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Goodnight Punpun Omnibus #7
Goodnight Punpun Omnibus, Vol. 7
This is the end, Punpun.
272 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 19, 2017
80 people are currently reading
1989 people want to read
About the author
Inio Asano
112 books2,679 followersInio Asano (浅野いにお, Asano Inio) is a Japanese cartoonist. He is known for his character-driven stories and his detailed art-style, making him one of the most influential manga author of his generation.
Asano was born in 1980 and produced his first amateur comics as a teenager. His professional debut happened in 2000 in the pages of the magazine Big Comic Spirits. Since then, he has collaborated with most of the major Japanese magazines of seinen manga (comics for a mature audience). Among Asano's internationally acclaimed works are: the psychological horror Nijigahara Holograph (2003-2005); the drama Solanin (2005-2006); the existentialistic slice-of-life Goodnight Punpun (2007-2013); the erotic A Girl on the Shore (2009-2013); the sci-fi Dead Dead Demon's Dededede Destruction (2014-2022).
Asano was born in 1980 and produced his first amateur comics as a teenager. His professional debut happened in 2000 in the pages of the magazine Big Comic Spirits. Since then, he has collaborated with most of the major Japanese magazines of seinen manga (comics for a mature audience). Among Asano's internationally acclaimed works are: the psychological horror Nijigahara Holograph (2003-2005); the drama Solanin (2005-2006); the existentialistic slice-of-life Goodnight Punpun (2007-2013); the erotic A Girl on the Shore (2009-2013); the sci-fi Dead Dead Demon's Dededede Destruction (2014-2022).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 600 reviews
October 24, 2019
This book worsened my clinical depression lmfao. It's a masterpiece that I won't ever read again.
January 22, 2020
"I want to be alone. That's my only self-indulgence. It's very easy... although it's like living as a ghost. If I don't worry about things and stay free... I naturally move forward when the wind blows. Where am I headed? I don't really care. But one day, if I disappear anonymously, like a bubble... and fade from people's memories, I think that would be good."
It's been so long since I started reading this manga that I totally fucking forgot who Shuntaro was for a little while. That said, the way the manga's conclusion is framed was a pretty cute idea. Shuntaro moved away from Punpun's neighborhood before the bulk of the story, and so he's far removed from everything that happened later, not just for Punpun and his immediate peers, but for the other kids from their grade school friend group. I'm not gonna lie, I couldn't quite tell if Punpun was meant to be at the school reunion, but anyway the real significance is, I would say, that Shuntaro could not remember Punpun's name, even though he could feel a connection to our hero, could presumably feel and identify with the discomfort Punpun feels at the end of his story here.
And that's the Big Thing, the ambiguity of whether or not Punpun has a Good End. I read the other day in a thread on 4chan's /a/ (quite reasonably a decent source on the feelings of unhappy people, what with how they occasional circlejerk around Welcome to the NHK) a brief discussion on the ending. One poster wrote this: "Also if you are positive person, the ending is bittersweet, but if you are pessimist person like the author, you will think it as a bad ending." Punpun escape jail-time and ended up not killing himself, which appears on a surface level to be a Good End, but he's never felt connected to anyone aside from Aiko who failed to meet the expectations he created in his fantasy and who eventually betrayed him by killing herself before he could kill himself, and he's found by Sachi while reeling from having stabbed himself in the eye, so he is sucked back into his pre-Aiko adult life, where he cannot die without hurting the friends he kinda-sorta loves. It is immensely negative to say so, but Punpun's freedom is stifled by his perceived inability to leave this life imposed on him by his peers, perhaps why he sheds tears when he sees Shuntaro again. But I don't know, my reading here might be tainted somewhat by having read too much Osamu Dazai. Punpun is very much "disqualified as a human being," and like Dazai's Yozo character from No Longer Human he seems to seek death and/or exile, despite everyone around him seeing him as a kind-hearted young man (an "angel" to use terms from Dazai's novel).
To return to 4chan, there was discussion in the same thread regarding the shark-jumping of the final arc and Punpun's apparent lapse into near-schizophrenic behavior. One poster makes the following arguments: "The point of the last arc is that Punpun is NOT you, not psychoanalyzable, and not anyone to empathize with. The narration is extremely unreliable in the first place since most of it is told, in the beginning, from a distance. It seems introspective but nobody knows what the hell Punpun is actually thinking or feeling throughout the manga. Likewise Aiko is pretty much a cipher for the whole manga, seen mostly through Punpun's rose-tinted glasses. Your main gripe seems to be that you had this narrow image of the character and became frustrated when what eventually happened did not sync with what you thought he was. The whole manga ends from the perspective of the outsider, Harumi, to cap this whole point off." His post brought criticisms by other posters accusing him of being too reliant on a postmodern reading, but I think there's a point here: I, like I think a good amount of readers, decided to read Oyasumi Punpun under the assumption that I might see some of myself in Punpun, or some of Punpun in myself, but then shit started getting more wack and it became harder to connect, which is really probably my fault because it was hard to care about e.g. Punpun's parents' issues and things like that, as these things didn't overlap with my own personal experiences. It's often very disquieting to read certain parts from the aforementioned Dazai novel No Longer Human, and so I annually come back to that novel in order to, I guess, make myself feel unease on purpose. Through a similar lens, it was initially a minor challenge to see Punpun as his own man, as a Unique entity, and Individual, a distinct character removed from the coloring of my own biases, because I think I wanted him to be more like me when he kinda really wasn't at all. Yuichi's story moved me in an earlier volume, though as it happens enough time has passed that I don't really remember the specifics. Punpun, not so much. But that's obviously "okay," as that's how literature works, and so that should be how manga could work as well, particularly one like this, with near-literary ambitions. I will disagree with the above-quoted Anonymous poster's defense of the shark-jumping of the previous couple volumes of the manga (being collected in Omnibus 6), as the leap is still too severe compared to preceding events, even despite my acceptance that Punpun is not, and does not have to be, me. And, at the very least, I can maybe empathize with Punpun's conception of Aiko, as I'm personally somewhat guilty of having created false facsimiles of some people to abide with my own preferences, the key difference between myself and Punpun being that I would always simply give up on forging a connection when I strongly believe the Reality will never match the Fantasy (we'll say I'm jesting here lol).
I'd recommend, by the way, that fans of this manga read this interview when they've finished Punpun: https://mangabrog.wordpress.com/2014/...
"Good vibrations."
It's been so long since I started reading this manga that I totally fucking forgot who Shuntaro was for a little while. That said, the way the manga's conclusion is framed was a pretty cute idea. Shuntaro moved away from Punpun's neighborhood before the bulk of the story, and so he's far removed from everything that happened later, not just for Punpun and his immediate peers, but for the other kids from their grade school friend group. I'm not gonna lie, I couldn't quite tell if Punpun was meant to be at the school reunion, but anyway the real significance is, I would say, that Shuntaro could not remember Punpun's name, even though he could feel a connection to our hero, could presumably feel and identify with the discomfort Punpun feels at the end of his story here.
