. The tremendous amount of absolutely insane censorship shows us this. The fact that the show was delayed for a season because nobody was willing to even air it says this.

I get the business side of it. You've spent time and money on a project that is basically done and you need to get it out into the market. But when nobody is biting, hell when everyone is rejecting it outright, you really need to reconsider your position and ask yourself if maybe you're just doing it wrong.

This show should have been a short OVA. Two episodes at most. Maybe three if you really wanted to flesh things out. It should have been direct-to-DVD. When you make something like this, and are forced to basically gut out the thing that makes it stand out just so that it can be put into the market, you have Lost The Game.

The format was wrong, the execution was wrong, the content was removed, and at least TWO of these episodes were fillers. Fillers! Pointless recycling of material on a project that barely HAS any material to offer in the first place!

It comes across as just a shameless cash grab, trying to push the worst pile of shit at anyone who is stupid enough to actually pick it up.

Final verdict: Pupa is the Bad Rats of anime. It has very little content, horribly flawed execution, and absolutely no substance to it whatsoever.

Avoid this like the plague.