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The Pupa anime is widely considered Studio Deen's big stain in their catalog, which is the studio that delivered masterpieces such as Akira and Wolf Children. The issue with the 2014 anime adaptation of Sayaka Mogi's manga isn't the runtime (each episode lasted about four minutes) or even the premise of two infected siblings by a witch, but rather the supremely poor execution.
It's worth pointing out that the Pupa anime has some of the lowest ratings in MAL and Anilist, as well as struggling massively with the fans who have already read the manga. Some of the reasons include poor pacing, a lack of explanation for several plot points, and trying to cover way too many things at the same time, which has hurt the project in the long run.
Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers for the Pupa anime.
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Explaining the reasons why the Pupa anime failed in 2014
There isn't just one big reason why the Pupa anime was a disaster, but rather several creative decisions that hurt the overall product. The main reason, though, was probably the fact that the series was trying to cover way too many grounds with episodes that ran for four minutes each. It made the story feel convoluted and rushed, which is something that hurts any series.
The main plot focuses on two siblings, Utsutsu and Yume, who come from an abusive and broken home, which is why the older brother, Utsutsu, always promised that he would protect his younger sister. However, things begin to take a turn for the worse as they are cursed with a flesh-eating curse by a witch.
As one can imagine, there are a lot of gore and eerie elements in the anime, but since it was heavily censored back then, the impact that it was supposed to make was lost. This was a bad combination of events, though, because even those elements of gore were often done in a gratuitous manner that felt off and unnecessary, which is similar to what happened to Studio Pierrot's Tokyo Ghoul series.
The cannibalism controversy and other things
Another element that invited criticism of the Pupa anime back in those days was how the plot point of cannibalism was dealt with. While this isn't a new theme to explore in media, it was done in a way that felt self-indulging and lacked any nuances to make it interesting for the audience. Instead, it felt like cheap shock value.
There is a point in the anime where the witch tells Utsutsu that he needs to cater to Yume's cannibalistic tendencies, which is why he accepts giving her some of his flesh since he can regenerate. This plot point is almost used as a fetish of sorts instead of portraying it as the tragedy that it is: two innocent kids being turned into flesh-eating monsters.
While it is true that anime in general has a lot of range for storytelling, the Pupa adaptation struggles because many situations don't have explanations and rely too much on shock value. It's one of those cases where the story lacked a lot of substance and was a far cry from what was done in the manga.
Final thoughts
The Pupa anime is one of the greatest examples of an adaptation ruining an entire story's legacy. It's safe to say that the franchise has never fully recovered from this 2014 product, although we are hoping that the series eventually gets an anime that can do it justice.
