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Now, At first, upon seeing the art style(that cute imouto!), I was very excited about this anime, so I immediately went to watch it. And my! was I not disappointed! Yume(the aforementioned little sister) is indeed adorable!

...

And that is about the only thing this anime got right.

Pupa Pew-pa
noun
an insect in its inactive immature form between larva and adult, e.g., a chrysalis.

... Emphasis on "inactive" and "immature", a very apt description of this anime, making the title completely spot-on.

Story:1

Well, the story is simple: ...Read the synopsis, it's there.

So anyway, it seems pretty clear and easy to follow, but the show makes it unnecessarily complicated with it's ridiculously aimless narrative whose only purpose is to shock the viewer. First, it starts by showing us the transformation, wherein the transformed creature literally bursts out of victim, seemingly killing them, monster starts eating everybody, then next thing you know, she's back to her normal, naked self.

"Wait, What?" (image: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16634176/random/zetsuenwtf.jpg ignore the caption) was the only thing I could say,

But wait! it gets worse! the anime then proceeds to alternate between gross out blood and gore, Vorarephilia, and generic, exaggerated child abuse flashbacks, and is pretty inconsistent and secretive about the effects and nature of the pupa virus(hint: withholding information does not make a good mystery, we should at least know how it works, you can leave out where it came from and other details). And that's just the tip of the iceberg, so how about what's underwater? There unfortunately lies the root of this whole mess.


To explain, Stories have something called "concept" and "premise".

For example, Love Live: School Idol Project's concept is

"Girl discovers that her school is scheduled to be shut down, so she capitalizes on a new bandwagon within schools in order to save hers."

the premise is

"Girl discovers that her school is closing down, and to do so, the school must attain a certain quota of enrollees to keep itself running.so she decides that she has to prevent that, but she just can't think of anything that would attract students. Just as she was about to give up, she then discovers a new trend on other schools: School Idols, which seems to attract students to schools who have them, this gives the girl 'the best idea she ever had', and the journey begins."


So in other words, concept is "the basic idea of the story", while premise is "the specific execution of the concept", so how the concept is explored and done, together, they're what makes the story unique.

Pupa unfortunately fails on both account. its concept is "person contracts a virus, turns into a monster" with the premise being... essentially just that, until it arbitrarily decides to backtrack and change things here and there,(the virus was already there at birth, guy somehow gets a virus for no reason, they were abused as children because the virus, they were abused at the request of someone, etc) Seemingly unable to decide how to go about it's established premise.

Normally, the "human turns to monster because reasons" premise isn't too bad (see Ergo Proxy, or heck, even The Hulk and Dr Jekyll and Hyde, which are both a variation of it) but with Pupa's inconsistency and confusing narrative, it obviously sets itself up for failure.

What's even worse than all of these, is that underneath it's premise, is a generic child abuse story featuring sociopathic abusers and abusees, with the theme of... it's not really clear what the theme is, when there seemingly is no message other than "man-meat tastes good" and "we must pity sociopathic killers because the ones abusing them are worse". Really though, who am i kidding, this show is devoid of any meaning whatsoever. or if it had one, it surely did a terrible job getting it across.



Art 4

the art is decent. everything is colored as if it were done with colored pencils, giving the anime a sort of "childish", innocent look. contrast with it's dark, bloody content, it makes for a pretty good juxtaposition of opposites...

except the art team screwed up in the design department. The monster design looks pretty lame, even "ugly cute"(like PvZ zombies) and not intimidating at all, this may be intentional because of who transforms, but it surely waters down the supposed transformation of a person into a horrid creature. the environments were all pretty standard, with only Maria's inner sanctum standing out in it's uniqueness(the statues were a nice touch). The characters were drawn in the most "anime-ish" way possible, so you can be forgiven if you mistake any of the characters here for someone else(Hey, Utsutsu! what are you doing in Yumekui Merry?).


