Buonanotte, Punpun. Vol. 12

おやすみプンプン [Oyasumi Punpun] #12

by Inio Asano, Mayumi Kobayashi (Translator), Davide Sarti (Translator)

La notte, l’oscurità e la pioggia, gli abissi più profondi, e un silenzio di ghiaccio. Punpun e Aiko sono creature dell’oggi, smarrite e selvagge. Chi o cosa potrà salvarle? Penultimo numero per il capolavoro del geniale mangaka Inio Asano.

Genres: Manga, Comics, Seinen, Fiction, Graphic Novels, Comics Manga, Drama

256 pages, Paperback

First published June 28, 2013

About the author

Inio Asano (浅野いにお, Asano Inio) is a Japanese cartoonist. He is known for his character-driven stories and his detailed art-style, making him one of the most influential manga author of his generation.
Asano was born in 1980 and produced his first amateur comics as a teenager. His professional debut happened in 2000 in the pages of the magazine Big Comic Spirits. Since then, he has collaborated with most of the major Japanese magazines of seinen manga (comics for a mature audience). Among Asano's internationally acclaimed works are: the psychological horror Nijigahara Holograph (2003-2005); the drama Solanin (2005-2006); the existentialistic slice-of-life Goodnight Punpun (2007-2013); the erotic A Girl on the Shore (2009-2013); the sci-fi Dead Dead Demon's Dededede Destruction (2014-2022).

Reviews

[elio · Rating 4 out of 5]

will i finally finish this manga or will this manga will finish me

[Radwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

TRIGGER WARNINGS ALL AROUND!

This volume really took its toll on my mental health, I'm scared of the coming and final volume, but I can't just stop now. A word of advice: if you're going through a bad menntal health phase, DON'T READ THIS. It's gotten really dark and troubling. It's brilliant in exploring the emotions and mental illnesses, but it's really hard to read at times.

[Aida · Rating 5 out of 5]

End. 1401/4/26
نمیدونم از کی بود که متوجه شدم.......حرف زدن با خدا فقط حرف زدن با خودم بود.

[Manuela Ojeda · Rating 5 out of 5]

5.0
La puta madre

[Rahul · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 Stars For The Series
4 Stars For This Volume
7 Stars For The Artwork

Wtf man ! Last volume didn't concluded what happen with Punpun and Aiko. But then, stories like these don't have a definitive conclusion as like our own lives. Things always keep changing, for good or bad that's another thing.

Inio Asano is a genius. This is probably one of those manga which I loved and understood but really couldn't explain to others. Because it is more than a story, it is more about reflection on our very own lives.

When I see Punpun (can find a lot of similarities between him & me), I realise fault in very own character, how the society and my own family influenced it, that led me to live so many miserable days and still continuing.

Welcome to the Nhk (my favourite anime ever) and this manga both have similar kind of characters (manga is more deep into characters lives though) but these two stories end on polar ends, but both are brilliant in their own way.

People say this manga as most depressing they have ever read, but I really didn't feel it that way.

Artwork as always is work of god in any of Asano's work. Pure magic.

One of the best thing read this year definitely, give it read, it is a strange, painful, introspecting yet so real.

[Jesus Flores · Rating 4 out of 5]

Se podria decir que es la calma antes de la tempestad, pero aun asi, no es tanta calma, PunPun y Aiko hacen varias cosas que siguen siendo pesadas de leer, mas PunPun.

Por otro lado, con la mangaka, pues ella se pone a buscar a PunPun y va a concer a distintas personas de la vida de PunPun.

Y bueno tambien lo que parece que ocurre con lo del grupo de "Good vibrations", como que parece algo feo

En fin, ya el que sigue es el final, y no se, presiento.......

[Raúl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Los dos últimos tomos de Oyasumi Punpun dejan sin aliento. El nihilismo del personaje se encarna en la desesperanza más absoluto, afectando a lo más querido y lo más débil. Y luego, queda la vida, día a día. No acabo de entender el desarrollo de la trama de Pegasus, con su historia apocalíptica, más llá de darle forma a la historia secundaria de los amigos de Punpun, Seki y Shimizu. Pero pese a todo, un manga muy original y destacado que merece leerse.

