To be Sick and Never Healed To be Lost and Never Found To be Broken and Never Fixed To be No Longer Human Spoilers for the entirety of NLH Introduction: Ruin. The phantom killer of lives. It lurks in the background waiting with open arms for you to enter its embrace. It stands with everyone though many are fortunate enough to never see it not fully anyway. Weve all been down some more than others but have you ever felt so distorted that the world seems to spin? So confused that everything you thought you knew feels wrong? So alienated that all things feel foreign? Some of you may say yes and that may be true. Though true ruin is more than that. The path to ruin is a long and unsteady one though positive things keep us from reaching its end. But what if those positive things never came? What would your life become without that saving grace? Only one word can truly describe it and Im sure you know it. You definitely know it. It is No Longer Human is a 2009 manga adaptation of the book by Osamu Dazai. By far his most popular work at least outside of Japan it has received multiple manga adaptations one of which by Junji Ito though the subject of this review is by Usamaru Furuya. It was a grim read showing the very depths of despair and looking into the mind of a man lost even to himself. Im not going to conform to the clichd I didnt enjoy reading this but because I did enjoy reading this. It is a wellwritten work thus I enjoyed experiencing what it had to offer notwithstanding its material. But just be warned this review will enter sensitive territory so read at your own discretion. General: Story NLH is a short read with twelve chapters and those chapters being around forty pages you can breeze through it in a single sitting if you wish. Thats not to say the story is lacking though as youll find it is incredibly dense and compact. As well as the actual story there are small segments where the mangaka added himself in its sort of a third person look on himself researching the story within the universe the story is set. So a story written by a man is being researched by another man who in universe wrote the manga that Im currently reviewing. Thats a thought. The story is centred around Yozo Oba a clown. Not the kind painted white and giving little children nightmares on their birthdays but a conceptual clown. You may wonder what I mean by this but I shall detail it more later. We follow his life from his teens to late twenties and it is not a pleasant life not pleasant at all. A life of lies a life of pain a life of fear. The narrative is mainly focused on Obas mind pushed forward by introspective dives into the inner workings of his psyche. So while there are no verbose internal monologues there is a lot of psychological exploration done so through being exposed to the thoughts and feelings of a damaged soul. Oba is a product of his own fear and trauma they are what shape his perception of humanity. Seeing his world view is disturbing and upsetting knowing that he could have been better if not for his deeprooted psychological issues and behavioural patterns. One could compare the story to a rollercoaster though not a rollercoaster of emotions. No this story is more akin to a rollercoaster of despair each slope a fleeting feeling of hope a view of something better each drop a plunge back into nightmare no back into reality. Being witness to such a spiralling descent into chaos and disorder is equal parts unsettling and interesting. It lays so intimately with tragedy hand in hand with disaster painting a painful picture of twisted melancholic humanity. Yozo Oba Oba is an interesting character to me. Hes relatively simple all things considered. But there are certain aspects to his character that I really love and that I think are really cool. I have split his character into three parts that I believe to be the culmination of his being: the faade the parasite and the entropy. They occur more or less in that order and encapsulate his development. Seeing this development unfold is a spectacle to say the least. This is also how I shall structure the proceeding part of this review each shall indicate a certain period of his life and I shall analyse or at least attempt to the relevant characters and moments that occur during said periods. Faade: Playing the Clown The Start of The Show Humans like all other animals are shaped by their environment. There are innate factors in play as well of course but the degree of ones character is often the result of social stimuli. Oba is a creature created by this very phenomenon. He is a very naturally gifted individual handsome intelligent and charismatic. Hes also rich looking at him from a distance youd think he has everything one could ask for. But is he happy? He may seem happy. Hell he may seem like the most carefree happygolucky man youve ever seen. But that is his mask his guise his faade. Obas father was an intimidating figure constantly making demands constantly reprimanding constantly enforcing his own wishes and values. This distorted Obas definition of ordinary everything he did was denounced by his own father with no real instruction on how else to be. As a consequence Oba developed a deep fear of his father and had to act around him like giving a fake smile in a family photo. Thus the faade began. Our fathers are our primary role models whether we like to admit it or not how they act influences how we act. And in Obas case his fathers intimidation and unreasonable demands warped his view of people and hardwired the toxic trait of lying into him. Not in the sense of lying about