Title: Boy’s Abyss Vol. 14
Author: Ryo Minenami
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 217
Genre: Slice-of-Life, Drama
Publication Date: July 21, 2026
The Story
Things are beginning to settle down in the darkest way possible. We open up where we left off with Gen strangling Reiji’s mother, Yuko. When Reiji comes home, Gen confesses that he killed her and dumped her body in the river. Gen then heads to the station to turn himself in, but doesn’t want Reiji going inside with him. Reiji is later contacted by the police as the investigation begins. Through his conversations with the police, we get a recap of everything that happened so far, and Reiji’s comments cause them to make quite a few connections, including a search to discover Reiji’s supposed father’s body, the one whom Gen killed as a child.
Meanwhile, Ms. Shiba hunts down Nagi Aoe in Tokyo. She wants to know what Reiji is to her, and warns her not to go near him again, but before they depart, they pay a visit to Esemori in the hospital. After Ms. Shiba heads back to town, Chako’s efforts end up causing quite the impact for Nagi. Speaking of Chako, she wakes up in a Tokyo hospital after collapsing, and eventually heads back home. There, she reads the article published about Nagi, and comes to a decision.
We end the volume with Reiji paying his grandmother a visit at the nursing home. There, she reveals something shocking to Reiji, but he understands that it’s all a lie. He leaves, but not before saying something depravedly cold to her. On the way back, he sees someone standing at the bridge. He calls to her, thinking it’s someone he recognizes, but he’s about to find out just how wrong he was!
Characters
We knew that Reiji was messed up from everything that happened to him, but with the way he’s choosing his words around certain people, he’s succumbing to the life that had battered him for years. I wouldn’t say he’s mentally gone just yet, but he’s getting there. He’s still pretty calculated and in control, so I don’t think he’s going insane like everyone else, but he is definitely becoming more jaded and cynical. It’s like the quiet dog who learned he has a mouth that can bite.
Outside of Reiji, Gen has fallen into deep remorse for doing what he did to Reiji’s mother, but he disappears into police custody, so we don’t see the full impacts of the aftermath, but it’s clear that he wasn’t insane. He knew what he was doing and that he had a purpose. If you’ve followed the story, you know that he did it all for Reiji because he knew everything. We’ll see if he resurfaces later on.
Ms. Shiba continues to be Reiji’s secret protector by going after Nagi. You can tell just how obsessed she is with him for going to these lengths to look out for him… especially with a pop idol star that kind of disappeared since the beginning of the story. I mean, Nagi has truly been off doing her own thing, and aside from their reunion in Tokyo, Reiji hasn’t had that much contact with her. She didn’t seem like a threat, but anyone associated with Reiji is a threat to Ms. Shiba, so clearly this act is another sign of just how off her rocker she is.
Lastly, we have Chako. I don’t think she’s all that much different than what we’ve seen of her over the past couple of volumes. It’s clear that she has surrendered to madness, but what happens when someone is out of their mind and becomes determined? We could be seeing a new side of Chako very soon.
Final Thoughts
I feel like a broken record, but it’s true. With each chapter, we fall further and further into the darkness of the abyss, although things have kind of evened out in this volume (if that’s even possible in this series)
So many characters are sidelined due to individual reasons, and with the police getting involved, the giant spider web is beginning to unravel. With only four volumes left to go, the timing seems rather perfect to wind this series down. There are still some questions to answer… the biggest one is who Reiji’s real father is. We thought it was Esemori, but he denied it; however, Reiji’s mother seems convinced it’s him. Then, we have Reiji’s grandmother claiming something else, but Reiji immediately dismissed it as a lie. Then, we have the person Gen killed, but that was already disproven to not be Reiji’s father. I don’t think the combined forces of Jerry Springer, Maury Povich, and Dr. Phil could unravel this mystery, so I guess we’ll have to wait and see what the answer is… if we even get one.
The other big question left to answer is what will become of Reiji? The ultimate goal of this series is for Reiji to escape the town and live a better life. In the beginning of this series, they introduce chain after chain to tie him down, acting as weights that were preventing him from leaving. Now, you see those chains breaking one after another, and trust me, this volume broke a LOT of those chains. There isn’t much weighing him down, but there are still a couple of minor ones to go. Once all of them do break, what will he do? Will he stay and be forever trapped in the town like those before him, will he go back to Tokyo, or will he do something entirely different?
Whatever happens, we’ll find out soon, but for now, we’ll need to see the results of Reiji’s fateful meeting on the bridge! On to volume 15!
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This item was provided for review by Viz Media
