Chapters 1 - 147 (Vol 1 - 13)

Experiencing the book

Oyasumi Punpun is a story of a troubled individual. The story is heavily heavily allegorical. The presence of imagery is evident since inception but identifying and understanding it feels like a stretch. Either people on the net have tried to find meaning where there is none or the author (Asano Inio) is a devilish good author.

The read is absolutely not enjoyable in the literal sense of the word but the story is gripping and it hooked me in pretty well. I did care about the characters and how the series would end. The best part of the book are the foreshadowings and the allegories. The characters themselves are okayish but the narrative and the way of story-telling makes up wherever the characters start feeling dull.

The theme it revolves around

The entire story, it’s characters, it’s theme, all is a metaphor to the author’s life. Following two links do the heavy work of explaining the theme and what it all means in the end:

1. Character analysis wordpress
2. Asano Inio interview

The thoughts I had during and after completing it

Overall, I feel Oyasumi Punpun is not for everyone. If you are fan of abstract story-telling and high symbolism then you are more likely to enjoy the experience. I like to consider myself as one of them but still it was way too abstract for me as well. Credits to author though and salute to the efforts. But these kinds of experiences are simply not my cup of tea.

Negatives

There are unfortunately many shortcoming to Oyasumi Punpun. The biggest one for me was how abstract it is. It took me so much reading and researching to just understand what it all meant. It is way too abstract for me and attempts to explain everything feels like a stretch. Apart from that, even after understanding (or I supposedly think so) I am really bothered by author’s selfishness. Everything just revolves around the him regardless of whether it enhances the reader’s experience or not. I admire his courage and look up to him for this trait but as a reader I naturally am not going to like it…

Ratings: 7/10 (being extremely generous)