Goodnight Punpun is a slice of life seinen romance by Asano Inio. The
series was compiled in 13 tankoubon. Due to the scale of the manga I am
going to split it up into 4 parts, to more closely review the 4 major story
arcs. The first arc covers events in the first two tankoubon.
The first story arc for the series deals with the title character, Onodera Punpun when he is in 5th grade. Punpun is a bit of a recluse and mainly goes with the flow in his small group of friends. While he participates in the adventures of his peers he has a difficult home life. His parents have a loveless marriage and when his father beats his mother bad enough to send her to the hospital, Punpuns uncle moves in to watch over him. His uncle Yuichi is probably the most emotionally stable member of his family but he comes with his own baggage which he drops onto Punpun. Yuichi struggles greatly with the meaning of his life and the point of existence to the level of being semi suicidal. He is open and frank with his impressionable nephew, which does little to improve Punpuns dismal psyche.
Beside that Punpun tries to enjoy his youth, hunting for discarded porn with his friends and liking girls. One of his classmates, Tanaka Aiko, catches his eye. Much to his enjoyment she has mutual feelings for him. Aiko though is also damaged goods as she is being raised by an abusive mother who has wholly devoted her life to a get rich quick cult. Aiko dreams of running away from her pitiful existence and Punpun eagerly tries to please her. Aiko tells Punpun that if he ever betrays her or lies to her that she will kill him. The look in her eyes convince him she isn't kidding.
Things start to become complicated in their relationship when Punpuns friends find a porno and watch it at his house. Just as the porno gets to the good part the tape begins to play a home recorded video. In the video a 20-something man talks about how he murdered his family and hid their bodies in an abandoned miso factory. He says that anyone brave enough to discover them will also find a cache of money. The kids freak out from the prospects of what they have just witnessed and decide to investigate. One of them, Seki Masumi, knows the location the guy is talking about. Seki's father had previously run a lunch box business and has dealt with the now deceased owner of the factory. Seki, like everyone else has his own problems at home. His father is now an unemployed alcoholic and Seki dreams of murdering him.
The boys and Aiko head off to the factory in Stand By Me fashion, excited for the adventure and the prospect of seeing dead bodies and finding riches. Punpun eagerly goes along in hopes of being able to fund he and Aiko running away from home. At the factory, they run into an older girl who goes there to work on her artwork, she warns them of a ghost but leaves them to their own devices. The factory is a dump, with hazards everywhere, the children's hyped sensitivity leads to a near disaster as a fire breaks out. The events of the fire changes all their lives for better or worse. The reason for the adventure builds a small rift between Aiko and Punpun which intensifies when she wants to meet him at the beginning of Summer break and he is unable to do so...due to his mother failing at killing herself.
I have been a fan of Asano's work since I first read Nijigahara Holograph. His artwork is some of the most detailed out there, with incredibly realistic scenery and character designs that are unmistakable as his own. Goodnight Punpun pushes it a bit further with the designs for Punpun and his family. They are all drawn like how a 4-year-old would draw a bird. In the world of the story the characters obviously look like normal humans, but to the readers they appear as strange birds, heightening the issues the Onodera's have with personal identity and social relatability.
Asano's stories deal with some pretty realistic darkness throughout and Goodnight Punpun is no exception. Right from the beginning the reader is informed that this is a story about children who live in less than perfect environments and how those environments effect their psyche. In the first part, perhaps the most damaged individual is Aiko who casually and intently threatens death for the smallest infractions. She doesn't appear to do it in some childish dark humor but with real sincerity and intent. Punpun appears to be the most vulnerable to outside influence as we see with how much his self-perception is molded by his uncle’s own perception. Yuichi cares for his nephew but his own self-hatred undoes a lot of that compassion. Perhaps one of the most damaged children though is Shimizu Ko, a snot nosed friend who sees a mysterious poop headed deity that tells him he has super powers. Shimizu seems to be borderline cognitively disabled and follows around Seki like a puppy.
Speaking of hallucinations, Punpun has an influential deity of his own which appears to him as a smiling man with a wild afro, offering brief yet impactful advice to him. This deity is the direct result of his uncle influence from earlier in his life and works as a reactionary conscience for Punpun, for better or worse. As he becomes more entangled in his relationship with Aiko, 'god' becomes more assertive in his suggestions, including murder.
Goodnight Punpun is meant for mature audiences even though it deals with children in a realistic and non-fanciful way. Coarse language, nudity, and anti-social suggestiveness. Inio relates a realism that suggests some of these experiences are perhaps due to some things he experienced himself. Those dark things that pretty much every child in modern affluent societies go through, the exploration of maturity in the lack of adult supervision.