And that's the Big Thing, the ambiguity of whether or not Punpun has a Good End. I read the other day in a thread on 4chan's /a/ (quite reasonably a decent source on the feelings of unhappy people, what with how they occasional circlejerk around Welcome to the NHK) a brief discussion on the ending. One poster wrote this: "Also if you are positive person, the ending is bittersweet, but if you are pessimist person like the author, you will think it as a bad ending." Punpun escape jail-time and ended up not killing himself, which appears on a surface level to be a Good End, but he's never felt connected to anyone aside from Aiko who failed to meet the expectations he created in his fantasy and who eventually betrayed him by killing herself before he could kill himself, and he's found by Sachi while reeling from having stabbed himself in the eye, so he is sucked back into his pre-Aiko adult life, where he cannot die without hurting the friends he kinda-sorta loves. It is immensely negative to say so, but Punpun's freedom is stifled by his perceived inability to leave this life imposed on him by his peers, perhaps why he sheds tears when he sees Shuntaro again. But I don't know, my reading here might be tainted somewhat by having read too much Osamu Dazai. Punpun is very much "disqualified as a human being," and like Dazai's Yozo character from No Longer Human he seems to seek death and/or exile, despite everyone around him seeing him as a kind-hearted young man (an "angel" to use terms from Dazai's novel).
To return to 4chan, there was discussion in the same thread regarding the shark-jumping of the final arc and Punpun's apparent lapse into near-schizophrenic behavior. One poster makes the following arguments: "The point of the last arc is that Punpun is NOT you, not psychoanalyzable, and not anyone to empathize with. The narration is extremely unreliable in the first place since most of it is told, in the beginning, from a distance. It seems introspective but nobody knows what the hell Punpun is actually thinking or feeling throughout the manga. Likewise Aiko is pretty much a cipher for the whole manga, seen mostly through Punpun's rose-tinted glasses. Your main gripe seems to be that you had this narrow image of the character and became frustrated when what eventually happened did not sync with what you thought he was. The whole manga ends from the perspective of the outsider, Harumi, to cap this whole point off." His post brought criticisms by other posters accusing him of being too reliant on a postmodern reading, but I think there's a point here: I, like I think a good amount of readers, decided to read Oyasumi Punpun under the assumption that I might see some of myself in Punpun, or some of Punpun in myself, but then shit started getting more wack and it became harder to connect, which is really probably my fault because it was hard to care about e.g. Punpun's parents' issues and things like that, as these things didn't overlap with my own personal experiences. It's often very disquieting to read certain parts from the aforementioned Dazai novel No Longer Human, and so I annually come back to that novel in order to, I guess, make myself feel unease on purpose. Through a similar lens, it was initially a minor challenge to see Punpun as his own man, as a Unique entity, and Individual, a distinct character removed from the coloring of my own biases, because I think I wanted him to be more like me when he kinda really wasn't at all. Yuichi's story moved me in an earlier volume, though as it happens enough time has passed that I don't really remember the specifics. Punpun, not so much. But that's obviously "okay," as that's how literature works, and so that should be how manga could work as well, particularly one like this, with near-literary ambitions. I will disagree with the above-quoted Anonymous poster's defense of the shark-jumping of the previous couple volumes of the manga (being collected in Omnibus 6), as the leap is still too severe compared to preceding events, even despite my acceptance that Punpun is not, and does not have to be, me. And, at the very least, I can maybe empathize with Punpun's conception of Aiko, as I'm personally somewhat guilty of having created false facsimiles of some people to abide with my own preferences, the key difference between myself and Punpun being that I would always simply give up on forging a connection when I strongly believe the Reality will never match the Fantasy (we'll say I'm jesting here lol).
I'd recommend, by the way, that fans of this manga read this interview when they've finished Punpun: https://mangabrog.wordpress.com/2014/...
"Good vibrations."
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 28, 2023
“Turning a coincidence into a miracle all comes down to how you live your life… At least that’s what I tell myself, and this is the result.
I am reviewing the entire series here, so this will have mild spoilers.
Usually when I finish a work that is impactful, I take a day or two to just be, allowing any thoughts to drift into my head. This allows me to see what I really thought about it, given the cooling effect of time and the settling of ideas beyond just the temporary. I am finding it more difficult to do this with this series, as a) it’s a series (!) – 7 books, 1 review, and b) it really does grind you down. Being in the early stages of seeing clients as a therapist (relatively, I guess – I am not sure how long I can continue to use “early”), there are times when I feel the burnout clawing at the back of my eyes. I leave a session and I feel completely empty – not in an artistic, fulfilled way, but in a “fucking hell” way. This happens because I am not reaching out for supervision and support as much as I should be. That among other factors, of course, but chiefly that. You can imagine that Goodnight Punpun didn’t really give me a chance to “get supervision”, so to speak. Once you hit a certain point in the story, if you have buy-in, you are there on that highway until you finish. Good luck jumping out. This is not a series for the faint-hearted. It crosses social, spiritual, sexual, and physical boundaries numerous times. It’s not a nice series. It is, however, utterly beautiful.
Perhaps the single element that stands out most from the books is the invasive, pernicious sense of depression that oozes through them, starting with a whisper from the first panel and continuing on until the very end. So right away, if you are prone to feeling yourself into characters too much, if you are the type of person that empathizes with the people in a story, I would say try to read with a bit more distance if possible. What makes Punpun so impactful as a character is the unholy mix of poor internal makeup and horrific external circumstances. He is “normal” enough, to begin with, but feels somewhat pressured by the need to be something, do something, be someone. Yet, almost right away, you can see the lack of dreams and direction. There is no anchor to reality and no anchor to the future. He is who he is, and he is happy being where he is. That’s fine, no issue. It almost reminds you of Sayaka Murata’s Convenience Store Woman. And to be fair, the first couple of volumes do show Punpun’s desire and vigour. Things are presented with a tinge of magic – he “dreams” of being a baseball player or an influential figure in the field of astrophysics and space. I put “dreams” in quotation marks because I just said he has no dreams. Well… they are not “dreams”, per se, but momentary decisions to move toward a certain direction, fuelled by almost nothing but a smile and a nod from someone. At base, I see it as a need to be loved and to belong. He even showcases the vitality known to youth going through puberty. Volume 3 opens with a bang:
‘Right now, Punpun had only one thought. “I want to have sex.” Actually, was going to be deliberately vulgar with that announcement. “I want to fuck.”’
But as the volumes go on, desire wanes. Hedonic pleasures fall away. Nothing… matters anymore. The presentation of the panels is also bland in every sense of the word. Things become bleak, vile, downright illegal. Also, let’s not forget about the aforementioned horrific external circumstances. His home life blows. His father struggles with alcohol use and is clearly abusive, while his mother just cannot be bothered to care for him. She has her own issues, and that’s expanded upon, but keep in mind, we are looking through the lens of the main character here. His uncle is a “nihilist”, paralyzed by fear and sexual impotence, pushed into a worldview that may best “explain” his inability to deal with his own urges. His uncle’s girlfriend, a wild ride of a person. His friends? They try their best. They do. But Punpun’s aura pushes them away. You have to be really dedicated to stick by him.
