Title: Boy’s Abyss Vol. 2
Author: Ryo Minenami
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 193
Genre: Slice-of-Life, Drama
Publication Date: July 18, 2023
The Story
Here, we meet Ms. Shiba, Reiji’s teacher. We see that she has some bandages on her face so we do a bit of a time rewind to learn how she received them. She was driving along the road during the typhoon to see if any of her students might be out wandering about. She spied a student’s bag by the side of the road and investigated. There, she found Reiji and Nagi about to commit suicide together and she breaks it up. Fearing that Reiji can’t be left to his own devices, she brings him back home with her.
Just like with Reiji, and Sakaku, Ms. Shiba wants to leave this backwater town. Because of that, she kind of understands Reiji and begins to grow quite fond of him… so fond that she doesn’t want him to leave and go back home. Eventually, Reiji’s mother needs him to go out and buy his brother’s favorite chicken so he has to leave. Knowing that she can’t keep him there forever, she lets him go but still promises to offer him help.
Meanwhile, Gen runs into Nagi who tells him that she got fired from her job at the convenience store. She also let it slip that she and Reiji were going to commit suicide together. This enrages Gen so he heads over to Reiji’s house to confront him. During their confrontation, we learn that there’s a bit more to Gen and Reiji’s past but Reiji doesn’t seem to know or remember what he’s talking about!
Characters
Ms. Shiba takes the spotlight here. You can tell that she is a lonely and desperate teacher who just wants to escape the town. Also, she’s into forbidden relationships with students. Lucky Reiji, right? Probably for reasons of lust, she wants to help Reiji but she never actually says HOW she wants to help him. So far, it seems that “helping” means trying to keep him all to herself which makes you question her motives and character. Maybe she just wants companionship or maybe she really does want to help Reiji but if that were the case, she wouldn’t have told him that once he graduates, they would no longer be a thing. A teacher that seems to care about her students is actually off her rocker. This could be an interesting character but I feel it’s just going to be another lonely type that can’t stand being lonely anymore. We’ll have to see.
We spent a little bit of time with Sakaku. She’s a bit too in love with Kosaku’s work… and him, apparently. When he comes into her family’s convenience store, she chases him out and confirms that it’s really him. She tells him her goals of graduating college and becoming an editor. He then tells her that there’s no need to wait… she can start now as his muse. Given the way he was in the first volume, no good can really come from this! Are you noticing a trend with all of our characters so far?
Lastly, we have Gen. Despite acting like a mafia boss, he seems to care about Reiji. While he’s masking his emotions by playing it off as if he’s about to lose a worker sworn to his company, you can tell there is a deeper connection there… especially since the two of them have been hanging out since they were kids. Gen mentioned something about carrying sins with him. It adds a new dimension to their past that we just don’t know enough about yet. Given the way this volume ended, we may get those answers as soon as the next chapter. Either way, this might paint Gen in a better light but… I doubt it. We’ll see.
Final Thoughts
The dark, gritty nature of this series continues as we learn that every single character so far is out of their mind in some way, shape, or form. Of course, nobody is completely pure and I think that this series is a metaphor for that. Reiji is tired of having his life controlled and wants to kill himself to escape, Nagi fled to escape the life of being an idol, Sakaku wants to escape to the big city to make something of herself, Ms. Shiba wants to escape because she’s sick of being a teacher, Gen is the only nutball that wants to stay but it’s because he’s got it made as the son of a tycoon but it made him into an imposing community figure. Kosaku is just a scumbag author who doesn’t really care much about anything or anyone.
While there is a wide array of characters and personalities, they all have that one thing in common: a dark side. It’s different for each character but it also makes them all very similar. That’s the interesting aspect of this series… you get to see everyone’s dark side, their lives, their goals (good and bad), and their experiences. It’s not just about Reiji, although most of the focus is on him because he is the main protagonist. So far, Reiji seems to be the gateway into everyone else’s backstories and lives simply by interacting with them.
Mostly everyone has the same goal… to escape that town. I know it’s too soon to predict an ending to the series since we are just two volumes in but I’m going to guess that we’ll see Reiji’s ending as the main focus and the epilogue will wrap up everyone else’s stories… and since we are early on, there is still a lot of room for new characters.
Simply put… this continues to be a dark and gritty look at life in a backwater town where nobody is happy with their lives or even who they are as people. While that sounds depressing, it’s surprisingly interesting and entertaining. This has the potential to be a heck of a series if it keeps going as it is!
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This item was provided for review by Viz Media
