How long am I still destined for a tramp? – review of the comic book “Dobranoc, Pupunie”, vol. 5

Our poor, oversensitive and almost completely socially maladjusted Punpun seems to be slowly going straight to the point. As with Asano, there is no madness, but there is everyday life that seems to hurt less. Is this the end of the torment?

 

Make this torment end at last

Stachura’s poems fit Punpun as much as possible. If he lived in Poland, he could quote them, trying to grasp his uninteresting existence. Maybe it would be good for him? Or maybe he would never really find them, you never read poetry in Onoders … Anyway, great sadness, loneliness, and even wandering describe Asano’s hero well. Even if he only wanders around the city, without escaping to the Bieszczady Mountains.

As you remember from the previous volume , swallows of optimism appear in the world of Punpun. He has friends, he starts creating something. He talks to people, begins to be independent, and finally grows a little out of childish naivety and straightforwardness. Maybe he’s not happy yet, but he’s overcoming a depressive episode, and that’s a tremendous amount. Is it possible to place a mature personality on these fragile foundations, a man who is not a burden to himself?

Good vibrations

This time, a lot of space in the manga is devoted to Pegasus and his sect, which wants to save or rebuild the world after the catastrophe, due on July 7. The great prophet will speak to all Tokyo people because he decides to run for president of the city. Thanks to this, you will read a lot of cloudy stories and warnings, and you will also see an inconsistent preacher of the truth, as if captured in a fisheye, literally pushing some frames out. Man – with Asano it doesn’t sound proud or hygienic, we already know that. It doesn’t even sound healthy.

The gallery of freaks accompanying Pegasus may tire you a bit this time, thanks to which you may feel more like Punpun, which disappears again. Less dramatic than before, but noticeably for friends. So much so that they will decide to look for him while he himself will make a few radical attempts to change his fate.

If you take a run through the previous manga volumes , it’s easy to see how Asano manages the drama of the story. There are slight rising waves here, but usually the level of optimism reaches the bottom – it is no sea, rather muddy ponds, suffocated. And in all this punpun hopelessness, at least according to the hero, there was one single breath of fresh air – Aiko. And he had lost her a long time ago, he had betrayed her.

You should also be warned here. Asano does not shy away from sexual plots, he showed Punpun’s teenage sex fixation, masturbation and harassment. This time you will find a rather brutal juxtaposition of romantic images with scenes associated rather with fanservice and use. Love, at least physical, does not save the protagonist from his numerous neuroses, it does not improve self-esteem, and all its reality suddenly seems very naturalistic. At the same time, the power of the message does not lie in the erotic scenes themselves, but in the contrast they create with the rest of the manga.

Fate must change

It is a recurring theme in the reader’s (and certainly this reader’s) reactions to the subsequent “adventures” of Punpun. After all, it is impossible to live like this – neither objectively nor subjectively – with such beliefs about yourself. So the big question of this and the previous volume is: can actual changes make something better for this boy? If he is finally lucky, will he be able to accept it? Of course, happiness happens, and it does not, so there will be painful blows from life and the people around the hero. Could the balance in his head ever turn out to be a plus?

I have to admit that Goodnight, Punpunie is becoming harder and harder to read, it is easy to get emotionally infected with sadness and hopelessness or pessimistic reflection on your own poor choices. But the author is not really about that, he wanted to focus on a specific person, on the possibilities of one life. In this respect, but also in terms of emotional temperature, the Asano manga resembles the recently released Incel Janek Mazur.