Good news for indie manga fans: Hit manga Goodnight Punpun from Eisner and Harvey Award-nominated author Inio Asano releases in English on March 15 under the VIZ Signature imprint.
Goodnight Punpun is a coming-of-age story about a kid named Punpun Punyama and a few of his friends. The story follows him in 4 stages of his life: elementary school, middle school, high school and his early 20s. Punpun, often depicted as a bird in the manga, must cope with his dysfunctional family and peers, his own racing mind, his love interest and the onset of adolescence.
Asano is “a unique voice of a generation and a luminary in the world of indie manga,” stated Pancha Diaz, an editor at VIZ .
In an interview with MangaBrog , Asano stated, “In the history of manga, there’s almost a format of how you’re supposed to make a manga. This series was in part my attempt at seeing how much of that I could destroy — which is why I started off with a romantic comedy trope, just to see how chaotic I could make it from there.”
As for the choice to depict Punpun as a cute, cookie-like bird, Asano stated , “I wanted to take the readers coming to the book because they thought Punpun was cute, and upset them. (laugh) I wanted to say to the reader, “Here’s a different kind of manga. Look at what kind of depths of reality manga can plumb.’”
Goodnight Punpun is rated “M” for Mature and will be available in print at a price of $24.99 per omnibus volume. The series is 7 volumes long and will publish quarterly. It will also be available via VIZManga.com as well as from the Nook , Kobo , Kindle , iBooks , comiXology and GooglePlay stores.
Asano’s other works include What a Wonderful World as well as Solanin , Nijigahara Holograph and City of Light .
