Blood On The Tracks
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| Blood on the Tracks / © 2017, Shūzō Oshimi / Shogakukan |
A lot of Oshimi’s stories are populated by adults trapped in dilapidated marriages, who don’t, can’t, or won’t fulfill their parental duties. Blood On The Tracks takes this aspect and develops it to its full potential. When you read his stories back-to-back, it’s easy to conclude that the author has been tiptoeing around this issue for years, but now he’ll be able to explore it. So, what is this story about?
Seiichi Osabe, born on March 19th, 1981 (there’s that year again), only son of Ichiro and Seiko, lives with his parents in Kiryū, in the Gunma Prefecture. On July 27th, 1994, a hot summer day, they go hiking with their extended family, and Seiichi witnesses his mother doing an unspeakable act, changing the family dynamic forever. From this moment on, we see the boy’s relationship with his mother unfolding right in front of our eyes, as Oshimi unravels the harshest nightmare any human being can experience. Panel after panel, he pokes around at a festering wound most people would prefer to ignore, but that no reader can look away from.
Over the years, many authors have tackled difficult subjects: Mark Twain put the finger in the wound of slavery in America, right after the Civil War; George Orwell lifted the veil of how terrifying a totalitarian regime could be; William Golding enlightened us on the darkness that lurks inside even the most innocent child. All of these authors have taken on the difficult mission of exposing these harsh truths to their readers. Shūzō Oshimi follows in their footsteps. But, unlike slavery or totalitarianism, he decided to tackle the ultimate universal nightmare (scarier than sharks, serpents, or eldritch abominations) – a toxic mother. He uses elements of horror to subvert one of our dearest universal truths: a mother’s unconditional love. That horror comes through in the narrative, but mostly in the way he draws the characters and their environment.
What's in a Name?
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| From the Manben documentary |
The title of the manga comes from Bob Dylan’s famous 1975 album. Being a fan, the author thought long and hard whether or not he should name his manga after a Bob Dylan album, but he ended up going ahead with the reference, because, as he says in the documentary: “that sense of agony from the album, the feeling of suffering it was because I had that impression of the album as well”.
Paneling and Techniques
Shūzō Oshimi is an incredibly good draftsman, and a very speedy one. He draws as fast as his thoughts. Blood On The Tracks is all drawn by hand, and he uses different types of pens (Dip pen, Fineliner and Brush pen) and corrective fluid for the highlights in the eyes.
There is an eerie sense of claustrophobia throughout the work, due to the author’s lack of focus on the backgrounds, which emphasizes the characters’ moods and actions. That’s not to say he’s incapable of drawing evocative backgrounds, or using them to enhance his characters’ moods in an emphatic way. He’s just more focused on the characters’ body language and facial expressions. It’s solely due to Oshimi’s ingenious draftsmanship, as he makes this the basis of the horror. By keeping the readers’ attention on the characters, he effectively makes every scene much more intimate.
We are placed in the middle of the action, and are made accomplices of every horrific event. One device that he uses to strengthen this effect is the “breaking of the fourth wall” to shatter the fictional artifice of the paper. The characters look directly into our eyes, and we become a part of their struggles, their secrets, their fears, and their desires. That’s the most effective way to galvanize the readers’ emotions. On the same page, we become both the frightened child and the cunning mother. It increases our terror of Seiko, as well as our feelings of helplessness towards Seiichi, whom we cannot save.
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| Staring at the readers |
The author often plays with the lighting in a scene. Like a great cinematographer, he plays with the lighting and with the characters by using high density hatching to enhance the dramatic tension. This technique usually represents moments where the characters are experiencing grade emotional turmoil, are putting on a façade, keeping a secret, or telling a lie. When they are being honest and open, the technique isn't used.
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| Heavy cross-hatching |
He uses erratic, squiggly lines whenever Seiichi is having moments of sheer despair. The sweating, shaking, and blurred vision illustrate a panic attack. It’s a brilliant visual display of how he feels like he’s losing his grip on reality as his world is disintegrating all around him.
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| Sheer panic |
There is a moment where Seiichi drags himself out of school after a deep, personal loss. The boy wanders through the town as it writhes in agony, as if it’s melting in the flames of hell. Of course, Seiichi is the one going through the emotional turmoil, because he knows he lost the only person who could help him escape the torment he’s walking back to. If this panel was described in a novel, this would be a figure of speech called transferred epithet. The intense use of blacks and whites is reminiscent of post-impressionist Vincent van Gogh.
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| How a transferred epithet looks drawn |
Another technique he uses is how he draws both his protagonist and the surrounding characters when he is deeply immersed in his own thoughts. Everything around him becomes so bright, almost invisible, creating this absolute disorienting effect on the audience.
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| Immersed in his thoughts |
This manga has very little dialogue, (and the scattered speech balloons depict a very simple way of speaking) so we really see the world through this child’s eyes, and are left to interpret his feelings from the visual clues. All the horror in the story stems from how disturbing and macabre Seiichi’s life is, as he slowly realizes that everything he knew to be true turned out to be a lie. The lack of narration makes every emotion painfully raw. If Seiichi were to be the narrator, he wouldn’t be a very loquacious one, I’m afraid, because he simply isn’t capable of verbalizing his experience in any satisfying manner. It’s much more effective to transmit his emotions by putting the audience in his shoes.
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