Blood on the Tracks (manga)
Plot. Seiichi Osabe is a shy middle school student living a relatively ordinary life. His mother, Seiko, is considered overprotective of him by others, although Seiichi is comfortable with the love and care from his mother and does not feel anything strange about her behavior. One day, Seiichi goes on a family hiking trip with his parents and paternal family. At one point, Seiichi's cousin, Shigeru, jokingly pushes Seiichi near a cliff edge, leading Seiko to quickly grab hold of Seiichi, protecting him from falling. The rest of the family starts laughing at Seiko  over her "overprotective" act. A while later, Seiichi and Shigeru go to a higher cliff edge, and when Shigeru is on the cliff edge, Seiko, who was following them, approaches her nephew and pushes him off the cliff, giving a brief smile to her son. After the incident, where Shigeru is left in a comatose state and Seiichi was the only witness of what happened, he begins to discover how dangerous his mother's affection can become, and what follows is a series of events in which Seiichi's everyday life becomes a horror living under the disturbing protection of  his own mother. Publication. "Blood on the Tracks", written and illustrated by Shūzō Oshimi, began in Shogakukan's "seinen" manga magazine "Big Comic Superior" on February 24, 2017. According to Oshimi, the Bob Dylan album of the same name inspired the title for the series, but was not a major influence on the story. Shogakukan has compiled its chapters into individual "tankōbon" volumes. The first volume was published on September 8, 2017. As of November 30, 2021, twelve volumes have been published. In July 2019, Vertical announced that they have licensed the manga for an English language release in North  America. The first volume was published on February 25, 2020. In July 2020, Kodansha USA announced the digital release of the manga, which started in August of the same year. Reception. As of May 2020, the manga had over 1 million copies in circulation. As of June 2021, the manga had over 1.5 million copies in circulation. The series ranked 9th on "Kono Manga ga Sugoi!"s top 20 manga for male readers 2018. Ian Wolf from Anime UK News praised the series' storytelling and Oshimi's artwork, highlighting the "detailed and sometimes disturbing close-ups" and "great views of the  wilderness". Regarding the series' title, Wolf commented that something from Pink Floyd's "The Wall", in which "the narrator has issues with his domineering mother", would have been more fitting. Wolf concluded: ""Blood on the Tracks" has been thrilling reading so far, and it will be interesting to see where Oshimi takes the story".