Sound: 3

Good voice acting on all the female characters(Yume swallowing, Yume being cute, Maria's lady tone, Sachiko's cold tone) (and utsutsu being protective, the rest of the men are forgettable) are unfortunately wasted on this drivel. the death screams are not too cheesy. The music, on the other hand, though completely forgettable, are fitting at least.

Characters: 1

There are no characters in this story. only personality-less archetypes, or "cardboard cutouts" as some would call them(damn, Nagi no Asukara raised my bar high! and i mean both my bars). There's the battered Aniki who swears to mamoru his sibling, the battered imouto who is a moeblob, the sexy femme fatale with an agenda(when have they never had an agenda?), the guy in shades who is an assistant, the abusive megane father, the submissive mother, and the generic faceless soldiers and generic faceless mad doctors. I think that's everyone. Literally EVERYONE here has generic flaws and goals. Of course, it would have been better if these flaws and goals were expanded upon, they would have seemed more unique, but with less than 5 minutes to tell each episode, it simply isn't possible... then, could they have just made these people less like puppets playing their roles and more like people acting out their instinct? Maybe, but of course, this seems to be yet another intentional flaw, but doesn't work because there's nothing likeable about ANYONE here... except Yume's cuteness, which Saya of Saya no Uta surpasses eitherway.

But... characters don't normally need intricate backgrounds to be likeable, just a clear personality and standout characteristic makes them seem more appealing, if not realistic. e.g. an abusive person who comes up with unique ways to torture someone can be likeable for his creativity. if you've read Mai-chan no Nichijou(aka Mai-chan's Daily Life, read it for the meme), there's this "President of 'A' Country" who invented an AAAAAWWWWRRRIIGHT way to inflict psychological and physical harm to a pregnant person, all while smiling like an child playing with his toys. he's a horrible person, but he's likeable for his unique methods. basically it's like "admiring the villain's for being an entertaining villain" in a way. I mean who doesn't like The Joker of Batman? Zod of Superman? Lordgenome of TTGL? Majin Boo of DBZ?

Enjoyment: 7

OK, here comes the weird part: I actually had fun watching this show! remember the zetsuenwtf(from Zetsuen no Tempest) pic above? I had that expression the entire time I was watching(marathon) this miniseries. so at the very least, there is entertainment value on this. I was mostly having fun watching Yume eat in the most suggestive and seductive way(I was about to have dinner when marathoning the show, figured I needed an appetizer, it worked, sorta). and on Maria's crazy ramblings and standing around. The rest of the show though... I'd rather forget since it's mostly just pictures of bloody dismembered bodies, seriously. all the budget went into Yume eating.

This should have been titled "Isshoni Eating: Nantaimori with Yume-chan" with all the blood and gore removed and replaced with sweets, and Yume eats on the audience's naked body using her mouth and this would easily be a 10/10 slice of life anime.

So why would anyone watch this, anyway? if they got reeled in by the cute imouto, they're in for some treat. if you expect anything more than "cute girl", you're in for a huge disappointment.

verdict? 3 if calculated, but that would be too generous since the only element I liked is the imouto, so 2.

Damn, I'm going to admit that I honestly thought this anime was great... then the damn ending reared it's ugly head and ruined EVERYTHING that makes this anime enjoyable.

STORY 3/10 (8 -5)

The story had promise. sure, it was never unique to begin with. (think of it as Kaminomi's capture plot IN THE FUTURE but with Seirei's instead of demons) but had the anime had better direction. then it wouldn't be as bad.


Firstly, it relies HEAVILY in Chandler's law ("When in doubt, have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand.") In other words, a new character appears out of nowhere whenever ... the plot comes to a halt or goes on for too long

And just as quickly, they are FORGOTTEN and never mentioned again (or mentioned but never important despite how obvious that they still could be used to fuel the plot). Yes, it's all simply bad writing and to think I had to ignore this before because the plot was pretty interesting.


Secondly, just as it introduces and removes characters out of the blue. It also does this to CONFLICT. remember the spacequakes? It stops being a threat pretty early in the story. The anime has trouble making up it's mind regarding which conflict should remain central to the "date" plot. Why bother using two conflicts when you can't even handle it properly? pretty damn stupid move, I gotta say.


