My first review so bear with me
It’s hard to describe this mangas impact on me. I relate to Punpun a lot, for better or worse. The complicated issues he deals with, and the issues that are presented throughout the manga are very realistic in nature. From having a troubled home life & poor relationship with parents, trust issues, depression, and various other severe psychological problems.
I feel as though Goodnight Punpun touches on every facet of the human psyche, in such a way that not only does it make you feel a connection to the characters. But it also makes you take a more in depth look at yourself. We get to see Punpun Onodera grow from a clueless innocent child like we all once were, into a warped distorted shell of his former self. This is especially emotionally impactful because it doesn’t happen overnight, rather through a string of events that shaped Punpun into the person he became, as shown through his various physical forms which manifest his ever changing mental state.
There’s a famous quote by the Greek philosopher Socrates, "One word frees us of all the weight and pain in life. That word is Love."
Spoiler, click to view
Acknowledging the warped and toxic realtionship Punpun and Aiko shared, one could say that’s the farthest thing from love, but I’d like to believe when they met as kids, and said they loved each other it was real. I’d like to believe they truly cared about each other.
Most beautiful things in life fade the fastest, happiness and fulfillment is fleeting, it’s easy to cling onto things you lost a long time ago because you feel that’s all you have left.
While reading, it almost felt as if the sadness from the pages seeped into my very being and grabbed a hold of me, experiencing this manga can only be described as suffocatingly painful.
But at the same time i think it is something very beautiful. It made me feel a wide variety of emotions, and while most were negative, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Unfortunate events in life only amount to how we deal with them. Punpun is an example of dealing with issues in the worst way possible, which is something that resonates with me because I’ve often done the same thing as well.
One of the many things I’ve learned from this manga is to be more open to others, shutting your self off from the world can never do any good. The only way to deal with negative emotions is to acknowledge them and face them head on, bottling everything up can only lead to catastrophe and even more heartache.
In conclusion, I think this manga made me a better person by showing me how bad of a person I am. But who we are at a moment in time is temporary and can change in any number of ways, apologies for quoting another Greek Philosopher, but as Heraclitus stated; “There is nothing permanent except change." Punpun showed me that no matter how hopeless or dreadful life gets, there’s a chance it might not always be that way.
Just because you lose someone you love, doesn’t mean you can never love again.
Just because you were a horrible person at one time, doesn’t mean you’re irredeemable.
When we don’t know who to hate, we often hate ourselves, it’s human nature to reject the things we don’t understand. Buts it’s also human nature to love, and in the end I think this story is about many different types of love, passionate, obsessive, overbearing, irrational, enduring, selfless, and unconditional.
Well thank you for reading my fellow lovers.