I haven’t yet, however, touched on the beating heart of the story. It is a love story, I believe, no matter how fucked up. Aiko Tanaka moves to Punpun’s school at a young age, and their lives become linked in the most Murakami of manners. I was hooked. I am basic. I wanted to see it all, from the first moment where Aiko introduced herself in front of the class and Punpun’s heart exploded, all the way on. And on. And on. Punpun, years on, catching a glimpse of her as the subway doors chime to a close.
I think I’m a hopeless romantic when it comes to a lot of literature. So I don’t think it’s surprising to say that this is the image I’ll take away from all of these books, the one that will remain with me and pop up when I try to think myself back into that feeling:
It’s the same image, by the way, that will harshly enter my brain when I am sat at a table in a Korean restaurant, enjoying some japchae, talking with a friend. It’s the same image that will arrest my daily development once in a while, making me go back to a nostalgic, falsely familiar time in my life.
Here is the customary quote with which I will end my review:
“There are times when I need to look back on the months I spent with you, or on my childhood, and when I try to put those emotions into words, it comes out choppy and vague and makes me so ashamed. It feels like I’m exposing myself to ridicule, and I don’t like it… But this is the only role that’s been given me so I plan to see it through to the end.
Your voice is a bit distant these days… Was that your voice? Was that really your face? Every year that goes by, I lose confidence in who you were.”
I am reviewing the entire series here, so this will have mild spoilers.
Usually when I finish a work that is impactful, I take a day or two to just be, allowing any thoughts to drift into my head. This allows me to see what I really thought about it, given the cooling effect of time and the settling of ideas beyond just the temporary. I am finding it more difficult to do this with this series, as a) it’s a series (!) – 7 books, 1 review, and b) it really does grind you down. Being in the early stages of seeing clients as a therapist (relatively, I guess – I am not sure how long I can continue to use “early”), there are times when I feel the burnout clawing at the back of my eyes. I leave a session and I feel completely empty – not in an artistic, fulfilled way, but in a “fucking hell” way. This happens because I am not reaching out for supervision and support as much as I should be. That among other factors, of course, but chiefly that. You can imagine that Goodnight Punpun didn’t really give me a chance to “get supervision”, so to speak. Once you hit a certain point in the story, if you have buy-in, you are there on that highway until you finish. Good luck jumping out. This is not a series for the faint-hearted. It crosses social, spiritual, sexual, and physical boundaries numerous times. It’s not a nice series. It is, however, utterly beautiful.
Perhaps the single element that stands out most from the books is the invasive, pernicious sense of depression that oozes through them, starting with a whisper from the first panel and continuing on until the very end. So right away, if you are prone to feeling yourself into characters too much, if you are the type of person that empathizes with the people in a story, I would say try to read with a bit more distance if possible. What makes Punpun so impactful as a character is the unholy mix of poor internal makeup and horrific external circumstances. He is “normal” enough, to begin with, but feels somewhat pressured by the need to be something, do something, be someone. Yet, almost right away, you can see the lack of dreams and direction. There is no anchor to reality and no anchor to the future. He is who he is, and he is happy being where he is. That’s fine, no issue. It almost reminds you of Sayaka Murata’s Convenience Store Woman. And to be fair, the first couple of volumes do show Punpun’s desire and vigour. Things are presented with a tinge of magic – he “dreams” of being a baseball player or an influential figure in the field of astrophysics and space. I put “dreams” in quotation marks because I just said he has no dreams. Well… they are not “dreams”, per se, but momentary decisions to move toward a certain direction, fuelled by almost nothing but a smile and a nod from someone. At base, I see it as a need to be loved and to belong. He even showcases the vitality known to youth going through puberty. Volume 3 opens with a bang:
‘Right now, Punpun had only one thought. “I want to have sex.” Actually, was going to be deliberately vulgar with that announcement. “I want to fuck.”’
But as the volumes go on, desire wanes. Hedonic pleasures fall away. Nothing… matters anymore. The presentation of the panels is also bland in every sense of the word. Things become bleak, vile, downright illegal. Also, let’s not forget about the aforementioned horrific external circumstances. His home life blows. His father struggles with alcohol use and is clearly abusive, while his mother just cannot be bothered to care for him. She has her own issues, and that’s expanded upon, but keep in mind, we are looking through the lens of the main character here. His uncle is a “nihilist”, paralyzed by fear and sexual impotence, pushed into a worldview that may best “explain” his inability to deal with his own urges. His uncle’s girlfriend, a wild ride of a person. His friends? They try their best. They do. But Punpun’s aura pushes them away. You have to be really dedicated to stick by him.
I haven’t yet, however, touched on the beating heart of the story. It is a love story, I believe, no matter how fucked up. Aiko Tanaka moves to Punpun’s school at a young age, and their lives become linked in the most Murakami of manners. I was hooked. I am basic. I wanted to see it all, from the first moment where Aiko introduced herself in front of the class and Punpun’s heart exploded, all the way on. And on. And on. Punpun, years on, catching a glimpse of her as the subway doors chime to a close.
I think I’m a hopeless romantic when it comes to a lot of literature. So I don’t think it’s surprising to say that this is the image I’ll take away from all of these books, the one that will remain with me and pop up when I try to think myself back into that feeling:
It’s the same image, by the way, that will harshly enter my brain when I am sat at a table in a Korean restaurant, enjoying some japchae, talking with a friend. It’s the same image that will arrest my daily development once in a while, making me go back to a nostalgic, falsely familiar time in my life.
Here is the customary quote with which I will end my review:
“There are times when I need to look back on the months I spent with you, or on my childhood, and when I try to put those emotions into words, it comes out choppy and vague and makes me so ashamed. It feels like I’m exposing myself to ridicule, and I don’t like it… But this is the only role that’s been given me so I plan to see it through to the end.
Your voice is a bit distant these days… Was that your voice? Was that really your face? Every year that goes by, I lose confidence in who you were.”
July 13, 2018
So. I gave 'Goodnight Punpun' a read.
Yes, like all of Asano's work, it's compulsively readable. Yes, he mastered the long-form manga series in a way he'd never done before. And yes, it is wonderfully surreal.
I hated the third act.
My other beef is, I didn't get anything out of the story. Asano's works tend to have some kind of thematic meaning that sticks with you, be it 'solanin' and the fleeting passion of youth, or 'a girl on the shore' and its devastating take on human sexuality and relationships.
'Goodnight Punpun' just sort of...ends.
Yes, like all of Asano's work, it's compulsively readable. Yes, he mastered the long-form manga series in a way he'd never done before. And yes, it is wonderfully surreal.
I hated the third act.
