Take my review with a grain of salt, because before "Oyasumi Punpun", I have never read a manga before. EVER! At the same time I don't think I'll ever read a manga like that or even similar.

I was doing a little research on Japanese pop culture and a strip of Punpun showed up and it caught my eye. I read a bit of what people where saying about it but I knew I was going to buy it and read it. The art was that good. One thing that everyone will tell you is that "Oyasumi Punpun" is not like any manga out there. Not reading any manga before was actually the reason why i was attracted to it in the first place.

Story: The story is a coming of age of a kid named Punpun. That's really all you need to know. It captures the struggles of being a kid like talking to girls, discovering sex, dealing with parents and society, and questioning your faith in god and religion. In that sense, the manga is so good in capturing the essence of these struggles. Punpun as a character rarely speaks and his design as a little bird (he's an actual kid in the world but he's portrayed like that for us readers) makes relating to him so much easier. With the few words or thoughts that Punpun communicates, you end up relating that emotion to your life and how you dealt with such situation growing up. Also, the writer Inio Asano does a great job in capturing the depth of these emotions to a point where it made me tear up or laugh out sometimes. Some people would relate to it more than others and that is why people's opinions about it are so polarized.

Art: I can't judge the art since I cannot compare it to any other manga since I never ready any. I am sure there are great ones out there. So on its own "Oyasumi Punpun" is beautiful to look at. The best part for me though was Punpun's character design. If you do a little research on the character you will see many portrayals on how he's drawn, and that is part of its charm. Punpun goes through a lot of phases and that affects how we see him. He starts off as a little ghost like bird and grows up to become a human body/bird head, which some times becomes a pyramid or an alien head... I know it's hard to explain but all that played a great part for me in understanding the depth of the emotions that Punpun had and the thoughts he had in his little head.

Characters: Like any story, you will like some character more than others. I personally loved Punpun's main story and his uncle Yuuichi. Some side characters are fun and amazing in shaping the world of the manga but some were so boring to me that i would flip so fast just to get them over with. Thankfully they are not very central to the main plot.

Enjoyment: Wow what a ride. It will really depend on what you enjoy. Oyasumi Punpun" is very VERY dark. The story is very heavy and discusses heavy themes like depression, suicide, divorce, domestic violence among many others. It's not fun in the general meaning of fun, but i did enjoy it so much. For some people it would be a depressing ride, but for me it made me think and reflect on my personal experiences. For example, on the topic of relationships, all have good sides and bad sides and even extreme sad sides too and "Oyasumi Punpun" captures such mess with ease. The portrayal of these topics is so universal that at many points I felt really shocked on how we are humans share the same basic feelings and think about them in the same way, that for someone like me could relate so deeply to a manga that was conceived in Japan. Don't get me wrong, on a basic level we all do relate. but what shocked me is that some of the ideas and emotions in "Oyasumi Punpun" were so deep and personal that I thought I might get lost at first. Though it astonished me how close our experiences are.

OVERALL: I must stress on two things: 1- Punpun is like nothing I have every read before. 2- It is NOT for everyone. So in the end my real advice is to either "go get all the volumes NOW" or "stay the hell away from it".