Blood on the Tracks, Vol. 6

血の轍 [Chi no Wadachi] #6

by Shuzo Oshimi

Beset by mental images of his mother, Seiichi flees from Fukiishi's embrace and returns home. Safety and reconciliation aren't the only things that await him there, however.

The Osabes have become one big happy family again...but at what cost?

Shuzo Oshimi's masterfully nuanced tale of familial horror continues to tighten its grip on the minds of its characters and readers alike.

Genres: Manga, Horror, Comics, Seinen, Graphic Novels, Thriller, Fiction

219 pages, Paperback

First published August 30, 2019

About the author

Shuzo 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) .

Reviews

[Gabby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ahhhh, what the f*ck!!!! The amount of gaslighting is insane and so sad but I’m so invested in this story and sh*t is really starting to hit the fan now 👀

[daph pink ♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's not your typical horror manga, but there's enough creepiness to keep you interested. I could honestly stop reading this series right now because the plot is medicore and there isn't much going on, but the art keeps me on the edge of my seat every time, so I guess I'll stick it out.

[Bookishrealm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let me tell y’all something! This is master storytelling. It’s not an easy read because the mother honestly is emotionally and mentally abusive. She gaslights the hell out of him in this volume and for someone who’s dealt with that, it was difficult to read. I still can’t get over how powerful the artwork is that the manga itself truly needs very few words. There isn’t much more I can say about this without spoiling it, but if you haven’t picked this series up yet I highly recommend it.

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intensity continues in this psychological family horror manga where Seichi comes back home to his mother Seiko, who wants to have a real talk about what happened in volume one, the thing she realizes separates the two of them: Did Sei's cousin fall or was he pushed? Then as other reviews also identify, Mom gaslights her young son, forcing him to adopt her point of view.

Then Mom asks Sei to confess where he was last night and what he did at his friend's house. And eventually of course he breaks down, and then--Stockholm Syndrome!--he begins to come back into her fold. And we get some sense of possible past sexual abuse, maybe?

Then clueless Dad (who NEVER knows what is going on, EVER?! ) walks in on thr two of them in a weeping embrace. This is a kind of trope, I know, the one completely clueless parent of a teenager, but it's baffling how he could be this dumb. But Dad reports how the cousin has come out of his coma in the hospital, so they all go to see him. Maybe everyone in this kind of melodramatic manga will go insane in the end, including this reader. The artwork--particularly close-ups on Mom and Sei's faces--is sublime terror. One close-up on Mom's face after she wrests the truth out of her son is frightening. Very fast read because few words, but great illustrations.

[Bella · Rating 2 out of 5]

anyways i've decided to stop reading this series because i don't feel comfortable anymore :)

[Rod Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

It seems awfully dim in here, Mrs. Osabe. Is that gas lighting you are using? It really sets a mood.

[Dhia Nouioui · Rating 5 out of 5]

This manga is like none other, the ability to make the viewer feel this amount of discomfort while reading.

And where the fuck is his father in all of this? what a loser

How could Seiichi leave this girl in this important and dangerous moment..she is all alone now and can't go home..and she was giving him food, place to sleep, to live....

Stockhom Syndrome ladies and gentlemen.

Mother is isolating the victim from everyone else, grooming 101. The gaslighting and brainwashing in this are scary accurate.

I just found out that when she left the room and came back with his underwear, those little characters were actually sniffing sfx....I'm gonna throw up. That's the most embarrassing and shitty thing a parent can do to an adolescent kid.

The mother feels digusted because that completely changed the way she viewed her child, he's no longer innocent to her but some filthy boy. He's no longer her innocent toy. NEVER have I ever hated a fictional character to this extent.

I bet that "thousand needle promise" is not figurative for her.

SHIGERU FUCK THEM UP! I'M SORRY I WAS MEAN TO YOU BRO!

This psycho mother knows that he prefers the meat buns, but insinuates the choice he should make is red bean and he happily agrees to the red bean bun. The mother can now be confident that Seiichi will do everything she says....

[M. J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I keep reading this series like a kid watching a scary movie, I cover my eyes and peek in horror then recoil in bed thinking how doomed and dirty the world really is.
I also keep thinking of this Xiu Xiu song:

Why would mother say such things?
Why add tongue to a kiss goodnight?
Force me to know the want
No one needs to know
Push me, mommy
Eyes ablaze, into hell

Real horror written and drawn with the intensity of trauma.
90% of child sexual abuse victims know the perpetrator in some way. 68% are abused by a family member. This should be only fiction but it's not.