My other beef is, I didn't get anything out of the story. Asano's works tend to have some kind of thematic meaning that sticks with you, be it 'solanin' and the fleeting passion of youth, or 'a girl on the shore' and its devastating take on human sexuality and relationships.
'Goodnight Punpun' just sort of...ends.
February 18, 2020
I wanted to read Solanin first before writing anything because I wanted to have a better grasp of what to say or think about the way Goodnight Punpun ends. First, then, I'd say that Solanin is overall better executed in narrative. The pieces swirl around the center better, the themes are more flushed out: the boring happiness of adulthood, despite the horror it appears to be as someone standing at its precipice, is okay. While the characters were shallower than Punpun there wasn't a moment where I, annoyed, thought, "what am I reading."
And it's here that I feel Punpun utterly disintegrates. Ignoring how the ending feels like someone trying to just be done with work they lost the heart for - Punpun's suddenly found, cut to a year later after he's served time in prison, monologue about hating being alive but accepting it - it also feels like it didn't have anything to say. Let me rephrase. Solanin helps me read Punpun as an experiment in pure shock, pure resistance. In Inio Asano's words:
The phrase "If Bret Easton Ellis developed severe social anxiety and wrote manga" got louder in my head as I got closer to the end. Maybe this, in the context of manga, in the context of 2007-2013, was a massive shift in the landscape of the genre. I couldn't tell you. Even if it did I can't help but feel this kind of Gen X destruction of norms to be tired, especially when it prides itself on its intensity without doing the work of exploring broader ideas about the way society causes and permits these circumstances.
Especially when it suicides Aiko, the female lead, in order to stick it to Punpun because "living is harder than dying, see, so I thought this was the most painful, worst possible ending for Punpun." Not only reducing the humanity of her misery by suggesting death was the truest escape (an idea echoed in the cult suicide of which Asano says "the Pegasus crew saved the Earth at the cost of their lives, but nobody knows it"), and not only romanticizing suicide, but naturalizing human-caused tragedy by ending the story cyclically.
Overall it has an edginess that I don't think aged well, being both too bland and too specific, which is a shame because I loved it at first. I'm not mad though, just disappointed. If you loved Punpun I'm happy for you. I just think what Solanin tried to do was more successful and meaningful.
And it's here that I feel Punpun utterly disintegrates. Ignoring how the ending feels like someone trying to just be done with work they lost the heart for - Punpun's suddenly found, cut to a year later after he's served time in prison, monologue about hating being alive but accepting it - it also feels like it didn't have anything to say. Let me rephrase. Solanin helps me read Punpun as an experiment in pure shock, pure resistance. In Inio Asano's words:
I’d known from the start that an incident would happen later on, and I wanted to make it as absolutely shocking as possible, so I decided I would take the time to fully draw out their silly childhood.
The phrase "If Bret Easton Ellis developed severe social anxiety and wrote manga" got louder in my head as I got closer to the end. Maybe this, in the context of manga, in the context of 2007-2013, was a massive shift in the landscape of the genre. I couldn't tell you. Even if it did I can't help but feel this kind of Gen X destruction of norms to be tired, especially when it prides itself on its intensity without doing the work of exploring broader ideas about the way society causes and permits these circumstances.
Especially when it suicides Aiko, the female lead, in order to stick it to Punpun because "living is harder than dying, see, so I thought this was the most painful, worst possible ending for Punpun." Not only reducing the humanity of her misery by suggesting death was the truest escape (an idea echoed in the cult suicide of which Asano says "the Pegasus crew saved the Earth at the cost of their lives, but nobody knows it"), and not only romanticizing suicide, but naturalizing human-caused tragedy by ending the story cyclically.
Overall it has an edginess that I don't think aged well, being both too bland and too specific, which is a shame because I loved it at first. I'm not mad though, just disappointed. If you loved Punpun I'm happy for you. I just think what Solanin tried to do was more successful and meaningful.
March 30, 2018
This is by far my favorite graphic novel series that I've read to date. It made me feel emotions I wasn't sure I still had. Inio Asano makes readers relate to Onodera Punpun by portraying him as a bird in his youth and giving him childish optimism. Everyone has a past and as Punpun grows older you begin to hurt with him because he starts to lose his innocence. It is wonderfully paced and the ending just makes your whole being ache as you being to question why you relate to Punpun as his choices become more and more questionable. I appreciate how well it captures the transition from childhood to adulthood and the how the past can shape you into the person you become if you let it. The series is a good opportunity for self reflection and is a cautionary tale of letting the past get the best of you.
August 2, 2018
Perhaps I'm completely stupid. Quite possible. Nothing satisfying happened here for me. The most miserable person I've seen or read lives his life, while someone who deserved so much more died. The entire, annoying side story of Pegasus ends with the only person I cared about even vaguely, just losing his memory (why bother with this at all? This alone felt like a huge annoyance and disappointment). Yes, life is cruel, oh so awful. But did Punpun really deserve Sachi back in his life? Seriously? He liked her, so that's not the most miserable he could be, which is what he deserves: A 100% miserable existence. If that's what he whined about for this entire thing, then why not give it to him. He has to live, with other people. Not really his thing. But he lives with or around someone he cared about (even if he doesn't that much anymore). He was the most grotesque, manipulative, awful person I've read in so long, and what becomes of him? Well, he's still alive, which is enough disappointment for a lifetime. What was the point of all of this? There is no point? Don't put all your faith into one or a few outcomes? Yet another reminder that life is unfair and the good die young while the evil or awful continue to pollute the ones in the middle? Someone who chooses to be miserable will only temporarily find happiness but then choose yet again to throw themselves back into sadness? I don't get it, but I don't think I want to.
August 7, 2024
I couldn't have read this any faster, even if I wanted to.
I felt a mix of enthusiasm, eager to discover how it would end, and fear, dreading the unhappy conclusion I anticipated.
"Goodnight Punpun" is an amazing series, and I hope to reread it in the future, as I'm sure I missed many nuances the first time.
People often describe this series as heavy due to the numerous bad things that happen, but isn't that just life?
Inio Asano has crafted a fantastic portrayal of a young man's journey through life's most defining phases. There’s a scene at the end that perfectly encapsulates this—life is a recurring cycle.
The ending wasn't as bad as I expected, but it still wasn't happy. Life is tragic.
But that’s also its beauty. We find reasons to keep going and find happiness despite the suffering. Yet, not all of us make it. Some lose. Not everyone wins this battle; some barely survive day to day.
Despite everything, I'm still an optimist. Life is full of opportunities, and there is much to be grateful for.
I love Punpun and Aiko, despite their flaws. They are just two fragile, caring, and gentle souls, not made for the harshness of this world.
Masterpiece.
I felt a mix of enthusiasm, eager to discover how it would end, and fear, dreading the unhappy conclusion I anticipated.
"Goodnight Punpun" is an amazing series, and I hope to reread it in the future, as I'm sure I missed many nuances the first time.
People often describe this series as heavy due to the numerous bad things that happen, but isn't that just life?
