Review by Frank Plowright

After his parents separate, Punpun’s dissolute Uncle Yuichi moves in, so Punpun’s life has hardly been a barrel of laughs, yet Inio Asano starts this volume by turning the screw still further. Not having revealed his love for Aiko, Punpun now sees her holding hands with his friend Yaguchi.

Anyone who’s read Goodnight Punpun 1 knows not to expect a cheery experience, and that’s definitively what Asano avoids. Punpun represents the shy, uncertain kid, basically decent despite a troubled background, yet isolated by more confident classmates due to a lack of personality. However, Asano makes clear the depth of Punpun’s emotional turmoil, not least by interjecting himself as god and making negative suggestions. He also continues to draw Punpun and family members as sketchy and indistinct creations, in Punpun’s case representing his distance from the people he interacts with and the real world, which is drawn in Asano’s usual precise, detailed and attractive style. While Punpun obsesses about Aiko, though, his story drifts into the secondary category.

In places it seems as if Asano perhaps isn’t such a sadistic creator despite his manifesting as god to torment Punpun with an inner voice. However, the bleakest story requires a sparkle of hope, primarily to be whisked away.

So far Yuichi’s not developed beyond a one-note personality who’s yet another negative influence on Punpun, but it turns out there’s more to him than might have been presumed. He certainly lacks ambition, still working behind a shop counter at 33, but his coarse, exploitative and opportunistic behaviour disguises someone who’s thought about life and wasn’t always the way he now presents. The catalyst for coaxing out his past is Midori, seen before as the nurse who cared for Punpun’s mother in hospital, but now a clumsy waitress with dreams of running her own cafe.

In its own way Yuichi’s life is as tragic and depressing as Punpun’s, but with the focus of potential squandered. It’s incredibly touching how Midori coaxes the story from him, not put off by his deliberate attempts to sabotage her inexplicable feelings for him. Asano also conceives a inventive, but completely credible reason for Yuichi’s previous life disintegrating. In part it’s a sordid succumbing to temptation, but Asano has more to reveal, contextualising things slightly differently, and while the broader benchmarks are apparent, you’re not going to figure the details. Hope is dangled, but will Yuichi grasp at the strands? Asano contrasts Punpun’s situation as everything is within Yuichi’s control, so how strong is his self-loathing?

When Punpun moves back into focus over the final few chapters it’s both disappointing and a respite. The surprise over this material is how Asano’s art copes. Usually so controlled and meticulous, he summons up the spirit to supply the intensity and movement of an exciting badminton contest. While that might not seem the usual concern of Goodnight Punpun, there’s an underlying emotional context, and with the attention back on Punpun, depression is again a consideration, now bolstered by revelations about it being hereditary.

Once again, this is dark, bleak and compelling. Bring on Goodnight Punpun 3.