Blood on the Tracks, Volume 1

Product Information

Driven to Suicide: After the Time Skip and his father's death, Seichi resolves to kill himself to escape from the miserable existence his life has become. Although he does not consider her behavior to be unusual, a certain incident starts to open his eyes to just how dangerous her affection is. Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: On the night Seiko dies, Seichi has a dream about himself and her sitting together at a table as they were in the beginning of the series. Kick the Dog: When Seiko shows up for Seichi's court appearance and is asked to make a statement, she matter-of-factly tells everyone that she never really wanted to be a mother, tells the judge that she "quits" being a parent and regrets not aborting her son, and thanks Seichi "for becoming a murderer" because it gives her an excuse to walk away.

Freudian Excuse: Not exactly being Mother of the Year herself, it's eventually revealed that Seiko's own parents despised her, blaming her for their own miserable lives and the death of her sister. While Aku No Hana had quite a lot of subtext around the Interplay of Sex and Violence, this story instead has a lot of it based around Seiko's over-protectiveness of her son. Seiko tossing her own nephew off the cliff, before turning around with a pleased smile on her face, as if to say "I did this for you".

Notably, when Seichi sees the incident on the cliff through her eyes, Seiko is drawn a little older and more realistic, indicating that even outside of fantasy, Seichi's perception of his mother is distorted. In July 2020, Kodansha USA announced the digital release of the manga, which started in August of the same year. Enemy Within: A hallucination of Shigeru follows Seiichi around and encourages him to kill himself so they can "play together" again, becoming impatient and angry when he starts putting it off. Wolf concluded: " Blood on the Tracks has been thrilling reading so far, and it will be interesting to see where Oshimi takes the story". A while later, Seiichi and Shigeru go to a higher cliff edge, and when Shigeru is on the cliff edge, Seiko, who was following them, approaches her nephew and pushes him off the cliff, giving a brief smile to her son.

Gaslighting: Seiko does this to Seichi repeatedly to convince him that she tried to help Shigeru, instead of being the one to push him over the cliff. She tends to delusionally view Seiichi as a small child just as much as she views him as a lover, however, so ultimately her intentions are confusing. Characters [ edit ] Seiichi Osabe ( 長部 静一, Osabe Seiichi ) Seiichi is a shy middle school student with few friends and susceptible to manipulation and abuse. My only minor complaint is that the publisher hasn't optimized the Kindle version which does hurt the impact of the double page spreads.However, he is later contacted by authorities and learns that his mother is not only alive, but senile and has stopped paying for her own rent entirely. Although he doesn’t consider her behavior to be unusual, a certain incident starts to open his eyes to just how dangerous her affection is. The art in this manga is amazing, the characters are unique but the story is where it starts to get interesting if you want to read a story of a complicated relationship between a mother and her child then this one's for you. From the creator who brought you notable works such as The Flowers of Evil , Happiness , and Inside Mari , comes a new suspense drama centering on the theme of a toxic parent. Winner of the most important comics awards for newcomers, the Tetsuya Chiba Awad in 2001, Oshimi has been penning quirky slice-of-life dramas now for over a decade for major manga publishers including Kodansha.

Seichi later comes to believe she was trying to kill him, seeing his face in Shigeru and decides to similarly discard his past self.Speech Impediment: Seichi develops a bad one after he and his mother tear up the love letter his classmate gave him. Dissonant Serenity: Despite her generally muted demeanor, repeated episodes of this hint at there being something severely wrong with Seiko. This lead to her crippling loneliness later in life which in turn lead to her domineering behaviour toward Seiichi, as her son was the only person she could impose her will upon without feeling like she was draining someone's happiness.

The art style will change depending on the mental state of the main character and it makes for some amazing visuals throughout. Kodansha Comics to Release A Sign of Affection Manga in Print, Blood on the Tracks Manga Digitally". This arrived in great condition and I loved the first volume to such a degree I decided to get everything else available.We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Helping the police reenact the incident with Shigeru causes Seiichi to discover a repressed memory where she did the same thing to him — as in she threw him off a steep hillside — when he was a toddler. This manga feels very grounded in reality so far, no wired sci-fi stuff popping up, it feels like it could be a true story which just adds to the creepiness. She's so good at hiding her dangerous nature that the only one who knows about her insanity is Seichi himself, and that's only because he was there to witness her going off the deep end. Winner of the most important comics awards for newcomers, the Tetsuya Chiba Award in 2001, Oshimi has been penning quirky slice-of-life dramas now for over a decade for major manga publishers including Kodansha.