[Krysta ꕤ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ✮

this series is so infuriating to read, just when you think Sei’s situation can’t get any worse his mother will prove you wrong each time. the way she manipulates and gaslights him drives me so insane I can’t even put it into words. I’m really starting to appreciate the art more than I did in the beginning cause a lot of it is showing instead of telling which I feel like isn’t the easiest thing to get right but this does it perfectly tbh.

[Lauren Stoolfire · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm am terrified for Sei and Shige's future honestly!

[Tomasz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dobrze, że to takie krótkie, bo od nadmiaru emocji można wybuchnąć

[Isabella · Rating 5 out of 5]

well, my first contact with manga, i hope i can manage the previous volumes.

total surprise, i realy liked this!

[Katie Colson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vlog/Review: https://youtu.be/ONtCTarlJKs

⭐️3.5

[Keiko, the manga enthusiast ♒︎ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Damn that manipulative bitch 😭 I need time to breathe so I'll stop here. Shigeru regaining consciousness is actually kinda making me nervous. I'm afraid of what Seiko will do if they finally put the pieces together. This is just so intense, like any other Oshimi series, and I know it'll get even more horrifying, so I have to ready my mentality for what's about to happen. Or I'll lose it again.

[Palo · Rating 5 out of 5]

todos están bien pinche locos.

[Vanessa Ferreyra · Rating 5 out of 5]

QUE ACABO DE LEER

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some darker truths revealed

[RivetingReads · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m addicted to this series and immediately put more on hold at the library!

[Alo ★ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 MARIPOSA!?!?!?! DIOSSSS LA MASRE DA MIEDO Q LA METAN AL TAMBO RIGHT NOW Y LUEGO LAS ESCENAS SÚPER INCÓMODAS?!!?!? AAAAH

[your morbid obsession Minerva🖤 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well fuck. This volume is very good.

[Monica ✧♬•* · Rating 1 out of 5]

the suspense is kinda cool, but I'm more disappointed than intrigued by the story.

inside Mari was my entry to oshimi's writing style and was pretty good... I also watched some episodes of aku no hana and even tho I didn't finish the anime, with these three stories I can see that this autor suffers from certain repetitions - characterwise - even in such creative and different contexts. But some patterns emerge... and these patterns make me think Oshimi's geniality, actually could be ignorance, and his creativity drawing such intense and thrilling suspense scenes is what he lacks in character development.

Yes, sounds crazy, I know.

I don't want to play the feminist who demands only "good" women making justice... super-hero kinda gal, in my stories. No way. Female villains are great to read, especially the tricky ones, cuz that's the stuff that make the story great and dense. But after three well know stories, I'm really tired of the same treacherous, unnecessary lustful, and biasedly aggressive female types that Oshimi's writes. Especially when he insists to contrast that to the male lead - that looks the same character always - who is EXTREMELY PASSIVE almost naive archetypes, who initially appears to have every chance to happiness if it weren't for a crazy woman in their lives to mess up their heads with they evilness and sinful ways! muahahaha

(And I just hate everybody in this story. everybody. even the father!!! And he's so normal he could just walk out through this manga and have a life in the real world and nobody will notice.. and I hate him!)

At first, when we met Sei I thought "uh, Sei looks like a smart boi. He has some interpersonal intelligence, right?  Like, he can judge well even acting more like a pushover. Okay, let's see what he'll become." AND HE'S ANNOYING AF! His mother mess up he's head so hard every single day for idk... 60+ chapters, so now looks like his brain just gave up on normal human being responses! I wouldn't be surprised if all of a sudden he's stops speaking again but this time around he starts croaking like a frog!

such a wast of plot

And I hate his mom so darm much. But not for the reasons the author want me to hate her. Isn't bc of the things she did with Sei, no no no no no.... it's just bc she's a new Mari! I liked Mari, I really liked her bc she was different, she was mean, problematic, caused confusion cuz first of all her mind was always on a brink to collapse..but above all, she was interesting to follow cuz she was new. Now I understand, Oshimi just know this type of female character. Even the girl Seiichi liked, that girl from school- who at first glance look like a freaking normal person thank goodness, and turns out to be a horny ass selfish bitch? Even that girl is some kind of Mari!

