#no longer human is adapted from a novel of the same name by osamu dazai

[raeiyyn]

your top 5 kdramas?

my liberation notes

my mister

lost/ no longer human

alchemy of soul

hospital playlist

one spring night

[grandhotelabyss]

A few weeks after the Kafka vogue, Andrew Martin considers the youth appeal of Osamu Dazai, as filtered through Soundcloud rappers and TikTokkers (repeat after me: "ironic metaphysical quietism"):

To someone with a great deal of interest in postwar Japanese literature and almost no working knowledge of TikTok, anime or manga (surely I’m not the only one), this combination of elements is baffling, if not alarming. What would it mean to unabashedly identify with a novel that turns on the Hobbesian epiphany that society “is the struggle between one individual and another, a then-and-there struggle, in which the immediate triumph is everything”? Why is Dazai, continually in print but long overshadowed in the United States by his philosophical and literary inheritor Yukio Mishima, now prominently featured on display tables at Barnes & Noble and prompting new translations and reissues of his 75-year-old back catalog from New Directions, the venerable independent publisher not exactly known for viral hits?

As a dilettante-generalist, I know equal amounts about postwar Japanese literature, TikTok, anime, and manga—more than the average person off the street but less than the expert or otaku. I'll pass on Bungo Stray Dogs for now; it sounds pretty distant from my interests, though "Kafka Asagiri" is a good name.

I was more or less ordered to read No Longer Human in 2019 by my Japanophiliac art students. One of them ruminated sagely, albeit with a bit too much east-west narrative essentialism of the kind we just saw Naomi Kanakia debunking, on the difference between a culture that prescribes No Longer Human and one that prescribes The Great Gatsby as a schoolbook. I liked No Longer Human, but I can also understand why Mishima overshadows Dazai. Mishima seems a superior novelist to Dazai in something like the same way Dostoevsky is superior to Camus: the former writers have more of the world in their books than the latter. This may render the nihilism impure, but then if your nihilism were pure, you wouldn't write a book in the first place.

Anyway, if any TikTokkers are out there, you may enjoy my essay on Dazai's No Longer Human—

Here we see the distance between Dazai’s fiction and contemporary narratives of the superfluous man, such as Todd Phillips’s Joker, whose delusional hero might have been saved by a good therapist and the love of Zazie Beetz, and who in any case manages in his mental illness to lead, however inadvertently, a legitimate social rebellion. On the absolutist terms offered by No Longer Human, this naturalistic faith in secular salvation, whether through psychology, love, or politics (or, for that matter, money and social status), is all nonsense.

—and my essay on the revered horror mangaka Junji Ito's graphic novel adaptation, into which I also folded a few skeptical thoughts on that overrated film Come and See:

Ito is too literal a visualist of Dazai’s verbal vision—almost as literal as a camera, the way the best comics and films never are. Dazai’s novel gave me more reason to ruminate than did Ito’s manga; likewise, Jerzy Kosinski’s novel The Painted Bird, for all its notorious problems, offers us all the horrors and then some—and all the horrified questions—of Come and See, with much more besides, including a philosophy of individuation that we experience by growing with the protagonist. This happens in the inner theater of the mind, where we feel and think it at once and as the same thing; but the film remains always outside, a beckoning or threatening spectacle that never becomes one’s own, a permanent dissociation of sensibility.

Do you think, in the age of "ironic metaphysical quietism," we can meme The Painted Bird into a TikTok sensation next? It could be said to combine Kafka and Dazai, though it may be too pornographic for our gnostic straight-edge puriteens.

[lorewhoresam]

Made a little list in my journal to track this:

Thought this would be a great way to prep a reading list for once (instead of ignoring my tbr and reading everything but those books), so here's my reading list for next year:

Literary Fiction: James by Percival Everett Since I have to read Huck Finn for my degree next semester I thought it'd be fun to read this retelling from Jim's point of view after. (Coincidentally also good for my yearly goal of reading all the Booker shortlisteds that I never manage)

Short Story Collection: Make Something Up: Stories You Can't Unread by Chuck Palahniuk I've been wanting to read more horror, and what could be better than a collection described as "disgusting and all around offensive."

Sequel: Less Is Lost by Andrew Sean Greer I loved Less' balance of humour and emotion so much, it's the sort of queer book that I think is few and far between, so I'm excited to finally get around to its sequel.

