I think they could've blossomed into a semi-functional couple if Aiko's mother hadn't tried to kill them

Just finished reading this amazing story last night. You would imagine if two "fix me"s started dating they would slowly begin to repair their lives together. But what can also end up is something far more broken as we see with Aiko and Punpun.

my Unpopular opinion :

While I can agree with some of what's said, I think some parts can/should be interpreted differently based on the overall story & their actions:

Oyasumi pun pun is so amazing it’s by far my favorite manga. And it’s so amazing how people interpret it. I see the ending as a melancholic one where pun pun is stuck in hell with his new family. Being trapped with the people he left behind and not able to leave and join aiko.

The saddest thing about it all is that the future Punpun envisioned with Aiko was what motivated him throughout much of the manga which just makes it even worse that the one girl he truly loved ended up doing what she did, and like real life Punpun has to pay the price for putting all his eggs in one basket only for it all to be smashed to pieces before his eyes.

A reporter asked the author about the story's ending he said, he wants the worst ending for pun pun, so he proceed to put chains(ex friends, a girlfriend and a child that not his) so he can never escape by killing himself

Her mistake was loving him. He was selfish and self absorbed, nothing he did was out of anything more than how it made HIM feel, he was not "there" he wasn't happy with her, and she could sense that, she projected so much in the promises he made that she wasted her whole life wIting for him to keep them. He never needed her. Ever. But from the moment she met him she needed what he promised. Love, anf he really didn't know how to. Just go through motions.

Thoughts and brief analysis a few days after finishing Oyasumi Punpun—trying to get this heaviness off my chest:

i couldnt agree more, i have total respect for you!

Something I've heard someone say is the reason Aiko never smiled in Punpun's dream is because she knows, even this version of herself, that Punpun will forget her as Punpun never kept a single a promise made between the two instead always breaking the trust she went to put in him. Punpun is an awful person, much worse than Aiko I'd argue, but as you put he had people who accepted him no matter what while Aiko only had her mother and ultimately that's what made the difference, Punpun was in love with the idea he had of Aiko while Aiko was just in love with the idea of unconditional love which she sought through Punpun.