Thirdly, It tries to juggle between multiple subplot CLUMSILY. since there is too many subplots going on (each heroines have them, there are SIX of them) they get pushed up and down in priority frequently and some even get IGNORED just so the current subplot can be expanded upon. what the flying f*ck? don't juggle arcs when you can't even do it properly! there's a reason most dating sims use heroine based routes.



ART 7/10 (10 -3)

The art is great. The characters have good designs, the environment is detailed, the fight scenes were cool..... for the first few episodes. it get's plagued with off-model stuff in the last few episodes.

it's like the animation crew just threw their hands up in the air and said "screw this, let's just wing this damn thing and get over it! we'll still get paid with the same thing no matter how bad this turns out anyway!". A waste of perfectly good art.




Sound 6/10 (10 -4)

OP is great, Save the World(ED) is great, Save my Heart(the other ED), not so much. Strawberry Rain was nice but forgettable, EP1's ED was what sold me to this anime.

so why 10 -3? it's because they're pretty standard and don't really come out as unique.



Character 4/10 (10 -6)

You've seen EVERY SINGLE ONE of them before. The Generic Harem Protagonist, his Best Friend,those Extras That Comment On The Plot, and some more Plot Device type of characters.

on the heroines: there's The Tsundere, the Protagonist's Imouto, his Long Lost Family Member, The Moeblob, the Crazy-Ass Yandere, the Rei Ayanami clone. There's NOTHING unique about them save for their cool character designs (except for Shido who reminds me of Persona 3's protagonist).

They all could have been expanded upon and given unique traits, but no~ they're plain cookie-cutter cutouts people with pretty basic traits. THIS is where the anime fails badly. their character development was too straightforward with no curved-balls.



ENJOYMENT 6/10 (10 -4)

Have I not seen it's pathetic excuse for an ending I could have given this anime a 9-- hell no, a 10(My ratings are based on enjoyment, save for 10 which is based on quality). But with it's bad writing, HUGE Potential getting unused, and Generic characters. it all becomes a stupid mess of what could have been a perfectly good take on a harem anime.



Is this worth watching? hell no. unless you want to waste your time watching crap instead of doing something productive like polishing your dating skills with quality dating sims.

"Mou Ikkai, Kocchi Muite! iitai koto ga motto aru kara!"
(once again, please look here! There's still a lot I want to tell you about!)

The above quote is from the OP with is EXTREMELY moe-moe, but don't worry, this time, this anime ISN'T just cute girls doing cute things: there's actually a plot. (*GASP*)

NOTE: skip to the end of the review to for a "quick summary" of why you would or would not like this show.


UPDATE: I just checked the rules and saw that you're not supposed to add pointless stuff in the review. I know that's obvious but added them anyway so... removing em ... now. (JMURNIR's questions seem like what prospective viewers might ask, so I'm keeping them)

also added minor stuff i apparently missed in the rules.





STORY: 10/10

> wait... an anime with hentai in a title actually having a plot? are you SERIOUS?!

yep, just read on my just-made-up-right-now-imaginary-reader. or JMURNIR(hey, are you Nordic?)

anyway, yes. the plot can be read in the anime's synopsis area, check it out.

> JMURNIR: Okay, so it's about a pervert and an overly emotional girl who
> wishes to change by praying to a Cat-god... how is this awesome?

...it's awesome because their wish actually worked. and very effectively to the point it affected their social lives. and this is where most of the plot's conflicts arises: from the Cat-god.

explaining that part further will just be too much spoilers. so let's drop the subject and move on.

As said, the "genie kitty" is the show's major source of conflict, the character's decision greatly affect their relationships with each other. everyone grows a bit and change because of these experiences. in other words, there's plenty of character development.

but aside from that, there's also the humor. the show uses it's Cookie-Cutter-Cutout-People (CCCP for short, nothing to do with the codec pack) to set up jokes. pretty normal, except as said, some of these gags actually develop the plot. (surprise Bondage and Humiliation anyone?)




