In fact, it is only clarified, hundreds of pages of later when Dazai is reintroduced into the story, meeting the protagonist in a mental hospital (and then only if you go back and compare the rendering of the characters).

What is sometimes described as Osamu Dazai's suicide note, this autobiographical novel, seen as one of the great Japanese literary feats, No Longer Human (1948) is the story of Oba Yozo, a literary doppleganger of the author; the manga, over 600 pages long, is a terrific feat in itself, what I have read to be a pretty faithful adaptation of the original by horror manga-ka Junji Ito. A box of sleeping pills Oba uses to overdose on, is, in the novel, one he hid from her in case he wanted to use them. Well, I had the same reaction to this as I do to all Ito: why the fuck did I read that, NEVER AGAIN, thank god it's over and simultaneously omg I love it I cannot WAIT to reread I need to own this and put it on a very tall shelf jk my Ito collection is front and center OMG it's brilliant MOAR PLZ. In the novel, I felt deep sympathy to him even if i hate him, i still felt so much for him because of his traumas and the way he was treated. Osamu Dazai’s immortal—and supposedly autobiographical—work of Japanese literature, is perfectly adapted here into a manga by Junji Ito.

In a way, the focus lies on horror and visually disturbing images and I like it but sometimes it get exaggerated. Oba is himself haunted by ghosts in his daily life, so he draws mostly ghosts, so you can see the attraction to the supernatural for Ito. He dabbles in Marxism and relationships but tends to betray everyone, really only committing to alcohol and drugs. In general, it reads like a story a disgruntled teen boy might fall in love with and (hopefully) later regret loving so much.

Junji Ito, un autor que me fascina retoma los elementos esenciales de la novela, y la reconvierte en una obra muy de su estilo. While the original seems to have focused on the sadness and pathos that marked the existential crisis that our lead (who seems to have been patterned after Dazai himself) labored under, true to Ito's style this book lets the horrors and absurdities of his experiences take the limelight. This version also addresses his womanizing a bit more, with those who share his bed finding it was a fatal misstep to their well-being. You may block cookies via standard web-browser settings, but this site may not function correctly without cookies.Nevertheless, upon graduation he trained as a dental technician, and until the early 1990s he juggled his dental career with his increasingly successful hobby — even after being selected as the winner of the prestigious Umezu prize for horror manga. As a child Oba goes to high school and ends up living with some cousins, including two younger women (slightly older than he).

It's a good thing he didn't end up a twisted sociopath, though there were instances when he was teetering on the edge of that abyss.

This is not a work for children, and perhaps young adults will also have to struggle to detach themselves from the surface level lust, grit and angst of the graphic novel. Eventually, a joke lands wrong and a childhood friend takes his own life in the aftermath, a life cut short that will haunt Yozo for the rest of his own life. His longest work, the three-volume Uzumaki, is about a town's obsession with spirals: people become variously fascinated with, terrified of, and consumed by the countless occurrences of the spiral in nature. This graphic novel is a departure from Ito's trademark narratives, interpreting as it does a Dazai classic that stands as one of the best-ever selling books in Japan. Dazai's stand-in, Yozo Oba, seems to suffer from trauma and impostor syndrome due to childhood molestation and daddy issues.

I never read the original, so can't say for myself who Dasai is in this work, but the story is of Yozo, an artist, rendering his soul on canvas such as other tortured artists like Van Gogh or Munch, though most of the time Oba draws manga.

Eventually the narrative is reduced to hallucinations and an extended dream sequence as Oba becomes increasingly unhinged. Ito's adaptation offers less of a distancing element, but conversely also removes the I-Novel association. He leads a dissolute life and resorts to wearing a mask to hide his spiraling descent towards death. They were potrayed in these vivid, cruel horrible, disgusting and disturbing images that came to life so extravagantly.