Pupa, originally a horror story manga collection by Sayaka Mogi, was adapted in to an anime version by Studio Deen on January 9, 2014. The story revolves around our two main characters, Utsutsu and his younger sibling, Yume. Both were raised in harsh family circumstances, having an extremely sadistic and abusive father, who constantly beat Utsutsu and his mother. After a ripping divorce, the mother leaves Utsutsu and Yume behind, and their father also leave the two kids. After the harsh treatment, Utsutsu takes care of his younger sister and vows to always protect her and forever be by her side. One day, Utsutsu and Yume comes across a strange lady who warns both of them to stay away from the "Red Butterflies". After entering a park, both see the red butterflies and become infected by the virus called Pupa, which turns Yume in to a cannibalistic monster, but leaves Utsutsu with regenerative abilities. As they come across the strange lady again, revealing her name as Maria, informs that Utsutsu will forever have to be food to Yume and constantly suppress her hunger.
PLEASE DO NOT READ ON IF YOU DIDN'T WATCH PUPA! THIS IS A REVIEW AND MAY HAVE SPOILERS!
All I have to say to this anime was that it was severely disappointing. While watching this anime and comparing it to the manga, half the time I was pulling out my hair and screaming at the computer of how much they ruined the story, art, and plot line. Sorry for those of you enjoyed the anime, but I severely disliked the anime overall. Especially since I was an avid fan of the manga.
"Justify your reasons LalakoKyubey!" is probably one of the thoughts running through your mind when reading this harsh outbreak and critique of this anime series. From here on, I will explain the reason why I hated the anime so much, and did not even dare to write a recommendation for it.
Too many plot holes! In the manga, Utsutsu was a bipolar character, having deep background stories to why he had problems, and why he was so protective of his sister to the point where it was considered out of the norm. The story line in the showed deep continuing conflicts with his family, Utsutsu's true terror of hurting people he loves, and the uncontrollable frustration outbursts that he goes through, showing the psychological and horror aspect of this manga. I personally thought Pupa, as a manga, was a true work of psychological thriller and gore, lurking in to the true aspects of human fear, unlike the common shock and run that most horror stories do. Utsutsu continues to dig in to the past and the origins of the Pupa virus, about Maria, trying to actually help his sister, until he looses all mental sanity, is ripped open, and tested on, until the original Pupa butterfly saves him, as seen the latest translated chapters of the manga.
Utsutsu's Severe Bipolar Personality
The anime presented us with 4 minutes of sibling porn, gore, and no character development. It was totally random, jumping sequences. Somehow Utsutsu's bipolar, somehow Yume turns in to a monster, somehow they are kidnapped, and somehow, everything works out at the end, as Utsutsu continues to get eaten by Yume for eternity. That is too many "SOMEHOW"s in this anime series, and those are just the major plot holes. There is so many in between that I can't even explain, like Utsutsu's friends, whom in the manga know about Utsutsu's harsh past, but clearly in the anime are just naive passersby who don't care about the random cigarette burns running up Utsutsu's back and arms. The anime made no sense, and was just random clips of Yume eating things, and ripping up dogs and people.
The second thing that got me angry was the lack of thought and time in to each anime. Sayaka Mogi pulls off that sketchy art in her mangas making it somehow innocent and dark at the same time, but for the anime artists at Studio Deen, did a horrible job attempting to copy Sayaka sensei. The blood looked like tomato juice ground up and the details and shadows of the characters were simply just pushed off, thought of as something unneeded to tell the story. I think that I would have forgiven Studio Deen and its terrible job with Pupa, if the art was at least good, but when watching Pupa, the plot holes and the scribblely art just made me frustrated and made me want to just scream at the producers.
Don't mistake this the wrong way. I love Pupa, and its manga. I just hate how the anime producers took this wonderful series, and created trash out of gold. Pupa was a deep and thrilling story to me, and it shows the true anger inside humans, showing frustration, love, and blind rage at the same time, creating interesting and relatable characters.
So what do you think? Do you agree? I would love to talk about this anime with you, just comment below! Hope you enjoyed my review, and remember there is one more coming today after the recommendation!
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-LalakoKyubey
Never watched the anime have been tempted numerous times since I did read the managa and it was amazing. But after reading this and a few others I think I will just keep to just reading the manga
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