Oyasumi Pun Pun #12

This series is a rarity for Inio Asano (浅野いにお) currently releasing the 12th and penultimate volume, with the final 13th volume due later in the year. Asano usually writes smaller stories within 1 or 2 volumes, such as A Girl By The Seaside from earlier in the year, or the 2005 hit Solanin.

But the brutal honesty presented in Asano's story are still present. Although how real can a story centered around a anthropomorphic bird-boy be? The surrealistic twist adds a softness to the harsh reality and emotional pain of the central characters.

The art of Asano is sublime, I'd love to frame some his artwork. But it is combined with emotionally crushing and gut wrenching stories that are so honest and painful that I sometimes find them difficult to read. Several years ago I read the first 7 volumes of this series as Pun Pun developed from a cute primary school boy with an innocent crush on a girl in his class, to an awkward adolescent, and onto an introverted sexually confused high school student. Picking up in volume 12, I see that Pun Pun's emotional strain has only increased as he tries to keep his dysfunctional life from disintegrating. Not for the faint of heart, but one of my favourite current series.

Links:
Asano Inio on Twitter: https://twitter.com/asano_inio
Oyasumi Pun Pun Website: http://spi-net.jp/rensai_sakuhin/oyasumi_punpun/index.html