Inio Asano has crafted a fantastic portrayal of a young man's journey through life's most defining phases. There’s a scene at the end that perfectly encapsulates this—life is a recurring cycle.
The ending wasn't as bad as I expected, but it still wasn't happy. Life is tragic.
But that’s also its beauty. We find reasons to keep going and find happiness despite the suffering. Yet, not all of us make it. Some lose. Not everyone wins this battle; some barely survive day to day.
Despite everything, I'm still an optimist. Life is full of opportunities, and there is much to be grateful for.
I love Punpun and Aiko, despite their flaws. They are just two fragile, caring, and gentle souls, not made for the harshness of this world.
Masterpiece.
March 28, 2022
Oyasumi Punpun AKA Goodnight Punpun is a life changing manga series. This story and these characters will stick with me forever. I feel that the story as a whole won't get the justice it deserves unless I re-read it which I plan to do in the future for sure, probably many many times.
May 7, 2022
LoL! Cuối cùng đã đến phần cuối cùng! Hoàn toàn hài lòng với tất cả, sau khi hoàn thành thì có lẽ câu chuyện của Punpun và của những nhân vật này mãi "ám" lấy mình. Họ khiến mình đồng cảm, trong suốt 7 Vol truyeenjminhf đã thấy chính mình trong đó - có thể là tự ti, phụ thuộc, sợ hãi...v.v. Mình yêu những nhân vật này, ai cũng làm tốt vai trò của họ trong đó.
Và mình chắc Vol.5, 6, 7 là ba Vol nặng nề nhất! Mình không thể tin là đến cái kết câu chuyện vẫn lé lên tia hy vọng, mỗi con người đều có thể được cứu giúp (nếu họ muốn).
September 21, 2018
WHY WAS THE ENDING SO PERFECT IM CRYINGJBN
WOOOOOWWW. I knew it was gonna happen and yet. I’m still in shock. Brilliant. What a glorious train wreck. Totally obsessed. New favorite.
WOOOOOWWW. I knew it was gonna happen and yet. I’m still in shock. Brilliant. What a glorious train wreck. Totally obsessed. New favorite.
May 11, 2022
i consider this to have a good ending because the only character i care about is seki and he seems happy.
November 20, 2020
Incredible.
Well, incredibly depressing and tragic and heavy and all those words, but incredible.
Spoiler-free review:
The ending drove home a truly realistic message within the somewhat wacky fictional world of Goodnight Punpun. It describes how the psychological downfall of someone in society is much more common than we assume. Characters always wonder why Punpun is always sad, alone, and never showing up to events, but no one ever asks him. His condition worsens throughout the chapters, but everyone either assumes he's doing fine and leaves him alone, or are worried for him, but never step up and try to see him or help him. This realistic depiction of depression and loneliness started off much slower when Punpun was younger at the start of the series, and showed how these feelings ramped up as he got older and entered adulthood. The severity of his actions ramped up at the same rate, with the last few volumes being very dark, with heavy themes and content, as he now had the body of a broken adult rather than a broken child.
If you're considering reading this series, just be ready. There is a lot of sexual content (consentual and non-consentual), some graphic violence, and a lot of suicidal content. This has been known to really affect people because of its truth to reality in terms of depression and mental illness, its dark existentialism, and other similar subject matter.
Though, if you are prepared for it and seek friends or someone to talk to if needed (I'm always around too :) ), it is highly highly suggested. Inio Asano portrays humanity in a way I never would have imagined, and I can keep writing about this series as I look deeper into every minute detail that serves a larger purpose. Just incredible.
Well, incredibly depressing and tragic and heavy and all those words, but incredible.
Spoiler-free review:
The ending drove home a truly realistic message within the somewhat wacky fictional world of Goodnight Punpun. It describes how the psychological downfall of someone in society is much more common than we assume. Characters always wonder why Punpun is always sad, alone, and never showing up to events, but no one ever asks him. His condition worsens throughout the chapters, but everyone either assumes he's doing fine and leaves him alone, or are worried for him, but never step up and try to see him or help him. This realistic depiction of depression and loneliness started off much slower when Punpun was younger at the start of the series, and showed how these feelings ramped up as he got older and entered adulthood. The severity of his actions ramped up at the same rate, with the last few volumes being very dark, with heavy themes and content, as he now had the body of a broken adult rather than a broken child.
If you're considering reading this series, just be ready. There is a lot of sexual content (consentual and non-consentual), some graphic violence, and a lot of suicidal content. This has been known to really affect people because of its truth to reality in terms of depression and mental illness, its dark existentialism, and other similar subject matter.
Though, if you are prepared for it and seek friends or someone to talk to if needed (I'm always around too :) ), it is highly highly suggested. Inio Asano portrays humanity in a way I never would have imagined, and I can keep writing about this series as I look deeper into every minute detail that serves a larger purpose. Just incredible.
June 16, 2021
A truly disappointing conclusion, one that completely abandons many of its most intriguing and long-running themes in favor of pointless and trite philosophizing. The style never fails to entertain, and yet it does feel that, even reaching an unusually high conclusion, we never really went anywhere too far throughout the entire ordeal. Entertaining, mesmerizing art, but an uneven tone and one-dimensional characters that are SCREAMING to be something else, with Asano stubbornly anchoring them to his own moral conceits, are what ultimately bring the story down.
April 15, 2019
This book gave me the most WTFs I've ever encountered reading manga and none of them came from the over the top weirdness action of a made-up world but from the horror one can encounter in daily life. And however twisted the characters, they seemed real enough to me and all the horrible things they did to themselves or others, recognizable.
September 14, 2022
13/10 I won't be reading this manga again and spiral into depression but when i did read, it was worth every minute.
December 21, 2019
I’m tacking this review to the final installment, but it’s really a review of the series as a whole.
Comics like these are so rare. Hell, any kind of book like this is rare. Over 7 volumes, Goodnight Punpun tracks one of the most intensely powerful and emotionally intelligent coming of age stories I have ever read. It’s an absolutely monumental work that still feels microcosmic in its intimate portrayal of a boy growing into various stages of personality, insecurity, mental illness, and social pressures. Punpun is in some ways the patron saint of adolescent depression, but his story of mania and maturation, with shades of Oedipus and Madame Bovary is far too carefully crafted to blur into the realm of the symbolic. Even though Punpun is, himself, portrayed as an abstract doodle - a simplistic bird-ghost thing in a world of stunning photorealism - he has an intense specificity of character that is nothing short of masterful and self aware writing on the part of author Inio Asano.
I really don’t know what to say. You know a piece of art is good when you feel profoundly adrift and sore after finishing it, and that’s how I feel right now. This should go up there with Fun Home and Persepolis in the increasingly esteemed pantheon of “Literary Graphic Novels.” Compulsory reading for any future class concerned with the medium. Just astonishing.
