Takopi’s Original Sin hit Crunchyroll subscribers like a freight train, delivering one of the most heartbreaking and devastating premiere episodes in recent memory. The series pulls no punches in its unrelenting depiction of childhood bullying, toxic families, mental health, and violence. Audiences were left moved and shocked by the debut episode, and the series doubled down with its sophomore offering. As audiences wait for new episodes to drop each week, those who revel in Takopi’s Original Sin‘s style of remorseless emotional storytelling are frantically searching for another series that reaches the same dark depths as the new anime. For those fans, we have the perfect manga for you.
Takopi’s Original Sin is the darkest anime dropping this Summer 2025 season, if not the darkest anime of the past few years. The anime is based on the one-shot manga by Taizan 5, which was serialized on Shueisha’s Shonen Jump+ online platform between December 2021 and March 2022 (how is this a shonen series?!). While the anime might be dark, rays of hope and optimism still shine through, thanks to the titular alien, Takopi. But this manga is unyielding in its realistic depiction of the complexity of daily life.
Takopi’s Original Sin Has Nothing on This Dark Manga
If you thought Takopi’s Original Sin was dark, this seinen manga will give you a massive shock. The series was written by the master of complex emotional storytelling, Inio Asano. The mangaka is behind acclaimed series like Dead Dead Demons Dedede Destruction, Sun Village, and Heroes. But, it’s his most popular work that is also his darkest. First serialized in Shogakukan’s Weekly Young Sunday in 2007, the series came to an end in 2013 and has been collected in seven volumes in English through VIZ Media.
If you haven’t guessed already, the immensely dark manga in question is Goodnight Punpun. Asano’s series is frustratingly deceptive for new readers, as, on the surface, it looks like a fairly light coming-of-age story. The series follows the eponymous Onodera Punpun, who is depicted in the manga as a cartoon bird, while everyone else is sketched as a human. The first chapter introduces audiences to Punpun and his circle of friends at school. It appears innocent enough. Punpun’s design is adorable, and his friends seem nice. His home life is a little bit turbulent, but nothing too out of the ordinary. Then, the end of the first chapter pulls the rug out from underneath audiences with a very dark and violent turn.
From that point on, Goodnight Punpun refuses to hold the reader’s hand or offer any kind of comfort as Punpun continues about his life. In the first volume alone, this includes attempting to decipher his plans for the rest of his life (he’s only a child, by the way), dealing with his abusive father and his apathetic mother, being cared for by his layabout uncle, and being involved in a factory fire. What’s worse is that Volume 1 is seen by many to be the lightest and most easygoing of all the chapters.
What separates Punpun from Takopi is that there’s no ray of sunshine in the former. Punpun doesn’t have an overarching narrative of the eponymous bird trying to find inner peace, love, or make friends. It is simply a portrait and a reflection of the harsh experiences we all go through in life.
What Makes Punpun and Takopi So Devastating (And Great)
There are many anime and manga out there that include unbelievably dark scenes. But few hit you as hard as Goodnight Punpun and Takopi’s Original Sin, and there’s one key reason for this. Despite both stories featuring wacky elements, like Takopi being an adorable pink alien from Happy Planet, and Punpun being depicted as a cartoon bird, they are both incredibly realistic. Asano and Taizan 5 have created immersive worlds for their characters to inhabit, and these characters are the products of their environment.
Punpun’s home life directly affects his behavior and how he reacts to those around him. This is the same for Marina Kirarazaka, the blond-haired bully from Takopi, whose loathing for Shizuka stems from her own toxic family dynamic. Because of the natural influence of their environments, their behaviors (while inexcusable) feel believable and realistic. Marina isn’t just a bully for the sake of bullying; she blames Shizuka for the deterioration of her parents’ relationship. Punpun, whose mother regrets having him, feels a constant need to appease people and make them happy as if he’s trying to make his mother proud of him.
They both have relatively simple and down-to-earth plots; Takopi wants to help Shizuka overcome her bullying, and Punpun just wants to grow up. But, there are so many complex, overlapping layers to the stories that weigh the audience down with relatable feelings and experiences, which make them both incredibly tough stories to get through.
Takopi’s Original Sin releases new episodes weekly on Crunchyroll. Goodnight Punpun is published in English by VIZ Media.
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