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血の轍 [Chi no Wadachi] #1
Rastros de sangre, vol. 1
Seiichi, de trece años, es introvertido y algo inseguro, por lo que nunca ha tenido muchos amigos en la escuela. Su madre, Seiko, que siempre se ha comportado de manera excesivamente sobreprotectora con él, lo tiene muy mimado. Pero ahora que Seiichi empieza a ser más independiente y pasa más tiempo con otras personas, como su primo Shigeru o su compañera de clase Fukiishi, Seiko teme que alejen a “su niño” de ella. Por eso mismo, piensa cortar de raíz cualquier relación de su hijo con los demás, haciendo lo que sea necesario para conseguirlo...
216 pages, Paperback
First published September 8, 2017
227 people are currently reading
10070 people want to read
About the author
Shuzo Oshimi
137 books1,040 followersShuzo Oshimi (押見修造, Oshimi Shūzō) is a Japanese manga creator.
Drawn in a realistic art style, his comics tend to be psychological dramas exploring the difficulties in human relationships and often touching on disturbing situations and perversions.
Oshimi debuted in 2001 with the manga series Avant-Garde Yumeko, appeared in Kodansha's 'Monthly Shōnen Magazine.' Most of his works since then have been published by Kodansha and Futabasha.
Among his first successes the single volume manga Sweet Poolside (2004), later adapted into a live-action film, and the series Drifting Net Café (2008–2011), also adapted for TV.
Oshimi reached international acclaims with The Flowers of Evil (2009–2014) and Inside Mari (2012–2016), both adapted into successful anime. Other notable works are Blood on the Tracks (2017–2023) and Welcome Back, Alice (2020-2023) .
Drawn in a realistic art style, his comics tend to be psychological dramas exploring the difficulties in human relationships and often touching on disturbing situations and perversions.
Oshimi debuted in 2001 with the manga series Avant-Garde Yumeko, appeared in Kodansha's 'Monthly Shōnen Magazine.' Most of his works since then have been published by Kodansha and Futabasha.
Among his first successes the single volume manga Sweet Poolside (2004), later adapted into a live-action film, and the series Drifting Net Café (2008–2011), also adapted for TV.
Oshimi reached international acclaims with The Flowers of Evil (2009–2014) and Inside Mari (2012–2016), both adapted into successful anime. Other notable works are Blood on the Tracks (2017–2023) and Welcome Back, Alice (2020-2023) .
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July 17, 202018/7/20
I am SHOOK! This first volume was just excellent. Clearly there is some messed up psychological stuff going on here -- I need volume two asap!
17/7/20
When I found out that the English translation finally came out, I had to jump on it. I have read a good chunk of Oshimi's Happiness and really enjoyed it, so I am very excited to start this series :)
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I am SHOOK! This first volume was just excellent. Clearly there is some messed up psychological stuff going on here -- I need volume two asap!
17/7/20
When I found out that the English translation finally came out, I had to jump on it. I have read a good chunk of Oshimi's Happiness and really enjoyed it, so I am very excited to start this series :)
You can find me on
Youtube | Instagram | Twitter | Tumblr | Website | The Storygraph
October 21, 2021
Blood on the Tracks seems to be shaping up to be a slow-burning psychological thriller. The author bends love for family in unsettling ways. The characters go through sequences that should be rather harmless from the start, yet they give off the impression that something is somewhat odd about what's going on. Close-ups of faces abound on the pages, making personal and off-putting moments even more so. We see these moments via Seiichi's eyes, but what makes this novel so compelling is that the reader interprets what they see in a totally different way than Seiichi does. The last seconds were an explosion after all the build-up. Definitely reading the next volume...
August 25, 2021
“The mother in his memories was always full of compassion...”
This manga is the definition of psychological horror. And no one does psychological horror better than Japanese writers. What is so terrifying in this one is that i doesn't have any jump scares, body horror or gore (nothing wrong with those by the way), but just the atmosphere that gets progressively more disturbing as you watch the characters face an increasingly unsettling reality... the reality that the person you love the most might be a monster. 100/100 will go on with the series.