Childhood Favourite: Kinderen van Moeder Aarde by Thea Beckman There's no English translation of these books, but if you speak Dutch or German I can't recommend them enough. The Thule Trilogy is about the conflict between a Utopian trading society and a militaristic nation and it's THE best children's series ever, I love it so much. (Beckman's whole oeuvre is phenomenal, but these are her best imo)

20th Century Speculative Fiction: Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler An author who needs no introduction. She's THE speculative fiction writer who else was I going to read.

Fantasy: Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice I've been meaning to get around to this for quite a while, and I don't love high fantasy generally, so I thought this fit the prompt well enough.

Published before 1950: You Can't Go Home Again by Thomas Wolfe What it says on the tin. A novel about rediscovering your your home, the places you grew up in, how they change you, and how you change without them. Published in 1940, a real tome at a whopping 711 pages.

Indie Publisher: De Havermelkelite by Jonas Hooyman (Translation of title: The Oatmilk Elite) Published by Dutch independent publisher Das Mag, who started out in magazines, and since I myself run a magazine I wanted to support them. The book is a journalism piece about yuppies and gentrification in Amsterdam post-2008 financial crisis.

Manga: No Longer Human by Junji Ito An adaptation of Osamu Dazai's novel of the same name, about a man who constantly puts up a facade towards the outside world because he cannot connect to himself or other people.

Animal cover: Ghostroots by 'Pemi Aguda A short story collection set in Lagos, Nigeria that examines the family unit, and how we are haunted by it. Themes right up my alley.

Set in a country I've never visited: Little Rot by Akwaeke Emezi Also set in Nigeria, this is a book about sex, corruption, and lies. Five people trying to navigate the dangerous underground of a city, what they'll do for, and to, each other.

Science Fiction: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick I don't know anything about Blade Runner, which is embarrassing. Remediating that this year.

2025 Debut: The Once and Future Me by Melissa Pace A psychological thriller about a woman who gets locked up in a psych ward when she travels back in time to 1950s America, and needs to find a way to get back to the future. This is the only one that wasn't already on my tbr, but oh well.

Memoir: Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell Part memoir, part travelogue, and all throughout an examination of poverty in two of the biggest metropolitan cities in the world.

Read a zine + make a zine: The Cellar Door Is an Open Throat by @tallahasseemp3 A zine about haunted houses. I've been toying with the idea of making a little herbarium and looking for poems to match them with for a while so I might do that.

Essay Collection: Film Form: Essays in Film Theory by Sergei Eisenstein I've had this collection on my shelves for a while and I love the montage movement, so this is a perfect occasion to read it.

2024 award winner: Brotherless Night by V.V. Ganeshananthan Winner of the Woman's Prize. A family saga about the Sri Lankan civil war.

Non-fiction: Butch Is a Noun by S. Bear Bergman I've been meaning to read more queer theory, and this has been on my tbr for years, so I'm happy to finally be getting around to it.

Social justice & activism: Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History by Sidney W. Mintz A look at colonialism and neo-colonialism connected to the sugar trade throughout history, and the contemporary colonial structures in place that support sugar as a commodity.

Romance: The Queer Principles of Kit Webb by Cat Sebastian Queer romcom in a historical setting.

Read and make a recipe: I will be trying to perfect my process for Bloch's croissants this year. (recipe published by Stefan Elias)

Horror: Woman, Eating by Claire Kalda More vampires! A deeply symbolic novel about a woman who must surpress her hunger, her violent urges.

Published in the aughts: After Dark by Haruki Murakami Sadly I didn't have any books on my tbr that embodied the spirit the aughts, but I've been meaning to get into Murakami for years, so this'll have to do.

Historical Fiction: Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy I love westerns, I love violence, I love genre subversion, SIGN ME UP.

Bookseller/Librarian Recommendation: Juno Loves Legs by Karl Geary The owner of my favourite bookshop said this was his favourite book to come out last year, and that he cried while reading it. Immediately sold I love sobbing. A coming of age novel about two working class Dublin teens.

