#Oyasumi Punpun has affected me unlike any other manga.

Just a fair warning, this has a lot of spoilers, so beware.

For starters, i'd like to acknowledge something that a store clerk told me when i went to look for this manga:

It is, most certainly, not for everyone.

He was right; this manga has such realistic and crude depictions of the struggles someone with mental health issues can go through, as well as showcasing that a person can be affected by not only their own decisions, but the environment around them.

This brings up the topic of nurture vs nature, but i will not go with that route. I'd much rather focus on how i felt this manga succeeded as a perssimistic yet realistic portrayal of its characters.

Drawing Punpun as a little bird was such an amazing decision, the beginning of the manga having such cartoonish behaviour being displayed by the adults, the way the actions of the adults can also impact the little ones that are merely following on their footsteps.

I feel like the character of Punpun being obscured by something else is the best part about it; i take it as Punpun being the very image of his parents. This image never leaves his side. He is forever stuck with the things the adults in his life have done. Yuichi's profound life lessons, yet his negligence that mirrors the exact same attitudes that Punpun's dad once showed. Punpun's mother's desire to be free, yet being held down by a son she never wanted.

These adults are all not simply one dimensional characters for the audience to hate, unlike a certain adult elsewhere...

Aiko has gone through similar problems, yet they impacted her differently.
Punpun ended up being a purposeless being, merely a shell of his former cheery, happy self. Aiko, on the other hand...
She ended up being abused, used by the mother that she helped and aided on her younger years.

#Abuse is not something you grow used to. You just learn to cope better with it.

She's achieved what she wanted to do, she modelled for an agency and is doing alright for the people that don't know what goes on behind closed doors.

Punpun's promise of saving Aiko... What a tragic fate it is, that these two wanted to be saved so badly by each other; and oh, what became of them.

Sadly, this manga doesn't have a happy ending for our little old friend. It's more on the bittersweet side.
If there's one thing that i cannot deny from Asano, it's that his works do not shy away from showcasing the vilest parts on the human mind.

All of those things i mentioned earlier are just the tip of the iceberg, on why i believe Oyasumi Punpun to be an incredible manga that keeps on giving; that keeps showing time and time again how futile it is to perservere through a world full of unreliable adults; people that depend too much on each other, people that are simply...

#Human.