This manga is the definition of psychological horror. And no one does psychological horror better than Japanese writers. What is so terrifying in this one is that i doesn't have any jump scares, body horror or gore (nothing wrong with those by the way), but just the atmosphere that gets progressively more disturbing as you watch the characters face an increasingly unsettling reality... the reality that the person you love the most might be a monster. 100/100 will go on with the series.
March 10, 2024
What the hell ⁉️ 😀
May 29, 2024
I've been reading other series by Shūzō Oshimi, including Flowers of Evil and Happiness, not quite caught up. The key is atmospheric horror--no monsters, just realistic human situations, slowly, gradually, spinning out of control.
Seiichi Osabe is a boy with what seems to be an overprotective mother. In the opening, when Sei is three, they find a dead cat. Few words, mostly told in images, a little unsettling. Fast forward ten years later and Sei is recalling this event. Later, he asks his cousin along on a family hiking expedition, and his mother walks close to a cliff with her nephew.
Is mom a little too close to Sei? Is she overprotective? Is she insane? She seems so young and vivacious and loving! We'll have to see.
Blood on the Tracks is obviously a translation from the Japanese, though it is also translated as Trail of Blood elsewhere. Flowers of Evil is a title borrowed from Baudelaire; Blood on the Tracks is also a title of a Bob Dylan album; here's his song, "A Simple Twist of Fate," which this first volume certainly has!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGnhy...
It starts off slowly, letting the atmosphere creep in, then the last few pages: Boom! Daughter L and I are going to read the series, and we both found it beautifully drawn and. . . successfully creepy!
One cool thing that happens is that at the dramatic cliffside climax (but not a cliffhanger! Something really happens!) the mother seems surrounded by butterflies. Why? Seems like a contrary image, counter-indicated by the action. I liked it a lot.
Seiichi Osabe is a boy with what seems to be an overprotective mother. In the opening, when Sei is three, they find a dead cat. Few words, mostly told in images, a little unsettling. Fast forward ten years later and Sei is recalling this event. Later, he asks his cousin along on a family hiking expedition, and his mother walks close to a cliff with her nephew.
Is mom a little too close to Sei? Is she overprotective? Is she insane? She seems so young and vivacious and loving! We'll have to see.
Blood on the Tracks is obviously a translation from the Japanese, though it is also translated as Trail of Blood elsewhere. Flowers of Evil is a title borrowed from Baudelaire; Blood on the Tracks is also a title of a Bob Dylan album; here's his song, "A Simple Twist of Fate," which this first volume certainly has!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGnhy...
It starts off slowly, letting the atmosphere creep in, then the last few pages: Boom! Daughter L and I are going to read the series, and we both found it beautifully drawn and. . . successfully creepy!
One cool thing that happens is that at the dramatic cliffside climax (but not a cliffhanger! Something really happens!) the mother seems surrounded by butterflies. Why? Seems like a contrary image, counter-indicated by the action. I liked it a lot.
February 14, 2018
A Trail of Blood isn't officially available in English translation yet, so I'm cheating by including it here. I have gathered that the 20 issues of the original comic currently available online are equivalent to the first two digest volumes available in Japanese, with a third volume forthcoming.
All of Oshimi's work (that I'm familiar with) deals with variations on the theme of sexualized emotional abuse. Oshimi is very good at evoking the complex humiliation of a person who not only accepts, but actively desires the distilled attention of an abuser. As with Inio Asano, Oshimi's work might be too depressing to metabolize if it wasn't counterbalanced so effectively by surrealistic absurdity. Aku no Hana achieved this by invoking French transgressives like Baudelaire and Bataille, whose works are known for being absurd because they are so horrifying, horrifying because they are so absurd, etc.
A Trail of Blood builds on both the ironic humor and painful thematic underpinnings of Oshimi's previous work by exploring a toxic relationship between a mother and her adolescent son. It's incredible how much unease Oshimi can create without anything overtly "wrong" happening. We understand that abuse exists in this relationship before we know the abuse's nature.
