(Apologies if this read is messy and these kinds of post are overly common)
This is my fifth manga I’ve completed, been reading it over the past month, and I couldn’t just leave this with nothing to note about. I already knew this wasn’t going to be an easy read at all but goddamn.
This story feels like the bleakest, most depressing, brutally honest, and unapologetic piece of work I think I’ll ever come across. So much of it I love, yet so much of it makes me uncomfortable. One thing that contributes to that is Asano’s art. Everything feels so immersive and detailed, and it makes the raw, human ugliness I feel he’s portraying drilled into my mind. Almost every read, especially in the last chapters, left me either with goosebumps, in tears, empty, and sometimes all combined. Like even for its peaceful moments, there’s something dark waiting next panel or chapter. Every character feels flawed and realistic as well.
Punpun himself makes me feel extremely conflicted.
Character wise, I think he’s awesome: humanly messy, realistic, filled with depth. He makes the manga feel like I’m watching a real documentary and not just a story. I also love how his character design grows more absurd and disturbing as he grows older, it’s unsettling but narratively compelling.
But as a person, I’m unsure. Like yeah, Punpun grew up in a bad environment where every adult failed him in a different way (especially Midori). That messes you up as a kid and negatively affects your mind as you grow older, I can understand and sympathize with that, I even related to him as a kid. Yet and the same time, as an adult, he’s really unlikable, like a lot of stuff he does (mostly to Aiko, that’s just indefensible) makes me want to knock his teeth in. It’s like every time I think he can’t get any lower in his life, he gets lower. It all makes me think “I feel him” yet “I don’t like him” at the same time. Incredibly memorable protagonist writing, honestly.
And I feel so unbelievably bad for Aiko, yes she is also flawed but poor woman deserved so much better. Miserable for her whole life and spending her last years being dragged into someone else’s (Punpun) misery and reduced to an abuse and frustration outlet up until her suicide.
But still, they both deserved better lives and would’ve been better (not fully, but to some degree) if they hadn’t met or surrounded by adults who give a damn. That’s my main tragedy.
I feel hollow, drained, and exhausted from tears. I don’t think I can forget about this even if I wanted to. So I guess it did its job?
TL:DR: I will treasure this manga forever but I don’t think I want to experience it again. I’d give it an overall 9.5-10/10.
I enjoyed reading you’re review
There is truly no other manga like punpun. I’ve read it probably 4 times all the way through, and each time it’s able to be a different experience. Not because the manga itself has changed, but because as the years go by, and I gain new experiences, my view on life changes, and in turn certain elements of the story hit differently.
My 25th birthday is next month, which means punpun is due for a reread. I wonder how it’ll hit me this time, but one things for sure. The tanabata chapter will have me in tears once again…
i think the fact that it has such a ditsy/playful art style and character builds play well with the contrast of just how far away the story goes from what one might assume to be a script of fairytale love with the way it starts out. inio asano’s ability to balance that playfulness with the grim reality of human psyche & inhumane levels of self interest are what kept me glued to it more than any story i’d read before. as dark and unforgiving as it is, i dont think it wouldve been quite as captivating if he held back on tragedy. imo it’s kind of a cautionary tale on why two broken homes dont make a fixed one.
also i kinda dropped reading after i stopped taking pub transit + had a bit of a bender phase, but right at the end of my manga days i was just transitioning into solanin. it’s another one from the same mangaka, much more lighthearted but still feeling heavily grounded in reality. been wanting to get back into it all, just struggle to find the idle time. would recommend if you liked punpun but find it hard to go back.
i’ve been on and off with manga and punpun is the first one i’ve read in years. it’s very beautiful in the way it portrays the cycle of abuse SO well that it also made me uncomfortable because of how REAL and ugly the manga gets. i’m aiming to buy the whole series, it’s so well done.