Reiji is trapped in his small town life. His brother is a shut-in who constantly berates their mother; his grandmother is suffering from dementia and is the main reason his mother is so tired; and his mom sets him up with a construction job for after high school, effectively killing any aspirations he had of leaving. One night, while out buying food, Reiji realizes that the shop clerk is actually Nagi Aoe, a famous idol singer from a band he enjoys escaping to. She asks him for a tour around town, which he gives her on the back of his bike. At one point, while stopped in a bridge overlooking the town's river, she asks Reiji if he’ll enter a suicide pact with her, similarly to the heroes in a tragic story based on the town. They wind up back at her house where she takes his virginity. Afterwards, Reiji can’t stop thinking about her, her wish to die, and whether he would be better off dead as well.

The sadness and despair from Reiji is palpable and gets more tragic the more we see and feel how trapped he is. Nagi’s situation is a much slower burn, taking almost the whole book to reveal why she feels the need to commit suicide. The pacing and character development for Reiji and Nagi is done very well, as my heart is broken for the both of them at the end of the book. This is obviously a story for mature readers, as the two discuss suicide a lot, have sex, and Nagi shows up naked repeatedly in Reiji’s head.

Sara's Rating: 7/10
Suitability Level: Adult

I was not really fond of this book. The suicide pact makes me upset. I feel the idol more so pushes that idea onto the guy. She uses him in many ways that also make me mad. I have read the synopsis for the second volume and it seems like it maybe going in a better direction. I'll give it a read to see if so, but if it's more of the same, this manga series is not for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Maybe it's just me...but I don't think this manga really needs to exist. There's so much nihilism in the world already, and so many people dealing with depression. I don't have a good feeling that it all pans out well in the end, and it probably would not benefit me to continue reading.

There also REALLY needs to be a trigger warning about suicidal ideation and tendencies at the forefront of this. Yikes on trikes.

I reviewed this title for Booklist. Please see Booklist for the complete review and full feedback regarding this title.

Melancholic. Dark. Bizarre. And kind of unhinged. This story has a very dark array of characters with the main character being stuck in a life he doesn't want to be in. Thought it was really interesting and deff compelled to see where the story goes in further volumes.

This is a manga with adult themes, and it romanticizes the idea of suicide as a means of escape for the main characters. Art is typical manga which is pretty. The suicide message is highly impressionable. I don't know if I want to recommend this, beyond it being a manga title.

I went into this pretty much blind, and I was not expecting the direction it went in. If you enjoy psychological manga and lots of angst you may find this one enjoyable, though look at the trigger warnings ahead of time. I have no idea what direction this story is going in, and I'm unsure if I would continue reading this series honestly. If I did, it would be purely directed by curiosity to see where the heck Minenami takes this story.

This was so bizarre and all over the place. There was some potential, but it was an overall flop for me.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Book Review
Title: Boy's Abyss Vol. 1 by Ryo Minenami
Genre: Manga, Drama, Dark
Rating: 5 Stars
After reading this and seeing clips of Oshi No Ko and saw similarities between the series so if you like Oshi No Ko especially its darker elements then definitely pick up Boy’s Abyss. We are following 17 year old Reiji who has a tough home life looking after his grandmother that has dementia, and dealing with an emotional checked out mother as well as a violent shut in of an older brother. Despite this Reiji does well in school and could go to university but he feels that he can’t because then no one would look after his family so he is tied to this rural town with no way out.
Reiji’s best friend, Chako introduced him to an idol band called Acrylic which he soon becomes obsessed with especially one member, Nagi Aoe who is seen as the most beautiful of the group and is on the rise. However, one day he is heading the convenience store and realises the girl behind the counter is none other than Nagi Aoe and he wonders what she is doing in this backwards town. She asks Reiji to take her around town since she has only recently moved there and he agrees.
This leads to conversation about the lover’s abyss and Nagi asks Reiji to make a suicide pact with her before seducing him. Reiji ends up losing his virginity to his idol but he wants to know her on a more personal level too. However, this moment is spoiled when Nagi’s husband returns home and Reiji flees. The next day the husband returns Reiji’s bike and he learns that the man is an old school friend of his mother’s and that he isn’t a good person to be hanging around. When Reiji sees Nagi again after that night it is in the middle of the typhoon and they end up back at lover’s abyss, there Reiji exclaims he has a reason for dying and Nagi has no reason for living and that is where the volume ends. Boy’s Abyss was definitely dark and mature and I can’t wait to see where the series goes moving forward.