Like Happiness and Flowers of Evil, A Trail of Blood takes place in a universe of slow-motion, nightmarish anxiety that never abates, yet still frequently manages to catch the reader off-guard. It's a horror story about the horror of being unable to acknowledge that horror is happening, because the extremity of horror is just too much.
All of Oshimi's work (that I'm familiar with) deals with variations on the theme of sexualized emotional abuse. Oshimi is very good at evoking the complex humiliation of a person who not only accepts, but actively desires the distilled attention of an abuser. As with Inio Asano, Oshimi's work might be too depressing to metabolize if it wasn't counterbalanced so effectively by surrealistic absurdity. Aku no Hana achieved this by invoking French transgressives like Baudelaire and Bataille, whose works are known for being absurd because they are so horrifying, horrifying because they are so absurd, etc.
A Trail of Blood builds on both the ironic humor and painful thematic underpinnings of Oshimi's previous work by exploring a toxic relationship between a mother and her adolescent son. It's incredible how much unease Oshimi can create without anything overtly "wrong" happening. We understand that abuse exists in this relationship before we know the abuse's nature.
Like Happiness and Flowers of Evil, A Trail of Blood takes place in a universe of slow-motion, nightmarish anxiety that never abates, yet still frequently manages to catch the reader off-guard. It's a horror story about the horror of being unable to acknowledge that horror is happening, because the extremity of horror is just too much.
March 22, 2022
Like most mothers, Seiko is protective of her kid and will do anything to keep her son Seiichi safe - even moider?!
Shuzo Oshimi’s latest manga Blood on the Tracks, like Flowers of Evil and Happiness, is another series where the protagonist is a kid and the first volume is unimpressive.
I can see why Oshimi is sorta popular: his books are easy to read with nice, wide open panels, beautifully illustrated, dialogue is sparingly added so you’ll fly through it, and there’s a nugget of intrigue in all of them. Here, it’s the creepy mother Seiko, who seems off the whole time. Seiichi remembers seeing a dead cat while he and her were out walking when he was younger and it’s hinted that she had something to do with that.
The problem is that, aside from a shocking incident towards the finale, barely anything happens in this first book. Seiichi is a normal high school kid and Seiko is a normal housewife/mother, even if she seems a bit too intense at times. There’s a generic romance subplot introduced that I can already see what’s going to happen to the poor girl when she gets between Seiichi and mother dearest, and I’m fairly sure how Seiko’s behaviour will get explained away.
Even if I’m wrong about both storylines, there’s not enough going on in this series to make me want to keep up with it, particularly if this leaden pacing keeps up (and, having read Oshimi’s previous stuff, I’m fairly certain that isn’t going to change either). No idea why this title is named after the Bob Dylan album either, much like I didn’t get what his Flowers of Evil manga had to do with Baudelaire.
I liked the unsettling atmosphere throughout and the artwork but not much else unfortunately. Shuzo Oshimi may be a talented manga creator but he’s not the best storyteller and Blood on the Tracks, Volume 1 is a lacklustre start to what might’ve been a promising series in the hands of a snappier writer.
Shuzo Oshimi’s latest manga Blood on the Tracks, like Flowers of Evil and Happiness, is another series where the protagonist is a kid and the first volume is unimpressive.
I can see why Oshimi is sorta popular: his books are easy to read with nice, wide open panels, beautifully illustrated, dialogue is sparingly added so you’ll fly through it, and there’s a nugget of intrigue in all of them. Here, it’s the creepy mother Seiko, who seems off the whole time. Seiichi remembers seeing a dead cat while he and her were out walking when he was younger and it’s hinted that she had something to do with that.
The problem is that, aside from a shocking incident towards the finale, barely anything happens in this first book. Seiichi is a normal high school kid and Seiko is a normal housewife/mother, even if she seems a bit too intense at times. There’s a generic romance subplot introduced that I can already see what’s going to happen to the poor girl when she gets between Seiichi and mother dearest, and I’m fairly sure how Seiko’s behaviour will get explained away.
