I just finished Oyasumi Punpun. I thought it was phenominal so

Overrated, but still pretty good.

>>149054399
This. And more specifically it starts off great has it's ups and downs then goes full edge at the end and kind of mucks it all up. The sub plot about the crazies goes no where and only detracts from the story.

>>149054643
Asano stated in an interview that he kept making it darker and darker because of the negative feedback.

>>149055573
made it darker because people said it wasn't dark enough?

>>149055590
no people were complaining that it was getting too dark. they didn't like where the story was heading.

I liked how it tackled depression and sex, and the other edgy shit but I don't really get what Aiko's role was supposed to be. Was I supposed to like her or something? Was the romance between her and Punpun legit?

That was pretty good. I really felt very sorry for Aiko, I can't say I empathized with Pun Pun though.

He might be a realistic character in that he never managed to do anything right, but he still pisses me off.

>>149055762
–Was that the idea behind how Punpun and Aiko first fall in love?

Asano: Well, after all, I started with him falling in love at first sight with a transfer student, which is as cliché as it gets. In the history of manga, there’s almost a format of how you’re supposed to make a manga. This series was in part my attempt at seeing how much of that I could destroy — which is why I started off with a romantic comedy trope, just to see how chaotic I could make it from there.

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>>149055573
Interesting.
>>149054643
I agree the sub plot went no where. And the trigger for the transition from drama to tragidy could have been handled better. However I think the ending is the best I've ever seen from a written piece of medium. Also for the sake of clarity don't use "edgy" to describe your opinion. The word is so abused at this point it can be used for anything dark or gritty. Most people who use the word sling it around to define dark themes. Thus stigmatizing any ability to talk about anything dark without it being called edgy.

–After Punpun graduates from high school, the aspiring manga artist Sachi Nanjo appears. Was she always part of the plan?

Asano: I’d intended on making a love triangle between Punpun, Aiko and Satchan from the very start. In chapter one, there’s a scene where Punpun’s dad looks through a telescope and talks about the summer triangle, and I put that in there so that, reading back, I’d remember that Punpun was supposed to be about a love triangle.

–You were foreshadowing that in the first chapter!

Asano: Vega is Orihime, Altair is Hikoboshi — and then with the addition of Deneb, it becomes the summer triangle. Satchan similarly creates the triangle with her and Punpun and Aiko — or Hikoboshi and Orihime. The horns Punpun eventually grows (volume 11) aren’t devil horns; Hikoboshi is also called the cowherd star, so those horns are supposed to be bull horns.

>>149055846
That's kinda what I was getting from it, cool to hear it from the man himself

>>149055839
I think it hit home well for me because of Punpun. I always viewed Aiko as just an ideal that Punpun had. Punpun is in his youngest years. He is sexually frustrated, self depretiating, and uncertian about what he want's for the future. He can strike a lot of cords for many young men. Hence the reason why I got so drawn into the series once I started reading. It's a story of adversity. It's like a more properly formated "Hero's Journey." I'd feel weird to call this an SoL because it doesn't maintain that sence of light heartedness throghout the story.

>>149055918
more interview q/a pls

>>149056397
–I felt like Girl was another take on Punpun and its core theme of young love. Do you by any chance have some sort of trauma from your first love?

Asano: I did fall in love with a girl who transferred to my elementary school, but she didn’t leave much of a mark on me, so she wasn’t exactly an Aiko. The girlfriend I had before my wife, though — she might be an Aiko. I was with her when I was doing Solanin. I thought she was helpless and it was up to me to save her — but really, she didn’t need me at all.

–What do you mean?

Asano: I was convinced that she was helpless without me, but it turned out that she’s surprisingly responsible after all, so after we broke up she just started working like a normal person. When I saw that she didn’t actually need me, I realized that it was actually me who depended on her, and I felt really embarrassed.

–Wow.

Asano: I think I wanted that girl to be in an unhappy position like Aiko, so I could save her.

–And things got pretty ugly when you inserted that desire into your manga.