your favourite things to impress someone but in the sense of literally playing a character wearing a mask to conceal your true self. This became him. It wasnt just something he did occasionally he was his fake self more than he was his real self so much so that his real self was practically lost. A SelfIndulgent Interlude The act followed him to his teenage years. School is somewhat of a partner to home they are the two places that a person develops most with their family and with their peers. A child could have caring and loving parents but a painful school life could push them to a dangerous state of mind. Oba may not have understood humans in their entirety but he understood the mob mentality. Loners are pariahs being liked is everything. This is where his faade came in. He feigned a sense of jocularity in school acting as the class clown to win affection. He was intelligent but he would deliberately get questions wrong in class so as not to appear too smart and anger the jocks. Behind this act was nothing. He was an empty shell a hollow husk of a person performing for these humans for that is all he knows. Every performer needs a break from the stage though and so Oba started attending an art class. Acting so jovial at school all the time tires the brain at art class Oba is free from that burden and can use the art as an outlet. Here he meets Horiki a man who you could say is the same and the opposite of Oba. Oba likes to observe him because he also plays the clown. The only difference is Horiki is not hiding anything with his act he acts like he does purely for the fun of it. This contrast strikes Oba to the core as he would find himself bound to Horiki more than hed like to admit. Horiki takes Oba to a brothel assuming Oba must be a virgin due to his demeanour. Oba remarks that it isnt his first time and makes light work of charming his assigned girl and getting her number. According to him he is more open at these places than anywhere else. He never lies he never acts. As mentioned earlier he is naturally gifted and I think he finds natural things easier to understand and engage with. Sex is a natural process a base urge a near animalistic instinct to bond to be one with another. Oba who struggles to engage with his own life finds pleasure in being able to physically join another in sex. It is such a simple process to him: enter pay the toll satisfy his needs done. If only everything was that simple for him perhaps he wouldnt be so broken. A Change of Stage First his house second his school. Which stage awaited his performance next? Horiki dragged him to the Japan United Labour Reform Association because a cute girl he met invited him. Oba once again plays a character hes rich but pretends to be poor and angry with the government for their indulgence in the American economy. While Horiki stops attending due to the radical views they hold Oba slips into their upper ranks merely because he finds them entertaining. Perhaps he finds joy in seeing people struggle with something he doesnt. He internally mocks their cause seeing them as the reason for their problems as opposed to the government. Oba has expressed previously that he hates the fact that other people seem so happy like they have no problems no selfdoubt no pain. These people however are openly struggling and revolting against the source of their pain. This counters Obas method of dealing with his pain he plays a role to be accepted allowing him to engage with humans he fears. But he has never known disobedience. His father drilled subservience and conformity into him so he has always followed the rules. The members of the reform group are unlawful misfits that completely contrast how he usually acts. Maybe thats why he likes it no actor wants to play the same role for their whole career. This whole situation as well as his relationship with Horiki tackles the idea of Nature versus Nurture. The reform group is made up of honest and hardworking people but due to the nature of their occupation theyve been unjustly laid off and left in poverty. Oba is the opposite of honest. He plays a character and all of his actions stem from a desire to fit in and be accepted. And yet he is wealthy and has all his resources provided for him. Why does he deserve that while the labourers get unemployment? It is simply because of nature. Similarly Horiki is like Oba a handsome man. He also frequents brothels and likes sex. Where do they differ? Their environment. Hiroki grew up in a caring household developed ample social skills and is from what we can see a happy person. He plays the clown because that is his personality. It is not a deceiving act like Obas he does not need to hide pain and put on a guise to be likeable. He is likeable because thats just how he is. And Oba fails to comprehend this. What truly decides your fate? What dictates your course as a human being? Naturally Oba is incredibly gifted and envied by many. But he has many toxic traits and is miserable inside. His misery is due to his lack of understanding of human nature which in turn was caused by his father. On the other hand someone elses misery could be due to their natural qualities or lack thereof. Its a near impossible debate to answer as humans are such complex beings. His father was his model for what a man should be and he was terrified of him. Consequently he is terrified of humankind. This is why he plays the clown he cannot comprehend what ordinary means so to fit in he chooses to stand out. He is a puppet of his own faade and that faade was a result of his father. His strings are still