Even if I’m wrong about both storylines, there’s not enough going on in this series to make me want to keep up with it, particularly if this leaden pacing keeps up (and, having read Oshimi’s previous stuff, I’m fairly certain that isn’t going to change either). No idea why this title is named after the Bob Dylan album either, much like I didn’t get what his Flowers of Evil manga had to do with Baudelaire.
I liked the unsettling atmosphere throughout and the artwork but not much else unfortunately. Shuzo Oshimi may be a talented manga creator but he’s not the best storyteller and Blood on the Tracks, Volume 1 is a lacklustre start to what might’ve been a promising series in the hands of a snappier writer.
February 7, 2022
I've heard a lot about Blood on the Tracks from other friends that read manga and I was told that I would love it. I definitely did enjoy my read of this first volume in a series that seems as though it's going to have quite a few twists and turns. There isn't much that readers can really say about this first volume without spoiling it. At it's core, it centers a relationship between a mother and son. Clearly there's some things going on on the mother's end, but I don't think it's what most people are expecting. I was definitely shocked by the ending and was ecstatic that I had the second volume checked out from the library for an immediate read. If you're into thriller/horror/psychological thriller type of manga series, I would highly recommend checking this one out.
July 25, 2022
2022: 4⭐️
Vlog/Review: https://youtu.be/3LtrFimU5g0
Okay, okay, oKAY! Jordaline convinced me to give this another shot and I'm here to humble myself before her highness. She's right. This is stunning and terrifying and beautifully illustrated and written. It IS very slow and creeps along but that's the tone he's setting. It's the claustrophobia of love and all the expectation and heaviness that comes along with it. If you go into this knowing that the words spoken are barely significant. It's the looks on their faces. You can read their thoughts through their eyes. Oshimi has an amazing way of narrating his characters through their eyes.
2021: 2⭐️
The art is beautiful and eerie. But NOTHING HAPPENS.⭐️
Vlog/Review: https://youtu.be/3LtrFimU5g0
Okay, okay, oKAY! Jordaline convinced me to give this another shot and I'm here to humble myself before her highness. She's right. This is stunning and terrifying and beautifully illustrated and written. It IS very slow and creeps along but that's the tone he's setting. It's the claustrophobia of love and all the expectation and heaviness that comes along with it. If you go into this knowing that the words spoken are barely significant. It's the looks on their faces. You can read their thoughts through their eyes. Oshimi has an amazing way of narrating his characters through their eyes.
2021: 2⭐️
The art is beautiful and eerie. But NOTHING HAPPENS.⭐️
March 10, 2020
Okay so this author really nails creepy and weird without being...like outwardly creepy.
Well between this, Inside Mari, and Flower of Evil we've gotten a lot of weirdness coming from Shuzo. But in this he takes a really simple concept and makes it...creepy. So Seiichi Osabe is our main character here and we slowly learn about his life. Going to school, having friends, his crush, and...HIS MOM. Why is his mom so special?
Well she loves Seiichi Osabe a bit TOO much. No, not incest way you weirdos. You thought I was going there, huh? Goddamn you Game of Thrones.
But the fact she always will protect her child. Now having a little girl I feel the same but she's so overprotecting that even her best friend makes fun of her a little. So anyway, Seiichi Osabe feels a little off put by all that "love". But the story progresses and the deeper get into the family dynamic the more uneasy you become until the last 30-40 pages or so. Then...well lets just say this jumps from 0 to 100 real quick.
Real life horror is my favorite type. No need for a big monster, or gory deaths, when people do horrible things to each other and you can see it every day. Blood on tracks tells a rather ordinary tale with the offbeat atmosphere and gives you the chills. And while it might seem a tad boring at first getting to know the family it moves at a brisk pace and the ending will leave you wanting more.
A 4 out of 5.
