Shounen no Abyss! Can’t Take Our Eye off of “SUICIDES LOVE STORY” in Japan! Asking the Meaning of Death.

2021-04-07
Hello, everybody. I have a feeling that we’ll be featuring an incredible manga series today. I’m Manga Republic’s Boss.
Hello, everybody. Yes, we will be featuring an incredible manga series today! It’s Saori from Manga Republic!
The manga series which we’ll be featuring today is what everybody in Japan has been attracted by…… it’s an incredible ‘world-ending, boy meets girl’-type series. The theme is so serious, which makes us get addicted to it…… It’s a series, which depicts the abyss of humans.

【2021’s HOT Series】
Can’t Take Our Eye off of “SUICIDES LOVE STORY” in Japan!
Asking the Meaning of Death, Shounen no Abyss!

https://manga-republic.com/product/product_page_981500.html
As you can see in the title, this series is not a cheerful and happy story. So if it’s still okay, then you can go on from here.

What Is Shounen no Abyss?

Shounen no Abyss is a Japanese manga series, written and illustrated by a manga artist, Minenami Ryo-Sensei, serialized since 2020. As for comics, four volumes have been released.
Since it started to be serialized, it has been going viral with feedback, saying “The theme and setting are awesome…… Can’t wait to see what’s gonna happen next.” In 2021, it’s got an explosive hit.
I already feel it’s mysterious. If it’s a horror story, I would leave here right away.
I don’t think it’s a horror genre…… I would say it’s more like a ‘suspense’ or a ‘dark human drama’.

Outline of Shounen no Abyss

“I’m happy…… you are gonna die with me, huh, Reiji?”
A girl says it to a boy, while it’s raining so hard.
────────
Let me travel through time to the past a little bit.
A high school boy, Reiji, is watching his favorite idol group’s video.
One day when Reiji is having a meeting for his future course with his homeroom teacher, he says to her:
“I cannot leave this town.”
Reiji has three family members living with him; mother, who works as a nurse, an shut-in older brother and grandmother who has dementia.
Since his mother takes care of everything about his brother and grandmother, he has wanted to help her, by working after he graduates from school. However, his homeroom teacher advises him that he might not be able to make enough money in this town especially since it’s a little town and he will only be a high school graduate.
Leaving Reiji in such a town, all his friends are moving to the city or going on to the college for their bright future. Reiji’s childhood friend, Chako, even confesses him that she will take the entrance exam of a famous college in Tokyo and leave the town.
Then two sightseers talks to them.
Chako is kindly showing the way to the place that they have asked them. Then Reiji says to Chako, “Does this town have such a place like the sightseeing spot?”
According to her, this town is famous for a folk song about ‘the place, where a man and a woman tragically commited a double suicide.’ She also tells him that there will be a movie coming out soon, which will be made based on this folk song. That’s why people, who follow the latest trends, have started to visit this town.
Meanwhile, Reiji is called for by another childhood friend.
He is a delinquent and orders Reiji to go get some cigarette.
And that’s not the first time when he is ordered to go get them.
Reiji goes to the convenience store to get them as usual and is surprised that they didn’t sell them to him because he is underage.
It looks like it was the different clerk from usual. Reiji is scolded by his childhood friend by not being able to buy them. He now goes home, feeing bad.
When he gets home, his grandmother and mother are waiting for him.
His mother takes really good care of his grandmother, who has dementia and Reiji helps her do that too. However, now, his shut-in brother gets mad so bad because he can’t find something he wants at home. Since his mother has to take care of his grandmother, Reiji ends up going to get the one his brother wants.
While heading for the convenience store, Reiji looks at the river.
Then he recalls the folk song which he heard earlier. A man and a woman committed a double suicide, drown in the river on a stormy night.
“I would never want to dive into this river and die……”
“I would be perfectly okay if I never woke up after I sleep tonight……”
The convenience store he goes to is the same one, where he couldn’t get the cigarette earlier. Reiji sees the clerk, who didn’t sell him the cigarette, throwing away the trash outside…… when a homeless man is chasing something.
Reiji has a weird feeling and what he sees there is……
The clerk gives away obento (lunch box) who she is supposed to dump to the homeless man.
When Reiji is about to leave there…… the clerk hands the cigarette to Reiji.
“……cannot live in this world without smoking, huh?”
Reiji is about to turn it down, saying ‘I’m still a high school student,’ but he ends up getting one from her, being attracted by what she says.
Then he gets closer to her to light the cigarette, when the wind softly blows.
She is…… Nagi, one of the members of his favorite idol group.
Reiji surprised, Nagi is impressed at the fact that Reiji knows about her in this country town. She thinks he must be a passionate idol otaku. Then Nagi gives him light through cigarette.
Feeling nervous, Reiji is not able to light the cigarette.
Nagi says to Reiji kindly, “Hey, inhale now.”
Reiji clumsily inhales in the dark, as the river at night.
Finally, his cigarette is lit.
A little fire seems to be disappearing in the dark.
The moment it is lit…… Reiji’s ‘death’ and ‘life’ has started simultaneously.
Let me jump into a conclusion. You cannot read this manga series out of curiosity.
I bet you all would wonder what it actually is when you see something mysterious, right? It’s the same logic. What is this creepy, realistic and mysterious story going to end up……? Once you read it, then you can never stop reading it.
I’m curious…… But I guess I will read it when I relax.
To me, I felt ‘I really wanted to see what’s gonna happen next’ when I finished reading Volume 1 so I would recommend that you should get a whole set, containing four volumes……
Try to make sure what the darkness is like in this series.
Shounen no Abyss
Alright! This is all for today! We’ll see you all at the next article!
Bye now~!

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