Stories about small town shenanigans are often driven by characters who are determined to escape the town’s confines, or just embrace the fact that they are trapped and that there is no place like home. Many genres from various media have put their own spin on these narratives, not least in the realm of manga, where authors like Inio Asano have tackled, leading to compelling if depressing results. And with Ryō Minenami’s Boy’s Abyss, it is leaning towards a similar manner.

Despite a promising future where he could leave his rural town and go to university, Reiji Kurose seems to have given up by living with his brother, his mother, who works as a nurse, and his grandmother, who is suffering from dementia. One day, Reiji meets Nagi Aoe, a member of the idol group Acrylic who is working as a convenience store clerk, and they both develop an unusually secret relationship, leading to a suicide pact, inspired by a place in the town known as the “Lover’s Abyss”, which is claimed to be a place where lovers commit suicide.

As a psychological drama that delves into the mindset of a depressed teen, the manga does establish a grim tone, which initially you can’t quite detect, due to scenes where Reiji interact with childhood friend Sakuko, who geeks out about the aforementioned Acrylic. Even Minenami’s art can lean towards the cartoonish facial expressions that you often associate with manga and anime, despite the dark undercurrent that is going through.

There is content here that will be upsetting to some readers, as the narrative is building towards a suicide whilst the central relationship has an element of statutory rape. However, Minenami is always driving the narrative, with twists and turns along the way, which adds a new layer and complication to Reiji and his small-town life. Whilst the relationship between Reiji and Nagi is the disturbing focus, some of the supporting cast adds some levity, particularly Sakuko, although characters like Reiji’s mother, who you supposed to feel sympathy for, but perhaps holding some other agenda that isn’t beneficial for her son.

Minenami doesn’t break any new ground as his artwork is conventional by manga standards. However, what he achieves is presenting a moody atmosphere that applies not only to the small town, while also visually representing Reiji’s psychology. No doubt that people will be talking about the sex scene, which is appropriately uncomfortable, given the number of pages devoted to Reiji trying to come in terms with the situation that he is sleeping with someone who he saw as a pop star, but now sees the real her. With an upcoming live-action TV series in the works, it will be interesting to see how this peculiar tale of small-town claustrophia will be translated.

Despite the somewhat upsetting subject matter, Boy’s Abyss is a compelling if bleak exploration of small-town life that will be interesting to unravel in subsequent volumes.

This was an interesting read. It was also sad. I think that everyone can relate to feeling stuck at some point in their lives. That's just how our main character Reiji feels as he's going through life. He's stuck helping take care of his grandma who has dementia, his brother is a violent shut in, and his mom is just doing her best to make it through. He doesn't know how to get out of any of these situations until he meets a strange woman who asks him to make a suicide pact with her.

I like the art in Boy's Abyss. That's pretty much it. The main character and plot so far is a downer and the volume's ending does not make me look forward to reading another volume. It's not for me, but I'm just leaving this review in case anyone else thinks the art is pretty and maybe the volume will end on a hopeful note.

Boy’s Abyss Volume One focuses on a high school boy named Reiji Kurose who lives in a rural town.

Boy’s Abyss Volume One
Written by: Ryo Minenami
Publisher: Shueisha, Inc.
English Publisher: VIZ Media
Release Date: April 25, 2023

Reiji has a rough family situation. His mother works as a nurse and also takes care of Reiji’s grandmother, who has dementia. His older brother is a shut-in who is very demanding. Reiji wishes he could leave to go to college, but his plan is to stay in town and get a job in order to help his mother out. He also has to deal with Gen, who has bullied Reiji his whole life.

