Boy's Abyss - Vol. 17 Ch. 161 - Muddled

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It's weird. I'm aware of all the manipulation and deception Yuko has done to those around her, but I feel no ill will nor hatred for her. She seems out of the picture already, so just let her drift off into a dreamy delusion of what could have been.
I would chalk that up as the masterful writing of the author. It is very difficult to craft a character who has been depicted as both the victim and instigator to so much maliciousness as she has been depicted in this story. The keen part is that this perception gets flopped around multiple times throughout the manga, making you question whether you should hate her for what she's done, or offer sympathy for her experiences. I'm on both sides of the fence myself regarding her, so i know exactly how you feel.
 
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I would chalk that up as the masterful writing of the author. It is very difficult to craft a character who has been depicted as both the victim and instigator to so much maliciousness as she has been depicted in this story. The keen part is that this perception gets flopped around multiple times throughout the manga, making you question whether you should hate her for what she's done, or offer sympathy for her experiences. I'm on both sides of the fence myself regarding her, so i know exactly how you feel.
Someone says it! It's why I love shows like Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, all of the main characters are morally gray (At least at first) Actually, Boy's Abyss reminds me of those. (especially BCS)
 
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Someone says it! It's why I love shows like Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, all of the main characters are morally gray (At least at first) Actually, Boy's Abyss reminds me of those. (especially BCS)

Same. All morally grey characters and stories are the best. It's why I was so drawn to shounen abyss. It makes them feel more "human"
 
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i know there was a live action too, wonder how much of it that'd cover, even for a 'fucked up' series idk how many jdramas actually have 'terrible' endings/would end up with a successful double suicide
 
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man i know yuko is fucked up her story is so fucking sad, and if it were to end with her son killing her it would be horrible.

Also i know reiji has every right to feel that way but for him to move on he needs to somehow make peace with his mom. If she dies before he does, she'll haunt him forever and don't think him and nagi could find a happy ending.
 
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LETS GOOO

All joking aside, as nice as it is to see Reiji show some emotion for the first time in a while, I'm not sure it would've been possible to have worse timing. Homie you're in a hospital ... But totally agree with everyone else here. While I think most of the cast is very good/exemplifies this in some way just because of the sort of story Boy's Abyss is, Yuko in particular feels like some sort of achievement of Minenami's tastes and writing tendencies, as a fan of hers. It's so easy to understand the violence she was born into, the way she was molded by it, the way she comes to propagate it... Can we mourn the person that she used to be while resenting the person that she became? And with her in the state she's in now, where on those axes should we be falling?

To say nothing of what must be going on in Reiji's head now. Or how he'll feel once this is over. I think someone on the subreddit (or maybe it was here? maybe I made it up? I don't remember) called her "a soap opera version of the mom from Chi no Wadachi (If you haven't read it and like the relationship between Yuko and Reiji here you should try it! It's a much quieter story than this but I think their interests are similar enough that someone who likes one might like the other)" and I thought that was both apt and a little funny but now that we're here I'm thinking a lot about
Seiko in the latter chapters, once Seichi meets her again and realizes her mind is mostly gone. What catharsis can you find in lashing out at a shadow? Is it worth it?

It's far from the same, I think - Yuko hasn't actually been in the hospital that long and the levels of lucidity are entirely different, but it's got me turning that over a bit. I think she might actually be my favorite character here? Weird thought.

Also-also while I'm still in the camp that it doesn't actually matter who Reiji's dad is (vs the fact that Yuko will just say whatever in order to alienate him from people and isolate him so she can monopolize him, which I think is the more important thing to glean from that arc), it's nice seeing Nozoe's figure overlapping his like that. Whether they're biologically related or not, I think there's an argument to be made for Esemori as being his father on an emotional level - not to Reiji himself necessarily, but to Yuko. Like, you know how in MGS Strangelove considered Otacon to be her child with The Boss, for her to pass on The Boss's memes and ideologies to like they were physical genes, more than he was a child she literally created with Huey? Something like that.
 
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Imagine if the manga ends with Reiji killing her and going to jail while the sensei kills Nagi and gets away with it 💀
 

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