Finished 08/09/2024
This manga is both written and illustrated by Inio Asano, but I couldn't find who translated it into English (which is the version I read), my guess is that it was a company and not one person alone. Goodnight Punpun is about the cyclical and hereditary nature of mental illness and abuse. The main character, Punpun, holds on to this idea of love for over a decade, only to experience that love in its unhealthiest form. The main character is also this weird ghost-bird looking thing, but he's actually a human and everyone else sees him as a human. His appearance changes as he ages, I'll talk more about the implications of that later.
Goodnight Punpun has 147 chapters in 7 volumes, but I only bought a physical copy of the first volume and found the rest for free online. I understand why manga like this is so expensive, there's so much time and effort put into making manga, especially one as detailed as Punpun is, but to buy all 7 volumes would've cost me over $200. -Which, I would love to be able to spend that much money on manga, but it's just not in the cards for me right now. I also want to say that this story reminded me a lot of No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai, a very famous piece of Japanese literature (which I read during my junior year of college); in both No Longer Human and Punpun the sadness and depression the main character experiences are so unrelenting.
I know on all of my reports I start with a summary of the plot but I don't think I'll have one this time. This manga follows Punpun Punyama (later Onodera)'s life for over a decade and there's so much to cover. -I think giving a full summary would take up time and space that I need to actually analyze the meat of this story. This is a manga series that took over 6 years to make, it would be like trying to summarize four Harry Potter books all at once.
So anyways, I first want to talk about the B Plot, which is the Pegasus Ensemble or Good Vibrations cult that Aiko's mother, and later Shimizu, were part of. I can't remember the first time we see Toshiki Hoshikawa (or "Pegasus"), but he's seemingly there throughout the entire story. Pegasus keeps a very consistent timeline on when the world is going to end, but when it finally gets to that point, nothing happens. I think as the reader there are things that happen in this manga that are strange but just accepted as reality, like the over exaggerated faces, the Gods that Punpun, Yuuichi and Shimizu see, or even Punpun and his family's appearance. It's easy to get wrapped up in that fantasy representation that when the time comes for "the world to end" as Pegasus says, we're surprised when nothing happens.
Pegasus does die, so his world ends, and I guess something is off with the vibrations is that way; but there's just this huge lead up to something only for it to be completely unimportant.
I think Inio Asano wrote this in as sort of a "gag." If I remember correctly, the manga basically says that itself. But I think it's also a good representation of how people can get wrapped up in cults in the same way as they can get wrapped up in their own depression and loneliness. You become so worked up about something that isn't even a problem in the end, like interacting with other people or making new friends.
Why does Punpun look the way that he does? I think there's a couple different reasons for this. The first one being what I think is the most obvious: which is to make him distinct from all the other characters. Punpun doesn't talk a lot, but his emotions can be seen by the differences in his fluid appearance. I think he also looks the way that he does because this story is from his perspective. I think he has a lot of trouble seeing himself as a human, or on the same "level" as people around him. This is why later in the story when he starts going by "Taka" while trying to get his driver's license, and even later when he's around Aiko, he starts to see himself as someone different. He only becomes "more human" through imitation of other people or by changing his personality. The final reason why I think Punpun looks the way that he does is because this manga has a heavy focus on sex and sexuality that occur pretty early on in Punpun's life. Having his be this very simple drawing of a bird thing creates a strong barrier of separation of him from a real child. Although his experiences are very relateable, they're shown through a very fictional way.
I think there's a lot of conversations right now about anime and manga's relation to what is, in my opinion, drawn child porn. (-The other side of the argument is that since they're just drawings no child is actually harmed in the making. But my counter to that is if you want to see pictures of any type of child, real or fake, in sexual situations, you need some help.) Punpun being this little, cartoonish bird thing takes the ethical questions about drawn child porn out of the equation completely.
So many times while reading this manga, I kept trying to think back to when Punpun "became" the way he was toward the end. Or the problems throughout his life that could've directly lead to how he behaved. But then I asked myself "is that even useful to think about?" There doesn't need to be a "stemming from" point for a lot of mental illnesses. We see that having these suicidal ideations, problems fitting in socially, problems with physical violence, etc., are things that Punpun's family deals with too. It's literally in his blood to act this way. I think there are definitely some through-lines, like Punpun being drawn to Sachi because she reminds him of his mom; his mom that had a lot of faults and I don't think he ever truly loved, but I think he wanted to. But ultimately, Punpun acts the way he acts just because. I think a lot of people who suffer with depression can agree that there isn't a "start point," it's just who they are in a sense.
