A comiXologist Recommends

Goodnight Punpun Vol. 1 by Inio Asano, Viz Comics

For the happiest and shortest review of Inio Asano’s Goodnight Punpun
Vol. 1, I can offer this brief synopsis: some birds just want to have fun. The longer, complicated version: this is a glimpse into the bleakest slice of life you’ve ever seen, and for some inexplicable reason you love just how terribly it wrecks you.

Goodnight Punpun tells the coming-of-age story of Punpun Punyama, an
unexceptional elementary school kid who talks to an Afro-headed God and happens to look like a shoddily drawn bird. Punpun’s life is spent daydreaming about adulthood, trying to fit in with his porn-addicted friends, maybe finding the girl of his dreams, and
discovering new planets. When the new exchange student Aiko arrives at school and takes an interest in Punpun, he’s over the moon. Punpun’s carefree days, however, come crashing down to Earth quickly after his mother ends up in the hospital following a domestic
dispute. With hospital visits, dangerous quests for good nudes, and broken promises putting Punpun on a fast track towards the rest of his life, nothing is ever easy and dreams are hard to achieve.

Like Asano’s other notable works, solanin and What a Wonderful World!, Goodnight Punpun offers a pretty dismal worldview, bolstered by Asano’s signature photorealistic art style and unforgiving imagery. However, unlike his other work, Asano balances his realism with a sketch-like cartoon quality, and sometimes wild surrealism, that brings an uncanny human sensitivity into Punpun’s world. The Punyama’s stylized expressions create a hilariously unique version of human behavior, despite their birdlike representations. Only Asano could successfully present something this unbelievably cute and incredibly morbid at the same time, a testament to the fact that things in Punpun’s world are not exactly as they seem, despite how they appear. This is dark comedy at its finest, with an added pinch of gut wrenching heartbreak every once in awhile, for good measure.

Goodnight Punpun asks some of life’s biggest questions - Does God exist?
Is humanity doomed? What is happiness?- and some of its smallest - what’s the point of being an adult, and wouldn’t it just be easier to run away from it all?

Punpun can’t really answer these questions yet, his mantra is literally
“I don’t understand.” But maybe we don’t really need to have all the answers to live a fulfilling life and dream as big as we can. As Aiko astutely puts it, “Who cares what we dream about? Getting through each day is hard enough.”

Bryce Gold handles digital assets at comiXology, publishes comics as Pyrite Press, and goes to bed every night chanting “Dear
God, Dear God, Tinkle Hoy” while hugging a giant stuffed Punpun.