Ningen Shikkaku

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Japanese: 人間失格

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Type: Manga

Volumes: 3

Chapters: 24

Status: Finished

Published: May 2, 2017 to Apr 20, 2018

Genre: Drama

Theme: Psychological

Demographic: Seinen

Serialization: Big Comic Original

Authors: Itou, Junji (Story & Art), Dazai, Osamu (Story)

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Score: 7.87¹ (scored by 10,028 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #1078²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #833

Members: 23,418

Favorites: 574

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Apr 28, 2022

Swoss

Not Recommended

Funny

If there is anything that you take away from this review, let it be this: never EVER buy Junji Ito hardback manga, let alone his utterly disappointing adaptation of Osamu Dazai's phenomenal 'No Longer Human.'

Unless you enjoy looking at sex scenes every 20 pages or so, there is no reason to actually buy the damn thing. The art is by far one of Ito's least impressive, the story just uses shock value for the sake of drama, the characters are ridiculously boring and you'll soon forget who is who. Instead, read it online. Try to pirate it because that's the only way you'll get ...

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Aug 21, 2024

toitoist

Not Recommended

Ningen Shikkaku is the autobiography of Osamu Dazai, told through the character Oba Yozo. Throughout the work, the protagonist narrates his process of dehumanization, gradually distancing himself from society. The book is narrated in the first person, creating a bond between the reader and Yozo. I believe the discomfort experienced while reading Ningen Shikkaku stems from how the reader might identify with the protagonist's experiences, particularly with the absence of what makes him human. As the story progresses, the protagonist's moral degeneration intensifies, leading him to further withdraw from society.

While the book Ningen Shikkaku offers the reader a “character analysis,” allowing for an intimate relationship ... with the protagonist, Junji Ito’s manga adaptation discards all the character development—which I believe to be the most interesting part of the book—to focus on constructing “horror” through the idea of the grotesque. Ito creates a new narrative for Ningen Shikkaku, yet he doesn’t dare to stray far from the original content, adapting the work in a way he believes makes it more shocking. The biggest shock I experienced while reading the manga was seeing Ningen Shikkaku adapted in such a crude way, fulfilling a completely different function than the book and thus distancing the protagonist from the reader. Junji Ito's attempt to make the work more shocking ends up turning the events into exaggerated and caricatured moments, losing the subtlety and ironic tone present in the original content. Consequently, the manga becomes very superficial, failing to delve into Yozo’s mind and what disqualifies him as a human, nor does it use these shocking moments effectively, as they become so exaggerated and silly. I believe this is one of Junji Ito’s most clumsy mangas, unfortunately not as comical as Gyo or Uzumaki.

I would like to compare the grotesque in Suehiro Maruo’s manga Ultra Gash Inferno with the grotesque in Junji Ito’s Ningen Shikkaku. Ultra Gash Inferno is filled with sex—repugnant sex, sex that involves human disfigurement, something violent and repulsive, yet still full of aesthetics, beauty amidst the purest ugliness. Meanwhile, the sex in Ningen Shikkaku tries to be vile for its own sake. The ugliness is moral; the grotesque is in the act of sex itself. The book contains few sex scenes, and in those moments, the protagonist feels apathetic about the situation; he doesn’t feel guilty or like a sinner. In the manga, the protagonist is literally haunted by ghosts from his past, most of whom are women who passed through his life, with whom he slept at some point, leading to great misfortune that further impoverishes Yozo. Junji Ito adapts the sex scenes using the same moral criticized throughout the book: sex is wrong. This is where the horror of the manga concentrates—shocking with sex scenes and ugly characters. Junji Ito is considered a disruptive author, but in Ningen Shikkaku, the ugliness and grotesque reflect society’s moralistic view of what is happening in the plot.

The ghosts of Yozo’s past, heavily present in the manga, distort the protagonist’s personality, making his experiences seem trivial, and turning the work into something overly expositional, not allowing for a real sensibility to the events. These moments end up serving only as a stage to judge the protagonist, condemning him for being so far removed from what is considered “right” in Ito’s eyes. The focus of the manga is on showing how miserable Yozo is because of his sins, not because of his disconnection from society, his shame, and his fear of other people. This causes a significant loss of the existentialist content and psychological analysis of the protagonist present in the original work, giving way to the moralism employed by Ito in his adaptation. Ito doesn’t innovate much in terms of plot or aesthetic choice, maintaining a conservative view of the work, unable to shock without being exaggerated or caricatured.

In his interview with VIZ, “A Talk with Junji Ito,” Ito comments that there is a limit to the content of his stories: not to cross the boundaries of common sense. Adapting a work that isn’t tied to current morals like Ningen Shikkaku using this “common sense” only serves to reinforce Ito’s viewpoint on the work, which should make him the last author to adapt this story (Furuya should be the second-to-last).

In conclusion, the positive aspects of Junji Ito’s Ningen Shikkaku manga are due to the merits of the original work, with the manga being a distorted and superficial adaptation, exaggerated to the point of bad taste. If you’re interested in the content of the manga, read the book instead.

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Oct 9, 2024

Mara2463

Not Recommended

No Longer Human – Spoiler Free – Not Recommended

TLDR
Story – 2/10 – 2 x 0.275 = 0,55
Art – 6/10 – 6 x 0.2 = 1,2
Characters – 1/10 – 1 x 0.225 = 0,225
Enjoyment – 2/10 – 2 x 0.3 = 0,6
Total: 2,575 -> 3

... Story – 2/10
I honestly don't know where to start. No Longer Human’s story is just terrible. It's not that it's confusing, overly complex or too clever for its own good; it's just plain bad. Without going into spoilers, in No Longer Human, we follow the life of a man who is incredibly depressed and faces several real-life problems, such as alcohol addiction or drug abuse. At least something happens when the main character goes through these things. There is a significant part of this story where just random things happen to him, with no connection whatsoever between them.
There is another issue: sex is super prevalent throughout the manga for no absolute reason. There were times that a random woman appeared before our very eyes, and – I'm not even joking – most of the time, he would end up having sex with her for some reason, then going on complaining about how he is always depressed, and life is terrible for him. This happens very frequently.
Also, some scenes made me laugh so much – which was not expected from a supposedly depressive manga. Even his depression is funny: it lacks the vraisemblance of depression and does not do a good job of depicting the agony and torment of a depressive episode.

Art – 6/10
While Junji Ito’s art is usually good, No Longer Human is definitely not his best work of art: there are no memorable panels, no awe-inspiring art style, nor any eye-candy pages for the sight to behold. It is a functional art style that is better than the average, but that's it. Character design is well done and it is easy to recognize characters from one another.

Characters – 1/10
Although it is hard in such a short manga to produce well-delivered and well-constructed characters, it must be noted that in No Longer Human this is done terribly. We feel no empathy whatsoever towards the main character, or any character for that matter, which is central to a story that is supposed to be empathic. Characters feel dull and bland, and they lack any characteristics or personality whatsoever. The main character only repeats that he's depressed, that he doesn't understand humans, and that he is tired of having sex. He is the only memorable character, and for all the wrong reasons.

Enjoyment – 2/10
I know No Longer Human is an adaptation of Osamu Dazai’s novel of the same name, and I haven't read the original to know what Junji Ito added or what is loyally adapted, but I must say that if the final result is this, something terribly wrong happened in between. No Longer Human is basically a monument on how not to depict depression and a failed opportunity to give our beloved world of manga a unique perspective on these subject matters. May it never happen again.

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