>>284708717
Because it's made for the same kind of people that the author is part of. Feminized, oversocialized, coddled and mentally ill modern inner city bugmen with no conflict in life who get off on imagining themselves as having a hard life full of struggle even though they hyperventilate when they miss the bus.

>>284708763
That sounds like most manga so why is this why so liked?

>>284708717
I think suffering-porn in general is somewhat of a blindspot for many people.

I thought it was kinda good, but not a masterpiece.

>>284708793
Because it takes the safe edgy narrative and themes to as much an extreme as they can possibly be stretched to and hinges on the victim mentality that the reader must share with the author as well as fantasies of childhood love and a lot of weak spots of the young urban Japanese psyche. I mean, Asano said he wanted to transition if you he was younger. That tells you all you need to know. Just the insane ramblings of a feminized man who thinks he's life's victim. Each and every in Punpun can be traced back to his childhood but extrapolated in exaggerated forms from their original benign version. Let's say that Asano had a crush on some girl in school, right? So, in this manga, he makes her his eternal love who is also crazy and is raped at home and then killed by him and then all sorts of shit.

I don't grudge the fact that the series is wishfullfilment, not at all, but the fact is that it's emboldened so many morons with easy lives to dare and say they've had it hard.