After reading exactly 0 pages of manga in the last two years, I somehow got caught up in Oyasumi Punpun. Not the most orthodox choice for a comeback, no the most sensible pick for a tranquil vacational noon.
I didn't know what I expected, and I haven't yet understood why did I even start reading in the first place. But wow, what a ride. I instantly fell in love with everything about it. The narrative, the dialogues... the artistic style is even coherent most of the time (yes, it's a bird, but don't sweat it; if you can't stand a human bird as a protagonist, what will you do when he becomes a pyramid?). I do certainly synchronize quite well with Punpun's initial vibrations, but it becomes harder as the storyline advances, until a point of disconnection (albeit not absolute; there's still a trace of us inside the late Punpun).
Not your pretty, light-hearted chinese cartoon, that is for sure. Sometimes, I asked myself whether it was a bit too pretentious or unnecessarily 'deep', but since everything made a bit of sense in my mind, I leave that for later thought. It's a fact that this work has surprised me far beyond my expectations, and I'm thankful for the... rollercoaster of 12+ hours it has provided me. I will come back to it and read it again someday, but thanks that's enough for today.
If you want to drift away from conventional manga, or are simply in search of something different that will hopefully talk to you more deeply, please consider Oyasumi Punpun. To paint it as a simple love story does not do it justice.
On an other note, it was Bach's birthday (31st of March in New Style date) and I had planned to record a performance of his fugue in E Major from the Well-Tempered Clavier II (BWV 878), but looks like he'll have to wait a bit more for my rendition. Chopin's C Major prelude (Op. 28) and C# minor étude (Op. 25) are on the works as well, but I'm just hopeful on the former.