Well between this, Inside Mari, and Flower of Evil we've gotten a lot of weirdness coming from Shuzo. But in this he takes a really simple concept and makes it...creepy. So Seiichi Osabe is our main character here and we slowly learn about his life. Going to school, having friends, his crush, and...HIS MOM. Why is his mom so special?
Well she loves Seiichi Osabe a bit TOO much. No, not incest way you weirdos. You thought I was going there, huh? Goddamn you Game of Thrones.
But the fact she always will protect her child. Now having a little girl I feel the same but she's so overprotecting that even her best friend makes fun of her a little. So anyway, Seiichi Osabe feels a little off put by all that "love". But the story progresses and the deeper get into the family dynamic the more uneasy you become until the last 30-40 pages or so. Then...well lets just say this jumps from 0 to 100 real quick.
Real life horror is my favorite type. No need for a big monster, or gory deaths, when people do horrible things to each other and you can see it every day. Blood on tracks tells a rather ordinary tale with the offbeat atmosphere and gives you the chills. And while it might seem a tad boring at first getting to know the family it moves at a brisk pace and the ending will leave you wanting more.
A 4 out of 5.
May 14, 2021
that ending was intense. why she go and do that for? 😱
i need book two asap!
i need book two asap!
September 19, 2023
3 stars I guess? It’s so short that I don’t know how to rate it on its own
October 18, 2021
Al principio iba bien, me causaba curiosidad, y además que se lee muy rápido, ya que el estilo del mangaka es visualmente muy expresivo haciendo súper ágil la lectura, la mayor parte ni siquiera necesita viñetas para dar a entender las escenas en sus mangas, pero cuando llegue a la última parte del tomo quedé... woow!!!
Siento que esto se va a poner... ¡muy bueno!
Siento que esto se va a poner... ¡muy bueno!
July 28, 2020
this was an incredibly unsettling story and i loved every moment of it. oshimi takes the precious relationship of mother and son and distorts it, turning it into something ugly and disturbing. oshimi is able to capture the greatest extremes of human emotion. his art style is so simple and yet some of the panels are so terrifying precisely because of this. he’ll zoom in on a character’s face and renders their fear, joy, anxiety, etc. so realistically that you feel compelled to tear your eyes away from the page. but you also can’t help but look back again and again.
April 6, 2020
This series gets off to a slow start as we are introduced to a junior high school student and his doting/overprotective mother in 1990s Japan. Since it is Shuzo Oshimi, everything seems a little off and creepy, and I spent most of the book waiting for something awful to happen. And predictably but effectively, it does.
I definitely want to get the next volume.
I definitely want to get the next volume.
August 23, 2020
Psychological horror at its best. Oshimi has outdone himself. This is one of his stronger first volumes, which is saying a lot because he tends to start with a bang. Strong atmosphere, immaculate pacing, keen attention to body language, and some of the most nuanced facial expressions I've ever seen. This manga is straight up bone-chilling.
August 16, 2022
Estaba rumiando los primeros capítulos; esa situación de sobreprotección de una madre hacia su hijo, ligeramente enfermiza y bien subrayada por el dibujo, con sus silencios, sus miradas, sus risas nerviosas... Y el por qué del título. De pronto, me doy de bruces con El Giro. Jooooooooooodeeeeeeer, Shuzo Oshimi. ¡Jo-der!
June 15, 2022
Oshimi's surreal art style is a triumph as ever!
Oh, my gosh! Sensei did it again!The atmosphere is super creepy and I don't know what to make out of the characters yet! I mean, there's a strange vibe going on between Sei and his mother, on the contextualization it seemed fine. I mean, Sei is just a regular middle schooler embarrassed of her mother's affection just like any other growing boys. And Seiko, his mother, is just one of those kinds of mom who appear affectionate and overprotective of their kids. I didn't read the description. If it's Oshimi, it's good. And the atmosphere is killing me!! So, that was me reading half-way through this intensifying series. Who am I kidding, his mother is a friggin psycho!!