2025 book bingo time 📚

want a completely arbitrary set of reading goals for 2025? want to try something new in your literary diet but don't know where to start? just like a challenge for the sake of a challenge? just love a good game of bingo?

boy do I have something for you!

for anyone planning to participate, please know that I LOVE attention and talking about books, so I would be STOKED to be tagged on any and all updates about what you're reading or planning to read. I'm so, so excited to see all the different ways these prompts get filled, especially if and when they bring people away from the kinds of things they normally read. not to mention snag some new reading recs myself, hopefully!

and of course, I want to know whenever somebody gets a bingo - and ESPECIALLY if somebody fills the whole board! I don't have any prizes for you, but I can offer a sense of accomplishment :)

note that this is designed to be played as 1 book = 1 space, so even if you read, say, a fantasy graphic novel published in 1923 from an indie publisher that has a bat on the cover, you'd only cross off one space. I'm not a cop and I'm not in charge of what you read, so if it sparks more joy to check off multiple spaces per book then go nuts, but I am throwing that disclaimer out there.

wondering what some of these spaces mean? seeking a couple recommendations to get you started? no idea what a zine even is, let alone how to make one? worry not! I have a guide to all 25 prompts, including recommendations + an example of what I'll be reading throughout the year to fulfill each space. read on beneath the cut!

Literary Fiction: I find that a lot of people are reluctant to check out literary fiction, as it’s often written off as not being about anything but adultery and divorce. If this is you, I implore you to take a chance, acknowledge that adultery and divorce are compelling sometimes, and also remember that lit fic has a lot more to offer than that. At Writer’s Digest, Michael Woodson describes literary fiction as “less of a genre than a category,” which “focuses on style, character, and theme over plot.” My recommendations include Raven Leilani’s Luster, Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, and Melissa Broder’s Milk Fed. 

I’ll be reading: Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar

2. Short Story Collection: You know, a bunch of short stories together in one book? It doesn’t get much more self-explanatory than that. Could be a collection of stories by a single author or an anthology—it’s up to you! I recommend checking out Mariana Enríquez’s The Dangers of Smoking in Bed (translated by Megan McDowell), Nalo Hopkinson’s Falling in Love With Hominids, and Kim Fu’s Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century. 

I’ll be reading: Your Utopia by Bora Chung and translated by Anton Hur 

3. A Sequel: It could be one that you’ve been meaning to get around to, one that’s not releasing in 2025, or the sequel to something you read to cross off another space on this very bingo sheet!

I’ll be reading: Heavenly Tyrant by Xiran Jay Zhao, sequel to 2021’s Iron Widow 

4. Childhood Favorite: Go back and read a book you loved as a child, tween, or teen! There’s no wrong answer here; anything from a YA novel to a picture book would be just lovely, and I can’t wait to see what people pick for this option! I’m not sure which of my old favorites I’ll be revisiting yet—should I go for the warm and fuzzy Casson Family series, or straight towards the mindfucky sci-fi of Interstellar Piggy? Or maybe I’ll go see how Artemis Fowl holds up...

5. 20th Century Speculative Fiction: For those not familiar with the term, speculative fiction can encapsulate science fiction, fantasy, and anything else that falls into the unreal. You’re spoiled for iconic choices here: the 20th century gave us Le Guin’s Left Hand of Darkness, Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale, Butler’s Parable of the Sower and Kindred, L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time, the beginning of Pratchett’s Discworld series, Diana Wynne Jones’ Howls’ Moving Castle, and countless others.

I’ll be reading: Dawn by Octavia E. Butler, love of my literary life 💜

6. Fantasy: Fantasy comes in a thousand different shades, from contemporary urban wizards with day jobs at the office to high fantasy spellslingers chasing dragons away from castles. Some examples I’ve adored are N.K. Jemisin’s The Killing Moon, C.L. Polk’s Witchmark, Fonda Lee’s Jade City, and Nghi Vo’s Empress of Salt and Fortune.

I’ll be reading: The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty  

7. Published Before 1950: This one could not be more straightforward if I tried. You have all of human history (or at least, all the parts that have surviving literature), just not the last 75 years. Dig deep! 

I’ll be reading: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, published in 1938 

8. Independent Publisher: Did you guys know that just five publishing companies (Penguin Random House, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan Publishers, Simon & Schuster, and Hachette Book Group) are responsible for 80% of books published in the US each year, and 25% of books globally? Break away from the big five and see what some small presses are putting out! If you need some ideas about where to start, check out this list of nearly 300 independent publishers with notes on what kind of books they put out!

I’ll be reading: Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ and translated by Lin King, from Graywolf Press

9. Graphic Novel/Comic Book/Manga: Despite my personal obsession with Batman, the world of comic books is sooo much wider than Gotham City—or anything else that DC and Marvel have to offer. If superheroes aren’t your speed, check out the Southern gothic of Carmen Maria Machado and Dani Strips’ comic The Low, Low Woods, splash around in Kat Leyh’s graphic novel Thirsty Mermaids, or stop waiting for a new season of Dungeon Meshi and go read Ryoko Kui’s manga, translated to English by Taylor Engel. 

