Reviews

SO GOOD. I HEART OSAMU DAZAI. MWA. KISSES. IM MAKING OUT WITH HIS TOMBSTONE.

my elder brothers:
do not get me started on how upset this made me !! this short story just slapped me again and again with the realization of "hes never really been genuinely happy" hngrhgngh. some quotes i liked from it are "im not really alive." "no one really knew the loneliness inside him." and "at thirty he stood firm, but i, for one, far from standing, feel as if im about to collapse. i no longer have a tangible sense that my life is worth living."

train:
not AS good, but not horrible. just another little excerpt of an event in his life but it wasnt super "WOAHHH". i liked some of the quotes thouhg like "you've said all you have to say and can do nothing but gaze helplessly at each other. and in this case it was even worse, because i hadnt been able to come up with a single thing to say in the first place" hes so realio.

female:
the ending made me burst into flames. i exploded on multiple levels including physical. i dont even know what to say. "stop right there. you're not making this up." ooh LLLL dazai L he got caught telling a REAL story (tears running down my face). pretty sure the girl hes talking about in his "hypothetical" encounter (real encounter actually) is tsuneko from no longer human!! quotes i liked: "she was killed simply because she turned over in bed. i didnt die. seven years have passed and im still alive." "im just a blur, a ghost." "she stands behind you and quietly gazes at the same spot you're gazing at. she's empathizing with you, trying to see the beauty of the scenery as you see it."

seascape with figures in gold:
the "'you lose', i told myself, and i was glad of it." was unnecessary and caused me so much grief and pain and i am so upset. not overexaggerating, just autistic. its hard to put into words how this story made me feel, but its absolutely a masterpiece. its crushing. quotes i liked: "you lose, i told myself, and i was glad of it, i wouldnt have had it any other way. that victory of theirs illuminated the road i must walk tomorrow." "clucking my tongue and shuddering to shake off the voice that, somewhere in side me, kept whispering 'you lose'" "there before me was a picture of peace and harmony."

no kidding:
i was doing ok with this story until the last page. oh dazai hes so silly what a goofy little trickster- "my suicide was postponed for another month." oh. oh ok. some other quotes i liked: "what was to become of me? just to think about that was enough to leave me shuddering and too distraught to sit still," "my white yukata was already out of season, and i felt horribly conspicuous, as if i glowed in the dark, and so full of sorrow i no longer wanted to live." "vanquished souls, one and all. i couldnt help seeing them that way."

a promise fulfilled:
really short but i loved the simplicity of it and how dazai notices the girls beauty i just thogut it was really inspiring. a very calming story for me.

100 views of mount fuji:
dazai x mt fuji enemies to lovers. guy has beef with a mountain. i loved this story!! genuinely one of my favorites. the ending was so arghrghg "goodbye mt fuji. thanks for everything." DUDE?? his final goodbye to mt fuji before he dies im definitely not sad about this.

i can speak:
guy speaks english, dazai is inspired. hes literally so me, i get inspired and awestruck by the most random shit. as dazai said, it was a trivial scene, but one ill find difficult to forget.

a little beauty:
ok. this story. erm... i DO like some parts of it but i cant get past the whole "im better acquainted with your breasts than your face." like?? oh! ok! bordering on pedophilia (the girl is 16/17 and they were at the same bath-house/spa) but not REALLY. like yes he says hes just admiring the aesthetic of her body at the spa ("something worthy of truly dispassionate, almost sublime, aesthetic appreciation") but its just weird for me. one of my least favorites its a little creepy.

canis familiaris:
he really dislikes dogs because hes scared of them and then he starts to actually care for this dog that he took in. i realy liked this silly little story. his hatred for dogs seems similar to his fear of humans. hes unable to understand them and thus fears them, dog psychology is even more confusing than humans, and this fear is so intense it becomes hatred. "the more i think about dogs, the more disgusting they seem. dogs are repulsive. they remind me of myself in some ways, and that only repulses me all the more. i cant stand dogs. how, then, to describe what i felt when these very beasts decided to take a particular liking to me and began rolling up with wagging tails and lavish displays of affection?"

thinking of zenzo:
this hurt me so bad. hes so self deprecating. this story is fr "mine has been a life of much shame". i loved this story but i felt so sad. "it saddened me to think how vexed and mortified my mother and eldest brother would be if they could have seen me at that moment, but my brakes had failed completely. i just kept drinking. i was positively infantile."

eight views of tokyo:
THIS STORY PHYSICALLY PAINED ME. i felt nauseous and sick and it just kept getting worse and worse. istg bro it was more in detail than no longer human and i could not stop crying when he failed that attempt in the mountains. it was horrible. then he went home and "i dont think id ever experienced such wondrous feelings before." DUDE. "i no longer had the strength to withstand the misery in my own heart." "what had i done to repay him for all his affection but toy with my own life in a reckless manner?" me fr.

early light:
sometimes i forget hes an actual DAD. this is one of the few stories that is mostly about his children and wife. pretty good story me likey. "having survived so much adversity, even i felt a desire to go on living a bit longer, if only to see how things would turn out with the world."

garden:
do u like ur garden trimmed or untrimmed be honest. solid story. me likey. "i, even at my age, was still young. i still likd old, untended gardens overgrown with weeds." "he is, after all, a barbarian who can gaze at an overgrown, untended garden and think it beautiful."

two little words:
ackshully its just one word. ermm two guys are alcoholics. they see eachother at the post office when withdrawing money. not much to it but its good!! "im going to be thirty eight next year, but in many ways, as you can see, im still a completely hopeless case." "if i manage to get through an entire lifetime pulling stunts like this, wont that, in itself, be a rather spectacular achievement?"

merry christmas:
merry christmas guys its christmas time. random guy shouts "merry christmas" at an american, dazai laughs. eating eel and drinking sake with a girl, pretending her dead mother is with them (another by yukito ayatsuji reference?!!?!)

handsome devils and cigarettes:
is this a reference to tobacco and the devil by akutagawa ryunosuke??? the reporters are treating him like a zoo animal. and the "bums". i dislike them severely. "im such a handsome devil" that handsome devil refernce?? "no longer even human" no lonegr human refeence???! ACTUALY SUCH A GOOD STORY THO. I LOVED LOVED LOVED IT.

cherries:
SO GOOD. another story focusing on his children and wife. i really liked it. i could treat him better. i could fix him.