being pulled by that man he so fears. His clowning is both a literal and metaphorical representation of depression. Literal because Oba is clearly depressed himself his clowning is his way of communicating with the outside world. Metaphorical because while not as pronounced and distinct all depressed people clown to an extent. Theres a saying or generally spread belief that goes along the lines of the one who laughs the loudest cries the hardest. It has different forms and versions but they all communicate the same message. Some are open about their depression some may only tell those close to them some keep it to themselves. Basically you often cant tell when someone is depressed because they dont act like it. They laugh. They jest. They smile even if they dont want to. For that is their mask their guise their faade. Parasite: His Dark Genius Misaki The Ugly Around this time his life changes. His recent truancy had provoked his fathers ire and he had his credit cards and apartment taken from him. Now living in a shabby apartment with little money to live on he fell victim to hunger and a general lower quality of life. How ironic that for attending a group whom he contemptuously held in little regard for having no jobs and being poor he was now without income and a home. On the plus side he would no longer need to act within the reform group but this brought him no joy. In fact this development brings about a different side of him. The parasite. Using his natural gifts as well as his honed acting ability he begins to seduce Misaki from the reform group whom he had previously expressed disinterest in. He gave her attention she gave him food and even a new laptop poor my ass. Oba has no integrity his situation turns bad and he begins to court a woman whom he would never even consider had he been well off. He went from a selfsufficient wealthy individual to living the life of a leech sustaining himself off anothers money and care. He still has his urges though and he makes physical advances after being bought the laptop. This was just another mistake however the reform group leader shows up to his apartment demanding entry. Realising he bedded the wrong woman Oba flees the scene with his belongings including the laptop she had just bought him. We never see what happens to her after that. Once Oba had got what he needed from her he detached and left her with no care. This time the parasite abandoned its host. Ageha The Bad Having lost his lifeline and the source of his allowance somewhat cut off Oba wanders the streets under the rain. He struggles to find the word to describe his feelings. He next finds a pretty girl at a hostess club. He ends up getting money from her but that is not all he finds. He finds comfort in her presence for they are kindred spirits. He has finally found someone who he understands and who could understand him. This is someone who isnt there to just satisfy his monetary and physical needs she may be the only one who can help him mentally and emotionally. Understanding is only part of helping someone empathy is more important. Empathy is hard to find though at least a natural and raw empathy thatll connect with ones own experiences. Ageha was that Oba had found his solace. At this moment he discovers the word he was searching for: forlorn he feels forlorn. He realises he cares for her and later they go to see the waves. Agehas hand was decorated with a butterfly tattoo. To keep her from feeling depressed she said. But now the very act of motioning her hand for the butterfly to flutter was tiring. This represents an oftoverlooked aspect of depression. Rather than a sea of bottomless sadness its more akin to a void of any such feeling. The sadness comes more from that lack of feeling than anything else. We usually have hobbies and pastimes that stave off sadness but what if those leisurely activities become boring? What if they brought no joy or pleasure? Thats exactly what Ageha feels and thats what her butterfly tattoo represents. An additional link is the similarity it holds to Obas own situation. Ageha got the tattoo to combat her depression Oba developed clowning to battle his unhappiness and confusion. And just how Ageha has grown tired of fluttering the butterfly Oba too is tired of the faade. They truly are kindred spirits. She expresses that she doesnt want to live anymore and Oba irrationally suggests they should die together. Oba was tired of the act tired of the same routine and made such a suggestion on a whim. They enter the sea but he finds out he doesnt actually want to die and ends up surviving. She was not so fortunate. He gave her the encouragement she needed to die comforted her in knowing she would not die alone but lost the will and left her to depart by herself anyway. It may not have been his intention but he caused the death of Ageha. The first time he found someone who could understand him who could help him and he led them to death. This time the parasite killed its host. Shizuko The Good His next victim was a single mother who worked with his friend from art class. He seduced her with ease and ended up living with her and her daughter. While under this roof he found his talent for drawing manga. She supported this endeavour and he got approved for a series in a magazine. He liked to draw as a kid though his passion was always shot down by his father. A cold parent killed his ambition to draw but a loving parent rekindled it. Following this is a number of paradoxes that weather his mind. She ends up falling in love while he doesnt share that sentiment one bit. Readers