Blood on the Tracks vol. 6

Seiichi decided at the end of vol. 5 that it would ultimately be better to go back and deal with his mother rather than stay on the run with Fukiishi.  It isn’t long before he runs into his mom, who is out searching for him, and they go back home where she’s got a warm bath and dinner waiting for him.  Which is good.  It means that she’s willing to welcome  him back home without any reservations as a mother should.  Right?

If you’ve been reading the series up to this point, then you should know that it’s only a matter of time before Seiko starts ratcheting up the crazy.  To mangaka Shuzo Oshimi’s credit, the crazy she displays here is new and more insidious compared to what we’ve seen in the series up to this point.  Not only is Seiichi’s mom determined to rewrite his sense of reality, she’s also more than capable of shaming and abusing him into following her every word.  Which is how we end up with a new kind of protagonist before the end of the volume:  One who has drunk the Kool-Aid in regards to the antagonist’s demands.

As creepy and depressing as this sounds, I actually think it’s going to make for interesting reading going forward.  Up to this point we’ve seen Seiichi try to fruitlessly rebel against his mother’s unstable personality, but we haven’t seen what it looks like when he willingly acquiesces to it.  Will he actually be happy like this?  Will Seiko realize that what she’s doing is wrong?  Will Seiichi finally snap and actually mount a successful rebellion?  I can’t say which of these is most likely, and that’s a good thing as far as I’m concerned.  It makes vol. 6 as compelling as it is uncomfortable to read.