ART:10/10

the art style is cute, the environments are nice (hard to find badly made backgrounds these days, if you see one, message me.), I haven't seen off model moments as well. so yeah, no complaints on this department.

Aside from that, is the art style memorable? to me, it is, The face designs are very recognizable, the uniform designs, not much. then again, why would you need that when you have a solid plot? no one complains that everyone wears suits in a well written mafia movie.

There's also the nice special effects. which wasn't exactly what I was expecting in this anime. because why would a Slice of life need complex sfx? anyway, detailing what particular SFX was used would be a spoiler, so just see for yourself. (around EP 7, if i recall correctly)



Sound: 10/10

I haven't skipped the op or ed ever since I started watching. seriously, it's THAT catchy.
the songs in the anime itself are pretty good too. mood setting music is great. everything fits well. however, it's pretty standard fair for this kind of anime. nothing memorable save for the op/ed. but why is it STILL 10/10 you ask? because it still made me wanna watch the anime with HQ speakers.

Voice acting (briefly) detailed the character section.


CHARACTER: 10/10

> JMURNIR: Alright, now you're just overrating this anime!

...

...This deserves a 10 for two things.

1. The voice acting is top notch.
Tsukiko's VA Yui Ogura did a great job portraying her. I'm singling her out of the rest--who all did excellent jobs themselves, but it's just Tsukiko's character is unique for what she is because her delivery and lines do a great job of making the character seem more than meets the eye. (no, she unfortunately does not yell "TRANSFORMERS ROLL OUT!" at any point in the show, but explaining how she acts with the character will be a spoiler)

2. The characters have Personas.

No, not the firefox term for Themes nor Atlus's franchise. They're WAYY more than what they are supposed to be(for this kind of show, that is, otherwise, they'll pale in comparison to any decent mature anime)

Watching them interact with each other we learn that they're more than CCCP, they have dreams(no matter how childish, they WERE kids when they made it after all),

they have normal pasts that most people can relate with. even the ones that come out as petty are actually less petty than they seem once you get to know them.

In case we aren't clear persona=facade, so for example, that nice girl you helped on the way home actually cursed and found you disgusting and showed that only when no one was looking.

The characters have well thought out pasts and aspirations and hence come off as more than just yet another Moeblob, Tsundere, Ojou, Hentai, etc. in other words, they are not just mere Stock Characters/Stereotypes, they're actual characters.
So yeah, save for THE stock characters (ganguros, main character's best friend) this anime is some sort of Lite Deconstruction for some anime stereotypes. with "Be Careful What You Wish For" as the main driving force of the plot.

> JMURNIR: whoa, they sure seem deep. Now I wanna see this even more!

I'd like to repeat, even if you say they're deep. they're still deep only if you compare them to others in the genre. don't expect Evangelion level character depth here.

> JMURNIR: fair enough. I won't expect that much then.

anyway:




ENJOYMENT: 10/10

Personally, I watched for the moe and stayed for the character development. It has excellent humor and tasteful fanservice. There is no dull moment in this anime. even on slower segments you'll feel like you're right there with the characters, sitting like an unseen observer. It's rare for me to be this absorbed on anime. the last time I got this hooked was on Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.

> JMURNIR:whoa, big words there, pal. I'll just have to see
> for myself if it's as good as you say then!

Yes, please do.

and now...

OVERALL: 10/10

For people who like: moe, character development, cute characters, anime stereotypes.

NOT for people who like: Madoka-level deconstruction(EDIT: as in it's not to Madoka's level, hence not worth watching exclusively for it), ecchi on young looking characters, serious shows.

ARE YOU READY GUYS?! DON'T SLACK OFF!!

okay, enough of my obligatory one liner intro. but before I start the review, I just wanna make a few things clear:

1. This is NOT a standalone movie, this is a SEQUEL to Sengoku Basara 二, which in turn is a Sequel to Sengoku Basara. Though you can watch this first as it gives short synopses of the first two. but you will eventually have to watch those for this movie to make sense.