Another page turner, each scenes keeps you getting more and more engaged. I need answers. Goat Oshimi. He really lures you in—damn, I won't sleep until I finish this whole series!!
Oh, my gosh! Sensei did it again!
Another page turner, each scenes keeps you getting more and more engaged. I need answers. Goat Oshimi. He really lures you in—damn, I won't sleep until I finish this whole series!!
May 19, 2019
Everything is fine until someone get push of a cliff.. Oh wait.
December 16, 2020
BRB while I go request all the other volumes my library has
February 14, 2023
3.5 ⭐
okay, i'm officially creeped out by this woman 😭 mom come pick me up i'm scared! or you know, on a second note, don't, i got thi—
okay, i'm officially creeped out by this woman 😭 mom come pick me up i'm scared! or you know, on a second note, don't, i got thi—
September 2, 2024
Half of this first volume consisted of people blushing, but it was still very catching. I'm excited to see where it goes.
November 5, 2023
ooh i really liked this!!
reading vlog: are these spooky books worth the hype?
reading vlog: are these spooky books worth the hype?
January 18, 2025
when you’re good to mama, mama’s good to you
April 17, 2025
[volumes 1-17, chapters 1-153] Damn, that did nooOOOooot feel good. Definitely one of the scarier manga I’ve read. Shuzo Oshimi knows how to establish an atmosphere and never Ever let up—also I love how much storytelling is accomplished through characters’ expressions
September 19, 2022
Regreso a darle una calificación cuando haya terminado todo el manga. Hasta ahora llevo leídos los volúmenes que han salido y de verdad es demasiado turbio.
August 31, 2022
What the fuckkkkkk
May 19, 2020
Pensaba degustarlo. Ir despacio para darle valor a toda esa espera hasta que por fin me he hecho con él. Pero no he podido.
Oshimi hace dos cosas muy bien en esta historia. En primer lugar, le otorga a algo universalmente conocido por todos (el cariño de una madre) el elemento pertubador de la historia. Es la figura que siempre ha estado velando por nosotros la que página a página se va volviendo pertubadora.
Por otro lado, la tensión en el dibujo me ha dejado gratamente sorprendido. Con unas líneas bastante clásicas ha conseguido lo que otros aspiran con muchos más artificios. Alimenta la tensión de la historia con sus líneas inseguras y sus sombreados fantasmagóricos. Consigue que en las viñetas donde no hay texto se cuente incluso más que aquellas que presentan diálogos. Es hipnótico. Es revelador. Funciona.
Que esta obra de Oshimi sea uno de los seinen del momento no es fortuito. Tras ocho volúmenes publicados, no puedo ni imaginar a dónde irá a parar una historia que avanza despacio pero que se atisba demoledora. Es una historia de terror tan sutil que uno no se da cuenta del peligro hasta mucho después.
Oshimi hace dos cosas muy bien en esta historia. En primer lugar, le otorga a algo universalmente conocido por todos (el cariño de una madre) el elemento pertubador de la historia. Es la figura que siempre ha estado velando por nosotros la que página a página se va volviendo pertubadora.
Por otro lado, la tensión en el dibujo me ha dejado gratamente sorprendido. Con unas líneas bastante clásicas ha conseguido lo que otros aspiran con muchos más artificios. Alimenta la tensión de la historia con sus líneas inseguras y sus sombreados fantasmagóricos. Consigue que en las viñetas donde no hay texto se cuente incluso más que aquellas que presentan diálogos. Es hipnótico. Es revelador. Funciona.
Que esta obra de Oshimi sea uno de los seinen del momento no es fortuito. Tras ocho volúmenes publicados, no puedo ni imaginar a dónde irá a parar una historia que avanza despacio pero que se atisba demoledora. Es una historia de terror tan sutil que uno no se da cuenta del peligro hasta mucho después.
April 9, 2021
I binged-read this one (95 chapters) in a single night. It's one of the creepiest, most unsettling manga I've read. It's about the trauma inflicted on a boy by his obsessive mother.
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