Jul 3, 2017
The first thing you notice about Oyasumi Punpun is the bizarre yet stylish design choices throughout the manga volumes, which I highly recommend to read instead of the online version. The main character and his family, although 100% human, are presented mostly as birds (sometimes not birds too) to the reader. The simplistic and stylish covers that you can line up on a shelf to have a full drawing, the chapter changing panels, the pages filled with scribbles and ink blobs to represent a strong emotion are some of the things that pleased me a lot as an Design student, because this manga doesn't only
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care for plot and drawing, it also cares for every single detail, making it's presentation a masterpiece on its own.
But that's not what makes this work from Asano Inio the best manga I have read in 10 years. The plot starts slowly as very uncomfortable a slice of life, where the bird main character -Punpun- grows on a very dysfunctional family. Smoothly but surely, Punpun starts becoming an introspective child/teen whose emotional development becomes more and more crooked as he ages. It's heartbreaking yet discreet the way Punpun grows unconfident, unable to fit in or develop rewarding relationships with his peers and family except for the one love of his life: Aiko Tanaka.
Oyasumi Punpun revolves around Punpun's romance with Aiko, but it's by no means a romantic story. Most times, it's a raw expression of coming of age, sexuality, depression, domestic violence, sexual abuse and shattered hopes and dreams. The way characters are unusually human for the manga genre and have realistic flaws and motivations feels very personal and relatable. The deep introspection involved in the writing of this particular tale has produced some of the most genius and eye-opening quotes I have ever read in a manga. The morality questioning isn't cheap or childish, but a true "what would you really do in this scenario" kind of feel.
Slice of life really isn't my favorite genre, and the first 100 chapters, although amazing, entertaining and much needed to understand what came next, really aren't enough for anyone to understand or feel what Oyasumi Punpun is about. It's easy to stop or pause reading on the first two-thirds of it, and that is a big turn off to me in all honesty, but if there is a manga absolutely worth the effort, this is the one. As soon as you arrive at chapter 100, you will have a blacked out spread simply saying "Chapter 100", and by the context and once again brilliant design choice, you will know everything is about to get real. And it is.
The final 47 chapters of Oyasumi Punpun are going to get carved into your soul forever, making you obsess with this manga over and over through the course of years, especially if you're a story writer too. They are the reason why so many people don't hesitate calling it "best manga ever written" and don't blink an eye at giving it a perfect score. Even with a slow start, even with very small portions of the story where I felt didn't connect so well (the part about "good vibrations") they all become irrelevant after Chapter 100. The raw beauty of it, the brainstorming of feelings and rationality, the facing of fears and reality is absolutely brutal and sublime, on the most accurate portrait of a human mind ever written in manga.
If you still doubt it's worth the shot, you can always read other smaller works from the author Asano Inio to get familiarized with his writting, but Oyasumi Punpun is surelly his surely his greatest and most thoughtful and complex/complete creation!
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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