2. This anime may cause testosterone poisoning because it is overflowing with manliness

3. If you are looking for realistic war battles, this movie (heck, series) IS ... NOT FOR YOU. People do, and WILL constantly do increasingly impossible (and awesome) feats.


okay, with those out of the way, let's get it on!



Story: 10/10

Sequel to Sengoku Basara 二, this movie starts off with a "what happened after" style story telling. We get to see how the previous war affected the protagonists' faction on each of their POV. "Cameo Factions" of side characters are also given less focus too, so there's no filler in this movie.

The story is mainly told in a character centric way. The plot itself, however, is the typical "tyrant trying to conquer a country" plot. It's pretty cliche yes, But is nonetheless still engaging due to the sheer awesome of the characters. who are all pretty well rounded.



Art: 10/10

Character Design is pretty top notch. Everyone looks very modern yet still feel like they really are from the Sengoku Era, though it's mostly the mooks who look that part. 3D special effects look pretty integrated too.

The animation is pretty smooth and the environment (even barren ones) look picturesque. Buildings and Transportation are very detailed. There's also a nice surprise at the credits, one of the few times you WILL want to watch the movie credits.



Sound: 10/10

Epic fighting scene music? check. | Mood fitting music? check. | Good Opening/Closing credits music? quadruple check.

Overall, the music here are all very fitting; there's the hard rocking music for fighting scenes and op/ed; there's the slow and serene music for the more serious scenes; there's the epic ominous music with latin-like chanting for when people are fighting the more sinister lot of the cast.

Music aside. another strong point of this movie is the voice acting. (or at least, japanese voice acting) The characters that are meant to be Loud and Compelling are exactly just that. soft spoken characters are also appropriately soft spoken. NO ONE will make you feel like they sound off. It has always been even in the 1st Sengoku Basara.



Character: 10/10

Character development HO! previously well developed characters are given even more development here. previously "Mr. I-Appeared-in-the-last-episodes" types are also fleshed out via showing previously offscreen events. There are still unexplained recoveries though. but we can safely assume it's part of every single plot relevant main/supporting characters' many powers.

That aside. everyone gets their fair share of depth and screentime depending on their importance in the plot. Characters who are there just to kick in the story are immediately put aside in the sidelines and never mentioned directly again.

And oh, I just would like to add that some characters here are pretty crazy awesome and often have hilarious one liners which only emphasizes their awesomeness.



Enjoyment: 10/10

The Sengoku Basara series is originally one of Capcom's FIGHTING game series. True to it's Fighting Game origins. there's A LOT of fighting in this movie and it's prequels. even if you can't care much about the characters or plot there's still the insane amount of action to keep you entertained.

This is definitely a must watch for action fans. there's ZERO fanservice too, unless you count the the male characters sculpted bodies and primal screaming during fighting fanservice.



Overall 10/10

In closing. I really enjoyed the Sengoku Basara Series. This movie gives a damn satisfying ending. where the protagonists go have ONE HELL OF A PARTY.

Screw the Plot, I have ACTION!!

or, so i'd like to say. but unfortunately, this one wasn't that good.



Story 3/10

It's basically about two fathers and two sons who all go hunting... for power, and people get caught in between. yeah, a really unique plot, i must say. but aside from that, how it was told in this movie was pretty bad.

... there are no plot holes, because it's a pretty simple plot... though a big problem it suffers is people suddenly recovering or powering up because it's convenient to the plot. In other words, [Ending Fatigue]

EDIT: eh, seems like there ARE plot holes here. i just didn't catch them because of the sheer incomprehensability of the story.

Art 7/10

Well to summarize, it's got:

Pretty Girls and Pretty Boys. Nina and Xiaoyu stand out for the girls.
[She's Got Legs] focused a lot, for a good reason.
[Ridiculously Cute Critter] a Panda
[Uncanney Valley] each character occasionally sports weird facial expressions and move awkwardly. [EDIT] the production team probably didn't have the non-action scenes mo-capped.

