The official English run of this completed a while back, and I just finished reading it. What do you guys think? I personally found it to be the most relatable depiction of depression and alienation from society that I have ever seen, it felt almost frighteningly familiar at times.
It wasn't perfect though. The hippie cult guy got way too much focus for what he contributed to the story (pretty much nothing). It was also a bit jarring how the author threw in certain events that seemed to sacrifice realism for grimdark. Specifically, the part about Yūichi and the teen girl and pretty much everything that happened after adult Punpun and Aiko hooked up.
Finally, the "explanation" for why Punpun is fucked in the head felt a bit cheap and unsatisfying.
>The hippie cult guy I guess he was there just to show how lonely people can be taken advantage of, almost willingly because they so lonely they realise that the dude is pure BS but still stick around.
Caleb Jones
A teen series written for the average teenager to think it's a mature series.
Ian Gonzalez
The cult guys shit was real. They saved the world. He was made to keep things interesting because the author thought readers would get bored of 20 or so chapter of punpun sulking with small events happening. It also helped end the snot boys character arc, and helped Seki's too in a convenient way. Sure the author could write different ending, but it just made things easier. All the allegories of Jesus and the Last Supper depiction was pretty cool.
That being said, the author intended for a murder to happen since the beginning, and failed to realize how his own story had evolved past his 30-minute planned story. Everything after Aiko and Punpun met at the driving liscence place took a huge nosedive. It's just fiction and all, so who cares, but if anyone were to ask me, it'd tell them to stop reading right when Aiko recognizes him there.
Fuck you, the cult guy was the true messias. He died to save people who didn´t deerve it.
Nolan Brown
Aiko best girl though
Cooper Taylor
Third punpun thread today, and all the fucking same. You can really feel those holidays closing in and people losing what little brain they got as the day gets shorter.
Camden Parker
When Pun Pun meets Aiko again and becomes an abusive cunt is when the quality vanishes. He was always depicted as sad and awkward, but the malicious and sadistic side is out of nowhere
Dominic Gutierrez
Exactly. I don't even mind abusive shit, but it comes out of thin air.
Hunter Clark
That scene where Aiko hanged herself really got me
Charles Jones
>The scene Harumin sees in the final chapter is one of Punpun surrounded by friends. Looking at that one scene on its own, it’d seem like a really happy one. >Asano: Exactly. But in reality, Punpun never had anything go his way in his entire life. Not once. >Right. Auch
Thomas Price
His friend with the abs, mimura, got the best girl
Eli Cook
People like you might no understand but Punpun was a naive kid who didn´t tried to hurt nobody, that is how he ended hurting himself. When he tries to achieve happines, once in his life, with his childhood love and killed that austistic woman he feel guilty and blamed himself and Aiko for fucked up the things badly.
Connor Martinez
> It was also a bit jarring how the author threw in certain events that seemed to sacrifice realism for grimdark.
While I thought the manga was shit, *muh realism* is a terrible criticism. The author of any work isn't obligated to portray reality, if anything. At best it's a means of conveying a story or emotion, and that can be though various abstract forms. The entire fucking manga portrays the protagonist (and his family) as abstract bird-like forms. If realism somehow makes conveying those feelings less effective (spoiler alert: it doesn't) then your point may be valid. Until such a time though, stop posting, leave Sup Forums, and reevaluate your basis for criticism.
Connor Davis
I just finished binge-reading all of Punpun over the course of about 7 hours. And I really don't know what to think about Punpun (the MC, not the manga) after all of this. I feel like this manga could have ended several volumes earlier than it did if Punpun wasn't so hellbent on finding any reason to wallow in his own misery. I was really engaged with Punpun's coming-of-age story for the first half of it, but by the time I reached the ending it was impossible for me to feel an ounce of sympathy for the guy. And maybe that was the whole point? I don't fucking know.
Aiden Clark
Wallowing too much in depression makes you develop terrible attitudes out of thirst for pity, which validates any lack of effort to defeat your depression and provides easy get-out-of-jail-free cards for when you get angry and snappy so it's a very valuable commodity. You cannot control the fact that you are depressed, but not fighting it makes you become a huge baby that believes that how bad you feel about yourself is directly proportionate to how much people are willing to please you and give you passes on your mistakes and misdeeds. And you start getting snappy when anyone questions you or doesn't fully accommodate your thoughts and wishes into their actions.
And in actuality, those people slowly lose consideration in the minds of those who can see through their emotional mindgames, intentional or not. To the point where one stops feeling sympathy for them, because it's no longer worth it, your emotions are being taken advantage of by a pity vampire.
I deal with such a person on the daily. Punpun is the exact same shit, it's a completely natural reaction to think he's ultimately a bad person. or has become one.
Brayden Turner
If we're talking about depression, I think Himizu by Furuya Minoru is pretty good. Ignoring all the actual crazy shit that happens in the series, it's a good look at how despite all the opportunity a person has to improve their lives even when they're at the very bottom, they still can't find it within themselves to improve. There's a lot less about circumstance and a lot more about the bad decisions the characters make and how they can't face their problems. For instance, this guy spills coffee on a cople pages of another guy's manuscript and instead of apologizing just runs off with it and almost loses the whole thing. This situation ends up okay, but there's a lot of making mountains out of molehills, and escalating issues that could have easily been nipped on the bud if they were approached with a positive mindset.
Parker Nguyen
Also, both involve at least one character trying to become a mangaka, hallucinations, and murder. What's up with that?
