Ningen Shikkaku
No Longer Human

Edit

What would you like to edit?

SynopsisBackgroundAlternative TitlesPictureChapters/VolumesPublishing DatesRelationsTypeExternal Links  

The manga's brilliance lies in its unflinching portrayal of the myriad dark facets of human life. It is a raw and visceral journey through the experiences that constitute the more somber sides of humanity. The narrative weaves together themes of despair, alienation, and the search for meaning in a manner that is as haunting as it is captivating.

What makes "No Longer Human" particularly impactful is its relatability. The struggles depicted, though extreme, mirror real-life issues faced by many. This connection to reality provides the story with a grounded and poignant quality. The characters are not just fictional beings but represent the very real emotional battles ... that individuals face daily.

tl;dr: An adaptation of an incredible story that despite the well-regarded art style doesn’t really work all that well. Read Furuya Usamaru’s adaptation instead.

This manga is an adaptation of a novel by Dazai Osamu by Ito Junji. I have not read the novel, but there have been other manga adaptations and even a partial anime adaptation, of which I’ve read the manga adaptation by Furuya Usamaru, so I’ll basically be doing this review from the context of essentially comparing this adaptation to Furuya’s adaptation.

This manga involves a man named Oba who despite being set up for success simply isn’t able to find his place in ... the world and ends up going from tragedy to tragedy. It’s an immensely depressing story that’s even a bit scary in how it explores the human psyche to show how things can so easily go terribly wrong. But at the same time, it’s not horror, it’s a psychological drama. And that’s the core of why I think this adaptation isn’t very good. This story relies heavily on seeing the world through the eyes of the protagonist, particularly in how he sees others and how his viewpoint affects how he interacts with them. Oba is a complex character that sees the world in a very twisted way and that changes over time, but he isn’t insane. His thought process makes sense but from a broader view it’s clearly screwed up in such a way that will hurt him. Conveying Oba’s viewpoint in such a way that the reader can understand it but can also see the flaws in it is the essence of this story. This adaptation simply isn’t able to do that very well. The way Oba is basically portrayed in this is as a suffering artist type, which is a vast oversimplification. It also doesn’t feel like it fleshes out the people around Oba much at all and thus it’s really hard to see the effect they have on him. Thus, the majority of the manga just feels like it revels in his flaws and mistakes, without really putting proper effort into conveying where they came from. All it really feels like is the story of a character who is suffering, which kind of misses the point I feel.

The manga just in general felt pretty rushed with Oba just going through a steady stream of terrible events without enough build up to them. This adaptation is about as long as Furuya’s but it captures quite a few more events and differs quite a bit, especially in terms of how each end, so that’s part of why it feels rushed. But the other issue is the art. Ito Junji is well regarded for his art and though I’m not much of a fan I can acknowledge that it is quality work. However, it really doesn’t fit in here. Ito uses extreme imagery to try to show Oba’s viewpoint far too often. Oba is seeing ghosts of past mistakes, metaphorical hallucinations, and terrible nightmares far too often. These very rarely add anything to the narrative or make it easier for the reader to understand Oba. Thus, they’re basically just a distraction from what does matter and furthermore affect the tone and atmosphere such that what does matter doesn’t come through as well. I have a suspicion that this adaptation is closer to the novel, wherein Furuya’s adaptation changes things moreso in order to be a modern adaptation, and in concept I think I do like the additional content in this adaptation as well as the ending to this adaptation more so than Furuya’s, but I think the implementation is so bad that it basically just makes me wish that Furuya’s adaptation was longer and managed to capture everything this adaptation did.

No Longer Human – Spoiler Free – Not Recommended

TLDR
Story – 2/10 – 2 x 0.275 = 0,55
Art – 6/10 – 6 x 0.2 = 1,2
Characters – 1/10 – 1 x 0.225 = 0,225
Enjoyment – 2/10 – 2 x 0.3 = 0,6
Total: 2,575 -> 3


... Story – 2/10
I honestly don't know where to start. No Longer Human’s story is just terrible. It's not that it's confusing, overly complex or too clever for its own good; it's just plain bad. Without going into spoilers, in No Longer Human, we follow the life of a man who is incredibly depressed and faces several real-life problems, such as alcohol addiction or drug abuse. At least something happens when the main character goes through these things. There is a significant part of this story where just random things happen to him, with no connection whatsoever between them.
There is another issue: sex is super prevalent throughout the manga for no absolute reason. There were times that a random woman appeared before our very eyes, and – I'm not even joking – most of the time, he would end up having sex with her for some reason, then going on complaining about how he is always depressed, and life is terrible for him. This happens very frequently.
Also, some scenes made me laugh so much – which was not expected from a supposedly depressive manga. Even his depression is funny: it lacks the vraisemblance of depression and does not do a good job of depicting the agony and torment of a depressive episode.

Art – 6/10
While Junji Ito’s art is usually good, No Longer Human is definitely not his best work of art: there are no memorable panels, no awe-inspiring art style, nor any eye-candy pages for the sight to behold. It is a functional art style that is better than the average, but that's it. Character design is well done and it is easy to recognize characters from one another.

Characters – 1/10
Although it is hard in such a short manga to produce well-delivered and well-constructed characters, it must be noted that in No Longer Human this is done terribly. We feel no empathy whatsoever towards the main character, or any character for that matter, which is central to a story that is supposed to be empathic. Characters feel dull and bland, and they lack any characteristics or personality whatsoever. The main character only repeats that he's depressed, that he doesn't understand humans, and that he is tired of having sex. He is the only memorable character, and for all the wrong reasons.

Enjoyment – 2/10
I know No Longer Human is an adaptation of Osamu Dazai’s novel of the same name, and I haven't read the original to know what Junji Ito added or what is loyally adapted, but I must say that if the final result is this, something terribly wrong happened in between. No Longer Human is basically a monument on how not to depict depression and a failed opportunity to give our beloved world of manga a unique perspective on these subject matters. May it never happen again.