No Longer Humanby Wolfen MoonsgetReviews may contain information that could be considered 'spoilers'. Readers should proceed at their own risk. Publisher
Credits Grade: 8 A surreal manga by Junji Ito (of Uzumaki fame), based on the last serial work by legendary fiction-writer Osamu Dazai, this sizable, well-bound hardcover tankobon follows the life of Yozo Oba, an artist who suffers from depression and severe psychosis. We see key moments from Oba's life, starting with his childhood, that exacerbates his decent into madness -- including a harsh father, a great many tragic sexual encounters (including him being molested multiple times as a child, and some instances of others being assaulted), problems with alcohol and drugs, constant hallucinations, brushes with suicide ... and a number of deaths that he (more or less inadvertently) contributed to. Obo is a person with deep fears of people's perception of him, and so decided at a young age that, if you act the clown, people won't expect much of you; this gets him into trouble for the rest of his life, and often ends up pulling others down with him. He also seems to drive women wild (often to their destruction), and attract unsavoury individuals. Oba himself is alternatingly sympathetic and downright reprehensible.There is some narrative confusion. For example, the most part, the ghosts Oba sees seem to be in his own head -- but there's an instance where a woman he's with shares in the experience, and a child resembles someone they shouldn't. Therefore exact nature of Oba's situation -- whether it's just illness, or something supernatural -- is unclear, and by extension, so is the general intent of the work. Also, there's a moment when Oba is about to try to kill someone, and that person then seems to sexually assault Oba's significant other at the time. Did Oba imagine the whole visit, or just from the moment he was going to kill the guy? Perhaps the intent is to illustrate the uncertain nature of Oba's reality, how he can't even be sure what's real and what's not. Even so, as far as I noted, it's the only part of this lengthy work that is handled quite this vaguely -- that is, with a question of whether or not it even happened, rather than the question being whether it's illness or supernatural. And then there's a conversation where Oba and another character are discussing antonyms -- it doesn't make much sense at all to me. For example, they decide white is the antonym to black, but red is the antonym to white, and black is the antonym to red? What? There's also some discussion about crime and what its antonym is, and I had trouble parsing that bit too. I'm thinking something was lost in translation. There's even a simple grammatical error that confuses things. At one point, Oba says "Wasn't society simply the individual? In which case, wasn't it something worth being so fearful of?" But this didn’t make any sense to me. Much Later, he reiterates that the individual isn't to be feared, which does make sense, but that initial mistake muddles what was an otherwise fascinating rumination on how society isn’t actually a bunch of people, but rather an individual representing the whole, and so our encounters with society are actually one-on-one battles. I don’t entirely agree with it, but it's an interesting sentiment! It makes one wonder how differently his life might have turned out if certain individuals didn't come knocking to represent society, overshadowing the more compassionate representatives. Overall, the manga is a page-turner, and is very well-rendered. Note: it's also full of nudity, though the most graphic the sex gets is depictions of fondled and licked breasts, in-robe masturbation, and suggestive positioning of bodies in relation to each other. It's not the out-and-out horror of Uzumaki, but there are many horrific elements to it -- it makes for an interesting exploration of not just mental illness (which I think it handles deftly), but also the impact one life can have on others, and the impact society can have on a life. Societal judgement takes a heavy toll on not just Oba, but the women he has relationships with (arguably more so). The fact that suicidal Oba is clearly in need of help, but instead is treated like a despicable criminal for wanting to die, is heartbreaking (especially when his society also clings to the romanticism of seppuku; I'm guessing it's the method he chooses that's shameful, and maybe also the fact that he wants to die, instead of seeing it a punishment for failure). And, well, as someone with depression, I found Oba's struggles to feel worthwhile (not a burden) and even just functional painfully relatable. The very end falls a little flat (save something pretty wonderful that Ito added), but I'm not really sure what would have been better. Spoilers now. Still with me? Okay. What Ito added was the author, Dazai, as a character who meets Oda. The resemblance between the two is striking -- and casts a spin on a scene at the beginning, as it represents how Dazai committed suicide in real life. Besides being used well to make a revelation about a pair in the asylum (making me wonder how things played out in the novel, without Dazai), it's wonderfully meta in and of itself -- and makes one wonder if any of the specifics of the rest of Oda's story is actually Dazai's. If you love Ito's work, love grotesqueries / disturbing imagery, or love stories of the seedier sides of the human condition, you may want to check this out -- but due to some of the questionable sexual content, you might not be comfortable actually having it around the house. Written: January 4, 2020
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