Asano: It did indeed. One of my regrets about Punpun is how I alienated so many of my readers. With every dark turn the manga took, sales dropped. The first brutal image comes in the Uncle Yuichi flashback, and sales took a dip there, hard. And then Punpun kills someone, and it takes another dip. It’s a story that I really worked hard for to reach the end, so I wish people would try reading it all the way through. It might not leave you in a great mood, but hey. (laugh)

https://mangabrog.wordpress.com/2014/07/06/inio-asano-interview-reality-is-tough-so-read-this-manga-about-cute-girls-and-feel-better/

full interview for anyone interested

>>149055857
I agree with the fact that words like edgy and pretentious get thrown around a lot, it actually bothers me a lot as well. I didn't use the word lightly in this context. I DO think it got kind of edgy towards the end (my opinion, not fact and I will never claim it to be fact). Most of the series was dark and I loved that. The dark themes are not in and of themselves 'edgy'. The story did such a good job of using dark themes appropriately early on that it makes it hard not to ding it for failing those expectations later in the series.

Take Punpun's friend for example (i forget his name) that almost took that job murdering someone (might be remembering wrong it's been a while). It tackles the idea of taking someone's life for money and explores it in a dark way. But the story does not take that extra step of actually going through with the murder because it wouldn't add anything; it would just be darkness for the sake of darkness. The story avoided that and I loved it for it.

Darkness for the sake of darkness is my definition of edgy. And towards the end, some of the plot is dark for the sake of dark in my opinion. There are a number of times when I feel the characters could have avoided the ending they got without compromising their established characters. I am generalizing of course. A lot of this can be explained because of injuries, drugs, years of damage, not in the right state of mind, etc. I get it, but this is my opinion. I don't want to start picking apart minute details to fit my argument or to refute anyone else's.

I do like the ending overall, don't get me wrong, but it could have been so much better. I suppose that is my beef with the series. I had no intention of using a buzzword to get random people riled up.

>>149056817
Yeah I suppose so. I guess that's what all the build up was for. Like you said. He didn't push the man on to the tracks to die for money. However when Punpun kills the mom it's to defend himself and Akio. It turns dark for some what natrulistic ceircumstance. Is it merely because it becomes extremly viseral in the end that is what kills it for you? What parts in particular did you find dark for the sake of dark? The ending is only good in the way that's realistic. Punpun goes through a lot in his life, and in the end he suffers unbelivebly. Never the less the world keeps spinning. He presses foward in life. We never really get any closure on his story. We just know that he continues to live. Esspecially in the final chapter when his friend from grade school visits him. It also draws a to light this idea of different suffering, and different ways of copeing with it.

Normalfag shit.

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>>149056560
Thanks anon.

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>>149057932
>(You)
Don't you have a Moe thread to be in?
Fine you don't like normal fag read NHK.

>>149054062
It made me depressed as hell, but I loved it which is why I occasionally read it

>>149057828
My issue was that he didn't necessarily have to kill her (obviously it's debatable whether it's on purpose or not). Then of course running from the law when they could've pleaded self defense bothered me a little (running away really fits them as characters though so that gets a pass). Really it's just some logical stuff that could be disregarded in the story because aiko and punpun were such truly unstable people. I totally get the reasons behind the ending and the characters motivations for their actions but, and this is gonna sound dumb, I couldn't shake the feeling that it was how the writer wanted it to be not what the characters naturally would have done, if that makes sense.

Man that does sound dumb written out. Bottom line is, I really did like that the ending was the way it was. I just disagree with some of the ways it was presented. Less is more and all that. I'm pretty tired though so it's hard for me to articulate the reasons and come up with examples so you'll have to make due with vague impressions...

I feel like I'm shitting all over punpun but it is one of my favorites. Being able to pick it apart is why I love it.

Had to drop it for the forced gloomyness. A perpetual depressed manga triggers my boredom.

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>>149059236
>forced gloomyness

Punpun actually deserves to be shot in the head.

>>149058057
I don't even watch moe faggot. 50% of the people here had it worse than Punpun, his depression was a charade.

>>149059638
That's not how depression works. Like at all.

I hated the story and the ending. Why do all manga have terrible endings.

>>149059800
Manga has better endings than anime. "Let's leave it as open ended as possible, juuuuust in case they want to give us money for another season."

>>149056476
Zero fucks, this man.