Manga Review: Goodnight Punpun, Volume 7, by Inio Asano

Rating (Out of 5): ~1.5

Publisher: VIZ Signature (VIZ Media)

Release Date: 2017

Volumes: 7.

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells. RightStuf.

Volume: 1. 5.

Goodreads Synopsis:

A dark coming-of-age tale where slice-of-life slices back.

This is Punpun Onodera s coming-of-age story. His parents marriage is falling apart. His dad goes to jail and his mom goes to the hospital. He has to live with his loser uncle. He has a crush on a girl who lives in a weird cult. Punpun tries talking with God about his problems, but God is a jerk. Punpun keeps hoping things will get better, but they really, really don't.

This is the end, Punpun.

Review:

I missed the previous volume, and I could tell as I started this one, that I had missed some important scenes. We find Punpun in a very different place as this volume starts, and it only goes downhill from there.

Punpun seems to be struggling with his identity, with what his purpose is and what has been happening in his life. The story follows him and Aiko for a while, but then it also skips over to his old friends and what they're doing.

During all of this, we're also getting snippet of information regarding the politics happening and whether the world is ending and there are stars falling at one point.

This series definitely feels like a book I'd be given in college to analyze to death. I'm sure there's a lot of deeper meaning to everything that's happening in this series. (I'm sure not reading the whole series doesn't help, either.) There's definitely a lot of underlying messages, psychological reasons for why we're seeing Punpun in the image he is, how he talks differing from how other people talk, and everything to do with that ending and what led up to the conclusion of Punpun and Aiko's relationship.

There's a lot here, but honestly I think I just hated all of it. It's all deeply disturbing and depressing, and there aren't any even slightly good endings here. It's also kind of a mess to follow, and I don't know what's supposed to be real or metaphorical or what any more.

While I have found some of Asano's manga interesting, this was not one that I enjoyed in any way. It was not for me, at the least.

A review copy was provided by the publisher, VIZ Media, for an honest review. Thank you so, so much!