Overview
is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Shūzō Oshimi. It was serialized in Shogakukan's seinen manga magazine Big Comic Superior from February 2017 to September 2023, with its chapters collected into 17 volumes. The story follows a middle school student, Seiichi Osabe, and his relationship with his overprotective mother, who after a certain event, begins to show a darker and horrifying side towards her son.
The series is licensed for an English release in North America by Vertical, who started releasing the volumes in print in February 2020, and it is also digitally published by Kodansha USA since August of the same year.
By January 2023, Blood on the Tracks had over 2.2 million copies in circulation.
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.
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