Title: Boy’s Abyss Vol. 7
Author: Ryo Minenami
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 217
Genre: Slice-of-Life, Drama
Publication Date: October 22, 2024
The Story
We open up with the aftermath of our cliffhanger ending. Rei’s bleeding out from a self-inflicted knife wound to the stomach while his mother is doing the same outside after being hit by Ms. Shiba’s car. Gen shows up and sees what happened to Reiji’s mother then immediately darts inside to check on Reiji himself. Luckily (or unluckily based on some characters’ points of view), Gen wasn’t too late. Reiji and his mother are transported to the hospital where they both fight their battles to make it back to the world of the living.
Reiji wakes up and gets paid a visit by Gen; however, Reiji is being tight-lipped about everything and refuses to talk. Essemori pays Reiji a visit as does Chako. Meanwhile, the entire town is talking about what happened thanks to Chako turning Ms. Shiba in during the events of the previous volume. Everyone now knows about Reiji’s relationship with her, his attempted suicide, and the whole nine yards.
The last person that Reiji expected to see pay him a visit did. I won’t say who but when Gen sees them, he decides to take matters into his own hands. When he does, Reiji gets healed up enough to leave the hospital and follow him, intervening with what Gen had planned. There, we learn a LOT about Gen and his backstory and after we get all of that, Gen states that he’s going to protect a third… what does that mean? Hmm…
Characters
After the insane amount of character development in the previous volume, things slowed down here until the very end. The first half of the volume focused on Reiji’s recovery from his attempted suicide and all of the characters coming by to see him and offer him their advice.
Through it all, Reiji comes to a decision, as does Chako. Chako says that she’s not going to go to Tokyo after all and, instead, remain in town. Whether or not that had any influence on Reiji or not, he too said that he was going to stay in town but his comes from more of a delusional and defeatist standpoint rather than one born from reason. So, that will be interesting to see how he handles things from here on out.
As for Gen… I would LOVE to get into the details here but there are so many major spoilers and revelations, the best I can do is say that we finally learn about Gen and his father’s innermost connections to Reiji’s family. Everything is explained in detail here it… justifies? (is this the best word?)… Gen’s actions throughout the series thus far but doesn’t truly forgive him for those actions but there is at least an understanding of why.
Final Thoughts
With Gen’s major revelation, it confirmed some of the suspicions I had but also surprised me with some that I wasn’t expecting at all. The volume alternated back and forth between the present day and flashbacks of Gen growing up with Chako and Reiji. So, when I say that we got all of the details of their past, I mean it. There could still be more left to unveil but after what we were given, I can say that there wouldn’t be much. Most, if not all, of the cards have been played here and now we know just how important Gen is, was, and can be to this story.
As for Reiji, to see him fall back into a state of submission and succumb to the fact that he can never escape this town is rather sad. Even with that, he is still conflicted because while he did seem like he had given up, there was that one moment at the end where he followed Gen and intervened with his plans. Why would someone who had given up care so much to do what Reiji did? Sure, he did give a certain person some instructions and, perhaps, he was just trying to make sure those instructions got carried out but for someone who seemed to resolve himself to entrapment within the town and his personal hell, it seemed a bit suspicious for him to care so much.
Perhaps this means that there is still a spark inside Reiji. One has to wonder because if there are still 11 volumes to go before this series wraps up, that spark has to still be in there. What is going to be the next catalyst to ignite it again? I can’t see Reiji succumbing and becoming submissive to this tortuous life for very long, not after everything that happened to him. Whether or not we will see that next time remains a mystery but, for now, we will see the fallout from Gen’s little plan and how that will steer Reiji forward in Volume 8!
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This item was provided for review by Viz Media
