No Longer Human is one of the more recent offerings from genre master and acclaimed mangaka, Junji Ito. Junji Ito is responsible for some of the most iconic horror manga of the past decades, and every single one of his stories hits the audience hard. Ito knows how to craft an unnerving story, but also how to let truly disturbing visuals speak for themselves.
It’s what helps make his work become some of the most prolific horror manga of this generation. No Longer Human is a more mature and robust effort from Ito, but there’s plenty about it that evades many of its readers.
10 It's Based On A Popular Novel Of The Same Name
The majority of Junji Ito's stories are original ideas that play into some of the darker recesses of the mangaka's imagination. However, 2017's No Longer Human is actually a lengthy adaptation of Osamu Dazai's famous 1948 novel of the same name. This isn't the only time that Ito has adapted someone else's work for a story, but it's fascinating to see the author's reinterpretation of Dazai's narrative and where he takes it. It's a testament to how manga adaptations of novels can truly do the source material justice.
9 Ito Adds A Meta Element To The Story
It's always interesting to see what it is about a property that speaks to whoever handles the adaptation. The novel's psychological elements certainly speak to Ito, but the big idea that his manga adaptation pushes forward is that it works the novel's author, Osamu Dazai, into the manga as a character. Ito's No Longer Human takes on a bizarre meta element where the protagonist, Yozo, recounts his story to Dazai, which inspires him to turn it into a novel. It has fun as it reappropriates history.
8 Ito Pushes The Ending Even Further
Something that’s so striking about No Longer Human is the metamorphosis that Yozo experiences in several departments. Ito plays with the limits of reality and it’s able to take the bleak conclusion of Dazai’s novel and push it to a more horrific place that’s fitting of his sensibilities.
The novel has a used up and practically brain dead Yozo look like he’s in his 40s when that’s far beyond his years. Ito cranks this up and presents a version of Yozo that’s even more desiccated and looks and acts like he’s in his 90s, even though he hasn’t even hit 40. It’s a much more jarring presentation of this idea.
7 Ito Makes Yozo Eviler & With A Higher Body Count
Osamu Daizi's original No Longer Human is a tragic story that keeps Yozo into a much more sympathetic figure who's caught up in circumstances beyond his control. Ito gets more aggressive here and his version of Yozo isn't just more callous, but his negligent actions actually lead to the deaths of several characters that don't die in the novel. Ito wants to illustrate just how far Yozo falls from all of this. It’s a dark and bloodier direction that fits with the rest of Ito’s updates.
6 Ito Injects More Horror Into The Story
Osamu Dazai’s original No Longer Human novel is an unflinching drama and its title is a reference to depression and destructive thoughts over suicide rather than a literal transformation into a monster. It’s a grueling story, but Junji Ito takes its powerful ideas and turns it into fitting material for disturbing body horror. Ito takes the inherent darkness of Dazai’s novel but plays with its elements in literal and figurative ways to fill it with monsters and evil manifestations that make the story hit even harder.
5 It's Not The First Manga Adaptation Of The Story
Junji Ito's adaptation of Osamu Dazai's classic novel has a lot of fun with its approach to the original story, but there's such potential in a manga version of Dazai's story that it's not surprising to see that Ito's take is actually the fourth manga adaptation of No Longer Human.
Previous versions have come out in 2009, 2010, and 2011 that all try to do something new with the material, whether it's through the story, the art, or the incorporation of tentacles. 2009’s three-volume version used to be viewed as the definitive one until Ito’s came along.
4 Ito Presents Dazai's Trauma From Yozo’s Point Of View
One of the biggest differences from Junji Ito's No Longer Human and the original novel is that Ito finds a unique way to recontextualize the narrative and work in events from real life. Ito's story turns Osamu Dazai, the original novel’s author, into a character and even though he becomes privy to Yozo's story, the reverse is also true. This allows both of their lives to blend together and Yozo covers tragic events from Dazai's life, like his suicide, which is another way in which his manga comes full circle.
3 It's Not Separated With Any Other Stories
Another reason that Junji Ito has remained relevant for so long is that he’s accomplished at writing evocative stories of contrasting lengths. Many of Ito’s most memorable works are short stories and he has many collections that put together some of his best pieces. This isn’t always the case and No Longer Human is just one long narrative that’s told through five chapters. There are also occasions where some of Ito’s longer stories will still mix in shorter works as a prologue or epilogue. No Longer Human is over 600 pages and dedicated purely to this one haunting story.
2 It Refuses To Diagnose What's Wrong With Yozo
Junji Ito has true talent when it comes to crafting disturbing visuals, but he’s also responsible for some very upsetting characters. Yozo is the subject of concern in No Longer Human and despite how he receives help, he’s never actually diagnosed and it’s left to the readers to make their own conclusions. Yozo is extremely off and it’s likely he suffers from depression or anxiety, but there are also symptoms of something larger going on like autism or a dissociative disorder. The strangest element is that Yozo has never felt hunger before, which doesn’t apply to any of these conditions.
1 Ito Bookends The Story In Trauma
No Longer Human is full of pain, which Ito uses as fuel to create literal monsters. Ito's No Longer Human covers a lot of ground and its five chapters span Yozo's life and fill in even more context for those around him. Yozo suffers a mental break towards the end of the story that may seem out of place, but it's triggered by a sexual assault that he witnesses. This connects back to his own past and No Longer Human curiously uses the trauma as a bookend for Yozo's journey, which is appropriate considering the journey that he goes on.