Anime Hajime Review: Pupipo

***Warning, the following may contain spoilers for Pupipo. Reader discretion is advised.***

Series Synopsis

Wakaba Himeji (voiced by Shiho Sasaki) is an outcast at her school. Her classmates claim misfortune is guaranteed in her presence. They say she is a witch who will curse them into oblivion.

While this bullying is cruel and uncalled for, the reality is, unfortunately, not that far off.

Wakaba isn’t a witch. She doesn't possess even an ounce of magic. She can, however, see ghosts. And they are the ones fueling the rumor mill.

With little she can do about it, Wakaba tries living with her ability. It’s made things difficult, but she’s grown accustomed to it. For her, being alone is normal. That all changes though.

One day, Wakaba finds a strange, fluffy pink creature (voiced by Chisato Mori). They two form an instant bond and Wakaba names her new friend Po. What’s even more amazing, Po's presence is enough to keep ghosts away from Wakaba.

For the first time, Wakaba has a chance to live a normal life. Yet she can’t help shake the feeling she knows Po from somewhere.

Series Positives

I liked Pupipo. I liked it a lot. This was a solid series.

Wakaba

It was cute. It was pretty funny. Yet more than anything, it had a charm to itself. A sort of charm I haven’t seen from a short form anime in a long time.

But I have to be careful when using the word “charm”. I used it when describing shows like Nyanko Days and SeHa Girls. I need to be careful because Pupipo's charm is very different.

For Nyanko Days, it went all-in with how adorable it was. SeHa Girls did the same thing, only with its outright silliness. Their brand of charm helped dampen everything else that was nonsensical. It made both shows worth watching despite their huge problems. That wasn't the case with this one.

With Pupipo, its charm was never a counterbalance. It was an enhancer. Everything good about this series, its charm made it better. And there was a lot of good here.

The Characters

Considering how short this show was, the quality of characters was spectacular. In only fifteen episodes, at four minutes a pop, we got a great cast.

Reiko

Wakaba was a strong lead. My first impression of her was someone who embraced her supernatural abilities. Something that wasn’t the case. She had grown accustomed to being able to see ghosts. Although it never gave her any joy. She was alone and bullied. Misfortune did befall those who got close to her.

It wasn’t anywhere near her fault, making it more tragic. Ghost preyed on Wakaba since there was nothing she could do to stop them. Due to that, she accepted why people didn’t want anything to do with her. Thus, she became quiet, introverted, and tolerant of the abuse.

When the name calling was at its worse, Wakaba didn’t show any signs of it affecting her. It’s hard to say whether it did or not. Yet over the course of the series, more and more trigger points grew. Particularly when she believed she was the cause of her best friend getting hurt.

Through everything, Wakaba was a true sweetheart. She was someone you wanted to see be happy. This culminated in the final moments. Had her character been weaker, the resolution wouldn’t have been as impactful. Without spoiling it, I’ll talk about what I mean in a moment.

Then there was Reiko Azuma (voiced by Mai Goto). It’s amazing to think how easy it could’ve been to make her annoying. Hyperenergetic, loud, pushy, self-absorbed, these all describe who Reiko was. Except they worked in her favor because they weren’t her main traits. At her core, she was loyal, strong, and protective.

One of my favorite moments had nothing to do with ghosts. Wakaba and Reiko ran into a boy who often made fun of Wakaba. While Wakaba was ready to ignore him, Reiko didn’t hesitate to call him out. With little effort and without resorting to violence, she humiliated this kid. And this wasn’t a one-time incident. Reiko never stood for it when someone went after Wakaba.

I’m going to mention Po, but all I can say is he was cute. That and I can’t go into why I liked his character. That would lead to spoilers. What I can say is this. Po becomes an even better character if you watch this show a second time knowing who he is.

And this is not a hard show to watch twice.

The Story

There was a story to this one. I guess I’ve grown accustomed to seeing short form series without much of a narrative. And any plot that might exist is usually thin due to obvious time constraints.

Not Pupipo. The story had a flow and led to things. The characters grew. The stakes got higher. There was action, there was adventure. There was a good mix of fantasy and the supernatural. Not to mention, there was a decent mystery going on. The structure for something much bigger was here.

This series wasn’t a random string of events. Each episode had a point. Each episode had a purpose. I became invested in what was going to happen next. The last time a short form anime did that was Space Patrol Luluco. That’s almost a year prior to this review. What I’m saying is, it doesn’t happen often. And it’s not something guaranteed even in standard shows.

Then where this story went, I did not expect. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Pupipo caught me off, complete guard. The ending to this series went in a direction I’m glad it did. Because it did it well.

Pupipo took on a dark, heartbreaking subject. Without destroying the otherwise easy-going nature of the series. It came at the right time. It made sense for the story and the characters. And while it was sad, it wasn’t bleak. There was hope. This wasn’t a tragic end.

I don’t know how else to say this. I was impressed. So, color me shocked when I see this series sitting at a 6.8 on IMDB at the time of this review. I won’t say Pupipo didn’t have problems, but it was much better than 6.8.

Series Negatives

This series got a little cringe-y when jokes didn’t land. It didn’t happen all the time. Although it did happen enough. Wakaba’s father was the biggest culprit. He got quite annoying.

Also, there was an awkward joke where a dog peed on Reiko’s leg. Okay, then. That was, not at all necessary.

The ghost world was barren. It was a boring landscape with nothing interesting to look at. It wasn’t like the rest of the series was memorable, in terms of visuals. Yet it was a blatant waste of space. Even the ghost themselves were on the bland side. They could’ve been anything. The possibilities were limitless. This show decided to go with gray. 

The animation and art work wasn’t bad. They certainly weren’t awful. Though it was clear they weren’t priority number one.

And yes, these are nitpicks. Nothing more. They weren’t distracting. Yet it was hard not to notice when compared to the great characters and strong story. I can’t stress enough how well the series did in those two aspects.

I say that because this leads me to my biggest question about Pupipo.

The Length

Why was this a short form anime? It had no reason to be. This should’ve been a full-length series. The fact that it wasn’t is a huge shame. The length of this show held it back.

What this show managed in such a small amount of time was amazing. I can only imagine what could’ve been had Pupipo gotten the chance to explore itself.

It would’ve been nice to have Wakaba and Reiko interact with spirits more. It would’ve been nice to see the ghost world in more detail. It would've been nice to learn more about certain characters.

And then there was the mystery behind Yuki Naoya’s vision.

Yuki (voiced by Kotomi Otsuka), like Wakaba, could see ghosts. Unlike Wakaba, Yuki could see how a ghost died. He got visions of the past. Except for one instance where he got a vision of the future. What Pupipo did with this in the time it had is commendable. \

Yet it could've gone deeper. This show deserved a full opportunity.

Final Thoughts

The biggest thing against this show back is its length. This could’ve been so much more. But what did come out of this series went beyond my expectations.

The characters, the story, everything played into making something worth watching. Pupipo is as solid as they come. This is one of the better short form anime I’ve seen. It was great to see the care that went into this one pay off.

There’s not much reason to not check this one out. I strongly recommend Pupipo.

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