I’ll be reading: The Fade, by Aabria Iyengar and Mari Costa

10. Animal on the Cover: Yes, yes, don’t judge a book by its cover—but do go find one with a critter on the cover and give it a read! Absolutely no other requirements here, get silly with it.

I’ll be reading: Shark Heart by Emily Habeck

11. Set in a Country You Have Never Visited: Fiction or nonfiction, doesn’t matter so long as it gives you a little glimpse of a country you’ve never visited in real life. If you’ve somehow visited every country currently recognized in the world, then I guess you get to go read something set in space.

I’ll be reading: A Magical Girl Retires by Park Seolyeon and Kim Sanho, translated by Anton Hur 

12. Science Fiction: A genre just as diverse as fantasy, with a little something for everybody! I recommend Becky Chambers’ Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet for those who want to kiss an alien in the stars and Jessamine Chan’s The School for Good Mothers for those who want a surveillance state dystopia that hits much closer to home.  

I’ll be reading: Womb City by Tlotlo Tsamaase

13. 2025 Debut Author: Read a book by someone who’s releasing their first book in 2025. Fic or nonfic, any genre, no further requirements. Not quite a free space, but pretty close!

I’ll be reading: Liquid: A Love Story by Mariam Rahmani, coming out March 11

14. Memoir: Per Wikipedia, a memoir is “any nonfiction narrative writing based on the author’s personal memories.” Some are funny, some are heartbreaking, some are both! I recommend Carman Maria Machado’s In the Dream House and Roxane Gay’s Hunger, because I tend to lean heartbreaking! 

I’ll be reading: Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner. Again, I like heartbreaking!

15. Read a Zine, Make a Zine: Not familiar with zines? No problem! Check out some of these digital archives for inspiration, and then craft your own zine with this simple guide (or do it your own way, I’m not in charge of you). 

Internet Archives: https://archive.org/details/zines

Gay Zine Archive Project: https://gittings.qzap.org/ 

POC Zine Project: https://poczineproject.tumblr.com/ 

Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/collections/zine-web-archive/ 

16. Essay Collection: Like a short story collection, but it’s nonfiction now. Some of my favorites include Samantha Irby’s We Are Never Meeting in Real Life, Elaine Castillo’s How to Read Now, Aimee Nezhukhumatathil’s World of Wonders, and Cathy Park Hong’s Minor Feelings.

I’ll be reading: A Little Devil in America: In Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib 

17. 2024 Award Winner: What award? Any award you like! And boy, there are tons to pick from. Any book that won any award in the year 2024 is free game. If you need some places to start looking, check out some of these:

Lambda Literary Awards, for excellence in LGBT literature: https://lambdaliterary.org/awards__trashed/2024-winners/ 

The Alex Awards, for adult books with crossover appeal for teen readers: https://www.ala.org/yalsa/alex-awards 

Ignyte Awards, celebrating diversity in speculative fiction: https://ignyteawards.fiyahlitmag.com/2024-results/  

Women's Prize for Fiction (self explanatory) https://womensprize.com/prizes/womens-prize-for-fiction/

Others: https://www.bookbrowse.com/awards/ 

I’ll be reading: Biography of X by Catherine Lacey, winner of the 2024 Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction

18. Nonfiction: Learn Something New: I know very little about archaeology, anthropology, or any other fields that involve studying ancient cities, but Annalee Newitz’s Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age was some of the most fun I had with nonfiction in 2024, because every page brought a brand new discovery. For 2025, find a nonfiction book about a topic you don’t know ANYTHING about, and learn something new!

I’ll be reading: Cooling the Tropics: Ice, Indigeneity, and Hawaiian Refreshment by Hi’ilei Julia Kawehipuaakahaopulani Hobart

19. Social Justice & Activism: Read a book about a social issue, the history of an activist movement, or brush up on a guiding philosophy or ideology. Arm yourself with knowledge, besties, because I have a feeling we’re going to need it! if you need a good place to start, why not try Angela Davis' Race, Women & Class, Mariame Kaba's We Do This 'Til We Free Us, or Molly Smith and Juno Mac's Revolting Prostitutes?

I’ll be reading: White Feminism: From Suffragettes to Influencers and Who They Leave Behind by Koa Beck

20. Romance Novel: Listen to me. Fucking listen to me. I mean a ROMANCE. NOVEL. Not a novel that incidentally has a romance in it. Romance novel, motherfucker. Go check out the romance section and have some whimsy as two people fall in love through the most contrived series of events ever conceived. If you really need a romance that makes you feel smart (that’s still sexy and messy as hell), try Akwaeke Emezi’s You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty.