Comics like these are so rare. Hell, any kind of book like this is rare. Over 7 volumes, Goodnight Punpun tracks one of the most intensely powerful and emotionally intelligent coming of age stories I have ever read. It’s an absolutely monumental work that still feels microcosmic in its intimate portrayal of a boy growing into various stages of personality, insecurity, mental illness, and social pressures. Punpun is in some ways the patron saint of adolescent depression, but his story of mania and maturation, with shades of Oedipus and Madame Bovary is far too carefully crafted to blur into the realm of the symbolic. Even though Punpun is, himself, portrayed as an abstract doodle - a simplistic bird-ghost thing in a world of stunning photorealism - he has an intense specificity of character that is nothing short of masterful and self aware writing on the part of author Inio Asano.
I really don’t know what to say. You know a piece of art is good when you feel profoundly adrift and sore after finishing it, and that’s how I feel right now. This should go up there with Fun Home and Persepolis in the increasingly esteemed pantheon of “Literary Graphic Novels.” Compulsory reading for any future class concerned with the medium. Just astonishing.
October 19, 2025
gonna reflect on this for the next one hour ugh
February 8, 2018
What a ride. Everything flows really nice and the artwork from Asano is probably some of the best out there (in the genre). Kind of a difficult read since it gets really really dark and heavy but still remain consistent throughout. Really recommend it to everyone who is on the fence with manga since this series is highly original and quite flawless in my opinion.
All in all a great ending to a superb series
All in all a great ending to a superb series
August 23, 2023
4.5 I have the big sad now, thanks PunPun
January 14, 2024
Fucking hell
April 29, 2024
This series broke my heart in new ways. I loved it and I can't recommend it to anyone.
October 30, 2024
Perfect (and frighteningly realistic) ending. Now I'd like to read the fluffiest fluff that ever fluffed, please and thank you!
December 21, 2025
These books... I didn't review the previous books because I feel that this series needs to be reviewed as a whole, rather than individually. I was very intrigued! I watched Punpun's life spiral out of control from one of innocence and childhood love, to one of manipulation and suicidal tendencies. I fell in love with the first book; it was funny, witty, and I found it easy to relate to Punpun. The author, Inio Asano, didn't sugarcoat things and presented the story like it would happen in real life. When we come to the end of the story with Aiko dead and her mother murdered, I can't help but wonder how it came to this? Except I know exactly how, and I know exactly why. I stood by the sidelines when Punpun's father was taken into police custody. I listened to the verbal abuse Punpun took from his mother. I stood by when he was raped by his Uncle Yuichi's girlfriend. Punpun struggled with his feelings for Aiko, depression and thoughts of suicide. Yet that's all I could do, watch. Instead of using his experiences to grow, Punpun let the world beat him down. He became more and more miserable. It becomes clear that Punpun isn't going to up and rid of himself of this depression. The story ends with Aiko hanging from a rope, and Punpun mere minutes away from ending his own life.
This series... was depressing. I had just gone through a rough breakup. I thought I had found someone that I could spend the rest of my life with, but that was not the case… I felt like I had been dealt all the right cards. Our relationship was beautiful, I had my first real estate investment, and was running a moderately successful business. I had many opportunities to travel, and I felt like my life was in a good place. Yet when life decides to kick you in the balls, it kicks you hard. I crashed my car, and received a speeding ticket. I proposed to my girlfriend and was rejected. My dogs were taken away by the state for eating my neighbors chickens. Don’t let me forget that a tree branch fell on my truck, breaking my windshield and mirror. This all happened in the same week! My following depression changed my entire world view, religion, and career. This is when I stumbled upon Goodnight Punpun, which honestly, was probably the worst time I could discover this manga series. Because I was already so depressed, and this series made me even more depressed. I had felt so alone in my pain and despair. Inio Asano took me into deep waters, forcing me to look down into the depths of the abyss. When I finished this book, I had recognized something. Sachi was there to save Punpun before his last moments, and so were my friends for me. That even when you tread upon the waters of the abyss, there is that hope. Goodnight Punpun serves as a reminder that if we allow the world to continually beat us down, life will only get worse. If we allow self pity to perpetuate, our situation, attitudes and quality of life will deteriorate into a dark void of despair. Our friends remind us that we are loved, but ultimately it is up to us to climb out of the hole that is depression. Goodnight Punpun is profound, and even with its weird quirks, I will give this series a 10/10.
This series... was depressing. I had just gone through a rough breakup. I thought I had found someone that I could spend the rest of my life with, but that was not the case… I felt like I had been dealt all the right cards. Our relationship was beautiful, I had my first real estate investment, and was running a moderately successful business. I had many opportunities to travel, and I felt like my life was in a good place. Yet when life decides to kick you in the balls, it kicks you hard. I crashed my car, and received a speeding ticket. I proposed to my girlfriend and was rejected. My dogs were taken away by the state for eating my neighbors chickens. Don’t let me forget that a tree branch fell on my truck, breaking my windshield and mirror. This all happened in the same week! My following depression changed my entire world view, religion, and career. This is when I stumbled upon Goodnight Punpun, which honestly, was probably the worst time I could discover this manga series. Because I was already so depressed, and this series made me even more depressed. I had felt so alone in my pain and despair. Inio Asano took me into deep waters, forcing me to look down into the depths of the abyss. When I finished this book, I had recognized something. Sachi was there to save Punpun before his last moments, and so were my friends for me. That even when you tread upon the waters of the abyss, there is that hope. Goodnight Punpun serves as a reminder that if we allow the world to continually beat us down, life will only get worse. If we allow self pity to perpetuate, our situation, attitudes and quality of life will deteriorate into a dark void of despair. Our friends remind us that we are loved, but ultimately it is up to us to climb out of the hole that is depression. Goodnight Punpun is profound, and even with its weird quirks, I will give this series a 10/10.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 13, 2018
I'm still digesting this last volume. Aiko and Punpun realize they can't stay on the run forever, and the cult is heading toward a bad end and Seki might not be able to save Shimizu from the cult. The theme of caring for other despite the odds is so painfully detailed because you care for these kids. Ever since the explosion, they've been damaged but trying to look out for each other, except for Shuntaro, who is in the final chapter at the reunion. He lives a normal, happy and easy life.
Shuntaro runs into Punpun at a park and they reminisce about their childhood. Punpun is realistically drawn, but his face is always obscured by something like word boxes, trees or something. It become clear that what has saved Punpun is having friends and making his own family. The next day at school, Shuntaro introduces a sad and jaded new girl to his classroom and a little boy seems to fall in love with her at first sight and the cycle of Punpun and Aiko's relationship and the little boy and his group of friends seem destined to be repeated.
There's also a lovely scene outlined in black border to show the passage of time between the denouement of the climax and the epilogue near their school reunion.
Overall it has been a beautiful and heart-wrenching series.
Shuntaro runs into Punpun at a park and they reminisce about their childhood. Punpun is realistically drawn, but his face is always obscured by something like word boxes, trees or something. It become clear that what has saved Punpun is having friends and making his own family. The next day at school, Shuntaro introduces a sad and jaded new girl to his classroom and a little boy seems to fall in love with her at first sight and the cycle of Punpun and Aiko's relationship and the little boy and his group of friends seem destined to be repeated.
