The story, at its core, is simply about life, depicted in the most authentic and raw way. It follows the main character, Onodera Punpun, throughout a large portion of his life, from middle school into adulthood. For Punpun, everything that can go wrong goes wrong as he continuously encounters difficulties throughout his life which slowly send him into a downward spiral of depression and nihilism. It’s not only Punpun that goes through trials, but the other people in his life as well. Be it his childhood friends, his family, or romantic interests, everyone seems to struggle to find true meaning or happiness in their lives as they grow and experience more of life and the world.
This isn’t something you read for fun. In fact, it’s a somewhat unpleasant experience at times. Honestly, it’s hard to say if I even really enjoyed it. But that’s precisely what makes this such an interesting read. It reflects life in an incredibly realistic way. Life isn’t always fun, and we all go through unpleasant experiences. What’s the purpose of telling such a story? Well, what’s the purpose of life itself? It’s something we define for ourselves, to make meaning out of something that might seem inherently meaningless. Assigning a definitive meaning to anything regarding life all depends on perspective. Goodnight Punpun is a story you read to see life in a different light, to see it from one of those different perspectives, and to evaluate your own from it. Sorry if this sounds strange and overly philosophical, but it’s really something that needs to be experienced rather than described. It makes you think and reflect and consider what really matters to you and what your purpose truly is.
This is mainly achieved through the depiction of its characters. It observes their lives and inner thoughts through a microscope, getting down to their deepest and darkest secrets and desires. Just like in real life, nobody is perfect, and everybody has something to hide. Punpun makes careless, stupid, and irrational decisions, and so does everyone else. It’s hard to say whether they are even good people. Nonetheless, the flow of time pushes them on through their struggles, to both good and bad places. Almost anyone can relate to at least one character in some capacity.
The artwork of Goodnight Punpun greatly supports this. The visual aspect of such a story contributes significantly to the experience. Punpun and his family are depicted as simplistic drawings of birds, a blank slate for almost anyone to see themselves in. At some points in the story, Punpun’s appearance drastically changes to reflect his emotions and thoughts at that point in time. Asano manages to convey the most complex and obscure emotions with his artwork, which combines various techniques to create some genuinely beautiful scenes. The paneling and framing are top-notch, with some panels making me stop and stare for minutes on end.
For all its successes, I feel that Goodnight Punpun also has some failures in its storytelling. I previously mentioned that it’s not a story you read for entertainment, but that naturally leads to a lack of, well, entertainment. It’s very slow-paced and shows life at its dullest moments, making it feel very unengaging and, at worst, simply boring. Nonetheless, it progressed, and I was interested in seeing what direction it would take. However, I wasn’t a big fan of how the final quarter of the story played out. It very quickly shifted from a slow burn drama into a kind of quasi-thriller, with developments that felt unnatural to me, especially in regards to Punpun’s character, and then it suddenly ends without any actual resolution. I also thought that it was somewhat pretentious regarding certain religious topics and, to a degree, a bit hypocritical. I might be misunderstanding what Asano intended here, but it felt like it almost reveled in its dark and depressing themes and its showcasing of life’s darker aspects without providing any kind of solution or philosophy of its own, yet it has no problem discounting religion. But again, I suppose with a story like this, we’re supposed to come up with our own meanings.
All that being said, Goodnight Punpun is something I consider to be worth reading. In fact, I’d say it’s something that everyone should read. The experience it provides is absolutely unique and something from which everyone can take a lesson. Maybe you’ll be inspired by a particular character’s ideology, or you’ll be repulsed by it and resolve never to think that way. We all have our own interpretations and paths we walk down in life. We all choose to live as we see fit.
