Have you ever loved something, only to realize it’s a commercial flop or just obscure? What’s something that deserves more light than it got?
Have you ever loved something, only to realize it’s a commercial flop or just obscure? What’s something that deserves more light than it got?
Goodnight Punpun
It’s a manga so if you are in the west it’s already going to be obscure. It’s also pretty messed up so it might not be for everyone, but if you are able to stomach it and read it, man is it amazing. It has very little anime bs that a lot of anime/manga suffer from; it’s not a shonen, it’s aimed at an older audience. It is very well written. The art is amazing. I could go on, but I think it’s best enjoyed blind.
It’s 13 volumes, but you can binge it in a day (not recommended). It has a lot of dialog so a lot more reading than most manga.
If you are not sure about the manga, read the first chapter. I think it sets the tone well for the rest of the series.
Like a lot of great things, I wish I could read the manga again for the first time.
What ?
“Manga” is the Japanese word for basically “comic”. In the English speaking communities it generally refers to Japanese comics where the primary difference is that the panels are generally read right to left whereas the text inside (if it’s been translated) is usually read in our typical left to right.
There’s more cultural differences largely stemming from how in the West (or at least my experience here in America) comics were often considered for kids or niche nerd communities, whereas in Japan it’s been more acceptable for a wider audience to read them for a longer time, but webcomics have been making the medium more accessible and thereby more acceptable for wider audiences so that stigma has been slowly being diminished.
I mean, mangas are practically the most mainstream thing in the west
Together with kpop
Anything but obscure
Well I can only speak to my experience, and my experience has been that manga is fairly popular among people around my age and younger, but still far from ubiquitous. I still regularly have to explain what manga is to people my age and especially those older than myself.
Regarding kpop, the fact that my phone’s keyboard doesn’t recognize the word and the fact that I’ve never heard a kpop song on the radio much less any sort of radio station dedicated to it I feel kinda demonstrates that it’s still pretty far from mainstream.
I really enjoyed Punpun but the ending pissed me off. The way Punpun found Aiko and what was in her mouth felt like the author just ran out of ideas and wanted to go for pure shock factor. Kinda felt like a slap in the face after reading the whole thing. Everything else was really good. It just felt like one of those instances where the author wrote himself into a corner he couldn’t get out of.
The visual depictions of Punpun in his extreme depressive state were exceptionally well done. I don’t think I’ve seen a better visual depiction of that before. Finding out about Kou’s mom made me tear up too. I have no idea if that’s an actually accurate depiction of schizophrenia but that kid was especially tortured.
Overall I’d say 8/10 and I’ll likely never read it again lol. Also Punpun and Berserk are the only 2 mangas in my local Barnes and Noble that are shrink wrapped lmao
Major punpun spoilers
Huh. I didn’t find that part odd when I read it. I just assumed it was a make shift gag. Honestly I wasn’t shocked by it much since I thought the story could only go in that direction from there. I was worried the author would give us the boring “everyone dies” ending but pleasantly surprised by what we got instead.
I personally really liked the ending.
Tap for spoiler
Her death isn’t the issue I have but the makeshift gag in her mouth. I’ve never heard of anyone gagging theirself before hanging theirself. Maybe I’m just uninformed by how people usually go about doing that. The rest of the ending I thought was fine. That whole part just felt out of place. If I was going to hang myself I wouldn’t even think of gagging myself let alone using my underwear to do so. Especially if I knew my boyfriend would immediately find me. Again I could just be uninformed.
Spoilers
I didn’t think about it that much when I read the manga originally, but in retrospect, I would guess she gagged herself so she doesnt wake up Punpun. Not because she didnt want him to find her but because she didnt want Punpun to rescue her.