Take a poorly-drawn cartoon bird who never speaks, a broken family, an afro-clad 'god', mentally troubled children, outright insane adults, a large dose of surrealism as well as realism, and a soul-crushing amount of cynicism and you have Oyasumi Punpun.Oyasumi Punpun ("Goodnight, Punpun") is a supremely bizarre Seinen manga by Inio Asano about the title character, Punpun. Punpun is young, innocent, and naive child, who, in some kind of strange stylistic choice, is depicted as a simplistic sketch of a bird despite everyone outside of his family looking like a normal human. He has no real dreams, his father is an abusive deadbeat (at least, he appears to be), and his mother is a drunk who regrets having him, but Punpun has one thing: a pretty girl named Aiko whom he fawns over. Well, her, and an afro'd and slightly useless god he can summon by chanting 'Dear God, dear God, tinkle-tinkle hoy!'The story begins as Slice of Life comedy, following Punpun through his childhood as he deals with his family life, his school life, his social life, and his budding romantic life. While noticeably dark, it also contains a hint of child-like innocence. However, as the series progresses, it develops into an extremely dark Coming of Age story, with all innocence being wiped away. While the humor remains, it takes a backseat to experiences of Punpun, his family, and his acquaintances as they deal with the hardships of adolescence, adulthood, and life in general.Currently, the series is ongoing with eight volumes out in Japan. The series is however available in Italy and France where other works by Asano were published, in spite of the apparent obscurity of the series and the very mature themes it addresses.
Also, the 16-year-old daughter of one of Yuuichi's art students claims that she is a victim, but it's ambiguous as to whether she was lying to get attention.
Or Seki's dad, a neglectful drunk.
Sachi's stepfamily comes off this way as well, although their abuse was more verbal/mental.
The Ace: Yaguchi. Handsome, outstanding athlete, gentlemanly, and rumored to have a huge dick. He sadly lost (maybe) his athletic ability due to his injuries. Probably the only male character in the manga who is not broken or crazy in some ways.
Punpun probably also used to be an ace in the eyes of others (good looking (apparently), good grades but not nerdy, cool and aloof), until Kanie gave him a Heroic BSOD that completely drained him of all confidence, leading him to where he is now.
Beware the Nice Ones: Midori. She rapes Punpun after Yuuichi's actions leave her emotionally distraught.
The 16-year old daughter of Yuuichi's art student. She used her body to persuade an adult to try to kill her mother, and Yuuichi was almost trapped.
Blatant Lies: Punpun's father keeps sending him letters that he is off fighting giant space aliens. Punpun didn't buy it when he was a little kid and thinks his father is being an idiot.
Almost justified since Mama Punpun was actually sending him those letters, so he wouldn't hate his father.
Can Not Spit It Out: Punpun towards Aiko, initially. The entire Punpun family is like this in general, one of the motifs in the manga is how they cannot communicate effectively with each other.
Chekhov's Gunman: Punpun and his friends actually meet Sachi very early on, at the miso factory. However her face appears very different when she shows up again due to her plastic surgery.
Death Equals Redemption: Subverted. Mama Punpun apologizes to Punpun before she dies for treating him badly, but even then Punpun still can't bring himself to love her.
Gonk: Tons of characters. They generally look normal with the exception of, say, having horribly glazed eyes staring in different directions, or gaping smiles. One of Punpun's childhood friends, Komatsu, has eyes that are a little too open, and sure enough, the audience loses sympathy with him at the same time he goes completely Gonk.
Informed Attribute: It is occasionally implied that Punpun and his uncle are good looking. Presumably they don't look like cartoon birds to everyone else.
It's All About Me: Several characters get called out for being self-centered, notably Punpun by Kanie.
Minimalistic Cover Art: The volume covers are a solid color embossed only with a picture of Punpun or one of his relatives—Volume 1◊'s cover is pretty representative of the others.
Non-Standard Character Design: Punpun and his family. The design's recently changed from the bird sketch to a tetrahedron. Yeah, a tetrahedron.
Obfuscating Stupidity: Shimizu, despite his dreamy tendencies, seems to have a pretty good head on his shoulders and merely lacks the independence to show it.
Put on a Bus: As the story goes on Aiko become less and less prominent, and after Punpun leaves for high school she hasn't been seen since outside of flashback.
Though as of chapter 72 she appears to have returned.
She returns in a big way at the last few pages of Chapter 89, the last chapter of its volume. Good cliffhanger.
And as of now, "God". He wouldn't appear when Punpun called him after moving into his apartment and hasn't been seen since. Counts as a bus because well, he's god.
Silent Protagonist: Early in the manga, Punpun only speaks through internal monologue. However, this doesn't appear to prevent him from communicating with others.
Take That: Asano Inio makes quite a few blatant stabs at the current trend of childishness in anime and manga, including a very poorly drawn young girl in her underwear drawn in the last page of chapter 89 prompting readers to buy the next volume standing next to an equally poorly drawn anthropomorphic crocodile, and an unusually placed rant by a nameless character about the "impurity" of actual women over 2-D fictional variants.
The surrealism has been toned down significantly in the recent chapters.
Except not, since Punpun turns into a walking tetrahedron.
Punpun's character's design has always been non standard. Other surrealist features common in the initial chapters like Gonk characters, God, weird poses, freakish actions and the like have been significantly toned down. Some have disappeared altogether.
Take a poorly-drawn cartoon bird who never speaks, a broken family, an afro-clad 'god', mentally troubled children, outright insane adults, a large dose of surrealism as well as realism, and a soul-crushing amount of cynicism and you have Oyasumi Punpun.Oyasumi Punpun ("Goodnight, Punpun") is a supremely bizarre Seinen manga by Inio Asano about the title character, Punpun. Punpun is young, innocent, and naive child, who, in some kind of strange stylistic choice, is depicted as a simplistic sketch of a bird despite everyone outside of his family looking like a normal human. He has no real dreams, his father is an abusive deadbeat (at least, he appears to be), and his mother is a drunk who regrets having him, but Punpun has one thing: a pretty girl named Aiko whom he fawns over. Well, her, and an afro'd and slightly useless god he can summon by chanting 'Dear God, dear God, tinkle-tinkle hoy!'The story begins as Slice of Life comedy, following Punpun through his childhood as he deals with his family life, his school life, his social life, and his budding romantic life. While noticeably dark, it also contains a hint of child-like innocence. However, as the series progresses, it develops into an extremely dark Coming of Age story, with all innocence being wiped away. While the humor remains, it takes a backseat to experiences of Punpun, his family, and his acquaintances as they deal with the hardships of adolescence, adulthood, and life in general.Currently, the series is ongoing with eight volumes out in Japan. The series is however available in Italy
and France
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