Blood on the Tracks - Vol. 11 Ch. 90 - Watching through Mommy's eyes

[Gyerin]

Why is Seiichi suddenly looks like a character come out of Junji Ito universe 😆 is that his real face tho?

 

[OSIDJ]

@gyerin @djamel90 Yes and no? So far we've only been seeing the story from his perspective, ie. how he views himself and others. The Seiichi viewed by his mother looks like that though, it's like how everyone you know would view you differently the only way to see the "true you" would either be someone who holds no prejudice for you, eg. a narrator who tells the story as is, or the sum of everyone's view on you. This is one of the ideas I learnt from Evangelion and I never went deeper than what I learnt from it, so I might be wrong.

 

[themoobz]

i have no idea what the fuck is going on seem like a stupid twist

 

[Grod]

Please note Seiichi did not open his mouth the entire sequence, and that his mother is also emotionally unstable, thus her narrative should be considered carefully.
Seiichi most likely did not DIRECTLY have any influence on the event itself, as it was his mother's delusions that made her convinced that pushing Shigeru was what Seiichi wanted.


Looking up butterflies in Japanese symbolism is particularly interesting:
[ul]"Symbol of womanhood and successful marriage" (rather ironic)
Represents "Cycle of life and death"
"Associated with challenging mystery or with problems leading to madness, so that following a butterfly may result in dispelling overwhelming doubts"[/ul]
The last one is most applicable to this scene, fluttering unsettling madness that covers ma's vision, constantly hanging around (really beautifully illustrated in this chapter too). Ma's insecurities of being a failure as a mother, a wife, as a woman has mentally deteriorated her mind and warped everything she sees. The way she sees the two children is not flattering. The way she sees herself is also old and tired and beyond the age she should be.


There's a lot of discussion on who the blame should be pushed on, and it's probably a difficult one to answer (as long as we are talking about this morally rather than legally). Please get therapy, both of you.


I'm not too sure how I feel about it in relation to this series as a whole (especially how it connects to the emotional abuse of Seiichi), but as a stand-alone chapter, I loved it. The perspective it brings onto the table is an absolute feast to think about, the way anxieties and paranoia is portrayed is sexy as hell, and gives this series so much re-read potential. Author, I am entrusting you with my life when I say I don't think he's just making twists for no reason.

edit: i fucked up, seiichi does "speak" but there's too many things pointing to that not being literal

 

[jmas081391]

To make it simple, MC's mom is crazy and he's getting crazy as well now. Runs in the blood yo!

 

[rear]

what

 

[djamel90]

@OSIDJ yea something like that. Author did narrate how sei interact with other people in previous chapters and he wasn't shown as creepy as this chapter or even hint. that's why I think author failed to express it IF he wants to make him bad guy

 

[codetaku]

What... so she actually is the one that pushed him?

Nothing makes sense.

 

[flufflover36]

So the mom is schizophrenic or has some form of psychotic disorder? It would explain some of her behavior but not others.

 

[onthedot]

I guess we should wait for a few more chapters before we get the actual story

 

[animekek69]

is the author mind breaking us?

 

[Shareazu]

I don't really think Sei is going to end up being the villain. This is most likely just him feeling guilty over it. Doesn't make much sense otherwise, considering that we already saw how he interacted with others... unless all of that was just his imagination, but that would make this series' quality sink pretty hard.

 

[miles5k]

i hope he's geekn

 

[marksman12]

so she's so messed up in the head that she imagined it was seiichi who told her to push shige off the cliff?

yeah, that makes sense. hopefully sei won't fall for her lies tho

 

[Albmi]

Shigeo tripping so hard and thinking he's the problem. Stop trying to fool us so hard author-san!😂

 

[ilovemymom]

what did mangaka mean by this

 

[haggarshimura]

Crazy stuff.... she was probably trying to be “fair” with Seichi when she pushed Shigeru.

 

[Ubhelbr]

I don't believe in gaslighting theory, I think this is the author's (arguably not the best) way of showing mother's delusion. It's very much like the ending of Aku no Hana but instead of showing us the way she sees the world without context, he wrapped it in Seiichi's hallucination which is kinda misleading

 

[Dennis-aka-Denji]

@ilovemymom he was trying to show us how he's incapable of using subtlety in his writing. overrated hack

 

[cabbie]

It seems pretty obvious to me that this whole sequence isn’t supposed to be taken as literal, I am a little confused as to why people are taking it as literal. Whether this is Sei having delusions, hallucinations, or gaslighting himself, it doesn’t seem like these events are actually happening. Everything is too surreal to be taken as events literally happening.