Oyasumi PunPun: One of the most thought provoking manga mirrors a late Abbas Kiarostami film

Anime and manga tend to borrow a lot from other forms of fiction, and Oyasumi PunPun is no different. The Seinen manga made by Inio Asano has been heralded as not just groundbreaking but also one of the best Seinen manga ever made. A lot of the praise has been directed at its art, as it is clear that the mangaka put a lot of effort into the manga.

Oyasumi PunPun also gets a lot of praise for its story. Unlike most slice-of-life stories that are lighthearted, Good Night PunPun has a very dark story, and it doesn’t shy away from the world’s grim realities. Topics like domestic abuse, self-deprecation, and s*xual abuse are talked about, and they are not used as a shock factor. They are handled with caution as they are very sensitive topics.

Oyasumi PunPun is mostly classified as slice-of-life by fans, but the reality of things is more complex than that. The correct genre to place the series in is coming-of-age. At first glance, the series resembles Richard Linklater’s Boyhood, but on closer inspection, it is a replica of Abbas Kiarostami’s Taste of Cherry.

Here is how one of the greatest slice-of-life manga has so many similarities to the 1997 drama, Taste of Cherry.

Disclaimer: This article reflects the author’s opinion and may contain spoilers. There are also mentions of sensitive topics. Reader's discretion is advised.

How Oyasumi PunPun mirrors Taste of Cherry

PunPun's problems lie in his loneliness (Image via Shogakukan)

A lot of the series' runtime is focused on PunPun as he navigates through his life. Viewers see PunPun day-to-day at middle school. They see how he handles his first crush on Aiko and makes the kidlike promise of wanting to marry her. Viewers also witness the first major traumatic event in his life, which is his father hitting his mother. This is where the series is most similar to Richard Linklater’s Boyhood.

Many other similarities also arise as both Oyasumi PunPun and Boyhood follow their main characters growing up. Childhood, teenage years, and adulthood are all shown in both of them, but due to Goodnight PunPun being a manga, more time is taken to focus on each individual year. The series' storyline is also dark and gritty and features topics that Boyhood did not touch.

The dark topics are the first of many traits that make it similar to Taste of Cherry. Taste of Cherry is about a man who is intent on killing himself, and PunPun, the main character of Oyasumi PunPun, also ideates s*icide. PunPun sees the world through a nihilistic lens, and this is due to the pain he has endured. From his father abusing his mother to his mother’s emotional abandonment, PunPun’s childhood is filled with deep-seated pain. This worsens when he becomes a teenager, as he is s*xually abused by someone he deeply trusts.

PunPun uses his imagination to escape trauma (Image via Shogakukan)

All this pain is why PunPun becomes self-destructive and doesn’t see a future without him in pain or in the grave. Mr. Badii, the protagonist of Taste of Cherry, is also like PunPun. The only difference is that Mr Badii’s past is never revealed throughout the movie. Taste of Cherry ends with viewers not knowing why he wants to end things, but from the interactions throughout the movie, it is clear that Mr. Badii sees the world like PunPun does.

Another part where Taste of Cherry resembles Oyasumi PunPun is in its symbolism. The two works of fiction thrive on symbolism, and it requires a lot of close viewing to notice the symbolism in Taste of Cherry. In Oyasumi PunPun, everything is on the nose; viewers are carried to various periods in PunPun’s life, and during each period, there is always someone telling PunPun that life is beautiful. However, he refuses to see that, just like Mr. Badii.

While Taste of Cherry is focused on one day, it still takes viewers through various periods, and it does this brilliantly by using Mr Badii’s car. Each person Mr. Badii picks is from a different age group, from a teenager to an old man at the end. Each person’s thought process is meant to take viewers to that specific period in time.

The young soldier Mr Badii, who is picked at the beginning of the film, is meant to offer insight into how the main character might have felt when he was younger. The middle-aged man shows an understanding of why Mr. Badii would want to kill himself but uses God as the reason he should not; the older man at the end, who agrees to bury Mr. Badii, reflects his current mental state.

Each person Mr. Badii comes across tries to make him understand the beauty of life; the most poignant of them is the old man, who wanted to kill himself on a tree but finds out that the tree is a mulberry tree and that the fruits are ripe. Despite the old man mentioning his experience, he doesn’t dissuade Mr. Badii, but at the end of Taste of Cherry, the main character doubts himself, just the same way PunPun does.

Final thoughts

While viewers of Oyasumi PunPun are treated to an epilogue where PunPun survives and is much happier, those who have seen Taste of Cherry aren’t so lucky. The end of Taste of Cherry has Mr. Badii lying in a grave that he has dug for himself, but it is unclear whether he remains there.

Oyasumi PunPun also has a documentary-esque feel, and that is because of how realistic everything feels. When viewers go through the series, it is not just fiction; it is life, and it is real.