[Volo · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,5/5

dios los cría, y ellos se juntan.

[Eni Gajanova]

Ne znam kako da ocenim, ali meni ovo jako potresno, uznemirujuće, mračno i bizarno💔

[Alex Pler · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Estoy contento. No esperaba ser tan fuerte como estoy demostrando ser. Gracias por darme desesperación."

[p33€3]

yo lo de pegasus no se si esk n lo entiendo o que pero esk me cae fatal y odio todas las páginas en las k aparece es un pesao k se calle ya

[Jon Ureña · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series is called "Goodnight Punpun" in English. This is a review of just this volume.

Unfortunately I went ahead and read the remaining of this series; couldn't help myself. So inevitably my review of just this volume will be sullied by the foreknowledge of what's about to come.

At this point every spoiler is potentially huge. I know there is at least one in this or the next volume that you absolutely don't want to know if you plan on reading the series. Hell, I've read the series and I wish I didn't know it.

Sachi, the protagonist's friend with benefits and somewhat prolific manga artist, has decided to be honest with herself and walk the streets if necessary to find the protagonist, who has disappeared without a trace and doesn't use a cellphone. She meets with the protagonist's only male friend, one he doesn't even confide in much, but he doesn't know the whereabouts of the guy. The friend is sure that the protagonist will return eventually, but when he does, Sachi should stop playing games, let go of her pride and admit to the protagonist how much he means for her. Meanwhile, many kilometers away, the protagonist's love of his life Aiko is giving him a blowjob in a public bathroom.

Aiko and the protagonist visit Tokyo like tourists, but when they come across a market of goods made in a prison correctional program, the protagonist suffers a panic attack and kneels on the ground. No matter how composed he believes himself to be, his calm is disintegrating, and nothing will change the fact that he strangled Aiko's mother to death. Where are they going? How will they live with the fear that eventually they'll be found out? He wakes up some time later. He seems to have a fever, and an untreated wound in his leg from when Aiko's mother tried to get him off her by stabbing him with some scissors. Aiko is next to him. She suggests he should sleep more, but he answers that he's afraid that he'll wake up from his dream if he falls asleep. He takes her hands and puts them around his own throat. Squeeze tighter, he demands. But you will die, she says. When she understands that's what he wants, she cries. She tells him she won't be able to do anything on her own. Later on, as they are travelling, a TV starts speaking about a crime committed in Aiko's hometown. Aiko trembles. Although it's got nothing to do with them, she breaks down and cries like a child.

Back in Tokyo, Sachi has called her best friend's sister to meet with them. The sister is the high school girl that the protagonist had a terrible date with way back then. She doesn't know of the protagonist's whereabouts, but they get to talk about him as a person. Given his abysmal self esteem and co-dependency issues, Sachi's friend brings up that Sachi loves romantic relationships with such men because she wants them to be at her beck and call, ready to act as her pets if necessary. Sachi can't retort this time, and a growing pain in her heart tells her that she never knew the protagonist as she wanted to know him, and that she must absolutely find him before something horrible happens. Through visiting the manager of the real estate business that the protagonist worked part time at, she learns from the manager's daughter how caring the protagonist had been by visiting the manager often, and that the protagonist studied hard to get his own real estate license. Sachi realizes how little she knew of the day to day of the protagonist. The daughter of the manager suggests that the protagonist is simply not the kind of person to distract others with the details of his own life.

Sachi gets the key to the protagonist's apartment through the real estate offices, and she finds the blood stained sheets where Aiko had lost her virginity. There are tissues with crusted semen in the garbage. The protagonist's phone is right there, and he only has one contact: his uncle's sweet wife Midori, who bought him the phone.

Sachi decides to visit the protagonist's uncle and his very pregnant wife. They naturally don't know where he is either. Midori reminisces about the past and can barely think of anything in the present but her pregnancy, but when the uncle and Sachi are alone, they walk the streets for a bit. The uncle, who has always been fond of his nephew, knows that he's finding his own way, and although he wishes he had more contact with him, that's just how he is. She recognizes in Sachi some hint of the protagonist's mother, and he gets emotional.

