Goodnight Punpun
- Thread starter MangaDex
- Start date
Late to the party but just finished it in one sitting...I didn't find it as upsetting or bleak as other comments have implied, but this is a dark story that's easily Asano's best completed work to date. Art is sublime, length/pacing is nearly spot-on, and the tone is consistently somber from start to end. There were a few melodramatic plot contrivances which were a little past my point of disbelief, but overall the story felt consistent and the ending was refreshingly coherent (yes, I'm still mad at the DDDDDD trainwreck ending, and frustrated that my tiny brain couldn't pick up what Nijigahara was putting down). There was only one seemingly superfluous story element (the ongoing cult B-plot + Seki/Shimizu), but it didn't take up enough pages for me to be mad at it's inclusion. Everyone has different takes, but personally I felt the ending was perfectly bittersweet: most characters' lives remained imperfect but they still continued to work towards happiness, which is kind of the entire theme of the story.
I think the reason why so many (probably) teens are blown away by this comic is the same reason why a lot of people apparently take issue with characters like Sachi: this is a seinen story set in the real world, and populated with flawed, complex characters. It's reductive to call any character "good" or "bad" because everyone is in a constant flux between the two, and just like in real life, a person's life is filled with mistakes and squandered opportunities, with all the hardships that follow them. It's a big jump if you've only ever experienced more outlandish stories, but trust me, enjoying a few grounded tragedies now and then is a wonderful feeling once you're used to them. (The scene with Sachi talking to the editor is basically a fourth wall break of Asano defending the merit of these types of stories
)
I guess my bottom line recommendation is that if you enjoy moody anti-escapist seinen stories then Punpun is a masterpiece: a great melancholic look back for old guys like me, and a compelling cautionary tale for the young'uns. If you want to sample Inio Asano but are sheepish about diving into an ultimately dark story, give Solanin a shot first: same young adult ennui but significantly less bleak (also significantly shorter).
For the record, the only things that stood out as contrived drama were the uncle's tragic backstory, the mother's crush on Punpun's friend, and everyone's favorite: Punpun killing Aiko's mother. But even then, all three ultimately had narrative purpose and some degree of foreshadowing, so I can't even knock these things as "bad writing," I just didn't like them.
Likewise, I think my main gripe with the cult/Seki B-plot is only that it never seemed to really link up back to the main Punpun story. I kept waiting for come meaningful connection between them and Aiko but it never happened, also I can't fathom what the ending to that arc was actually supposed to mean, probably because I'm big dumb.
My final gripe is kinda related to the last point, which is how Aiko basically remained an isolated singularity in this story, in turn facilitating her narrative closure to just be her death. I also get how ending the story of the lonely abused girl this way maximizes the tragedy, but heaping that on top of Punpun's abusive turn at the end just felt borderline spiteful. Still, I grudgingly admit that killing her off while keeping Punpun alive was probably the tidiest solution to tying off her arc without spreading the tragedy to everyone else in PP's life.
I think the reason why so many (probably) teens are blown away by this comic is the same reason why a lot of people apparently take issue with characters like Sachi: this is a seinen story set in the real world, and populated with flawed, complex characters. It's reductive to call any character "good" or "bad" because everyone is in a constant flux between the two, and just like in real life, a person's life is filled with mistakes and squandered opportunities, with all the hardships that follow them. It's a big jump if you've only ever experienced more outlandish stories, but trust me, enjoying a few grounded tragedies now and then is a wonderful feeling once you're used to them. (The scene with Sachi talking to the editor is basically a fourth wall break of Asano defending the merit of these types of stories
)I guess my bottom line recommendation is that if you enjoy moody anti-escapist seinen stories then Punpun is a masterpiece: a great melancholic look back for old guys like me, and a compelling cautionary tale for the young'uns. If you want to sample Inio Asano but are sheepish about diving into an ultimately dark story, give Solanin a shot first: same young adult ennui but significantly less bleak (also significantly shorter).
For the record, the only things that stood out as contrived drama were the uncle's tragic backstory, the mother's crush on Punpun's friend, and everyone's favorite: Punpun killing Aiko's mother. But even then, all three ultimately had narrative purpose and some degree of foreshadowing, so I can't even knock these things as "bad writing," I just didn't like them.
Likewise, I think my main gripe with the cult/Seki B-plot is only that it never seemed to really link up back to the main Punpun story. I kept waiting for come meaningful connection between them and Aiko but it never happened, also I can't fathom what the ending to that arc was actually supposed to mean, probably because I'm big dumb.
My final gripe is kinda related to the last point, which is how Aiko basically remained an isolated singularity in this story, in turn facilitating her narrative closure to just be her death. I also get how ending the story of the lonely abused girl this way maximizes the tragedy, but heaping that on top of Punpun's abusive turn at the end just felt borderline spiteful. Still, I grudgingly admit that killing her off while keeping Punpun alive was probably the tidiest solution to tying off her arc without spreading the tragedy to everyone else in PP's life.
- Joined
- May 6, 2025
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- 1
Finished 5/5/25, 11:10 P.M.
10/10
10/10
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- Jan 5, 2025
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- 1
The DMCA's hit Punpun as well. Why does it have to be this way.
Member
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- Jul 10, 2024
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- 10
Oyasumi... punppun...