I’ll be reading: Go Luck Yourself by Sara Raasche  

21. Read and Make a Recipe: Could be a cookbook, could be a recipe you yoinked from the New York Times, could be something your grandparents lovingly wrote down by hand. Could be as complex or as simple as you like, just make something tasty! Some cookbooks I’ve enjoyed are Sohla El-Waylly’s Start Here, Dan Pashman’s Mission Impastable, and John Wang and Storm Garner’s The World Eats Here.

22. Horror: Slashers, zombies, haunted houses, creeping paranoia, you name it! It’s time to get spooky and scary with all kinds of things going bump in the night. Maybe this is the year to finally keep up with Dracula Daily? Not for me, I'm not doing that, but you could!

I’ll be reading: I Was A Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones

23. Published in the Aughts: A throwback, but not too far back. Read something published between 2000 and 2009. Maybe it’s time to finally get into Twilight? (For legal reasons, that’s a joke.)

I’ll be reading: The Sluts by Dennis Cooper, published in 2004

24. Historical Fiction: You know, fiction that takes place in a bygone era! Please remember, this isn’t just about reading a book that’s old; we have a separate prompt for that! This is about reading something that takes place in the past relative to the time it was written. Pride and Prejudice is historical to us, but was contemporary when Austen wrote it. Think of Brit Bennett's The Vanishing Half, Markus Zusak's The Book Thief, or history + a bit of fantasy in book's like R.F. Kuang's Babel.

I’ll be reading: The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon

Bookseller or Librarian Recommendation: This one is fun, and something I always like to do when I’m travelling and visiting a new bookstore. Ask a bookseller or librarian to recommend something they’ve liked, and check it out! If going in person isn’t feasible, many bookstores and libraries have staff picks on their websites, and the Indie Next List is a monthly list of independent booksellers’ favorite new releases. 

I’ll be reading: The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse by Louise Erdrich, which I bought at Erdrich’s bookstore, Birchbark Books, this summer :)

lastly: tagging people who asked to be tagged to make sure they didn't miss this! @thebisexualwreckoning @perfunctoryperfusions @reallyinkyhands come get your bingo sheet!

[chuuae]

##𝐃𝐀𝐙𝐀𝐈 , a character analysis involving no longer human and the setting sun.

WARNING !! this analysis will contain spoilers for the bungou stray dogs manga as well as the novels no longer human and the setting sun. it will also discuss heavy topics such as suicide, depression, and drug/alcohol usage and addiction. please do not read if you feel uncomfortable with any of these themes.

DISCLAIMER !! this is not for the purpose of romanticising, shaming, or otherwise glamourising mental illnesses. please take this from someone who also suffers from mental illness. i am merely attempting to analyse.

note. i worked pretty hard on this, and i'm very happy with it. please like or reblog if you can, i would greatly appreciate it. please, share your thoughts on dazai as well !!

The real-life Dazai Osamu [太宰 治] was born on the 19th of June in 1909, and committed suicide 39 years later, around a week before his birthday. He was a Japanese author who based his philosophical and deeply emotional books off his own life.

He has been adapted by Asagiri Kafka in the animanga Bungou Stray Dogs into a character of the same name, an ex-mafia detective who displays symptoms of depression and suicidal tendencies and may be described as quite impudent and a hopeless flirt.

I want to discuss the similarities cast between both the character and author Dazai Osamu, as well as the protagonists of the novels No Longer Human [Oba Yozo] and The Setting Sun [Kazuko].

The most prominent and also most serious similarity cast between author and manga character is impactful mental illness. The real Dazai began to suffer from depression from a young age, and was most likely also struggling with a dissociative disorder and anxiety. He became suicidal as he grew older. The source of this struggle appears to be an innate fear of humanity itself, and the fervent desire to please, stemming from fear of disappointing others or falling short of expectations.

Similarly, animanga Dazai is also suicidal, but struggled far more visibly with his mental health as a teenager than in the current arc, where he is 22 and appears to hide the chronic depression he suffered at a younger age [which does not by any means mean he is no longer depressed – he has a lot of unerasable trauma, among other struggles]. However, the origins of these illnesses are unknown, given that little is known about his past beyond the fact that he was brought into the organisation of the Port Mafia by a doctor (Mori Ougai) upon attempting to take his own life. I mostly assume that past trauma initiated his depression that led to suicidal tendencies. In the show, he mostly jokes about the topic of suicide, but the reason for this is later elaborated.

