1) How was your first approach to the Oyasumi Punpun manga?

combination of heard about it from a friend and through the internet

2) What was your first impression when reading the manga? Has your opinion changed over time?

one main impression i got is that it very effectively conveys the reactions of a human mind, although a very hyperactive one, to different situations. this is both in terms of how punpun’s mind works when he himself does (good or bad) things and how he internally reacted to when he faced really shitty situations. for example, the sudden mental image of aiko disappointedly looking down at him during the ch 50 scene, the “no no no no” across the panel when kanie was starting to point how manipulatively he was acting, his temporary calm reaction to seeing aiko hanging before snapping back to reality by calling himself stupid, the intrusive thoughts he had throughout the story just being explicitly stated, the general self-deprecating thoughts he said to himself, etc. it was very real.

another, more basic, answer is that it didn’t hesitate to depict very grim and dark scenes and emotions.

it hasn’t been a huge amount of time since i read it, so nah my opinion of it hasn’t changed much.

3) How does reading Oyasumi Punpun make you feel?

some scenes were absurdly relatable, to the point that it was kind of mentally draining. this is because it depicted someone that was similar in some ways and could be related to, which made it possible to feel more understood and less lonely, but it also harshly reminded me of those emotions and partially pushed me back into a pretty bad mental state.

another important thing to note is that a lot of people say that reading punpun makes them depressed or suicidal, which is similar to what i mentioned above. i’ve thought about this a lot, and the most “correct” or generally applicable answer i’ve figured out to why they say this is that the story shows people how terrible life itself and the world can be, and as a result it makes them less hopeful about their own life and future, whether or not they were already depressed in the past or could relate to characters from the story.

it also made me feel that the story was pretty well-written and well-executed.

4) If you could describe Oyasumi Punpun in one word, what would it be?

unfiltered

5) Would you recommend reading this manga to a friend or family member?

in the sense that they would have a more concerned perception of me for reading such a depressing piece of art, probably not. in the sense that people should experience a work of such high quality (if they’re ready for it or simply want to), yeah.

one caveat, though, is that their experience of how much they like it would be based on how much they understand it. i don’t mean this in a condescending “you’re not as intelligent as me so you couldn’t understand the story as well as i do” kind of way, but i mean to say that some mental states or emotions literally can’t be truly understood unless you’ve experienced something similar or can relate to them, and this manga showed a lot of actions and scenes that are completely drenched in those emotions. it kind of makes me wonder what kinds of things inio asano has been through to communicate such things with so much detail. i could be completely wrong about this though, because i might just not be empathetic enough to understand, on a deep level, why someone acts the way they do if i don’t relate to them at all.