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Pupipo! is a manga by Rensuke Oshikiri (who would later create High Score Girl), which was serialized in Flex Comix Blood from 2007 to 2009 and compiled into three volumes. An anime adaptation aired from 2013 to 2014 for 15 episodes.

Wakaba Himeji is a 5th grader with a peculiar problem: She can interact with spirits and ghosts. Her ability has made her an avoided outcast at school, and victim of verbal bullying from a gaggle of mean girls.

Walking home from school one day, she looks out at the sunset...and then notices a box on the street. Inside this box is Po, a bizarre little pink blob creature. Turns out Po can see these spirits too. And more importantly, beat them up when they pester Wakaba.

Rounding out the bunch is new student Reiko Azuma. A bizarre bespectacled girl fascinated by the occult, who quickly becomes Wakaba's best friend.

The three go about their routines, while Wakaba wishes there was some way she could be free of her pesky powers...


Tropes

  • Adaptation Distillation: The Rescue from the Underworld is a 5 chapter arc in the manga, but only two 4 minute anime episodes. In the manga Wakaba goes into the afterlife and the person she's trying to rescue is nearly condemned to hell due to her grudge against the spirit that caused her death. The anime is a chase fleeing from that same spirit that never leaves the train to the afterlife.
  • Back from the Dead: Wakaba and Po rescue Azuma from crossing over when she is hit by a car.
  • Badass Adorable: Po. An adorable pink blob who can beat down giant and mean spirits.
  • Foreshadowing: The brief image of Wakaba holding a babies hand when she touches Po in episode 5.
  • Girl Posse: Miyori and her two friends like to give a Wakaba a hard time over her connection to ghosts. You'd think they'd try and keep their distance if the supernatural freaks them out that much?
  • Invisible to Normals: Most of what Wakaba sees cannot be seen by other people. Proximity to Po, however, can make them visible.
  • Loving Bully: Ameyama doesn't like anyone bullying Wakaba aside from him.
  • Opaque Lenses: Azuma typically sports these. Though occasionally her eyes are visible. Her lenses have the swirly lines in them often associated with this trope in anime. However hers are straight lines rather than circular to match her lenses.
  • Papa Wolf: Wakaba's father. He's prepared to assault the very "psychic" he himself brought to the house when it seemed like he would hurt Wakaba. That Po was willing to do the same helped him accept Po.
  • Reality Warper: As the Frog explains in the final episode, Po pretty much bitch-smacked reality to go back in time and ensure he would be born.
  • Rescued from the Underworld: Chapters 6-10 are an arc featuring Wakaba going into the afterlife with Po to rescue Azuma.
  • Shout-Out: At one point, Azuma repeatedly pokes and prods a ghost with a neckache.
Ghost: 'Course I am, ya numbskull!
  • Stable Time Loop: Po. When demons caused future Wakaba to miscarry, the baby's primordial spirit became Po. Who violated the laws of reality to go back and free Wakaba of her powers so he could be born.
  • True Art Is Incomprehensible: In-Universe. Wakaba's father is an artist by trade. His skills, however, are less than stellar and he knows it. Yet, at the same time, people love his work. Even he doesn't get it.

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