If you wanted something just as serious as My Broken Mariko but far more chilling, then 2020 delivered just that with Vertical's release of Shuzo Oshimi's latest manga.
BLOOD ON THE TRACKS (Chi no Wadachi), by Shuzo Oshimi. First published in 2017 and first published in North America in 2020.
PLOT:
Seiichi is in many ways your average pre-teen boy. He hangs out with his friends at school, roughhouses with his cousin, and tries to navigate his crush on a pretty classmate. Yet his mother, Seiko, dotes on him like he's still a little boy. Even his relatives have noticed how overprotective she is to him, and Seiichi isn't sure just how to feel at this point. He certainly could have never anticipated the terrible act his mother would commit while on a family camping trip....
STORY:
I have to hand it Oshimi. He's a master of slow-burning, creeping horror and Blood on the Tracks is one of his best examples of it yet.
What makes it so effective is just how ordinary everything is. There are no vampires, no body swapping, no existential teens. For the longest time, we just watch Seiichi interact with his peers and family. The boys can be a little bratty to Seiichi at times, but it's nothing that outside of the norm for kids of their age.
Right from the start, though, he plants the seed in the reader's mind that something is not quite right about Seiko. That sense of dread grows every time she demands a bit too much childish affection, every time she gently insists that he spend time with her and the family instead of his friends, and every time she smile beatifically, doing so just a little too close for comfort.
That growing dread combined with the ordinary chain of events leaves the reader on the edge of their seat, waiting for something to happen. It's only at the climax that we start to see the true Seiko, the one who lives behind that picture-perfect facade. It's a spine-chilling moment and the perfect cliffhanger for the volume. I can't imagine reading this and not wanting to read more.
ART:
Of course, Oshimi's art is just as good as always. His characters are ordinary looking but carefully crafted with loads of nuance in their faces. That's a good thing because Oshimi spends a lot of time looking at Seiichi and Seiko's faces, gauging their reactions and zooming in on important moments. He also employs his particular brand of hatchwork on the shadows and backgrounds, lending them not only dimension but mood. The stand-out moment is at the climax, as the careful linework of Seiichi's body and the woods around him seem to melt into squiggles as panic seizes his mind. It's a breathtaking moment in more ways than one and must be witnessed for oneself.
PRESENTATION:
Oshimi uses a lot of two-page spreads to focus on some of the more important close-ups of Seiko. These are clearly meant to be important, but unfortunately in print they are kind of ruined by the fact that Vertical didn't adjust the gutters on those pages to let them be clearly seen. As such, they kind of get sucked into the spine of the book in the print edition and it spoils the effect. It might be better to stick to the digital editions for this one.
RATING:
Blood on the Tracks is a masterfully made story of familial love taken too far that's enhanced by Oshimi's excellent art and meticulously curated tone. It's the best horror series released this year that wasn't by Junji Ito and well worth your time.
This series is published by Vertical. This series is ongoing in Japan with 7 volumes available. 3 volumes have been released and are currently in print.
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