Interlude of Dazai screencaps.

No Longer Human is considered to be the second best-selling book in Japan to this day, even though it was published 73 years ago. It is semi-autobiographical, telling the tragic story of a man named Yozo who is so terrified of causing disappointment that he crafts a facade of himself for the purpose of others' entertainment and maintaining of satisfaction with him. Living as such was caused by and caused mental illness, to the point that he attempts suicide several times and suffers various addictions. He was eventually taken to a mental hospital and recovery facility and lived the rest of his day out in isolation, having survived all suicide events and died of natural causes, though still wrought with depression and filled with despair.

Yozo and manga Dazai obviously share the tumultuous teenage years that shaped them into the adults they became. I think the most significant similarity between them is the front, the facade they employ in order to block their true selves from anyone else in their life. They've both chosen 'The Joker', saying stupid things and purposefully acting up in order to make others laugh and/or garner their approval. They both have the same depression in common that impacts their lives negatively and causes them to live in fear of making any long-lasting connections. When asked why he wants to die, manga Dazai has one quote that really demonstrates the accuracy of his character – "Is there any value to this thing we call living?"

But when I read No Longer Human, especially on my second time around [I really must recommend it, it's a masterpiece of a novel, half the damn book is highlighted] I noticed a key difference between Yozo and Dazai. Yozo is a projection of who real Dazai perceives himself to be, accentuating all the flaws and fear he feels in himself. He demonstrates much more fear of human beings and also had severe alcohol and morphine addictions that drove him to poverty and ill physical health several times. And therein lies the key difference between the two – Yozo doesn't allow himself to show any positive qualities and spiralled from social anxiety all the way down to suicide and societal estrangement, whereas Dazai's manga arc developed his character in improvement upwards, and he moves from apathetic depression and serious consideration of suicide to joking around about it, as opposed to the vice versa. Alcohol is also strongly symbolic of the death of his closest friend to manga Dazai, but that's a topic to explore later.

However, the most interesting thing to be, is the character Kazuko of The Setting Sun, in opposition to the author and character of Dazai. Kazuko's story begins when she is around 30, the only daughter of a wealthy aristocratic family that has lost all their money in the downfall of Japan's traditional era after World War II and the general collapse of aristocracy in Japan. She lives with her mother and her opium-addict brother, Naoji, when he is not serving as a soldier, and falls for an older novelist friend of her brother named Uehara. After the death of her mother, and Naoji's suicide, Kazuko is enveloped in depression, and leaves Uehara to raise their child on her own at the end of the novel, having embraced a revolutionary way of life and leaving behind the last parts of her aristocratic status.

Kazuko and Dazai are, some would say, nothing alike. Kazuko has a strong determination to stay alive, that has kept her surviving beyond the death of both her parents [physical illness] and her brother [withdrawal/depressive/politically-induced suicide]. She is afraid of dying to an extent, but it is more the fact that she desires life and values the gift of it more than death. Kazuko also demonstrates a fear of humans, but she fears more not being useful or making mistakes than the total rejection or disappointment. Also, Kazuko's entire life revolved around relationships, whether familial, her past divorce, or her pining for Uehara, she hates the feeling of abandonment or people leaving her life. In contrast, though a flirt, manga Dazai doesn't put much stock into relationship commitment.

However, I tried to really involve myself in reading The Setting Sun, although No Longer Human was my favourite of the two books, and I started noticing that Kazuko and manga Dazai were actually really similar. They both came from a past of being well-off or fortunate [e.g. Dazai under the Port Mafia's protection], although that was actually more of an illusion of safety for both of them than actually being at home or protected. Kazuko was unhappy in her first marriage, and Dazai in the Port Mafia after the death of one of his closest friends, and they both free themselves from the sources of their pain – Kazuko by divorce and Dazai by escaping. They both suffered so greatly at the hand's of life's vengeance, and I think that just because she tried so hard to be happy doesn't mean that Kazuko was satisfied or actually truly happy. The same goes for the ever-joking Dazai, and it's saddening the depth to which many content-appearing characters hide their pain.

