A review by chazaiya
No Longer Human by Junji Ito

dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I remember reading Dazai's original as a very, very black comedy. I also remember reading Ito's previous work Uzumaki as a comedy, where the bit was how much more absurd the situation could get considering the horror of the book is centered around spirals. So naturally when you combine the two the result is deeply disturbing. I think putting images to Dazai's language properly accentuates the horror present in his story, as such this is a great little addition to the original. There are some really striking visuals all throughout the book. Ito does make certain questionable decisions (

I think adding Dazai directly as a character was really strange and corny, especially because there is an obvious shift in the prose. It's really hard to take seriously when Osamu Dazai is telling his book's character "Make sure to read my book! :D" in his own story. It made more sense when I remembered the original story was framed as "Hello I'm Osamu Dazai and I found these writings and I know this guy in real life" but it still feels really shoehorned in and unnecessarily in your face compared to the ambiguity of the rest of the story.

) but ultimately this was a wonderful adaptation of an already excellent story.