Manga Reviews (2010-2019): Blood on the Tracks vol. 2 by Oshimi Shuzo (2018)

If you enjoyed Oshimi’s previous work with “Flowers of Evil”, and you enjoy dark storylines with twisted characters, you’ll no doubt enjoy “Blood on the Tracks”! Recommended!

Click here to buy the “Blood on the Tracks” vol. 2

MANGA TITLE: Blood on the Tracks vol. 2

STORY AND ART BY: Oshimi Shuzo

FIRST PUBLISHED IN JAPAN: Shogakukan

PUBLISHED IN USA BY: Vertical Inc.

RATED: N/A

RELEASE DATE: February 25, 2020

His mother has done the unthinkable…and now Seiichi must decide if he will be complicit. But before he can even catch his breath, what remains of his sense of self is smashed to pieces by her next shocking act…

The creepy family manga “Blood on Tracks” gets even creepier in volume 2!

What is “Blood on Tracks”?

Oshimi Shuzo is a mangaka best known for his dark manga works such as “The Flowers of Evil” and “Drifting Net Cafe”.

His most recent work is “Chi no Wadachi” (Blood on the Tracks) which was released in English courtesy of Vertical Inc.

In the first volume, the manga begins with a mother and young child looking at a dead cat and the child asking his mother, “why did the cat die?”.

Fastforward and Osabe Seiichi wakes up, he’s a normal high school teen, lives with his parents, hangs out with friends, likes looking at girls.

One day, he remembers him and his mother Seiko, discovering the dead cat.

His mother tells him that his aunt and cousin Shigeru will becoming over.

And as Seiichi and Shigeru enjoy playing video games, Shigeru jokes with Seiichi of how his family is overprotective. Which Seiichi tries to pass it off as his mom is just concerned about him.

Meanwhile, Fukiishi, a female classmate wants to walk home from school with him and when she asks if she can come over to his house, Seiichi tells her that he has to ask his mom.

As Sei’s family and his aunt’s family are planning an outdoor trip together, but the unthinkable happens.

This leads to volume 2. Now if you haven’t read the first volume, don’t read any further!!!

In the last volume, Seiichi saw his mother push Shigeru off a cliff.

And Seiichi is having a hard time processing what his mother did, frightened, scared, shock… so many emotions.

As a search party goes to find Shigeru, how will Seiichi deal with the fact that his mother may have killed his cousin?

Meanwhile, what happens when Fukiishi comes to visit Seiichi at home and brings him a letter that she likes him? And what happens when Seiichi’s mother discovers that letter?

I have to say that after reading the second volume of “Blood on Tracks”, I can easily say that Oshimi Shuzo has managed to even further a dark, twisted storyline, possibly more than “Flowers of Evil”.

A consistency of a story revolving around a weak boy and a female figure that dominates the weak character, for “Blood on Tracks”, remove the twisted classmate and put an overprotective parent. But in volume 2, the story is now going beyond over-protectiveness and now going into taboo situations.

Suffice to say, I was shocked by how volume 2 ended and knowing that this is still early in the series, knowing how mangaka Oshimi Shuzo works, this is just the beginning and he knows how to further destroy these characters to the point things look bleak.

But the fact that this involves a mother and her boy… Chilling!

The second volume is no doubt setting the storyline up for some darker events up ahead. But if you enjoyed Oshimi’s previous work with “Flowers of Evil”, and you enjoy dark storylines with twisted characters, you’ll no doubt enjoy “Blood on the Tracks”!

More from my site