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I have noticed it hasn't been clarified which side is that Pokemon facing to. And some people are asserting their opinion pretty strongly:

The anime doesn't help:

I came to this thread all ready to post this picture of an actual chrysalis and solve this debate in like three seconds.

…..but that actually really doesn't help very much either.

The videos of Black Swallowtails (that's whose chrysalis that ^ is) show them emerging from the top facing the branch, and that's the direction the caterpillars face too, so that would make the uhhhh dorsal fin(?) its back and "sad eye" the way I'm inclined to lean.

Its a shell, i don't think it has a mouth or nose, it just has eyes.

I don't get the whole nose, ears, and mouth thing, since it's just a chrysalis. The eyes are there, because it's still a Pokemon capable of doing… something.

You also say the anime doesn't help, well… Seems, like the always face each other with the "sad" look side. Sure, the second image you posted of the anime shows the metapod angry. But, it's the anime, the animators can show the angry looking pokemon look happy and the sad looking ones happy.

The fact is the two anime caps shows Metapod facing in two different directions. Like even the animators were sure about it.

It's not like they really move much to begin with. What use would a creature that cannot move have for concepts like "forwards" and "backwards", especially given their eyes are on the side.

But for the sake of argument

I really don't know why people would have drawn a pokemon consistently with it's back to the viewer and most of the images have the spike oriented to the back. The detailing opposite of the spike also appear reminiscent of Caterpie's mouth.

Also the arguments about "noses" and "ears" most bugs don't really have anything like that. Some use their antennae to sense airborne scents (like a nose) and they have ways of detecting sound, but they don't really have ears.

Finally, Lisa was on the right tract, though you need to look more than skin deep.
Try using a CT scan

As you can tell, the forward position on the butterfly is opposite of the spike on the back, while the front is comparatively smooth

I always assumed the "relaxed" look was correct given the fact the thing couldn't move. It was just sitting around waiting to become a butterfree. Why wouldn't it just take it easy?