of his series believed him to be kind while he was manipulating women to survive. Shizukos daughter started calling him papa and asked if he could be her father while he views her as just another terrifying human being. The contradictions plagued him. Its strange that such contradictions would bother him so Oba in and of himself is a paradox. He appears one way but is really another thing entirely. His whole persona is a lie his life is one of falsities. His entire being is naught more than a role one he performs admirably yes but a fiction nonetheless. Then again Oba has expressed contempt for himself so his own contradictory self is poison to him he says he doesnt understand people like theyre some complex conundrum. The truth is hes the puzzling one and he hates that. He turned to alcohol and became more and more distant. His drawings became perverse mirroring his deteriorating state of mind and he could no longer take it. He ran away. Even after his declining treatment of them Shizuko and her daughter try to find him because he was out in the cold with no shoes. Such simple people but such kindness. Even one such as Oba recognised this kindness and expressed a wish prayed to God for the first time in his life that they find happiness in some form. This time the parasite spared its host. He was a leech though one could not say it was all his doing. These relationships were all heavily codependent he needed them for money food and shelter. They needed him because they wanted to be needed. The attention and affection from an attractive and charming man filled the hole in their lives. The first was ugly so a handsome man relying on her was definitely gratifying. The second was sad and depressed she found comfort in him as he did in her. The passionate love and emotional empathy made her happy at least for a bit. The third was a single mother. She was lonely and the prospect of a father for her daughter was too good to be true. They let it happen. In fact he even made it known to Shizuko that had she been poor he would have up and left. But at the end of the day he used their kindness against them and sucked them dry. Even though he felt genuine care for the second woman and prayed for the happiness of the third and her daughter he used these women one of whom he even led to death. He used them like objects for survival and for satisfaction. He then left when those needs could no longer be met. He is a true parasite and that is his dark genius. Entropy: Path to Ruin Karmas Cold Embrace The beginning of the end. After running away from Shizuko he had spent a while living in a bar under its proprietor. During this time one could say he had undergone a metamorphosis of sorts. Contrary to what one would expect he falls in love with the cashier at the smoke store Yoshino. She was innocent and kind always telling him not to smoke so much when he buys cigarettes and showing concern when he is drunk. It is not a lustful type of attraction either but the kind of love you hear about only in fairytales. He would blush and mess up his words when he spoke to her partly due to being intoxicated and would even read the poetry she did. This is as weve come to know completely unbecoming of Oba. Prior to this point he was living like a leech. But after he had sucked nutrients from the good the bad and the ugly he has experienced some kind of evolution into a lover. Would this evolution stand the test of time though? To say this relationship moved quickly would be an understatement after several interactions most of which were of pretty short duration they got married. Yeah no need to make a long story short here. But in spite of the haste they seemed happy. Obas series was doing well they had a nice home and seemed to love each other a good amount. Oba and Horiki mutually scorned each other but had accepted each other as friends regardless. For the first time in his life Oba was living honestly. However this is just the top of the rollercoaster a taste of happiness a view of something better. But thats not how this story is supposed to go. No for Oba the game was rigged from the start. Happiness was not in store for him. Oba was a genius at acting Yoshino was a genius at trusting. To trust was her virtue but it was to a fault. She knew no doubt no suspicion thus she knew no caution. While Oba was watching fireworks with Horiki Yoshino as it was her vice recklessly let a man into the house for water. Twas her fatal mistake for this was no man it was a beast swimming in her wake ready to pounce and pounce it did. Horiki who had gone for a leak came back white in the face. Oba followed him to the cause of his shock and was met with a sight most horrific. A depraved scene his innocent wife was being defiled by Fukawa his editor who he believed to be harmless. As we find out later in some twist of irony Fukawa had recently been laid off despite his contributions to the magazine. Earlier Oba had played around with the reform group a group of people who had been axed from their own jobs because he thought it amusing. Now one of those misfits whom he could hardly take seriously was assaulting his innocent wife in front of his very eyes. In one fell swoop karmic retribution had been dealt and it would kill him. This was the true beginning. The beginning of Obas descent. The beginning of his path to ruin. Deathly Dark Descent Yoshino was understandably traumatised from this event and started covering herself up when she went out. She even cut her hair to stop people looking at her like a woman. The innocent genius at trusting was gone. The