I'll probably dnf this. Why continue on this if I cant stand look at anybody face?... especially Sei's face, you know? Just go far away to the countryside, work in a farm with cute animals, go see a doctor and hope for the best.

[Casey]

you know what nah. this ended up being so predictable with the sexual themes between sei and his mom and also just the way the author drew that little girl like that, all fanservice-y...... I DIDNT WANT TO SEE THAT don't draw little kids like that and the whole "his mom is just crazy". no nuance. just undiagnosed mental illness that's "scary".
I thought the author would be more creative than that but sadly no, he just took the easy way out. disappointed.

[Ignacio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seguimos para bingo con el lavado de cerebro del pobre adolescente protagonista, ahora con su madre convenciéndole que nada de lo que ha visto es real. Lo del torture porn se le queda corto al manga este.

[Kesa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not Fukiishi please.

[georgiaotaku · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dear God this makes me seriously uncomfortable AND I CANT STOP READING IT. WTF IS HAPPENING.

[Keeloween · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gaslight Gatekeep Girlboss

[Chantaal · Rating 5 out of 5]

hoooooooooly shit the gaslighting and manipulation and psychological abuse

SOMEONE PLEASE DO SOMETHING AND NOTICE SEI IS NOT OKAY

[Jon Ureña · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three and a half stars. I'm reviewing from chapter 30 to 47. I'm not sure if they fall exactly in this volume, because I can't find the correlation online.

The last stretch of chapters ended when the protagonist's unusually affectionate and insane mother attempted to touch the protagonist, who stared at her with pure fear. After all, this woman had attempted to strangle him, although without too much effort. Also that whole business about pushing someone off a cliff. She's disturbed at the thought of her son spending so much time outside when there's a wild teenager attempting to seduce him. She suspects the truth, that her beloved son has spent all his free time with that immodest hussy instead of staying home and tasting his crazy mother's mouth. She makes him promise that the next day he'll go home straight from school, but he doesn't. The kid just makes promises and immediately breaks them, that’s the kind of man he is. Funny how often we get protagonists like that.

That next day he spent the afternoon with his girlfriend in a secluded park next to the river. Pretty nice place, would have liked to have something like that when I was his age. His unrealistically lovely and understanding girlfriend opens up about her family issues: her father is a drunk who throws stuff around, her mother is out of the picture. She dreads coming home, and wishes to stay in the park with her boyfriend forever. Touched appropriately for once, he admits that he would prefer to run away from it all and just hang out with this lovely girl. At that point, the protagonist's mother appears on a bike. The protagonist freaks out, grabs his girl's hand and they run through the tall weeds. The mother pursues them. She's crying. She apologizes for her previous behavior that led him to fear her, but when the girl refuses to let go of the protagonist, the mother moves forward. The protagonist grows a spine and stands in between. She yells at the woman, saying that he doesn't need a mother like her. She bites one of her own nails in out of frustration and leaves.

The protagonist's girlfriend understands how terrifying the mother is. She tells him to abandon her "like I abandoned my own mother in my mind" and just live in her (the girlfriend's) room. He follows her home and inside they try to avoid running into her dad. That night she invites him to sleep with her. They grab hands, touch lips, and he comes in his pants. Next morning is a saturday, and they plan to lie around in bed touching each other. However, the protagonist's mother rings the doorbell. The girlfriend and her father come down and listen to the crying mother, who had spent all night searching for her son in the rain, break down in another sad monologue about how she realized she's the one who caused her son to hate her, that she had always been miserable because she never got any love, and she wanted to give her son all the love in the world. Nobody understands her nor tries to take her side, she’s unseen by all. That she only keeps living for the sake of her son, and that if he doesn't want her, she might as well die. Even the father, of whom all we know at this point is that he looks like a slob and likes to drink and throw stuff around, is distraught and tries to calm the mother down. When the mother interrogates the protagonist's girlfriend about his whereabouts, she lies calmly, and that's the first time I got the sense that the girl is fucked up as well. Uncaring, maybe manipulative as well. Seeing the mother breaking down like that did bother me; I don't sympathize with her nor her attempts to trap her son through excessive affection, and covering up a murder attempt and all that shit, but she seems to be in genuine despair. To be honest, I probably wouldn't care either if the mother wasn't beautiful. Ugly people have little intrinsic value, that's just how we are programmed. In any case, the girlfriend says that she hasn't seen the protagonist, and the mother wanders away in a daze.