There's also a lovely scene outlined in black border to show the passage of time between the denouement of the climax and the epilogue near their school reunion.
Overall it has been a beautiful and heart-wrenching series.
May 22, 2021
Loved this series but definitely read it slowly and if you're in a good headspace
December 14, 2023
Wow! What an emotional rollercoaster this was. This was perfection.
December 30, 2023
I am glad that it's over. Goodnight Punpun.
June 14, 2023
I don’t know what to do with my life
This series has accomplished something I rarely see in a story- this being that upon completing it, I am filled with a hollow feeling that lasts for days, and I can’t stop thinking about it. Jake Rodkin’s 2016 game “Firewatch” had a similar effect, Dazai and Ito’s combined additions to “No Longer Human” were ridiculously dark and left a similar emptiness, and a handful of other stories come to mind; “Mary and Max” and Hertzfeldt’s “It’s such a beautiful day” in particular. This being said, I think all of those stories are fantastic, but I don’t think any of them conveyed as much emotional depth as Inio Asano’s “Goodnight Punpun”. Each of these stories have the necessary moments of brevity and lighter tones, but “Goodnight Punpun” spends hundreds and hundreds of pages setting up much lighter scenes with countless NECESSARY happy and humorous moments, and it rarely overwhelms the reader without warning. (I’ll try to continue on this later). I’ve seen examples of stories that forget to include moments of normality and brevity, that throw readers directly into a pit of darkness, which for some stories can work, but for something as long as this, the lighter chapters were vital. Of all the things Inio Asano did right when writing this volumes, he always had a complete understanding of when to change the mood of the story. It felt as if he always remembered every single emotional beat, motif, recurring element, and he was always able to bring them back at the times when they would be most impactful.
Through its 150 or so chapters, “Goodnight Punpun” tells the convoluted story of Punpun Onodera’s childhood, mainly through his perspective, almost always hearing his own thoughts about his experiences, both universal, and private. The story lasts for about two decades, and we follow Punpun as he grows up, or rather, as he does everything he can to avoid growing up. Tragedy befalls him in a variety of ways, and his own personality twists and shifts in ways he was never equipped to control. I don’t plan on spoiling anything except for the most basic elements of the story, but I also want to have more structure than I normally do for this review, so I’ll go over my brief-ish thoughts on each volume, and after that I’ll try to wrap up my final thoughts along with some of the most persistent themes or ideas.
Volume one of “Goodnight Punpun” is far far far and away the most digestible volume in the series. This isn’t to say it isn’t emotionally potent, it absolutely is, but because it focuses on Punpun as he goes through elementary school, most of the themes revolve around the innocence of Punpun and his friends getting into situations that they aren’t ready for. Volume one is perfect in my eyes, both as an introduction to a story/cast of characters, but as a stand-alone book. It was entirely unlike anything else I’d ever read. Readers are introduced to Asano’s incredible art, that varies DRASTICALLY in terms of detail, and readers are also introduced to the chaotic and sporadic nature in which Asano tells stories, always jumping around the pages, switching topics and focuses. We meet Punpun, his family, Aiko, his friends (only a few of which will remain present throughout the story, Seki and Shimizu), and most importantly, we meet God. Like I mentioned, I won’t go too in depth with the story as to avoid spoiling, but I really love volume one and it isn’t too heartbreaking. We see the first cracks in Punpun’s innocence as he fails to keep his promise to Aiko.
Volume two is super weird, probably the most abnormal volume of the series, at least relative to what we know at this point. The first time I read it, most of volume two felt disconnected from what was established in the first volume, but going back through it, I actually appreciate how jarring of a shift occurred in the story. The jump between one and two feels like the most prominent time skip in the series, but i can forgive this because the time in between the two volumes was literally just punpun studying for two years. The way the time in between was described was as a period of nothing in punpuns life, so I’m okay missing it. Volume two goes over middle school, and so much if it is so hard to read because of how realistically awkward it is. Punpuns uncle Yuichi is featured a surprising amount here, and the family dynamics for the Onoderas are explored much more thoroughly here than in any other volume. But volume two, and volume three as well, are much more uncomfortably weird than volume one, to a point where punpuns largest flaws begin to show vividly in these volumes. He still appears innocent and inexperienced when he makes mistakes but his grace period is beginning to run out.
Volume three, which I covered a bit when talking about volume two, and there isn’t too much else to say other than it covers punpun in highschool, and it’s super weird and still just as amazing as every other volume. It’s at this point that all the volumes seem to blend together and their stories become pretty cohesive. At first this was something I didn’t like but now it makes sense because the story went from checking in every so often to capturing everything punpun does. Volume 3 also introduces Pegasus I believe, which acts as a parralel to punpuns story throughout the entire rest of the series. Overall, this is great. Every volume is great.
Volumes four and five, I also don’t have much to say about specifically, because they have so much substance and are so consistently good that there isn’t anything to critique. These two volumes represent the last moments where punpun is redeemable. He meets sachi again, who becomes of my favorite characters in the series, Pegasus grows his followers, punpun reunites with aiko (kinda), so a ton of stuff happens in four and five, but they don’t separate from each other like the rest of the volumes do. These volumes are so plot based and are so fun to read that by the time I was reading these, I was so invested in the story that I finished both of them in one sitting. So, four and five are excellent, and they focus on developing new characters while trying to spice up the monotony of punpuns work life.
Volume six is where everything that’s been built upon for thousands of pages starts to click and set in. Volume six is a difficult read for many reasons, the main one being that it fully reveals how much punpun changed before our very eyes and he now sucks so so much as an individual, but we still have to see him get his way. The ending of this book is brutal, to say the least. Punpun leaves all the things that were good to him behind, and he treats everyone horribly. He loses sight of what’s real and what’s wrong and he acts on things for all the wrong reasons. We see his physical appearance take on it’s most symbolic form here. Volume six was hard to get through, but alongside volume seven, it’s the magnum opus of the series.
Volume seven, the shortest and final volume of the series, is haunting. There are multiple scenes that are among the most depressing and visceral I’ve read in ANY story, but it does all of this while making the reader think these scenes are necessary. Volume seven parralels volume one in some ways, finishing the series off in the same exact way it started, only with a very different tone. This is far and away the best volume in terms of the number of pages that I’ll never forget. That being said, I never want to read it again!
Just my quick final thoughts. This series is worth reading because the outlook it gives on experiencing childhood trauma, trying to get through it, struggling at connecting with others, all of these aspects of growing up, this series absolutely nails, and it really makes you feel for punpun. This series is also worth reading because it shows how dangerous someone can become by making a few wrong decisions, or by becoming obsessed with a perfect future, that can’t naturally fall into place. This series is worth reading for many reasons, but it also took a lot out of me so that’s good to know. I worry about the author, I hope he’s okay and not a weird guy.