What I find to be the greatest similarity between the two is their strength. Despite having lost people they care deeply about and suffered to terrible extents, neither Kazuko nor Dazai lose themselves to despair. They were fully able to, and yet kept persevering to better themselves on an arc of improvement, even as things declined around them. Both also demonstrate an incredibly deep capacity to care for others – whether it is Dazai caring for orphans and those under his care, or Kazuko doing her best to look after everyone in her life, for two who have been through so much, they are still kind and light-hearted when they can be. Luckily, they also have important people in their lives to be themselves around, no matter how unhappy that self is [maybe I'm talking about Chuuya. Maybe.].

In conclusion, Asagiri Kafka has done a phenomenal job in creating a character that not only so strongly resembles the real-life author he is based on, but is also accurately representative of his ideals and protagonists. I anticipate the further development of Dazai's character to come.

© chuuae 2022. all works and content are intelluctual property of this blog. do not plagiarise or translate on tumblr or elsewhere.

[recentanimenews]

Junji Ito’s No Longer Human

Of all the famous works of literature to get the Classics Illustrated treatment, Osamu Dazai’s No Longer Human is an odd choice. Its protagonist is Oba Yozo, a tortured soul who never figures out how to be his authentic self in a society that places tremendous emphasis on hierarchy, self-restraint, and civility. Over the course of the novel, he seduces a string of women, gambles, binges, joins a Communist cell, attempts suicide, and succumbs to heroin addiction, all while donning the mask of “the farcical eccentric” to conceal his “melancholy” and “agitation” from the very people whose lives he ruins.

Though the novel is filled with incident, its unreliable narrator and relentless interiority make it difficult to effectively retell in a comic format, as Junji Ito’s adaptation demonstrates. Ito’s No Longer Human is largely faithful to the events of Dazai’s novel, but takes Dazai’s spare, haunting narrative and transforms it into a phantasmagoria of sex, drugs, and death. In his efforts to show us how Yozo feels, Ito leans so hard into grotesque, oddly literal imagery that the true horror of Yozo’s story is overshadowed by Ito’s artwork—a mistake, I think, as Ito’s drawings reduce the character’s existential crisis to nightmarish images, rather than help us understand what it means to be someone who exists, in Peter Selgin’s words, in a state of “complete dissociation… yet still capable of feeling.”

In Ito’s defense, it’s not hard to see what attracted him to Dazai’s text; Yozo’s narration is peppered with the kind of vivid analogies that, at first glance, seem ideally suited for a visual medium like comics. But a closer examination of the text reveals the extent to which these analogies are part of the narrator’s efforts to beguile the reader by suggesting that his mind is filled with such monstrous ideas that he cannot be expected to function like a normal person. There’s a tension between how Yozo describes his own reactions to the ordinary unpleasantness of interacting with other people, and how Yozo describes the impact of his behavior on other people—a point that Ito overlooks in choosing to flesh out some key events in the novel.

Nowhere is that more evident than in Yozo’s brief affair with Tsuneko, a destitute waitress. After hitting rock bottom financially and emotionally, Yozo persuades her to join him in a double suicide pact. Dazai’s summary of what happens is shocking in its brevity and matter-of-factness:

As I stood there hesitating, she got up and looked inside my wallet. ‘‘Is that all you have?” Her voice was innocent, but it cut me to the quick. It was painful as only the voice of the first woman I had ever loved could be painful. “Is that all?” No, even that suggested more money than I had — three copper coins don’t count as money at all. This was a humiliation more strange than any I had tasted before, a humiliation I could not live with. I suppose I had still not managed to extricate myself from the part of the rich man’s son. It was then I myself determined, this time as a reality, to kill myself.

We threw ourselves into the sea at Kamakura that night. She untied her sash, saying she had borrowed it from a friend at the cafe, and left it folded neatly on a rock. I removed my coat and put it in the same spot. We entered the water together.

She died. I was saved.

As Ito recounts this event, however, Tsuneko’s death is caused by a poison so painful to ingest that she collapses in a writhing heap, eyes bulging and tongue wagging as if she were in the throes of becoming a monster herself. Yozo’s reaction to the poison, by contrast, is to plunge into a hallucinatory state in which a parade of ghostly women mock and berate him, an artistic choice that suggests Yozo feels shame and guilt for his actions—and a reading of Dazai’s text that makes Yozo seem more deserving of sympathy than he does in Dazai’s novel:

Throughout this vignette, Yozo’s contempt for Tsuneko creeps into the narrative, even as he assures the reader that she was the first woman he truly loved. Yet Yozo’s disdain is palpable, as is evident in the way he off-handedly introduces her to the reader:

I was waiting at a sushi stall back of the Ginza for Tsuneko (that, as I recall, was her name, but the memory is too blurred for me to be sure: I am the sort of person who can forget even the name of the woman with whom he attempted suicide) to get off from work.

