Pupa : Sting

Episode 2

This anime has already impressed with its atmospheric and dark first episode. It managed to be more chilling and "creepy" then a lot of full length anime's or even feature length movies can be!

Wonderfully refreshing from what I usually tend to watch!

***SPOILERS***

The episode begins with a little background on the kids. If anything it painted a picture of doom and gloom really. A father that beats the whole family, divorce, a mother that neglects her kids in favour of young men who then abandons them...

It is easy to see why Utsutsu refuses to leave his little sister and in the end looks like he's been eaten.

Well that is the way the world goes really. Eaten by ones smaller sibling....

It is a shame that this anime is only five minutes long, it really is something that by the end of the series you'll want someone to work their magic and cut it all apart and stick it together into one longer episode with no breaks. As it is again just as you are getting into it we end.

Personally I like the style of it, I can see why others are disappointed in it because it does tend to go a little blurry, but I like to think it was a smart way of getting across the feel of the episode and adding to the psychological horror aspect without spending two or three precious episodes expanding on characters.

This really is the big problem with BIG idea anime's like this having only a short anime episode. It is not enough time to expand properly and what could be a great series is relaying on shock value (ending the second episode with Utsutsu being eaten) and creepy backgrounds.

And the creepy backdrop isn't enough.

It seems this anime was wildly anticipated and a lot of fans out there of the manga or who just wanted a decent anime horror are very disappointed, and in their view the back ground just shows how little effort they've put in.

Maybe a little harsh there.

I did feel very frustrated when the end credits popped up, the time slot doesn't give it enough time to really build enough tension, I wasn't running to watch episode 3 I calmly changed tab and came here to review it. Some longer anime's have me squiggling in my seat to get at the next episode and hating that I'll probably forget the episode before if I wait and do the review afterwards. Then some when I'm up to date nearly kill me for the wait for the next episode.

I said this had the potential to be outstanding but within an episode I've changed my mind. There is so much that could be done with this story, I haven't read the manga and know little about it, but you can FEEL so much can be done. I don't think they are going to get the right outcome by having it at five minutes.

There is so much more that can be expanded on in this episode, his meeting with the women is too short, his reaction is too short, we didn't get any real emotional turmoil from Yume in her dream world where her spirit is because there wasn't enough time.

Episode 2 has left me frustrated, and I'm going to hate the waits between episodes when I'm finally caught up!