Oyasumi Punpun is a manga written and illustrated by Inio Asano, published between March 2007 and November 2013. A dramatic story follows the life of a normal child called Onodera Punpun, from elementary school to 20 years old, as he deals with his dysfunctional family, his love life, his friends, the approaching adolescence and his overactive mind, while occasionally concentrating on the lives and struggles of his school and family companions. Punpun and the members of his family are normal humans, but for the reader are represented as birds. The manga explores themes such as depression, social isolation, love, sex, death and family.
Punpun's life
The manga will focus on the life of Punpun Onodera, a Japanese boy who leads a difficult life, falls in love with a girl from his school, his parents argue every day, in one of those discussions his father leaves his mother wounded and is imprisoned. Therefore Punpun will have to deal with the harsh society in which he does not fit very well at all.
Punpun and his family are represented as a kind of badly drawn birds, but it does not mean that they are, they are represented so to facilitate the appreciation of the reader since it is a simple drawing and without great details, the Punpun family can be represented as the reader like it
And then... Oyasumi Punpun is about the emptiness that Punpun suffers all his youth, going from happy moments to being on the verge of suicide, in short, Punpun is a character that can be a friend, a relative, a neighbor or even you, we will all find feelings when reading this great work, where the realistic drawing stands out representing streets of Japan and characters in an excellent way. After all, it is a manga that deals with the harsh reality that any person could live.
Summing up as best as possible, the story of Punpun begins in his elementary school where he will fall in love with a girl who had just entered his school, Aiko. Without many words, Aiko is the trigger of Punpun, or one of many, let's say, is the strongest trigger because with this, the life of Punpun will be greatly affected.
The first part of the manga is soft and without difficulty for the reader since they will be experiences of Punpun along with his school friends, the story will also focus in part on the lives of his friends. But not for this we should take the reading with confidence thinking that it will be that soft
Continuing with the theme, the first part of Punpun will relate the adventures of Punpun with his friends, adventures that any of us had as a child, such as looking for porn magazines in the street, exploring an abandoned factory, among other things of children . All this accompanied by surrealist planes that bring beauty to history.
In the story we will find normal-looking characters but for now they will change to exaggerated expressions where drawing is everything.
The story will go in an innocent way, with things that we will identify with. After a while Punpun will grow, enter high school, lose friends, even lose the love of his life, is where problems intensify and reading will become somewhat complicated, Punpun begins to develop the emptiness that will affect him for quite some time.
But unfortunately this post will not tell the whole story as it extends a lot, it's just a mini review for you to go and read this masterpiece right now.
Although Punpun is one character, he becomes many, changing the way he is represented, going from having a gel hairstyle to being a pyramid. These changes will occur according to Punpun's mood.
Asano proposes that we go further and think what the manga is trying to offer us. Therefore, the manga tells us a story with nothing to hide, everything there is pure and hard reality, because in reality there is no censorship. There eradicates one of the essential factors so that the magic of the work takes effect and makes us think, makes us see Punpun as one of us or simply, makes us evaluate if we are really doing the right thing with our lives.
Undoubtedly Oyasumi Punpun is a trip that can bore some but hook others, a trip where you will feel familiar with the story and you will find feelings. The story will seem harmless but it will take you, chew you, spit on you and clean the floor with you. It will not be easy to digest but it will be worth reading this masterpiece by Inio Asano.
