Too Disturbing For This Conversation Anyway (Goodnight Punpun)

Goodnight Punpun is a manga created by Inio Asano,it’s publishing started in March of 2007 and ended in November of 2013, It’s story is about something so Disturbing that no one ever read actually,  it’s that fucked up that this went unread since it’s publication !!

This is the manga for that tittle of clickbait shit, I mean, I search the title on google and end up with like 3 videos of the same fucking equality of tittle “The most Disturbing so and so that you never read”, first off, I find this so bullshit !! It’s a bullshit way to get attention for this stuff and you can see how much I detest that shit. I Read this series in the beginning of this year and I enjoyed it, Oh wait that not what I’m suppose to say something else here and say that this shocked me to my core and sent me into a pit of depression or something ?!! I’m sorry that didn’t happen, Guess I’m built differently then !!  jokes aside I did really like this comic, it’s not the most disturbing stuff I ever seen, in fact I did read something that is even more fucked up then this, because Punpun at least has some sort of happy end on the end and the story has brief moments of hope, you wanna read something fucked, go read No Longer Human, I reed the manga adaptation of Junji Ito this year, there is another one by Usumaru Furuya, but go read that one and see how can see someone can fucked up their own live to the point of no return, That one that fits that bullshit clickbait tittle !! 

But let’s focus on the subject at hand, even if this whole rant or whatever comes from an expectation that the person reading had read this Comic before, but let’s stick to format. Goodnight Punpun tells the story of Punpun Onedara through his childhood to his adulthood, and the many let’s say ups and downs of his life, the more downs of course because that what the story focus on, in fact not only of Punpun but also other characters as well, at some points we follow the point of view of some of is childhood friends and see what is going with their live and from them other people they meet, but the focus is on Punpun, his character is presented in this weird child like drawing of a bird, his whole family is presented like that in fact, and we wherever he talks, his line are but into a whole separated frame with his lines on it, and that makes part of the aesthetic of this comic, he eventually end up changing in appearance when some event happens later on the story, the most impactful one being at the end stretch of the story when he changes to have a human body and for a face he has this black thing with horns.

The thing about Punpun is that at some point his character just becomes unlikable at all, and it’s meant to be that way, we see him from his childhood going through this events that shape his live going forward, the separation of his parents, the parting of friendships, the eventual loss of people in his live, and you can kinda empath with this character, and even see yourself as him at some points, but you know after he tries to assault this girl that he had a crush on, and after being rejected by her, then yeah, that’s when all the empathy that I had for this guy go way and now we just accompanying him and other characters going through their lives in a sort of auto pilot mode, that’s even one chapter like that, where we just see his daily life and ongoings like some meditative slog, honestly that are some really eye-rolling stuff in this comic.

The disturbing aspect of this comic, come in the way they are portrayed into the story, just after Punpun gets rejected, he slumps around a bit while it’s raining while the manifestation of his own self loathing, or at least that how I see that thing, taunts him and them he decides to masturbate in a playground an action not leave us perplexed by his own self loathing, there a instances of that where you see the absolute degrading of his character all that culminates in the end stretch of the story. When Punpun and Aiko are on the run is when the story gets truly disturbing, we have Punpun in the situation he always dream on having since the beginning of the story, when him and the his childhood love are united, but both of them are damaged in many ways and on the run for murder, disaster is the only thing that can happen, and when it does, it’s not really surprising because we were in the expectation of it happening.

In this part there is a section that I wanna highlight because I find the most interesting one. Meanwhile when Punpun and Aiko are on the run, Sachi his ex-girlfriend goes looking for Punpun, because she miss him, and while she talking with their friends in common she and we as audience learn that Punpun has been improving himself, he was doing a computer course of some sort and keeping up on visiting his landlord that was hospitalized, meanwhile she was so self absorbed in her own work and in herself that she missed, making her realize that she is an asshole, or at least that the moment she sees that, and that she doesn’t really know anything about Punpun. So she go and end up talking with his uncle and his estranged Father, reminding him that Punpun’s Father was absent for a great part of Punpun's life so far. At the same time we have Punpun and Aiko stop at some gas station, and there Punpun see this guy that is dressed just like him reading Sachi’s Manga and he comments in being trash or whatever and leave the store, and Punpun goes after him with the intention of beating this guy for no good reason, the thing in that moment was if even that guy was real or not, due to the similar clothes that they were wearing, if that guy was how Punpun actually outside from his cartoonish look, he was real in the end, but it does feel like this act of aggression on that guy is a way an act of aggression on himself, like he wants to beat himself up for all the fucked up stuff that he is been doing so far. As this happens we also see the conversation between Sachi and Punpun’s Father, they go to his house and some friends of his show up and they brought two children, a conversation develops until his Father remembers an instance when Punpun go lost because while chasing a shooting star, and that sends into regretting being such a terrible father to him, the last that we see of him, is him pass out with this two children sleeping around, it’s an image of peace, that despite all that happens with this character he has reached some sort of balance in his life, and that is contrasted with Punpun metaphorically beating himself up, it’s almost funny actually.

But Punpun does reach this state of Peace at the end, the last 2 chapters are from the point view of one of Punpun’s childhood friend, he meets with him again by happen stance while not even remembering who he was, and the last that he see of Punpun is this image of him being surrounded by his friends in a peaceful image. Now !! While I was looking stuff up that implied that the ending was still miserable because of nothing ever going right for him, then I’m sorry that is just how live is and how it goes, let’s be real for a minute, live is just not a section of terrible things happen one after another, some good stuff happen as well and we have to take the good and the bad as well. The actual end of story is a repetition of the first chapter, implying that the same stuff is gonna happen again, but that how life is, and we have to go through it no the less, that why I don’t think that this as disturbing as some people make it to be, because there is an image of peace in the end, and if that was supposed to be some grim parody of reality, them fuck this comic, and all the stupid grim shit it stand by it.