History Manga / GoodnightPunpun

** Aiko's stepmom abuses her verbally, emotionally and physically, and forces her to take part in her cult. The effects of this abuse on Aiko become very clear in later chapters.

* AllForNothing: As if the manga's final stretch wasn't horrifically depressing enough, [[spoiler: the ending reveals that Punpun and Aiko's tragic journey together was completely pointless. They were running away from the law after having killed Aiko's mom, which Punpun feels personally culpable for. However, he'd merely acted in self-defense when he killed her, as she was attacking him and Aiko with clear malicious intent. Although he'd be obligated to alert the authorities and get the whole incident squared with them, legally he's not guilty of any crime. Had he simply called the police instead of panicking and skipping town, the pair would have avoided so much hassle and grief. Punpun is shown to still be a free man after the detectives question him in his hospital bed, so it's likely that he just told them what happened and he was cleared of the crimes suspected of him.]]

* BlatantLies: 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. Justified since it was revealed that [[spoiler:Mama Punpun was actually sending him those letters]], so that [[spoiler:Punpun wouldn't hate his father]].

* CaughtWithYourPantsDown: When Aiko and Punpun go back to Aiko's place to [[spoiler:tell her mother that they're leaving together without her]], they interrupt her mother masturbating.

** Aiko's mom is a member of one, and forces Aiko to go door-to-door passing out tracts, much to her embarrassment.

** Although Punpun wasn't exactly in a good place mentally to begin with, [[spoiler: it's clear that killing Aiko's mother [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone weighs heavily on his shoulders]]. From that point on, he talks even less, becomes abusive to Aiko, constantly speculates on how much time he'd be spending in prison, and then plans a murder-suicide with Aiko because he feels the need to atone for what he's done]].
** It's unclear when Aiko's is, but there are three distinct possibilities: either [[spoiler:almost getting killed by her mother, and then seeing Punpun murder her]], or [[spoiler:hearing the radio transmission of the discovery of her mother's body and the search for her whereabouts]] right after [[spoiler:finding a new place to live with Punpun, as well as a promising job]], or [[spoiler:discovering that her relative who could've helped with her and Punpun's injuries has closed his clinic and moved to the city]], meaning that [[spoiler:she might very well die before they can make it back to town]].

** And then there's Aiko with her abusive, fanatical mother.

* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:Midori]] never gets any repercussions for [[spoiler:raping Punpun]].

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: In chapter 113, right before Punpun [[spoiler:snaps and attacks Aiko's mother]], the [[PerpetualSmiler always smiling]] "God" suddenly stops, taking on a serious expression as he says "Good morning, Punpun." From this point onward, he does it every time things go even more wrong, most notably when [[spoiler:Punpun discovers Aiko's corpse after she hung herself.]]

** [[spoiler:Punpun killing Aiko's abusive mother after she tries to stab him and then does stab Aiko.]]

* YankTheDogsChain: Happens to Punpun and Aiko frequently, especially in the later volumes, [[spoiler:when they're on the run after Punpun murdered Aiko's mom]]. Example that stands out the most would have to be [[spoiler:the unfortunate radio transmission]] in chapter 134, [[spoiler:reporting the discovery of Aiko's mom's body, and the search starting up to find Aiko]], right after [[spoiler:Punpun and Aiko finally find a job and a place to live]].

* ThirteenIsUnlucky: The manga has an exact total of thirteen volumes, and... it's ''not'' a happy story, to say the least.

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: In chapter 113, right before Punpun [[spoiler:snaps and attacks Aiko's mother]], the [[PerpetualSmiler always smiling]] "God" suddenly stops, taking on a serious expression as he says "Good morning, Punpun." From this point onward, he does it every time things go even more wrong, most notably when [[spoiler:he discovers Aiko's corpse after she hung herself.]]

** Punpun's family. There's a jobless, deadbeat father and an unstable mother. His uncle seems to be a stabilizing force when he's introduced, but even he has issues of his own; he's just really good at not showing them in front of Punpun. Sadly, the period when Punpun's uncle and his girlfriend are living with him and his mother is probably the most stable the house is at any point, as there's at least more warmth and intimacy than later on when he's alone with his .

* {{Mukokuseki}}: Averted. The characters are drawn with normal black and brown hair colors and everyone generally looks more realistic than most series.

* NotGoodWithPeople: Every major character in the story has some issues with people or dealing with others. Punpun and Aiko, in particular, are the greatest examples of this.

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 [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism soul-crushing amount of cynicism]] and you have ''Goodnight Punpun''.

%%Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1644043685084767900
%%Please don't change or remove without starting a new thread.

* ThisIndexTouchesItself:
** Both Punpun and his uncle are shown masturbating at various points, although not in any graphic detail.
** When Aiko and Punpun go back to Aiko's place to [[spoiler:tell her mother that they're leaving together without her]], they interrupt her mother masturbating. Later on, [[spoiler:after her death]], a deliveryman drops a package off for Aiko's mother. Punpun opens it, revealing a very expensive vibrator.

* ADateWithRosiePalms:
** Both Punpun and his uncle are shown masturbating at various points, although not in any graphic detail.
** When Aiko and Punpun go back to Aiko's place to [[spoiler:tell her mother that they're leaving together without her]], they interrupt her mother masturbating. Later on, [[spoiler:after her death]], a deliveryman drops a package off for Aiko's mother. Punpun opens it, revealing a very expensive vibrator.

->''Dear God, dear God, tinkle-hoy''

[[quoteright:269:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/punpun.JPG]]

* NonStandardCharacterDesign: Punpun and his family are all depicted as cartoony bird-like figures with stick arms and legs, and in Mama Punpun's case, tubular breasts that stick straight out like long balloons. Punpun's design in particular actually goes through unusual changes later in the story, in a manner that's [[SurrealSymbolicHeads indicative of his state of mind at the time]]. In the later chapters, when he's at his lowest points, he's actually drawn as human, but with a misshapen balloon-like head that sometimes has horns.

* WhatTheHellHero:
** The most outstanding one has to go to [[spoiler:Midori]], for [[spoiler:raping Punpun]] during a moment of extreme emotional distress.
** From Chapter 102 and onwards, [[spoiler:Punpun]] just keeps going through a downwards-spiral of these, the biggest being [[spoiler:killing Aiko's mom]].

The series ended publication in Japan at thirteen volumes. The series is licensed in Italy and France where other works by Asano were published. Creator/VIZMedia released it in English in March 2016 in seven large-format tankobons.