Boy’s Abyss, Vol. 1
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Reiji’s mother is checked out, he’s stuck caring for his grandmother with dementia, and his childhood friend treats him like a lackey. Then beautiful, big-city pop star Nagi miraculously shows up working the counter at the local convenience store. Reiji is starstruck. When she offers him the ultimate way out of his claustrophobic existence, will he succumb to temptation…?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Minenami (Hatsukoi Zombie) lends an elegant drawing style to soap opera–level last-chance love drama in this manga. Reiji feels like he has nothing to live for: he's trapped in a backwater town, forced by his stressed-out mother to take care of his sick grandma and shut-in older brother. His luck seems to turn, though, when he meets Nagi Aoe, the leader of rising pop group Acrylic, who is, oddly, working at a convenience store. When he unloads his woes on her, Nagi abruptly and flirtatiously proposes a suicide pact as "a cool way to go." First, though, she suggests, "Wanna come over to my place?" Their intense, mortality-inflected sexual tension (and explicit sex scenes) are shot through with angsty dialogue—and then Nagi's husband appears. The drama keeps pages turning, though Reiji's passivity and overwhelming life circumstances can feel almost too perfectly miserable. Nagi's allure comes across in Minenami's delicate rendering—with Reiji's best friend Chako a cute, spunky foil (and better-realized character). This meet-cute gets darkly erotic about the will to live—and love. This one's for adult readers, but those who were formerly moony teens will swoon.