A real true genuine perfect 5/5, all seven volumes are perfect in my eyes.
This series has accomplished something I rarely see in a story- this being that upon completing it, I am filled with a hollow feeling that lasts for days, and I can’t stop thinking about it. Jake Rodkin’s 2016 game “Firewatch” had a similar effect, Dazai and Ito’s combined additions to “No Longer Human” were ridiculously dark and left a similar emptiness, and a handful of other stories come to mind; “Mary and Max” and Hertzfeldt’s “It’s such a beautiful day” in particular. This being said, I think all of those stories are fantastic, but I don’t think any of them conveyed as much emotional depth as Inio Asano’s “Goodnight Punpun”. Each of these stories have the necessary moments of brevity and lighter tones, but “Goodnight Punpun” spends hundreds and hundreds of pages setting up much lighter scenes with countless NECESSARY happy and humorous moments, and it rarely overwhelms the reader without warning. (I’ll try to continue on this later). I’ve seen examples of stories that forget to include moments of normality and brevity, that throw readers directly into a pit of darkness, which for some stories can work, but for something as long as this, the lighter chapters were vital. Of all the things Inio Asano did right when writing this volumes, he always had a complete understanding of when to change the mood of the story. It felt as if he always remembered every single emotional beat, motif, recurring element, and he was always able to bring them back at the times when they would be most impactful.
Through its 150 or so chapters, “Goodnight Punpun” tells the convoluted story of Punpun Onodera’s childhood, mainly through his perspective, almost always hearing his own thoughts about his experiences, both universal, and private. The story lasts for about two decades, and we follow Punpun as he grows up, or rather, as he does everything he can to avoid growing up. Tragedy befalls him in a variety of ways, and his own personality twists and shifts in ways he was never equipped to control. I don’t plan on spoiling anything except for the most basic elements of the story, but I also want to have more structure than I normally do for this review, so I’ll go over my brief-ish thoughts on each volume, and after that I’ll try to wrap up my final thoughts along with some of the most persistent themes or ideas.
Volume one of “Goodnight Punpun” is far far far and away the most digestible volume in the series. This isn’t to say it isn’t emotionally potent, it absolutely is, but because it focuses on Punpun as he goes through elementary school, most of the themes revolve around the innocence of Punpun and his friends getting into situations that they aren’t ready for. Volume one is perfect in my eyes, both as an introduction to a story/cast of characters, but as a stand-alone book. It was entirely unlike anything else I’d ever read. Readers are introduced to Asano’s incredible art, that varies DRASTICALLY in terms of detail, and readers are also introduced to the chaotic and sporadic nature in which Asano tells stories, always jumping around the pages, switching topics and focuses. We meet Punpun, his family, Aiko, his friends (only a few of which will remain present throughout the story, Seki and Shimizu), and most importantly, we meet God. Like I mentioned, I won’t go too in depth with the story as to avoid spoiling, but I really love volume one and it isn’t too heartbreaking. We see the first cracks in Punpun’s innocence as he fails to keep his promise to Aiko.
Volume two is super weird, probably the most abnormal volume of the series, at least relative to what we know at this point. The first time I read it, most of volume two felt disconnected from what was established in the first volume, but going back through it, I actually appreciate how jarring of a shift occurred in the story. The jump between one and two feels like the most prominent time skip in the series, but i can forgive this because the time in between the two volumes was literally just punpun studying for two years. The way the time in between was described was as a period of nothing in punpuns life, so I’m okay missing it. Volume two goes over middle school, and so much if it is so hard to read because of how realistically awkward it is. Punpuns uncle Yuichi is featured a surprising amount here, and the family dynamics for the Onoderas are explored much more thoroughly here than in any other volume. But volume two, and volume three as well, are much more uncomfortably weird than volume one, to a point where punpuns largest flaws begin to show vividly in these volumes. He still appears innocent and inexperienced when he makes mistakes but his grace period is beginning to run out.
Volume three, which I covered a bit when talking about volume two, and there isn’t too much else to say other than it covers punpun in highschool, and it’s super weird and still just as amazing as every other volume. It’s at this point that all the volumes seem to blend together and their stories become pretty cohesive. At first this was something I didn’t like but now it makes sense because the story went from checking in every so often to capturing everything punpun does. Volume 3 also introduces Pegasus I believe, which acts as a parralel to punpuns story throughout the entire rest of the series. Overall, this is great. Every volume is great.
Volumes four and five, I also don’t have much to say about specifically, because they have so much substance and are so consistently good that there isn’t anything to critique. These two volumes represent the last moments where punpun is redeemable. He meets sachi again, who becomes of my favorite characters in the series, Pegasus grows his followers, punpun reunites with aiko (kinda), so a ton of stuff happens in four and five, but they don’t separate from each other like the rest of the volumes do. These volumes are so plot based and are so fun to read that by the time I was reading these, I was so invested in the story that I finished both of them in one sitting. So, four and five are excellent, and they focus on developing new characters while trying to spice up the monotony of punpuns work life.
Volume six is where everything that’s been built upon for thousands of pages starts to click and set in. Volume six is a difficult read for many reasons, the main one being that it fully reveals how much punpun changed before our very eyes and he now sucks so so much as an individual, but we still have to see him get his way. The ending of this book is brutal, to say the least. Punpun leaves all the things that were good to him behind, and he treats everyone horribly. He loses sight of what’s real and what’s wrong and he acts on things for all the wrong reasons. We see his physical appearance take on it’s most symbolic form here. Volume six was hard to get through, but alongside volume seven, it’s the magnum opus of the series.
Volume seven, the shortest and final volume of the series, is haunting. There are multiple scenes that are among the most depressing and visceral I’ve read in ANY story, but it does all of this while making the reader think these scenes are necessary. Volume seven parralels volume one in some ways, finishing the series off in the same exact way it started, only with a very different tone. This is far and away the best volume in terms of the number of pages that I’ll never forget. That being said, I never want to read it again!
Just my quick final thoughts. This series is worth reading because the outlook it gives on experiencing childhood trauma, trying to get through it, struggling at connecting with others, all of these aspects of growing up, this series absolutely nails, and it really makes you feel for punpun. This series is also worth reading because it shows how dangerous someone can become by making a few wrong decisions, or by becoming obsessed with a perfect future, that can’t naturally fall into place. This series is worth reading for many reasons, but it also took a lot out of me so that’s good to know. I worry about the author, I hope he’s okay and not a weird guy.
A real true genuine perfect 5/5, all seven volumes are perfect in my eyes.
July 31, 2025
When I finished Goodnight Punpun, I didn't know what to rate it. Someone else described this story as a slice of life that slices back. And I think I agree. I got some "No Longer Human" by Osamu Dazai vibes while reading, but it's been a while since I've read it. Maybe it's just cause they're both Japanese. Overall, it's a solid story that puts heavy themes in the spotlight. In my opinion, it's the manga format that helps deepen the delivery of this story. The art is phenomenal and I liked the depiction of Punpun as a bird.
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