On the positive side, Reiji’s childhood friend, Sakuko Akiyama, has introduced him to an idol group named Acrylic. They both really like Nagi Aoe, one of the members of the group. One day, when Gen bullies Reiji into buying cigarettes for him, a new cashier refuses the sale because she sees him in a school uniform, which indicates that he’s underage. Later, Reiji discovers this cashier is Nagi Aoe, and is surprised to find her in his podunk town. Nagi is surprised that someone in this little town even recognizes her, and she makes sure that Reiji will keep her secret. She also convinces him to show her around town.

Unfortunately, this turns out to not be the sweet and innocent encounter it would come across as from that description. It turns dark when Nagi asks Reiji to make a suicide pact with her, which would see them jump off a bridge in the area that’s become famous because of a popular book. This leads to a sexual encounter, which then leads to another surprise… Nagi’s much older husband coming home when she didn’t expect him to. And it turns out the husband has a couple of twists attached to him as well, which gives him some very strong links in this story.

When I was doing some research on this title, I found that it’s being labeled in the “psychological” genre. After reading this first volume, I would agree with this classification. If the revelations about Nagi weren’t enough to potentially scar Reiji emotionally, he also learns that his mother lied to him about something rather important. Before her lie is revealed, Reiji’s mother had come across to me as a sympathetic character trying to deal with her elderly mother and her difficult older son. But once this lie is revealed, it starts becoming a little harder to feel as much sympathy for her.

The story in Volume One went in directions that I hadn’t anticipated, and by the end of it, you have to feel bad for Reiji for how he’s been treated and used by the end of it. But these unexpected twists did make me want to read more if VIZ Media makes the next volume available for reviewers. At this point, Sakuko seems to be the only character that’s truly looking out for Reiji, but with the way things are going, I’m almost afraid that if I do get a chance to read more of the series, that she’ll do something to change my perception of her as well.

When it comes to the art, I found it to be rather hit and miss. There are some panels that look like Minenami put in effort on them, and others where it feels like they were done in a hurry because they just don’t have a lot of detail to them. And it should be mentioned that during Reiji and Nagi’s sexual encounter, there are some panels that contain female nudity and depict sexual acts.

If you enjoy psychological stories, then I would recommend giving Boy’s Abyss Volume One a chance. While this may not get to the level of any of Junji Ito’s stories, I still found it to be a fascinating read. It was an uncomfortable read for me at times, but it needs to be uncomfortable in order to make the psychological aspect work.

Capturing the anxiety that can come with isolation and throwing in a teenage masturbatory fantasy turned nightmare, Ryo Minenami's “Boys Abyss” is an uncomfortable read. Yet, for those who seek challenging subject matter with a tinge of intense psychological drama (looking at you fans of Inio Asano & Shuzo Oshimi), the manga packs quite a wallop within its opening volume. While many will appreciate the book at face value, its sensational premise/dark romantic focus, there are subtleties to the book that put it on par with the other iconic creators that are able to navigate the darker side of the human condition. Consequently, Ryo Minenami showcases an understanding of how it feels to struggle with mental health and the pitfalls that exist out of desperation.

This sentiment resonates with the small-town experience, knowing the majority of people's names and the pressure that can come from feeling the need to meet the expectations of many. While strong community bonds can have positive effects, the lack of anonymity can be stifling for those awkwardly going through life and conscious of how others view them–essentially every teenager. Consequently, “Boy's Abyss” establishes Reiji as the quintessential tragic figure in the small town setting, stuck, alone, and burdened by obligation (in this case a broken family).

While there is no simple solution for those caught in this kind of malaise, “Boy's Abyss” presents a ‘worse case scenario' of a mentally disturbed pop idol seeking refuge and death in a small town, honing her trauma on Reiji. It is this meeting that is the crux of the drama and expresses anguish within the series, for the reader it is a formula that is equal parts frightening as it is enticing.