During the last, climactic 40-ish chapters that Punpun spends with Aiko, he becomes someone that we as the reader don't recognize. While all of that is happening, Sachi goes on that journey looking for Punpun. She asks around for where he could possibly be, even finding Punpun's estranged father, and she ends up realizing that there's a lot about Punpun she has overlooked. Like his drive to get a real-estate license, and how caring he is Heiroku Shishido. And Sachi comes to the conclusion that maybe Punpun needs his privacy. -Which I think was the right conclusion to come to. I'm going to be focusing a lot on this climactic part of the story because it's such a defining moment. I think Punpun's time while on the run with Aiko was "told" entirely through his memories which have sense been distorted from his time in house arrest. Punpun said later in the story that his recollection of this time was hazy. The events that happened were real for him, but were, in my opinion, mostly just metaphoric representations.
The connection that Punpun and Aiko have is very fantastical and dream-like, even from the beginning. Aiko says things that don't make a lot of sense, yet Punpun seems to take some of it to heart in this very strange way. Like Aiko telling Punpun that she'll kill him if he ever lies to her again. -Which he remembers and tries to enact years later. And then, on top of all of that, how they were separated for almost a decade just to come together again, both lie to each other about their lives completely, both break down and tell the truth, and then confide in each other how they've looked for one another for years. It's all such a stretch to the point where it seems almost imaginary. I think if they weren't both in terrible positions in their lives and extremely mentally unwell, this type of reunion would've seemed really sweet. An "they were meant for each other" sort of thing. I did find myself, throughout reading this, always hoping that they found each other again, but when they eventually did, it didn't seem to be this special moment. I think from that moment in the DMV when they sat next to each other, you could tell that something was off.
Punpun, when he's with Aiko, is always more human-like. And he becomes this demon-looking thing after he strangles Aiko's mom. But there's a moment while they're running away and on that beach that Punpun goes back to the bird thing that we know him as; which is a moment that exhibits so much relief and calm to the reader. For a while after that, Punpun and Aiko play on the beach and run around in the ocean, but that all stops when Punpun finds a rope that he gets the idea to use in his and Aiko's murder-suicide. This also seems to be the time when Aiko is happiest and most hopeful with Punpun. I think this is the part of Punpun's time with Aiko that wasn't shrouded by false memories. Of course this is mostly based off of hopeful thinking, but I think that these couple of hours on the beach was light and freeing for the both of them.
Other than Punpun's appearance change with Aiko, his entire personality and the way he acts changes too. He's not this socially anxious person we know him as anymore. He's up-front and demanding. He seems very alert and aware and proactive. Before, in his chronic depressive state, he sort of just waits around for things to happen. He's only friends with the people who basically forced him into friendship. He doesn't use a cellphone, even though it was gifted to him, because he doesn't want to actively connect with people. I think the inability of proactivity that you experience while in a depressive state is shown really well in this manga. -Which is ironic, because Punpun is also so entertaining! You watch someone wait, yet you see their thoughts and the inner workings of their mind. Even though Punpun can do nothing but wait for things to happen before reuniting with Aiko, his life isn't boring.
I forget exactly what Punpun says when he's with Aiko, but while they're on the run, he says something about how he'll "start doing whatever he wants from now on." He becomes free in that way, not tied down to anything. But with that is when he changes into the character we as the reader don't recognize. I think he becomes so "evil" because he acts on instinct alone, just his first thought in the moment is what he does. Which is why him and Aiko are so constantly sexual towards one another in seemingly the wrong moments, and why he openly encourages Aiko to hurt him, always feeling like he deserved it.
Like I said before, parts of this time in Punpun make me wonder if it's even real, especially when they start physically harming each other. The examples of this that I remember are Aiko biting Punpun and consequently loosing one of her front tooth, Aiko stabbing Punpun in his left eye, Aiko stabbing Punpun in his chest (just over his heart) and then Aiko committing suicide towards the end. My theory is that this was just a representation of them not being healthy for each other. That this hurting of one another is what they both know as "love." If they want to have a healthy relationship, they both need to evolve, but instead they devolve when they get together.
