Boy’s Abyss will be translated in Spring 2023 thanks to Viz. Chainsaw Man fans will enjoy this series, but it’s not for everyone.
Dark themes such as suicide, assault, and abuse take up 90% of the story, and the manga is still going strong.
Page one shows us that our main character has agreed to a suicide pact, and it barely lets up as we keep reading.
What is Boy’s Abyss?
Reiji Kurose lives with his mother, who works as a nurse, his brother, who’s a shut-in, and his grandmother, who has dementia. They live in a small rural town, and Reiji is smart enough to get into a university in Tokyo.
But Reiji feels that he can’t leave because of his family situation. He wants to go because he knows things will never get better for him.
The adults in Reiji’s life manipulate him, and his childhood friends use him in different ways. For example, Gen Minegishi treats him like a slave and makes him buy cigarettes for him.
Sakuko Akiyama starts by supporting Reiji and encouraging him to go to college, but she winds up trying to “save” him. Unfortunately, Reiji’s mother, Yuko, may be one of the worst characters in Boy’s Abyss.
Even though she thanks Reiji and seems to care about him, she passively-aggressively tells Reiji to get a job in construction after he graduates high school. And in three chapters, we don’t know why Reiji’s brother gets to stay at home all day instead of trying to study or work.
And then there’s Nagi Aoe. She’s a famous idol and, for some reason, works at a convenience store in Reiji’s hometown. Nagi is the first of a recurring pattern in Boy’s Abyss.
When it looks like Reiji might be catching a break, an adult in his life manipulates him. In Nagi’s case, she asks him to show her around the town, figures out his circumstances, asks him to commit suicide with her, has sex with him at her house, and introduces him to her husband. All in three chapters.
Who is Ryo Minenami?
Ryo Minenami is the creator of Boy’s Abyss. Her other works include Hatsukoi Zombie, Himegoto: Juukuusai no Seifuku, Oboreru Hanabi, and Shounen no Abyss: Bangai-hen. Bangai-hen is a prequel one-shot for Boy’s Abyss that focuses on Yuri Shibasawa, who will be Reiji’s homeroom teacher in Boy’s Abyss.