"The Abyss of the Boy" Long Review - Portrayal of Those Who Have Experienced Darkness#
This review is based on episodes 1-132 of this work.
This review will try to avoid spoilers.
Review Statement#
"Once a literary work is published, the right to interpret it no longer belongs solely to the author."
However, as an ordinary reader, the thoughts and evaluations I make can only represent my personal thinking and do not have an exclusive judgment on the opinions of the author or other readers.
Keywords of the Work#
"So I thought it would be interesting to combine the feeling of suicide and the sense of confinement in a local area and a family."
Ryo Minegami, the author, has three keywords for his own work:
"Suicide," "Local Area," and "Sense of Family Confinement."
"Every person who has thought of dying can find their own shadow in it."
-- maxx0304 Thoughts and Recommendations on The Abyss of the Boy
To understand the main theme of the work, we need to pay attention to the title of the work - "少年のアビス" (The Abyss of the Boy), with the keyword being "アビス" (Abyss). This word may not be very familiar, so let's look at the definition in the dictionary:
Abyss
noun
a deep or seemingly bottomless chasm.
Specifically, what does "Abyss" refer to in this work? The so-called "Abyss" refers to the difference between the self that each person's inner self and intimate relationships shape and the self that is expected. In this work, the latter mainly refers to the influence of the family on the individual.
However, this "Abyss" created by one's intimate relationships is woven from the familiar and comfortable lifestyle and interpersonal relationships that one is familiar with and feels at ease with. Once you leave this comfort zone, you will feel suffocated. Leaving behind the people who love you, the people you love, and leaving behind this familiar past, this is the price you must pay and the challenge you must face to escape the Abyss.
"Drowning" and "Suffocation"
That tropical fish, being kept in a small tank by humans, might die one day due to human negligence;
However, if a fisherman insists on "rescuing" this poor tropical fish from the tank, the fish will suffocate and die at the moment it regains its freedom.
Main Theme of the Work#
In this world, the impact of family on individuals is different: some individuals benefit from their families, some families harm individuals, and most relationships between families and individuals are a mixture of beauty and pain that is difficult to separate.
In this work, the protagonist "Reiji" and the other characters around him are all trapped in the Abyss caused by their families for various reasons. By coincidence in the creation, all the main characters in this work are more or less harmed by their families and environment, struggling to live in the gap between wanting to escape but fearing suffocation. The setting of the work is in a remote and closed "local area" town, which physically manifests the Abyss in the characters' hearts. The physical boundaries make the option of "escaping" even more costly. The characters face the pain of reality and their inner selves but are bound by the Abyss, unable to escape to the dream-like "Tokyo." So their only remaining way to achieve self-liberation is through the "heart" - suicide with a touch of romance, which may be easier said than done.
As the characters in the work grow in the Abyss, they each become aware of their true selves and the mismatch between their true selves and the Abyss. Driven by this growing contradiction, each character uses their own methods to fight against the Abyss, resulting in different outcomes. Some characters die in battle, some characters bide their time, more characters choose self-exile in time or space, and some characters even choose to shatter their "true selves" and merge with the Abyss. With such diverse choices and outcomes, the work provides readers with multiple emotional resonances. If a reader has experienced similar life dilemmas, they will surely find a moment of themselves in this work. Of course, it may be difficult for someone who has lived their whole life bathed in sunlight to truly empathize with the emotions of the characters in the work, as this work is a story about how people in darkness cope with darkness.
Why Use the Romantic Element of "Heart"?#
When people encounter setbacks and pain in reality, they often want to escape, and this emotion can develop to the extreme of suicide. However, death is painful and contradicts the instinctual survival desire at the genetic level. The will to survive in extreme states is infinite. This often leads to "suicide attempts" rather than actual suicides. Here is some knowledge that may be unpleasant to outsiders:
- "Surviving a suicide attempt" is more painful than the event that initially triggered the "suicide."
To avoid this greater pain, and to avoid "surviving," suicide victims need to give meaning to this act beyond "escape." Some people use responsibility and love - "If I die, xx will definitely live a better life"; some people use anger and revenge - "My death is all because of you, you wait to suffer."
In this work, when the characters reach the point of wanting to end themselves, they use the romantic element of "heart" to give suicide additional meaning. To achieve the romantic formula of the "heart," sometimes they have to resort to "unreasonable coercion." Because everyone wants to make their life shine. Even for those whose real life is dim and suffocating, they want to embellish their lives with a glorious death. For certain characters in the work, it is this glimmer of life that drives them to embrace death.
The author chose the romantic death formula of the "heart" as the characters' fixed last wish, which not only enhances the interaction between the characters to develop the plot but also aligns with the true psychological needs of the desperate.
A manga artist cannot draw what they have not experienced.
- Akasaka Aka
The One Who Can Overcome Darkness is Courage Alone#
The tropical fish in the tank must leap out of the tank, cross the river, and reach the salty sea to truly gain freedom.
To some extent, this work is devoid of sunlight. So far, no matter where the characters try to escape, they cannot escape the bondage of the Abyss, as if they can never run away from the rivers where the flowers bloom on the other side. However, the work actually mentions a character who successfully leaps out of the Abyss and gains true freedom - he is Reiji's uncle and Yuki's brother.
Yuki's brother was able to escape the Abyss and gain true freedom, and the only thing he relied on was "courage." As the foundation and sole core of all human virtues, "courage" is once again praised in this work.
Appendix#
[1]: "Heart" is the translation of "殉情" in Chinese. It is a cultural image in Japanese culture that refers to the act of intimate individuals agreeing to go to the afterlife together to fulfill many eternal desires that cannot be fulfilled in this life. Representative works with the theme of "heart" include ("Heart Material"):
- Ningyo Joruri Sonezaki Shinju by Chikamatsu Monzaemon, 1703
- Ningyo Joruri "Shinju Nimaie Sugoroku" by Chikamatsu Monzaemon, 1703
- Ukiyo-zoshi "Shinju Daikan"
[2]: The real prototype of the setting of this work is Hita City, Oita Prefecture, Kyushu Island, which is the farthest city in Kyushu from the sea. By the way, Ryo Minegami, the author, is from the nearby Fukuoka Prefecture:
