There are piece of arts that shake you from the bottom of you heart, echo through body, and put you on knees, for better or for worse. For some of you, Oyasumi Punpun is definitely something like that.

When I read Oyasumi Punpun, the closest things that came to mind is these work from the naturalism movement : the author immerse a character into a "realist" situation, and "scientifically" describe all his resulting behavior and thoughts, with a detached point of view. The way the character is "animated", the realism of the landscape, the long thoughts of all the characters on their existential issues bind O.P. with this style.

O. P. is the story of an ordinary boy, although a bit shy and sensitive. You never see his face, but a very simple form representing him. You never see him talking, but only a "face" he's doing while he's supposedly doing so, and a whole panel reporting his says in direct or indirect speech, as an old silent film. This make it nearly impossible to put yourself in Punpun's shoes, and represents the character well : Punpun is a shadow, struggling to be heard, having trouble looking into the mirror, in a reality which seems to swallow him.

The main characters's thought are deeply described as they grow holder, loose contact between each other, struggle with their own issue, and wonder their place in society and goal in life. Let's be honest, this is clearly not a happy manga : the main theme traversing it is the impossibility for people, though they all have similar issue on they mind, to truly rely and understand each others, including themselves, leading to and everlasting feeling of loneliness. And don't except that problem to this solve.

This brings to the realism of the manga, which is something to be underlined. Life is hard, miracles are scarce and unexpected, friendship hard to maintain and people are not so oblivious about your past mischiefs. People are pathetic, deceitful, even if they act with good intentions, their will are limited and often act short-term. This realism is quite a bit weakened in the end, as it seems the authors are somehow eager to conclude, but the manga ends in agreement with itself in a series of acts which result logically from the past events.

To conclude, this manga is a very nice piece of art with a very good mental description of the main characters while most of them grow up from middle-school kids to "independent" adults. 2 pieces of advice, though : 1) Don't read it while you're depressed, as this manga continuously takes a toll on your mind; 2) Don't except this manga to be a cure : as strong as it may echo to your own life, the authors don't really answer to a particular question, but rather raise them. Have a nice read, though! ;)