"The Abyss of the Boy" Long Review - Portrayal of Those Who Have Been in Darkness#
This review is based on chapters 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 own thinking and do not have an exclusive evaluation of the author or other readers' opinions.
Keywords of the Work#
So I thought it would be interesting to combine the feeling of despair and the sense of confinement in a family.
Mr. Minegami Ryo, the author, has three keywords for his own work:
"Despair," "Place," 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 name of the work - "The Abyss of the Boy." The key word in it is "Abyss."
This word doesn't seem to be very familiar, so let's take a 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 shaped by one's own intimacy and the self expected by oneself; in this work, the latter mainly refers to the influence of the family on the individual.
- However, this "Abyss" created by one's own intimacy is woven from the 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 to escape the Abyss, the challenge you must face.
"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 to death 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; most relationships between families and individuals are a mixture of beauty and pain, 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. In a creative coincidence, all the main characters in this work are more or less harmed by their families and environment, struggling to survive in the gap between wanting to escape and fearing suffocation.
The setting of the work is in a remote and closed "place" town [2], which physically manifests the Abyss in the characters' hearts, and the physical boundaries make the option of "escape" even more costly.
The characters face the pain of reality and their inner selves, but are bound by the "Abyss" and cannot escape to the dream-like "Tokyo." So their only remaining choice for self-liberation is "in their hearts" - suicide + a touch of romance, which may be easier to do or not.
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, with different results.
Some characters die in battle, some characters wait in silence, 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 a variety of emotional resonances. If a reader has experienced similar life dilemmas, they will definitely find a moment of themselves in this work; of course, it may be difficult for someone who has bathed in the sun all their life to truly understand the emotions of the characters in the work, because this work is a story about "how people in darkness deal with darkness."
Why Use the Romantic Element of "In the Heart"?#
When people encounter setbacks and pain in reality, they often want to escape, and this emotion develops to the extreme of suicide.
However, death is painful and contradicts the instinctual survival desire of humans at the genetic level. The will to survive in extreme states is infinite.
This often leads to "failed suicide" rather than the initial event that triggers "suicide." Here is some knowledge that may not be appropriate to mention:
- "Failed suicide" is more painful than the event that initially triggers "suicide."
To avoid this greater pain, and to avoid "failure," suicide victims need to give this act a meaning other than "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 caused by 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 "in the heart" to give suicide additional meaning. In order to achieve the romantic formula of "in the heart," sometimes they have to resort to "unreasonable coercion" in their hearts.
Because everyone wants to make their life shine. Even for those who have a life that is dim and despairing, they want to embellish their lives with a glorious death.
For certain characters in the work, it is this shining moment in life that drives them to embrace death.
The author chose the romantic death formula of "in the heart" as the characters' fixed final wish, which not only enhances the interaction between the characters and unfolds the plot but also meets the real psychological needs of the desperate.
What the manga artist hasn't experienced, they can't draw.
- Akasaka Aka
The One Who Can Overcome Darkness, Only Courage#
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 completely 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 escape the rivers where the flowers bloom on the other side.
However, the work actually mentions a character who successfully escapes the Abyss - he is Reiji's uncle, Yūko's brother.
Yūko'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 only core of all human virtues, "courage" is once again praised in this work.
Appendix#
[1]: "In the heart" is a cultural image in Japanese culture, referring to the act of two people with an intimate relationship committing suicide together to achieve many eternal things that cannot be achieved in this life.
Representative works on the theme of "in the heart" include ("Shinjuu Monogatari"):
- Ningyō Jōruri Sonezaki Shinjuu by Chikamatsu Monzaemon, 1703
- Ningyō Jōruri "Shinjuu Nimaie Sugoroku" by Chikamatsu Monzaemon, 1703
- Ukiyo-zōshi "Shinjuu 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, the author, Mr. Minegami Ryo, is from the nearby Fukuoka Prefecture:
