It sneaks up on you. You click in expecting fifteen four-minute gag shorts about a squishy pink thing that yells "Pupipo!", and somewhere in there it turns into a story about a fifth-grader who has spent her whole life pretending not to see what she sees. Wakaba Himeji flinching at empty air, keeping everyone at arm's length so nobody finds out she's weird, is one of the most honest portraits of a lonely kid in the medium, and the show gets it done in the runtime of a single feature. That density is the flex: character arcs that actually land, momentum that never stalls, and an ending twist that reframes the cute part of the premise entirely. It comes from Rensuke Oshikiri, the High Score Girl guy, which is exactly why the comedy and the ache share the same face. One hour. Bring tissues anyway.

Wakaba Himeji is a fifth-grader who can see things others cannot, mostly frightening evil spirits that tend to harm the people close to her. Scared of her surroundings, she keeps away from others, has no friends and rarely smiles. Her worried parents decide she may keep whatever she brings home next, and what she brings home is a mysterious soft pink creature that cries "Pupipo!" Nobody is sure what it is, but it shields Wakaba from the things she sees. It also helps her befriend an occult-obsessed transfer student and sort out problems with bullying. The result is a short-format slice of life series with a supernatural touch.