Only a few episodes capture the spirit of Dazai’s original novel, as when Yozo’s father gives an inept speech to a gathering of businessmen and community leaders. Ito skillfully cross-cuts between three separate conversations, allowing us to step into Yozo’s shoes as he eavesdrops on the attendees, servants, and family members, all of whom speak disparagingly about each other, and the speech. By pulling back the curtain on these conversations, Ito helps the reader appreciate the class and power differences among these groups, as well as revealing that this episode was a turning point for Yozo: the moment when he first realized that adults maintain certain masks in public that they discard in private. Though this discovery can be a painful one for children—one need only think of Holden Caulfield’s obsession with adult “phoniness”—this discovery plunges Yozo into a state of despair, as he cannot imagine how anyone reconciles their public and private selves in a truthful way.

Ito also wisely restores material from Dazai’s novel that other adaptors—most notably Usamaru Furuya—trimmed from their versions. In particular, Ito does an excellent job of exploring the dynamic between Yozo and his classmate Takeichi, the first person who sees through Yozo’s carefully orchestrated buffoonery:

Just when I had begun to relax my guard a bit, fairly confident that I had succeeded by now in concealing completely my true identity, I was stabbed in the back, quite unexpectedly. The assailant, like most people who stab in the back, bordered on being a simpleton — the puniest boy in the class, whose scrofulous face and floppy jacket with sleeves too long  for him was complemented by a total lack of proficiency in his studies and by such clumsiness in military drill and physical training that he was perpetually designated as an ‘‘onlooker.” Not surprisingly, I failed to recognize the need to be on my guard against him.

As one might guess from this passage, Yozo’s terror at being discovered is another critical juncture in the novel. “I felt as if I had seen the world before me burst in an instant into the raging flames of hell,” he reports, before embarking on a campaign to win Takeichi’s trust by “cloth[ing his] face in the gentle beguiling smile of the false Christian.” Though Ito can’t resist the temptation to draw an image of Yozo engulfed in hell fire, most of Yozo’s fear is conveyed in subtler ways: a wary glance at Takeichi, an extreme close-up of Yozo’s face, an awkwardly placed arm around Takeichi’s shoulder:

What happens next in Ito’s version of No Longer Human, however, is indicative of another problem with his adaptation: his decision to add new material. In Dazai’s novel, Takeichi simply disappears from the narrative when Yozo moves to Tokyo for college, but in Ito’s version, Yozo cruelly manipulates Takeichi into thinking that Yozo’s cousin Setchan is in love with him—a manipulation that ultimately leads to Takeichi’s humiliation and suicide. That violent death is followed by a gruesome murder, this time prompted by a love triangle involving Yozo, his “auntie,” and Setchan, who becomes pregnant with Yozo’s child. Neither of these episodes deepen our understanding of who Yozo really is; they simply add more examples of how manipulative and callous he can be, thus blunting the impact of the real tragedy that unfolds in the late stages of his story.

Ito’s most problematic addition, however, is Osamu Dazai himself. Ito replaces the novel’s original framing device with the events leading up to Dazai’s 1948 suicide, encouraging us to view No Longer Human as pure autobiography through reinforcing the parallels between Dazai’s life and Yozo’s. And while those parallels are striking, the juxtaposition of the author and his fictional alter ego ultimately distorts the meaning of the novel by suggesting that the story documents Dazai’s own unravelling. That’s certainly one way to interpret No Longer Human, but such an autobiographical reading misses Dazai’s broader themes about the burden of consciousness, the nature of self, and the difficulty of being a full, authentic, feeling person in modern society.

VIZ Media provided a review copy. You can read a brief preview at the VIZ website by clicking here. For additional perspectives on Junji Ito’s adaptation, see Serdar Yegulalp‘s excellent, in-depth review at Ganriki.org, Reuben Barron‘s review at CBR.com, and MinovskyArticle’s review at the VIZ Media website.

JUNJI ITO’S NO LONGER HUMAN • ORIGINAL NOVEL BY OSAMU DAZAI • BASED ON THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY DONALD KEENE • TRANSLATED AND ADAPTED BY JOCELYNE ALLEN • VIZ MEDIA • RATED M, FOR MATURE AUDIENCES • 616 pp.

By: Katherine Dacey