By "devolve" I mean Aiko's childlike behavior and Punpun's high libido. By loosing one of her front teeth, Aiko looks exactly like how she did when she and Punpun were children. She also acts is also very childlike, like accidentally wetting the bed at night, creating these little songs when she's bored, and falling asleep anywhere. I think because of her mom, she never had the chance to age mentally and emotionally, but when she was on that first date with Punpun where she lied about who she was, she was able to act her age. It's within her to be grown up like that, but Punpun somehow brings the immaturity out of her. Punpun's "devolving" I've already touched on. He starts acting on instinct, which is a huge difference from his usual mode of overthinking things. He just lets his libido run his life like an animal. I think that a lot of these actions were exaggerated in Punpun's memory just to show how Punpun and Aiko aren't right for each other. They are unable to grow together so much so that they regress.
Lastly on the topic of the manga's climax, I want to talk about Aiko's suicide: I don't think she actually died. The beach town where she "killed herself" was where she expressed to Punpun that she wanted to end up at. She hung herself and then Punpun carried her around trying to look for her uncle who she claimed lived there, wasn't sucked into the cult like her other family members, and was a doctor. I think Punpun carrying her around was a representation of how she became "dead weight." Punpun wanted to keep going to escape the police but Aiko wanted to stay and build a life there. The page where we saw her "dead body" hanging, didn't seem monumental either, Punpun didn't even seem to react. And then when Punpun set her down and told some kids to watch her, once he comes back, she's gone. I don't think the kids would've been able to call the police and the police would've removed the dead body in that time. I think Aiko just ran away and left him, and that was it.
Now on to some symbolism. Later in the story, the concept of "the left eye" becomes important. That's the eye Aiko tries to cut out of Punpun after she noticed him looking at other women. It's also the eye Punpun stabs himself to try to get rid of the God that's always talking to him, and it's also the eye that we see Punpun's God appear again in Yuuichi and Midori's son, Soara. In spiritualism, your left eye is the one that sees both beyond and inward, while your right eye is stuck in the physical realm. By Punpun damaging his left eye, he kills his deep inner thoughts, and the terrible things his God says to him, which I think are supposed to represent his harshest and most harmful of thoughts in instincts. This is why Punpun's God doesn't make much of an appearance while he's with Aiko, Punpun is already acting on instinct and doing all the terrible things he wants, he doesn't need some other entity convincing him to do anything.
Also, I want to point out that I noticed that Punpun wears a striped shirt at important moments in this manga. Like when Midori rapes him (yes, I would say that that was definitely coercion and therefore rape), when Aiko commits suicide, when Punpun cuts his own eye, and when Punpun reunites with Harumi Shuntarou at the very end. I'm really racking my brain for what stripes could possible mean or represent. Google says that stripes, in medieval times, were used to show deviants and outcasts of society that one should stay away from, like jesters, executioners, and prostitutes. -That could be it, but I think Aiko would've been dressed in stripes too then. I don't know, this one's a little bit of a mystery to me.
To conclude, I think Punpun's overall message is to highlight the cyclical nature of things like depression, family trauma and abuse; but also show that, with all of that, there is still perseverance. Both Punpun's and Aiko's (in my opinion) lives continue; and Punpun is surrounded by people who love and care about him in the end. I think the ending wasn't necessarily happy, but it did seem to be a start of a new chapter in both of their lives. I wasn't entirely sure how this story was going to end, but I think it ended the only way it could: not necessarily happy, but hopeful. Throughout the series, Punpun expressed his wish to just fade away, or into the background, and by the end Harumi Shuntarou doesn't even remember his name despite being an influential childhood friend. I think in that way Punpun achieved what he wanted. Through perseverance comes hope.
This report took me so long to write! But I have a good excuse: in the span of three weeks I moved to a different city and started an internship and a new part time job, so I've been very busy. I'm looking forward to starting to read regularly again, but I think it's inevitable that reading and reporting will take me longer to do since I have so much on my plate right now. Anyways, that's it, thank you for reading!
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