Larva

Characters

Main

Red – A hot-tempered, selfish and greedy red-colored caterpillar with orange stripes on his abdomen. Red has tried to steal Yellow's love interest, Pink, but he always ends up alone. He shrieks, shouts and screams when in anger, fear, frustration and in a horrible panic. He is always showing off and abusing Yellow, but he often ends up hurting himself instead.

Yellow - A dimwitted and happy-go-lucky yellow-colored caterpillar with one antenna, pink blushed cheeks, and also has orange stripes on his abdomen. He has a contentious friendship with Red. Although he usually obeys Red, he loses his mind in front of food. He changes color from yellow to brown and he grows dark green shades around his mouth when feeling extreme emotions.

Recurring

Violet – An oversized light purple ghost slug. He has an exposed inner body and roar, showing his sharp teeth.

Brown – A brown and red dung beetle that gathers dung. To him, dung is a treasure, though it makes his breath stink. He hates it when other insects touch his dungball. He has a long strand of hair on his right cheek.

Black – A horned atlas beetle that has great strength and is usually punching a cocoon (which he uses as punching bag). He's aggressive and will beat up whoever he thinks is messing with him. In the episode "Black's Back" he turns out to be a slug wearing beetle armor.

Rainbow – A dark tan snail with a red and green shell. When in his shell, he moves slowly, but under that, he has a muscular human-like body and can function as humans do.

Pink – A pink caterpillar with two antennae. She loves Yellow and Yellow loves her as well, but her presence often causes conflict between him and Red, who has a one-sided crush on her.

Ivory - A stick bug with brown skin, Ivory has a very thin body with brown skin color. He has black eyes and darker colored areas by his eyelids. He is often seen flying from a gust of wind due to his light weight. He has 2 antennae and little pink studs on. His girlfriend is Cocoa.

Minor

Blue – A housefly that has numerous smells. Nobody can get close to him because of his repugnant smell. He often feels gloomy and lonely because nobody can approach him.

Mosquito – A Mosquito who likes the taste of blood. He uses his fangs to take all of the blood from other characters. He is often hungry, but also lonely due to his hunger.

Pink's doppelgänger — a pink Caterpillar that only appeared at the end of “love love love 2”. She looks exactly like pink except she has hot pink stripes on her abdomen and has blonde hair and a mole. Yellow mistook her for the real pink in the episode she appeared in.

Navy – A deep-sea fish appears when the sewerage is sunk. He appeared as a goldfish. When Red and Yellow threw him into a sardine can full of warm water, he changed into a deep-sea fish which is often seen whenever the sewer floods. He has a good enough appetite to eat up the caterpillars and other insects.

Venus flytrap – A venus flytrap who eats up anything on the ground. In season 1, he is an enemy to all insects because he tries to swallow the other insects when he encounters them. But he is weaker than Violet. He appears to have a menacing set of teeth.

Green (also known as Frog) – A green frog which often appears in the sewer, is sensitive, and tries to monopolize all power by eating insects and larvae. He is several times bigger than other normal frogs. He escaped from the sewer and went into the house where Red and Yellow lived in season 2. In season 3, he lives on the streets along with Grey & the Silvers.

Bee – A honey bee who collects honey. She stings when someone touches the honey that she collected or makes her angry.

Maroon – A brown and cream dachshund who wears a blue and yellow sweater who only appeared in season 2. He attacks when he sees moving things. He buries his valued bones in the ground and is quite temperamental. In the episode "Whistle", he does certain things when he hears yellow's certain whistling.

Production

Larva was launched by TUBA Entertainment in 2011, with adult viewers in mind. The producers aimed to create a cartoon that could appeal to an audience of a wide age scale. It debuted on the national channel, KBS and on cable television with short, 90-second episodes. The series quickly became popular, and as of September 2015 was sold to more than 40 countries, including Canal Plus in France, as well as merchandising contracts taking place in Taiwan, Germany, Turkey and Chile, among others. The creators earned 1 million won in royalties in the first three months of launching related merchandise, including toys and stationery products. In 2018, Netflix acquired rights to the franchise and announced they would continue the series with Larva Island. In February 2019, it was announced that Larva Island was renewed for a second and final season. In 2023, it was announced that TUBAn and Astro-Nomical are set to produce a feature-length Larva film with a script written by Erica Rivinoja.

Episode list

Netflix films (2020–22)

The Larva Island Movie is an animated Netflix film that serves as the canonical finale to Larva Island. The film focuses on Chuck, who has returned to civilization long after the events of "Drift", telling the events of the Island to a reporter named Grace. The film was released on 23 July 2020.

Larva Pendant is 2022 animated 33-minute special that is set after the events of Larva Island but before of The Larva Island Movie. The film is about Red and Yellow discovering a city but must stop an evil man who is using bugs to help him grow hair. The short film was released on 25 May 2022.

Feature film

Larva the Movie is an upcoming film that takes place either between the events of Larva Family and Larva in Mars or after Larva in Mars.

Reception

Emily Ashby from the organization Common Sense Media rated Larva three stars. She praised the show for showing the perspective of Red and Yellow, stating "because the characters are the size of worms, everything around them is larger than life, and that perspective is always fun to see in action." Issac Butler of Slate described Larva as "the most terrifying show on Netflix" and mocked its excessive toilet humor in a tongue-in-cheek article. Ivan Lin of Asia First Media recognized the characters' innovative contributions in educational videos.