Aiko Tanaka

Aiko Tanaka is a very strange girl and the first love of Punpun. Her mother was part of a cult and later became injured, forcing Aiko to care for her. Although Aiko is absent for much of the manga, she plays a significant role in Punpun's emotional and psychological growth throughout. Aiko has long medium-tone hair, straight bangs, and thick eyebrows. As a child, she is very expressive, but her smiles become a rare thing starting in middle school. She is terrible at faking a smile, and she has a trademark evil eye when displeased. She is conventionally attractive and works as a gravure model briefly when she's 19. Her wardrobe consists mostly of knitted sweaters, simple dresses, and boots. When her shoulders are bared in chapters 10 and 110, they are littered with bruises from her abusive mother. For the majority of the last three volumes, she has a black eye from her mother and a missing tooth after Punpun punches her. In elementary school, Aiko is an outgoing and fearless child. She is not afraid to speak her mind and easily holds her own when playing with the boys. She has an affinity for escapism and pretending and intimidates Punpun with her often times extreme demands of their love. Her dreamy tendencies later make it easy for her to lie about having a glamorous life and clearly serve as a coping mechanism. In Nerima, she has few friends because of her family's cult involvement, but makes friends with the girls in class when she moves to Punpun's town. By the time she graduates elementary school, though, she has lost most of these friends due to her generally being "strange". After her initial falling out with Punpun and throughout middle school, she becomes notably more reserved and morose. In elementary school, she dreamed of being famous and adored by many people, but in middle school, she says it would be enough to be fully loved and understood by just one person. By the time she is a young adult, she has resigned herself to life with no friends, an abusive household, and hard labor. She admits that it has been hard for her to muster a smile for a long time, but Punpun, her enduring obsession, makes her smile.