Japanator Recommends: Goodnight Punpun

6:00 PM on 01.31.2012   |   Michelle Rodanes

I will begin this review by saying that I am a cold, heartless wench who will never shed a tear for anything or anyone. Okay, that might have been a little bit too harsh; but yes, I am not the kind of gal who will be easily moved by emotionally-packed situations. Lets just say that I am pretty cynical. It is extremely rare for me to read a book, especially a dramatic one, and think to myself "this story really spoke to my soul!". Surprisingly, Goodnight Punpun did just that to me.

Alright, so Goodnight Punpun is a story about a little cartoon bird named "Punpun" --laugh all you want, but first let me tell you a little bit about the book. The manga was both written and illustrated by an artist named Inio Asano, who is my opinion nothing short of a genius. Never in my life have I seen a manga author tackle so many dense and unpleasant themes in a manner so entertaining and human. Goodnight Punpun was so good that I wish I could call Asano and personally thank him for writing it. Praise the sun, what a magnificent book!

Goodnight, Punpun

Creator: Inio Asano

Licensed by: Unlicensed

Release date: 2007

MSRP: N/A

Now, before I spontaneously burst into dance and sacrifice a lamb in remembrance, let me give you a bit of a summary. In a nutshell, Goodnight Punpun chronicles a guy's life story beginning with his childhood. Humorously named "Punpun", the protagonist is depicted as a silly little cartoon bird in an otherwise normal world. Punpun's appearance is symbolic of his feelings of powerlessness and disconnection. To Punpun the world around him is so hectic and packed with meaning that it is sometimes too much for him to bear. 

Goodnight Punpun's storyline follows a linear but disjointed structure. Throughout the course of the book, Asano shares with us little vignettes of Punpun's life story. Varying from anecdotes to internal monologues, these segments narrate everything from Punpun's everyday family life to his first experience watching an adult video. The manner in which Punpun's coming-of-age is presented is nothing short of poetic. Never before have I witnessed an author illustrate a wank scene so beautifully. The characters' emotions were so raw and authentic that the scene was almost an ode to humanity.

Just like everyone else in the world, Punpun's character goes through all kinds of terrible stuff in his life: dysfunctional relationships, unrequited love, work-related problems, etc. Asano tackles every single one of these facets with an amazing sense of humor. Throughout the book, Punpun learns to cope with the bad and carry on with his life. The book does not offer a cutesy, flowery solution to life problems but rather invites the reader to say "this is is--f*ck it, it is what it is".

In the end, Punpun never magically morphs into a "real boy" nor does he begin to live a life devoid of pain. As he gets older, the protagonist learns that his suffering is nothing more than the human condition. He realizes that everyone else in the world also experiences similar kinds of distress. In a sense, he discovers that just about everyone else in the world is also prone to feeling like a silly cartoon bird from time to time. And that that is in itself is enough to put a smile on his face. 

Goodnight Punpun is ultimately a story about empathy. Punpun's most cathartic moments come as he realizes that those who have wronged him in the past have in turn been wronged by others. He also learns that even those he idolizes the most have had their moments of self-doubt. Towards the end of the book, Punpun concludes that given the circumstances he might as well not be an angsty dickwad. Since everyone else out there has their own stupid sh*t to deal with, why not just try to get along?

Perhaps the best thing about Goodnight Punpun was Asano's amazing ability to convey such emotional complexity while still keeping the story relatively simple. Aside from having a very good grasp of his characters' motives, Asano manages to use abstraction in his storytelling without completely confusing the reader. I found myself having to backtrack a few times in order to clarify some details, but as a whole the book was reasonably easy to follow. Overall, the storytelling was very, very good.

Artistically, Goodnight Punpun was absolutely stunning --pretty to look at and done very creatively. While Punpun may have been a funny little squiggle, everything else around him was drawn with great attention to detail. The book features a lot of beautiful photo-realistic backgrounds. Asano uses collages and image juxtapositions here and there and it goes pretty well with book's general aesthetic. 

10- Legendary- All-in-all, I wish I could score this manga higher than a 10. I am usually a complete hard-ass when it comes to scoring things, but I was completely blown away by this one. All I can say is "wow". I even got a little teary-eyed. Excellent book. 

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