Sachi's editor offers her a new publishing contract, and although she starts immediately, she breaks down in tears. She feels too lonely; just who is she going to share her accomplishments and joys with?

The protagonist's checking account is running low. When they stop at some shop, the protagonist sneaks into the bathroom to gulp down a bunch of painkillers and maybe anti-anxiety pills. He finds Aiko by a tree with wishes hanging from it, part of the Tanabata celebration. She's hunched over writing her own wish while the protagonist looks over her shoulder. Aiko is acting like her mind has gone to la-la land. He reads what she's writing: that when she grows up she wants to become a space scientist, riddled with spelling errors. It's as if she's reverted completely to being a ten year old. The protagonist loses it in a turmoil of painful emotions, and starts dragging her by the arm. She refuses to get up, while screaming and crying in a tantrum. The protagonist tells the onlookers to fuck off.

EDIT: Now I realize that I was confused during this scene. The hanging Tanabata wish about being a space scientist was written, presumably, by an actual child, and it's seeing it in addition to having Aiko hunched over writing another one which creates the turmoil of emotions in the protagonist. He gets angry partly because Aiko seemingly fails to see or confront the terrible situation they are dealing with in the present. We only get to read in the next volume the curse that Aiko has written for her Tanabata wish.

At this point it must be obvious for the protagonist that he's dating someone, love of his life or not, who needs serious psychological help. It's not false that she can't function on her own, and she seems stuck back in her childhood even more than the protagonist, and to a deeper psychological level.

They spend the night hidden away in some store, definitely somewhere they have no permission to be in. The protagonist researches on the computer how much time he'd get for murder, and for being on the run. Later on he researches suicide methods.

Sachi travels to Fukushima to speak with the protagonist's father. They meet at his house, as they get together with some of the father's fishing buddies. The father hasn't seen nor heard from his son since his mother passed away, but he'll gladly talk to her about his son, about his son's past and his personality.

Locked in a bathroom, Aiko changes the bandages on the nasty looking wound in her abdomen, and downs a bunch of painkillers. The protagonist is waiting in the store. He realizes that the manga magazine that some guy is reading features the manga that Sachi published, and he's actually leafing through it now. The protagonist asks the guy what he thinks of it. It's trash, he answers, and the characters aren't believable. In a dark mood, the protagonist follows the guy outside, and observes him as the guy goes through his phone and drinks from a can. When he leaves the can on the pavement, the protagonist grabs it and follows the guy as he's wandering away. The protagonist uses the fact that the guy littered to discharge his darkness on him. The guy is annoyed by this suspicious character who reacts so strongly to him leaving a can outside of a trashcan. He eventually takes it and tells the protagonist that he'll throw it in one, but adds that people like the protagonist, who abuse their misguided sense of justice to abuse others, are depressing and disgusting. The protagonist grabs a plank of wood.

The protagonist's father tells Sachi that as a child, his son was very talkative and open, and not remotely as self-conscious as he became, but one time, through pursuing some childish delusion (that shooting stars ended up falling to the streets) he got lost, and worse, a friend of his was hit by a bike. Although the protagonist's friend survived, from then on something changed in the protagonist; he got the notion that he could easily hurt others by just being himself, and progressively closed himself off more and more. His father regrets not having taught him better, not having given him more tools to survive in this world; he cries as his fishing friends try to cheer him up.

Meanwhile, the protagonist beats the random guy in the head with the plank of wood. The protagonist has already killed someone, what's one more person? Aiko catches up with him, and hugs his torso while crying and begging him to stop. They get in their car, but as they are speeding away the injured guy throws something heavy which almost breaks through the windshield. Unfortunately that means having to ditch that car, which was a problem to begin with, as it belongs to Aiko's mother.

When the protagonist attempts to justify his actions, lying about having been attacked first, Aiko doesn't believe him, and tells him that he's gotten stranger. She looks worn out.

