By Dustin Cabeal

Goodnight Punpun is probably the strangest manga I’ve ever read. It’s also one of the most brilliant stories I’ve experienced. While I’ll never know if my theory on this series is correct, I still highly suspect that creator Inio Asano wrote each volume to match the reading level of Pun Pun. Again, I could be wrong, but if I’m not then the sheer brilliance of this story is beyond that of any other manga.

Paired with this story is Asano’s photorealistic artwork. Which is hilarious to say because if you look at Pun Pun, he’s anything but photorealistic. The artwork is some of the best I’ve ever seen. No, I’m not adding “in a manga” to that, it’s just a flat out declaration of Asano’s skills.

While this very mature slice of life story may not be for everyone, it’s perfect for those looking for something different than the repetitive shonen genre or just something that is manga, but isn’t.