loving wife was not though she desperately tried to get Oba to forgive her as if she had done something wrong. For Oba Yoshino was medicine to him her lack of doubt alleviated his fear of humans but this event completely shattered the image he had of her and everything else. His aversion to humankind had returned tenfold. Its sickening but Oba was less bothered by the fact Yoshino had been raped than he was by her losing her innocent and carefree nature. It seems that even in that happy and stable relationship Oba had some ulterior use for her using her innocence to fix himself while knowing her innocence would render her blind to it. Now that such innocence was lost would their relationship hold? Obas misanthropy was back in full force Yoshino had changed for the worse in his eyes and he was spiralling further and further into anger and depression. Oba was usually cold and calculated but now he would frequently lash out and have what could only be called tantrums. If he had gone from a dark genius parasite to a fairytale lover he was now a frustrated child unable to regulate his own emotions. Its difficult to truly label this though. He may be lashing out and constantly angry but is that not preferable to no emotion at all? Previously he was devoid of feeling only showing emotion so as to sustain the act. This was no longer a role he was feeling genuine emotion for the sake of feeling genuine emotion. This should be a good thing but it marks the lowest point in his life thus far. Makes you think most of the bad things we do during our life are due to bursts of emotion. The mind is what makes us think but the heart is what makes us move. This is for good of course but so can it be for ill. Would tragedy be such a big deal if we never felt sad? If something like this had happened while he was leeching he would simply count his losses and leave to find another host. But this was not a host this was a girl whom he loved and Oba did not know how to process the emotions he felt at this time. Imagine being suddenly thrust into a new world full of unfamiliar senses strange concepts and foreign feelings. It would be terrifying. And Oba was terrified. The worst however was yet to come. No Longer Human Following the incident Obas hair turned completely white overnight. His brow gained a furrow. Physical changes caused by the stress? Sure. But these were just the start of his transformation of his true metamorphosis. Oba had previously drank his problems anyway but this was a special case and he needed some heavy duty product. To his luck or to his misfortune he finds a new ally to aid him during this trying time. Drugs speed to be specific. It helped somewhat with his emotions at least in the sense of how he was affected by them. But it also gave way to mania and delirium. He began to suffer from hallucinations and delusions creating a visual representation of his inner turmoil and trauma. His manga declines and the new story ideas he puts forward are all utter nonsense. He lost his job thus losing his income thus losing his way of buying drugs. This along with declining mental faculties placed an increasingly caustic strain on his relationship with Yoshino. Like a beautiful flower doomed to wither away and die their relationship was cursed to die from the very start. He later finds out that his father had died. Good? Shouldnt this have been a cause for celebration? The puppeteer was gone at last. The strings were cut. But no. This only means that the recent maelstrom of tragedy and disaster was not of his fathers doing but his own. The puppet was free but the puppet was broken. This fact just makes the next fact even more ironic. With his fathers passing Oba got money due to the inheritance. He was trying to get off the drugs but now had all the money he needed to stay on them. One more strike from beyond the grave to bring about his ultimate ruin. While he combats his drugriddled mind Yoshino suffers a miscarriage and finally cant take any more. She tells her father and he takes her away from Oba. Only in her absence did Oba realise how much he cared for her. Crippled by rue and regret he is haunted by remembrance of old faces and things past. In his prior forms he never had the ability to comprehend his sadness to the full degree. Now that he has true emotions now that he has abandoned the act he feels the full extent of this nightmare that is his life. Now what is left? His father is gone there is no one to control him. The crowd is gone there is no one for which to perform. The women are gone there is no one for him to seduce. There is only him. He has no one and is for the first time in his life truly alone with himself. And it is Hell. Conclusion: So that was No Longer Human. I fear I may have gone overboard in places. I tried not to recount the plot too much but Im only human. I feel it was somewhat necessary to communicate what I wanted to say. Anyhow this manga was fantastic. It sports some of the best psychological exploration Ive ever experienced. It was a gritty read for sure but thats exactly the point. If you havent read it not sure why you read this review if thats the case but you do you and want a short but dense manga then this is certainly an apt choice. I love the ideas used throughout the three I highlighted herein summarise Obas character and journey fairly well. Thanks for reading. This is my first review in a while so I may be a little rusty but that just comes with the territory I suppose. I wear a veil as he wore a face for the same reason... The oldest reason there is for anything: To be accepted.