A review by jenmcgee
Goodnight Punpun, Vol. 2 by Inio Asano

4.0

“There is only one really serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide.” Having recently re-read my Camus, I couldn’t help but start to see the Goodnight Punpun series as basically a manga on existentialism. Why don’t I just kill myself? Is the question most of these characters seem to be asking over and over, with varying degrees of success at finding an answer. This volume focuses a lot on Punpun’s uncle Yuichi, giving us the backstory for why he’s a hollow man drifting through life, and it’s pretty horrific stuff. Meanwhile, Punpun is struggling with his desperate love for a girl and his mingled hatred and respect for another boy who loves her. As I mentioned in my review of the first volume, it’s dealing with extremely mature themes: abuse, rape, murder, and an overall agonizing tone of self-doubt and existential pain. By turns delicate and brutal, and extremely hard to put down.