There is a lot to unpack in the inaugural release, and with a ways to go for the story to unfold the series still exists in a space of uncertainty as to how it will navigate difficult subjects and mental health struggles. However, the introductory volume conveys the ability of Ryo Minenami to navigate through sensitive material with clarity that reflects a creator conveying her own past struggles. Romanticized or not, there is sincerity to the character's struggles that conveys confidence in the subject matter.

Unfortunately, “Boy's Abyss” visual presence is not as engaging as the story itself, lacking panels that would give readers a reason to pause and admire the work. However, and arguably more importantly for a title of this ilk, Ryo Minenami excels at hitting those beats that capture teenage uncertainty, lust, and sorrow. Notably, Minemi expresses an understanding of when to let words linger by following up with a textless panel. This is a skill set that is not always utilized skillfully but is key to capturing visceral moments–an absence left to contemplate the severity of what came before it.


Part of the “Viz Signature Collection“, Ryo Minenami's work perfectly fills that niche of impactful work aimed at mature readers. While one has to temper their expectations for an inaugural release, “Boy's Abyss” has the makings of a classic, albeit for those that purposely seek out manga that challenges the reader and dwells on uncomfortable themes. Personally, it is one of the series I'll be most excited about collecting in 2023.

This was really interesting, especially to read as a person who has struggled with mental illness before. It's easy to see that Reiji is struggling while Nagi is a bit of a mystery that I look forward to learning more about.

CW: suicide ideation, statutory rape

There’s angst, and then there’s angst that wallows in its own misery. I’m inclined to call Boy’s Abyss the latter – it’s so full of horrors that they all blur together. It’s not enough that Reiji’s older brother is a shut-in, he’s an abusive shut-in; his grandmother’s senile, his former best friend’s a bully, and when his favorite pop idol shows up in his town, she’s keen to make a suicide pact with him. It’s simply too much, and the sting of any one of these things is dulled by the sheer weight of all of them thrown together.

There are some solid moments, with one striking visual during the sex scene (which could be construed as statutory rape), and the imagery of the town itself is so worn down and frayed at the edges that it both works and also exacerbates the issues with the story. The dedication, if it is that, and not text that’s part of the story, may indicate that the creator is writing this from a personal place, and I tried to keep that in mind while reading. But I was still relieved to put it behind me.

2.5

Boy’s Abyss is the story of Rieiji, a high schooler with a grim home life trapped in a rural town. I like the concept of a claustrophobic/depressing small-town setting, especially when it comes to manga being translated and published in the west, since so much manga is set in Tokyo. Rural settings are great for weird and unsettling stories! Unfortunately this one kind of fails to be unsettling or even interesting. There’s a lot of depressing material in this first volume, but none of the characters are interesting enough to really care about what happens to them. Feels dark for the sake of being dark - definitely a genre that some people will be into, but not particularly entertaining for me. The art is fine.

I’m always going to side eye a book that romanticizes suicide. And if the main character is so miserable in this town, why doesn’t he just leave? (Full disclosure, I’m an army brat, so my perspective on moving is probably different from most people’s.) I’m also confused why he feels the need to keep paying off Gen’s childhood “debt.” He’s been paying it off for years with service and I doubt Gen could stop him leaving for college.

A dark take on the feeling of hopelessness told through the story of a teenage boy and a singer who make a suicide pact. Each character seems to have a reason to not want to go on living and is stuck in a least one form of unhealthy relationship. The art is fantastic and captures the emotions of the characters. This is the first volume in a series so more themes will emerge later but so far it has shown the despair and feelings of being trapped that lead the characters to make the decisions they do. While the characters are not making good choices the book doesn't endorse the things they do and gives enough background to show how they came to that place.

This was a bit dark and troublesome w/ the age-gap relationship elements for me to actually enjoy, though the art is really great.