The protagonist is in pain after seeing his mother like that. When his girlfriend comes back to the room, you can tell he's considering just going home, but the girlfriend embraces him, tells him how poor of a boy he is for having had to deal with such an insane mother, and that he doesn't need to worry anymore, because she'll protect him. [Writing this I realize that you could have the same story with an overly affectionate father, his shy, withdrawn daughter, and the boyfriend with home issues that wants to take care of this girl and protect her. The story would have made more sense; I can't shake the feeling that the girlfriend character in this story is too unrealistic. I don't think anybody would have cared about the male protagonist to that degree.] The girl's father enters the room and realizes that his dear daughter had been hiding her boyfriend in her room for an entire day. She tells him to leave her alone, that she'll do whatever she wants. "Bringing in men to your room... You are just like your mother." The girl grabs a big CD player and throws it at her father's face. The protagonist and this girl run away as the guy is bleeding. That made me think that the girl is dangerous as well, and not only in the “maybe she’ll break an appliance on your face” sense, but that maybe her father is just a well-meaning slob and the girl is the only one fucking other people’s lives up. Also, this dynamic reminds me of “Oyasumi Punpun”; everyone who reads it is cursed to remember it forever, as you wanted.

They hide from the rain under a bridge. They are screwed; they have nowhere to go, being dumb kids. They cuddle up for warmth, they kiss, she leads him to fondle her tits. As she's getting more intimate, the protagonist does that thing in which he opens his mouth disturbingly wide, something that should freak out anyone present; I don't know what the author was going for exactly, but it mostly bothered me. The thought of getting close to sex sent his mind directly to his mother. He runs away leaving his sobbing girlfriend behind. As the protagonist wanders in the rain, his mother catches up to him, embraces him and tells him that now she understands why he was so hurt, and promises that she'll treat him like he deserves, etc. They get back home.

The poor cucked husband, who constantly seems overwhelmed by everything going on at home, attempts to ask his son what made him run away, but his wife shuts him up and forces him to leave to his parents' home for a while [I spend my days at the office feeding the soul crushing machine for this shit, he probably thinks]. She prepares the protagonist a bath. As he's taking his clothes off, he notices the huge semen stain in his underwear. Feeling guilty, he throws it in the laundry basket. After he eats dinner under the attentive stare of his mother, she says she wants to come clean. She recounts what happened "that day in the woods", and in tears narrates how the cousin fell off a cliff by himself, despite this woman having tried her hardest to save him. The protagonist protests, but his mother gaslights him into believing he made up that memory to have someone to blame for what happened. I can't tell if the woman believes it to be the case, or if she's a really good manipulator. The author did a great job making the reader feel as if they are witnessing an alien creature whenever this woman is on scene. In any case, the protagonist doubts himself, and his mother takes on the opportunity to press his face against her ample breasts and reassure him that everything is just fine. However, he needs to come clean as well. She needs to know what was her kid doing for this whole time. Were you with that teenage seductress? He can't admit to it, but then her mother comes back holding the semen stained underwear. She wants to know what exactly did they do. The protagonist admits that they slept together, and that after just kissing he came in his pants. Despite this shameful admission of invirility, she insists. "Tell me the truth, did you do the deed with her from the front or from the back?" As if that matters, mom. Seeing her son sobbing on the ground, apparently refusing to admit that her boy could come in his pants without pulling a Harambe, or maybe ashamed of herself for falling for such a whiney kid, she looks at him with disgust and literally throws him out of the house. The chapter ends with the shamed kid yelling, "but I came back for you, didn't I?".

This author is really skilled at upping the crazy. Getting further into his stories is like sliding down a spiral of madness. It says something that his most normal story is the disturbing body horror "Happiness". And you can't never be sure of anything that happened, given that we are always shown the story through the mind of someone somewhat or very disturbed.

Around fifteen more chapters to go. All this madness makes me feel at home.

[voresta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nah cause what was this honestly. That under the bridge part seemed unnecessary from my view and it just made things feel even more uncomfortable. I’m reading this as I sit near my dad 😐. Now it just seems like everything is back to square one. With Seiichi basically apologizing for telling his mom, “he doesn’t need her.” 2.5/5

[☾❀Apple✩ Blossom⋆｡˚ · Rating 3 out of 5]

oh no I knew it WHY WHY WHY o fudge oh no 🤢🤮

man that gaslighting is ON POINT 🙄