Goodnight Punpun, as with other of his titles, is currently being released by Viz in North America. The published versions by Viz are double the size so there will be 7 volumes when they are done published them.
The first story arc for the series deals with the title character, Onodera Punpun when he is in 5th grade. Punpun is a bit of a recluse and mainly goes with the flow in his small group of friends. While he participates in the adventures of his peers he has a difficult home life. His parents have a loveless marriage and when his father beats his mother bad enough to send her to the hospital, Punpuns uncle moves in to watch over him. His uncle Yuichi is probably the most emotionally stable member of his family but he comes with his own baggage which he drops onto Punpun. Yuichi struggles greatly with the meaning of his life and the point of existence to the level of being semi suicidal. He is open and frank with his impressionable nephew, which does little to improve Punpuns dismal psyche.
Beside that Punpun tries to enjoy his youth, hunting for discarded porn with his friends and liking girls. One of his classmates, Tanaka Aiko, catches his eye. Much to his enjoyment she has mutual feelings for him. Aiko though is also damaged goods as she is being raised by an abusive mother who has wholly devoted her life to a get rich quick cult. Aiko dreams of running away from her pitiful existence and Punpun eagerly tries to please her. Aiko tells Punpun that if he ever betrays her or lies to her that she will kill him. The look in her eyes convince him she isn't kidding.
Things start to become complicated in their relationship when Punpuns friends find a porno and watch it at his house. Just as the porno gets to the good part the tape begins to play a home recorded video. In the video a 20-something man talks about how he murdered his family and hid their bodies in an abandoned miso factory. He says that anyone brave enough to discover them will also find a cache of money. The kids freak out from the prospects of what they have just witnessed and decide to investigate. One of them, Seki Masumi, knows the location the guy is talking about. Seki's father had previously run a lunch box business and has dealt with the now deceased owner of the factory. Seki, like everyone else has his own problems at home. His father is now an unemployed alcoholic and Seki dreams of murdering him.
The boys and Aiko head off to the factory in Stand By Me fashion, excited for the adventure and the prospect of seeing dead bodies and finding riches. Punpun eagerly goes along in hopes of being able to fund he and Aiko running away from home. At the factory, they run into an older girl who goes there to work on her artwork, she warns them of a ghost but leaves them to their own devices. The factory is a dump, with hazards everywhere, the children's hyped sensitivity leads to a near disaster as a fire breaks out. The events of the fire changes all their lives for better or worse. The reason for the adventure builds a small rift between Aiko and Punpun which intensifies when she wants to meet him at the beginning of Summer break and he is unable to do so...due to his mother failing at killing herself.
I have been a fan of Asano's work since I first read Nijigahara Holograph. His artwork is some of the most detailed out there, with incredibly realistic scenery and character designs that are unmistakable as his own. Goodnight Punpun pushes it a bit further with the designs for Punpun and his family. They are all drawn like how a 4-year-old would draw a bird. In the world of the story the characters obviously look like normal humans, but to the readers they appear as strange birds, heightening the issues the Onodera's have with personal identity and social relatability.
Asano's stories deal with some pretty realistic darkness throughout and Goodnight Punpun is no exception. Right from the beginning the reader is informed that this is a story about children who live in less than perfect environments and how those environments effect their psyche. In the first part, perhaps the most damaged individual is Aiko who casually and intently threatens death for the smallest infractions. She doesn't appear to do it in some childish dark humor but with real sincerity and intent. Punpun appears to be the most vulnerable to outside influence as we see with how much his self-perception is molded by his uncle’s own perception. Yuichi cares for his nephew but his own self-hatred undoes a lot of that compassion. Perhaps one of the most damaged children though is Shimizu Ko, a snot nosed friend who sees a mysterious poop headed deity that tells him he has super powers. Shimizu seems to be borderline cognitively disabled and follows around Seki like a puppy.
Speaking of hallucinations, Punpun has an influential deity of his own which appears to him as a smiling man with a wild afro, offering brief yet impactful advice to him. This deity is the direct result of his uncle influence from earlier in his life and works as a reactionary conscience for Punpun, for better or worse. As he becomes more entangled in his relationship with Aiko, 'god' becomes more assertive in his suggestions, including murder.
Goodnight Punpun is meant for mature audiences even though it deals with children in a realistic and non-fanciful way. Coarse language, nudity, and anti-social suggestiveness. Inio relates a realism that suggests some of these experiences are perhaps due to some things he experienced himself. Those dark things that pretty much every child in modern affluent societies go through, the exploration of maturity in the lack of adult supervision.
Goodnight Punpun, as with other of his titles, is currently being released by Viz in North America. The published versions by Viz are double the size so there will be 7 volumes when they are done published them.
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