Some time later they reach Kagoshima, the place they had hoped to escape to as children. However, now it doesn't feel like any accomplishment nor relief, and the protagonist suggests they should take a ferry to some island. In that island there is a space museum, and Aiko goes on reminiscing about how as a child the protagonist had written that he wished that as an adult he could colonize other planets and live there implicitly with Aiko. She starts talking about what other paths they could have taken in life, but the protagonist, in serious emotional pain, shuts her up. There's no other path but the one they are in. They walk to the beach. Aiko grows hopeful. She imagines herself living there in a small house. She considers for a moment having children of her own, but she changes her mind; she doesn't want anyone else to go through the same stuff she experienced, and she doesn't have any confidence that she wouldn't end up like her mother. The protagonist tells Aiko that he's happy now, and blessed to have been able to meet her in this life.

There are several painfully sad shots of Aiko enjoying the beach under the sun. They lie in the water for a bit. As they walk up the beach again, the protagonist takes some rope lying around. Aiko approaches him, and although she already knows without having to be told, she asks if she's going to die now. The protagonist admits it, and starts strangling her. This is the only way she will never get to be alone for long, but he'll follow her immediately after. She realizes she doesn't want to die, and promises the protagonist that one day he'll be glad that he stayed alive. But the protagonist doesn't see any future for him after having killed Aiko's mother. Aiko in turn replies that she's the one who killed her; when the protagonist went to answer the door, her mother was waking up, and Aiko finished her off stabbing her in the guts. Whether or not it's true, the protagonist stops trying to murder her, and later on they lie on the grass. She has decided that she will stay on the island and won't go to the police to give herself up nor accuse the protagonist of trying to murder her, but she wants to know what the protagonist will do from now on. The protagonist tells her they should get married.

Back in Tokyo, the protagonist's childhood friend Seki gets badly beaten up by his former boss' goons, after the boss' daughter claimed that Seki had hit her. The moment to perform that job he had accepted from the shady cult guy, a job involving pressing a button when told, approaches, but first he decides to intercept his schizophrenic former friend, who had gotten tangled in the cult. He offers him to leave, move to another country, and just have a good old time. Seki fears that the cult is planning some big event at the same time he ends up having to press the button, and he doesn't want his friend to be involved. However, his friend refuses. Seki eventually goes to the place where the shady cult had told him to, in order to press some button. Turns out it's the shady guy's house; he's the sort of vicepresident of the cult, and as he's going to be seriously busy with the cult stuff, the bunch of money he's paying Seki just involves pressing the TV remote so the cult guy's elderly mother can watch the TV. Seki laughs bitterly.

The day has come for the cult freaks to execute their plan. As their leader is recording some YouTube video, the cultists are going to raise a toast in celebration. A few of the cultists are intelligent enough to realize they are going to drink poison, and refuse to. Some say they just went to find friendship, or to have something meaningful to do. The vicepresident realizes that the cultists failing to kill themselves won't allow him to make a popular sensation of this event, and he pours gasoline around and sets the building on fire.

Back to Aiko and the protagonist, she's talking with someone who offers jobs for young people and won't ask too many questions. They include free housing. Aiko, happy, rushes to find the protagonist, but as she does the TV news announces that they've found Aiko's mother's body, and that they are looking for Aiko herself.

I read through this volume with a knot in my stomach, fearing every moment the narrative cut back to Aiko and the protagonist. I wanted them to catch a break, for everything to go well for such unlucky, broken, miserable people. I had no clue, not a damn one.

[holden]

Maksimalna dnevna temperatura 12 stepeni.

Nebo zagasito sive boje, oblak do oblaka.

Kiša lije bez prestanka od kada sam otvorio oči.

Jedino kako dan može da bude depresivniji je da nastavim sa čitanjem Punpuna.

I da, postao je depresivniji.

[Chiara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Questo manga mi ha decostruito l'anima. Ha portato la mia mente negli abissi dell'agire umano e mi ha arrecato un malessere perpetuo che poche volte ho vissuto. Avevo la nausea e non capivo il perché.
Bello.

