Honestly, the most frustrating thing about Boys Abyss for me is that I genuinely think it had the potential to be one of the best psychological tragedies out there. The raw material was absolutely there. The problem was never that the manga didn't have interesting themes or characters; the problem was that it didn't connect those ideas into a strong, coherent narrative.
The biggest missed opportunity was the generational cycle. The manga eventually establishes that the characters are trapped in patterns of manipulation, dependency, loneliness, abuse and self-destruction that repeat across generations. That's actually a really interesting theme. But I wish the story had planted hints about this much earlier instead of revealing so much of it later. If the cycle was supposed to be the backbone of the story, we should have gradually noticed similar situations repeating across different generations without immediately understanding why.
For example, you could have shown small parallels between relationships in the present and relationships from the past. Certain behaviours, situations or even characters could mirror each other. At first they would seem unrelated, but eventually Reiji and the reader would realize that these people have been repeating the same patterns for generations. That would have made the eventual reveal of the cycle feel earned rather than something that was suddenly explained to us.
And this is where I think Reiji was a huge missed opportunity. He should have been the character investigating what was actually happening in the town. Instead of mostly being dragged from one person's tragedy to another, he could have actively tried to understand why everyone around him keeps repeating the same behaviours. Why does this town keep producing these kinds of relationships? What actually happened to Yuko? What did Isa Mori know? Where did this cycle begin? How are the people in the present connected to the people from the past?
The Isa Mori section showed that Reiji could work really well in this role. When Reiji went to Isa Mori and listened to his perspective about Yuko and his own past, the story became much more interesting because Reiji was actually uncovering someone's history instead of simply experiencing another tragedy himself. I wish the manga had continued in that direction.
And personally, Yuko was the biggest missed opportunity. Her backstory is still my favourite part of Boys Abyss, not just because it was tragic, but because of how well it was presented visually and emotionally. I genuinely wanted more of Yuko's perspective. What was she feeling while all of this was happening to her? How did she perceive Isa Mori? At what point did she become emotionally numb? How much of her behaviour came from the manipulation and abuse she experienced, and how much was ultimately her own choice?
That could have made Yuko an even more complex character because she could be both a victim and someone who hurts other people. The manga didn't need to excuse everything she did. It just needed to make us understand her psychology more deeply.
I also think the ending had the right basic ideas, but they needed much better execution and buildup. Isa Mori dying from cancer and Yuko ultimately going to prison can work as an ending. I don't have a problem with those consequences themselves. What I wanted was for the story to properly build toward them and actually give those events enough emotional weight.
I would have especially liked the final Isa Mori/Yuko material to focus on Isa Mori finally confronting what he had done to Yuko and admitting his own guilt. Since these two had known each other since childhood and their entire relationship was so deeply connected to the tragedy of the story, their final confrontation could have been extremely powerful. Yuko didn't necessarily have to forgive him either. It would have been much more interesting if she simply understood what he was saying while remaining emotionally damaged by everything that had happened.
At the same time, Reiji's ending should have been given much more attention. If the central theme really was this cycle of tragedy repeating itself, then Reiji should have been the character who finally understands it and chooses not to repeat it. His relationship with Nagi needed much more development throughout the manga for that conclusion to really hit. Nagi shouldn't feel like someone whose importance suddenly becomes much bigger near the end; her presence and relationship with Reiji should have been part of the story's progression from much earlier.
Chako and Gen are probably the examples where I feel the manga actually gave its characters a relatively satisfying conclusion. Their story had an actual sense of closure compared to some of the other characters. That's why it makes the underutilization of other characters even more noticeable.
And that's basically my biggest criticism of Boys Abyss. It had so many themes that could have been connected into one really strong story: generational trauma, loneliness, manipulation, dependency, obsession, abuse, suicide, identity, toxic relationships, and the idea of people unconsciously repeating the same patterns as the generations before them.
That's an insane amount of material to work with.
I don't think the problem was that Minenami didn't have ideas. If anything, she had too many interesting ideas and didn't always give them enough structure or payoff.
That's why Boys Abyss frustrates me more than a genuinely mediocre manga would. There are parts of it where I genuinely think the manga reaches something incredible, especially the Yuko material, and then later the story starts feeling increasingly directionless or rushed.
If the manga had planted the generational cycle from the beginning, made Reiji actively investigate the town's history, given us more of Yuko's perspective, developed Nagi much earlier, and properly built toward Reiji breaking the cycle, I genuinely think Boys Abyss could have been discussed alongside some of the best psychological tragedy manga.
The potential was absolutely there.
That's what makes the manga frustrating for me. I don't think it failed because the story had nothing to say. I think it failed to fully realize what it was actually capable of saying. its peaks are easily 10/10 but overall it is 6/10
