Oyasumi Punpun: The Manga That Broken Me
One of the best manga ever, if not the best. I will have to say, I will fail miserably when I have to describe this manga. It drove me insane, all these feels… I still can’t comprehend the number of times I was speechless and defeated; left at a blank state of mind. It all felt too damn relatable. This is very depressing, and excruciatingly awesome. My mind is numb while writing this and while I have completed reading it… I feel as if I won’t ever read something like this again. Misery. Despair. Hope. Happiness and Loneliness. All of it portrayed on a grander scale on a depressing reality. The story is a slice of life featuring Punpun, with whom you grow more and more acustomed… Somewhere along the line, the manga made me feel as if I am the main character, am Punpun himself… And everything felt so real, so depressing… I can’t express this with words. I was utterly awestruck by how much I could imagine myself as Punpun, about how this world is.. Oyasumi Punpun isn’t your run of the mill slice of life with happy go lucky characters. This takes a path of its own. The best coming of age manga and one with best dark humour. A psychological thriller of sorts, that dwelves heavily on the introspection of the characters and their situations, their relationships, and how they behave to be a part of the society and to face or shun reality. The manga excels in almost every department. It’s a complete package. Even with that said let’s take a look at the story and characters. Now am not separting the sotry and characters because of the fact that these two fields intertwine a lot here. In fact, it won’t be much of stretch to say that the characters are the focus of the story. Anyway that said, the manga is about Punpun, drawn as a caricature bird, about his struggles through life, about his love and romance, about his family and relationships, about his detachment from the reality, and about growing up in general. One needs to actually read it to get a feel of what I am speaking because this manga is way beyond the point of striking definites. It a social dystopia, atleast that’s what the manga shows through Punpun’s eyes and we being to understand more and more about him as we progress. We see how Punpun struggles to cope with reality, with social interactions and relationships. How his guilt and regret eats him up… All of it is so vividly protrayed in the form of that titular bird… Well, it strikes home. Literally. If there is any manga that can give you a serious case of depression, well this is it! Later though, we see how Punpun tries to become “normal” and how he defines “normal”… And as we understand after the end chapter… I gave it wonderous clap. I mean after all that, after all those depressing moments and all of it… “What exactly is normal, anyway?” and that two panel page with Shuntarou in the foreground and Punpun’s “world” at the background… I am sure that is one fitting ending that ever could be. Anyway, Punpun himself aside, all characters in general in the manga are flawed one way or the other. Whichever character the manga begins to focus on, is deconstructed. We learns that everything about someone isn’t how it exactly appears. The uncle, Nanjou, Aiko, Seki, Shimizu… everyone else.. All of them aren’t “typical”. They are different and realistic. There is no hint of shallowness in the characters, and the amount of depth given to some of them is simple marvelous, especapially Nanjou and the Uncle. Aside from Punpun himself, these two really stand out. The uncle’s way to life and his self-advocacy was very striking. Also Nanjou’s personality came out really strong. The art is quite fitting and extremely well done. To have a caricature bird portraying the main character Punpun and having all of Punpun’s dialogues from the Narration was a stroke of genious. It brought me much closer to feeling the depth and despair and understanding at close hand about the manga. Also, it’s as if you yourself are experiencing Punpun’s life. Many of the other character designs are quite realistic. While there always have been manga with art much more close to realism than Punpun, but this manga doesn’t really disappoint on that aspect. Moreover, there is a hint of creepy and weird touch to some of these characters as if to evoke disgust. Then there is the point where we see Punpun’s transformation as he grows up in the form of that innocent looking tiny bird changing into that humanoid black mass with a disgusting head… All of it felt so fitting and added in to the overall feel of the manga. The backgrounds are quite well drawn too. The panel layouts and at times those single dark pages and panels with only a dialogue, were all really good and much of the generated emotion can be attributed to the layout, art and presentation. Overall, it’s the best coming of age manga, and the most depressing of all the manga that I read. To call it the best of all won’t be wrong. I don’t really have any complaint whatsoever of the manga. If one is a fan of seinen, and dark slice of life and wants to experience the troubles of growing up, then this is the perfect manga.