Oyasumi Punpun(Manga)

 

What happens when you mix surrealism with the bitch that is real life? You get Oyasumi Punpun(Goodnight,Punpun). This slice of life manga, written by Inio Asano, was brought to my attention by MexicanAnime, a good forum friend of mine. It's a story about a weird bird like creature named Punpun, who lives among normal humans, acts like a normal human and, of course, suffers through his life like a normal human. Needless to say, this slice of life manga is not all cake and tea.

Punpun is a young boy in the last grade of elementary school. Other than the fact that him and his family all look like weird birds, Punpun is a normal boy with normal boy worries and the series follows him as he grows up...And that's it as far as the plot goes. I can't say more since there is nothing more to say as the manga is literally about how Punpun goes through the hardships of life and deals with the problems that come up along the way, and it is done amazingly well. As surreal and silly as the series can get at times, it's still one of the most down to earth manga out there, offering one of the most realistic representations of what life is actually like.

This scene involves someone Punpun knows telling him how she feels.
It doesn't go well, just so you know.

The issues and events that happen to the characters, may it be Punpun, his family or his friends, are all things that you can relate to, with some hitting closer to home more than you would expect. These events, may they be past or present ones, will make you see each character under a new light every time they appear  for some more screen time. Many characters that come off as jerks early on are later fleshed out and shown under a new point of view which tells us more about them and about why they are the way they are. Simply put, it will be hard to find characters you actually hate, with a few exceptions from characters that are purposely made to be hated.

Other than the characters, the manga uses it's art to portray the world as realistically as possible. Almost everyone looks human, and most of those who don't are drawn to look like exaggerated caricatures and are played for laughs more than anything else. You would think Punpun is a manga that cuts corners at first due to it's minimalist cover art and it's very simple design for the main character, but it's actually the complete opposite.

Hey, where is the cover art? Oh, wait....

It's rare to find a manga with so much detailed art and it's part of what makes the series special. The characters themselves are so detailed you can sometimes even read their body language, something I found quite amazing, especially in later chapters. This attention to detail also applies to the backgrounds, which are also very detailed and, yet again, very realistic.

Something to also take note on when looking at the art is how Punpun changes through the years. Although his bird form is his default shape, he will sometimes take up another form, either as a way to conveniently explain what's going on or, in my opinion, to illustrate his state of mind to the reader. For the second reason, it's quite simple to understand as almost every time something major happens to Punpun, something that leaves him questioning life itself, he has a change in his body. The most apparent is when he becomes a complete shut in, and transforms into a triangular shape.

 The various forms of Punpun.

I find the idea of illustrating Punpun's state of mind in this way quite interesting. It allows the reader to see how Punpun is without needing to read an extensive paragraph describing just how he feels. With one picture and a little text, you can easily understand Punpun's state of mind, and I find this just goes to show the amount of thought the author put into their work.

Overall, Oyasumi Punpun is by far one of the best manga I've read as of recently. Although the content is very heavy, it simply sucks you in and will keep you interested, keeping you up late, reading chapter after chapter until you catch up and find out what happens to Punpun, as well as the other characters. I can easily recommend this manga and, in fact, recommend that anyone who reads this give it a shot as soon as they can.

Final Verdict: 10/10
Pros:
 + Great characters that you can relate with.
 + Incredibly down to earth events that can hit closer to home than what you expect.
 + Great art, may it be realistic or surreal, or even both at the same time.
Cons:
 - I can't think of any, so let's just pretend that's a flaw, in and of itself.

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