(if you have no idea what the words in [brackets] mean. look them up in TVTropes.org)



Sound 6/10
Nothing really epic here. but most music fits the scene it's used on.


Character 3/10

Ugh, where to start? If you never played the games or know the back story everyone here would be a [Flat Character], or close to one. also, very little is done to develop the characters. No [Hidden Depths] are delivered.

[Exposition] of character details are pretty in-your-face and unsubtle. and you wouldn't know who's controlling who or why a character does something if you don't have prior knowledge about the character.



Enjoyment 7/10

The fight scenes are great. too bad they're too few for an adaptation of a fighting game. this could have been better if the entire movie was full to the brim of fight scenes;

or if it had the story is told along with the fight scenes. also, badly done [Chekhov's Skill] and ridiculously convenient power-ups ( major offending case: [I Am Not Left Handed] ).



Overall 5/10

It could have had potential even with it's simple plot. had they spice up the music, CG, and characterization.

In a word: OUTSTANDING

now, this series seems to be getting insane amount of hate.
usual complaints from my observation (note, DROPPED can be substituted with GC is crap):

1. OMG! rebellion! Code Geass Ripoff! weapon from chest? OM, Dantalian ripoff! DROPPED
2. Shoe is Annoying! DROPPED
3. tits bouncing! absolute cleavage! DROPPED
4. boy meets girl? boy gets powers not originally for him? sudden drastic change of life? bishies and bishous? genius leader? brutal antagonists? CLICHE STORM!!! DROPPED
5. Plot Armor! Ass Pull! DROPPED
... 6. (insert random reason) DROPPED

okay, that pretty much summarizes most complaints i think. now, on to the review:




Story: 10/10

While nothing original and obviously very familiar as evident in the usual complaints. It's a nonetheless tried and tested and have produced classics outside anime. The story is told properly. they don't attempt to cram everything in one episode and tells the piece by piece. each episode (so far) introduces new characters and develops the ones in the previous episodes.

Sure they use cliches here and there. but that's exactly what makes it awesome. since it's familiar you wouldn't have trouble digesting the story. though admittedly i had to rewatch the first five episodes because of my previous "OMG awesome everything! ignore plot!" way of watching. also, the main character can get VERY annoying at times. (note: this is an understatement)




Art: 10/10

Look at the previews and the official art. now, watch the anime itself. and now pickup your dropped jaw. the character (and not to mention the COSTUME) design are great. the mecha's are detailed. the environment is even more detailed. and The special effects feel very integrated. also, great camera work.




Sound: 10/10

One word: EGOIST. the in-universe music group's music really lives up to it's in-universe popularity. and action scenes get awesome background music. Sound effects are pretty fitting too. and lastly, the powerup music.




Character: 10/10

Okay, so the protagonist is your "Ordinary Highschool Student" who is also coincidentally a huge jerk. Probably just like most of us. and there's this "Perfect Girl" who wears a skimpy outfit most of the time and has a great voice. and is also very skillful at other things (may or may not include seducing people). and there's the "bishounen strategist with attitude" who is badass in every way. but hides a secret.

pretty familiar right? But it doesn't make them flat at all. and those are just the main characters. each supporting characters with prominent roles in the episodes are given good amounts of character depth. flat characters are also developed minimally and their deaths are foreshadowed. and when they do die they do a good job doing it. i.e. a bad guy deserves it, a good guy is sympathetic.




Enjoyment: 10/10

Now, I wouldn't defend this nor give it a high rating and praise if i didn't enjoy it would i?

To summarize: Lovable characters (including the annoying protagonist), great art, great music, great (if rather cliche) plot.

Instead of reading these biased in every way reviews though go watch this and judge for yourself. Because the high rating reviews ignore the flaws, which are greatly overshadowed by awesomeness, by the way; and low rating reviews see nothing but flaws, and the great art.