[Martina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mi aspetto il peggio dal volume finale perché le cose stanno solo peggiorando, una tristezza infinita

[sol ☼ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yo pensando que el manga no puede irse más al carajo:
El manga: 💀

[Leila ✨ · Rating 3 out of 5]

qué carajo pasaba, no

3 de 5 estrellas.

[Carlos · Rating 5 out of 5]

5/5

[Aitor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una vez más, Asano brinda un tomo increíble que se ve algo mermado por esa trama innecesaria de Pegasus. De ahí no hay mucho que decir: no sé ni qué aporta ni por qué se le dedica tanto tiempo. La conclusión con Seki no está mal y tiene su punto bonito, pero del resto casi que me sobra. Lo que sí funciona de lujo es la historia principal, con ese Punpun cada vez más negativo. Capítulos como el de la playa resultan fascinantes: a pesar de lo sórdido de la situación, los personajes se permiten un pequeño momento de alegría a ritmo de las increíbles páginas dobles de Asano. El dibujo jamás había sido tan brillante y, si bien hay cierto exceso de paisajes, me gusta cómo representan los distintos estados mentales de Punpun. Por fin hay un propósito real fuera de esa idea de mostrar la sociedad moderna en sus engranajes. Volver al tomo 1 y observar la manera en que tanto el dibujo como el personaje han evolucionado es tan desalentador como brillante.

[Elessar · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5/5

De una calidad similar al anterior, este penúltimo tomo resulta desagradable, confuso e inquietante. El desenlace incierto que se aproxima transmite una sensación de agobio que parece exigirte ponerle término cuanto antes. Las tres subtramas que están actualmente abiertas probablemente acaben en un escenario común, con una explosión de sensaciones enfrentadas. Quiero acabar ya esta desapacible, aunque a veces bella, historia...

[Met · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un tormento. Tavole stupende. ADORO totalmente come Asano decida di rappresentare Punpun in base al suo stato d’animo. È indecifrabile, e tra le cose più affascinati che ho mai letto. Non so se sono pronto per la fine.

[Gustavo · Rating 5 out of 5]

La verdad es que a donde va el último tomo después de todo esto es un misterio para mi. Todas las subtramas van llegando a su fin, Pegasus y sus seguidores están al borde del suicidio en grupo, Punpun y Aiko escapando de Tokyo luego del asesinato de la mamá de Aiko...

Por otro lado Sachi se pregunta cuanto sabe realmente de Punpun y se embarca en su propio viaje. Este tomo alterna momentos muy intensos con otros bastante pacíficos, pero la tensión y la desesperación se huelen en el aire, y termina siendo devastador.

[Lucía · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vale, voy a ser clara, estoy hasta el coño de Punpun. No sé si Inio Asano lo hace con ese propósto pero Punpun cada vez me pone más nerviosa y lo odio cada vez más. Me esta creando una incomodidad increíble pero me parece muy adictiva la obra.







*****SPOILERS*****
Sigo, una vez más muy rayada con el puto Pegasus.
Algo que destaco es el final, me he quedado flipando con la explosión del edifico que han petado los psicópatas sectarios estos que siguen al Pegasus, todo mal pero quiero leer más.

[Nahia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tengo sentimientos encontrados a niveles bestiales con este tomo, pero creo de verdad que es el mejor y que a pesar de todo ha sido, o está siendo, espectacular (no sé si es esa la palabra adecuada, pero me sale así).

[Yuki Ura · Rating 5 out of 5]

The ruined aiko-chan and pun pun`s journey continues. Everyone is funny. Everybody sees only oneself while everyone has affection. What will happen to you at the end of this journey ...

[M●13RA · Rating 5 out of 5]

Masterpiece hell of a ride, unique, truly beautiful, raw, poetic, symbolic, heartbreaking, unforgettable!
can't find the words to describe this fantastic peace of art, that transcends any medium

[Rafa Araujo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inio Asano suéltame me estas lastimando :(

[Ana Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

.o.

[Rubèn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un desastre

[Kristin ✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

The end is coming.