Blood on the Tracks vol. 4

How do you follow up a volume that ended with the protagonist’s mother trying to strangle him?  If you’re mangaka Shuzo Oshimi, then you have things get a little worse before they get better.  This involves Seiichi kicking a teacher’s desk during cleaning duty, getting reprimanded for it, and then moping on a bench after school about it, where he meets Fukiishi.  In case you’ve forgotten, she’s the classmate of Seiichi who gave him that love letter that was subsequently ripped up by his mom.  She talks to him for a while and… you may be surprised by what happens next.  Suffice to say that it’s a rare moment of warmth in this series that feels earned, especially when contrasted against the horror movie schtick that Oshimi pulls as Seiichi finds his way home.  Even if Fukiishi’s interest in our protagonist does stretch credibility somewhat, since ordinariness is all that he looks to have going for him on the outside, it’s still nice to see him develop a relatively normal social connection in this series.

Which he’s going to need because Seiko is still totally cray-cray.  Not to the point of choking out her son again, fortunately.  This time she’s all about acting nice and interested in Seiichi while projecting a vibe that she’s liable to snap at any moment.  If you’re wondering if that moment is going to happen when she finally finds out about about her son and Fukiishi, then you’re going to get your answer here in some scenes where Oshimi really cranks up the drama with his art.  That’s a good thing as the intensity of emotion demanded by this encounter requires something more than your usual round of talking heads.  The ending of this volume also portends a major change in the status quo for this title, although it might wind up being a case of jumping from the frying pan into the fire.  All of this is to say that if you’re still into the kind of discomfort that “Blood on the Tracks” has been selling up to this point, then vol. 4 still has you covered.