The Darkest Story I've Ever Read

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[Wendigoon]

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[robinsmith]

“If you don’t go to art school in the 1930’s you either become an alcoholic or hitler” that got me. Hooo boy this book is a nightmare but thank you for reading it for us

[TheSeriousCast]

Junji Ito is funny cause his stories are usually "look at this horrific eldritch concept and look how hopeless humanity is in facing it" but the other like 20% of the time he's just like "dude what if someone was living in your chair wouldn't that be fucked up?"

[JDroneX]

Funny, this video can serve as a good reminder: sometimes the best form of horror isn't a scary monster, a spooky ghost, or a unknowable alien force, but rather the best horror is the reminder of just how dark reality really is, and how tragic life can be due to the actions or inactions of a single individual.

[FederalBuereauInvestigation]

3:13 Disclaimer: Do *NOT* let “Honey “do it’s thing

[emilyfredrickson]

"He was a good boy, an angel"

That sounds like a post-mortem platitude to me. A haunting final line for a haunting novel. Even in death people around Yozo weren't honest about him.

[morganable]

That last paragraph about Yozo being "an angel" reminds me a lot of how when tragedies happen like suicide or malevolent things like mass shootings, people often say that the victim or perpetrator was "such a good/nice/happy person!". It makes me think both about how little we often know about the inner thoughts of the people around us, and how those who feel badly about themselves don't realize the impact they have on those around them.

[striker_]

The most ironic part about all of this is Junji Ito himself. The guy comes off as super soft spoken and polite, you’d never think he could create such haunting pieces. On the other hand though, perhaps that is why he understands No Longer Human the best. Who knows.

[zora]

This is a SCARILY accurate depiction of depression. I just went through probably the worst depression in my life over the past few months. I’ve gotten out of it mostly now, but that’s the scariest thing about it. Most of the time you don’t feel sad. Most of the time you’re so deep in self medication you don’t even realize how far you’re falling, or even feel the tragedies that happen to you or are able to do anything about them. You just… watch. Everything passes. All while you sink lower and lower and feel more and more disconnected from everyone around you, slowly growing to hate EVERYONE silently but never vocalizing it. You just sit there and stew and stew, putting on a smile because the last thing you would want to be is a burden. The last thing you would want is from people to know you aren’t ok. To become lesser in their eyes. Weak. Nosediving to the edge. And you know you are. But deep down, it’s exactly as the book says. It’s easier. It’s safer. You don’t want to get better because that would mean CONFLICT. And that would mean getting hurt. So you fall. Until you fall of the face of the earth. When people finally decide there’s nothing they can do for you. Because there isn’t. Only you can pull yourself out of that. That’s something Kozo was never able to see. That’s something Osamu was never able to see. No Longer Human was his last cry for help, his last chance to show the world who he was, what he struggled with. And he did. But it wasn’t enough to save him.

[mayalynch]

i was at a book store and picked this book up to get a look at the cover, and a worker came over to me and said “don’t read that if you’re depressed” and told me it’s essentially a suicide note. i thought it was done kafka-esque philosophy book so i’m grateful that worker informed me it’s not lol

[matthewwuzhere]

Yozo talks about how scary people are, doing things only to satisfy their own emotions and how scary they are to him, but he is exactly that. Everything he does is for his own emotions. He takes advantage or nice people and justifies it by saying humans are animals. He is just as much the animal he describes, controlled so much by his own fear.

[kathrineici]

Yoshiko: *Is attacked in the worst way possible*
Yozo, watching and doing nothing: “I am the victim here.”

[saintkayleepain]

I 100% understood this whole entire story. Right away. When he was saying he never felt “human”. The things that happened to him. The way he looked at society and thought everything was pointless. Thinking everyone is a monster. Never letting anyone get to know you ever. Never being happy or unhappy. Always going along with suggestions. Addiction. Drawing that horrific self portrait. I will admit that life isn’t so bleak anymore. I think everything is beautiful and people can be ok lol. But it wasn’t always like this. I’m 21 but feel 60. Hell, I feel 100 years old and life is just getting started.

I feel like my life has been “normal”. But it really hasn’t. I know my life has been farrrr from normal but hearing Wendigoon call this story “tragic” made me feel something. But I’ve never heard a story that I’ve felt so deeply. I felt every word of this story. Obviously not the more specific parts. But the emotions.

As for the question about the last line, I think it was a bit of both. That is how people talk about you sometimes. But also you want to hope that you can be something better.

[yungmonsterxs]

I'm not a religious person by any measurement; but Wendi saying "if YouTube would rather me make fun of the depression and misery of real world people, then they can take it up with God." is the hardest bar.

[Ronin]

Wendigoon throwing in random jabs like calling Yozo a sad e-boy is incredible at temporarily lifting the opressive atmosphere and helping me make it through this story.

[JoshuaAndres]

Junji Ito writes and draws some of the scariest stuff ever, but in person he’s the most wholesome person to ever live

[buffaloalice]

There is a part of me that thinks Ito wrote his version not just as an homage to Osamu, but to put his soul at ease in a way.

[zaregoto]

I remember my professor saying this about the book when we had our literature class

"This doesn't feel like a story, Its more like someone saying goodbye to you and the world"

And after learning about the author i can see why he felt that way

[kishiekiss]

When I received the book, I wanted to savor its contents, so I read even the translator's notes. I will never forget that line "In a superb epilogue the only witness testifies, "He was an angel", and we are suddenly made to realize the incompleteness of Yozo's portrait of himself. In the way most men fail to see their own cruelty, Yozo had not noticed his gentleness and his capacity for love"

Dazai himself wrote that epilogue in what I assume to be trying to show how Yozo completely "fooled" the people around him into thinking he is kind, but for the translator of the book to see it as proof of how kind Yozo could be without him

[Stone]

I love how all junji ito stories are the most horrific beyond human understanding things and then there's just that one where there's just a little guy who lives in a chair