CW: drug use, sexual themes, Sexual Abuse, Suicide, death, mental health issues, addiction, drinking, drug injections, self harm
You don't have to read this, especially since this is really long and I'm just talking about something I enjoy. But feel free to if you're interested.
To start this book off strong I'm going to talk about this book I just finished (As of June 22, 2024), called "No Longer Human. I should mention that I read the manga version by Usamaru Furuya that was adapted from the original by Osamu Dazai. Also I read the complete edition so I got the full story in one book (Which ultimately makes this easier). Before reading this I HIGHLY encourage reading the manga OR the original novel because it it AMAZING. I can't express how many emotions and headspins I went through while reading this. Please show these creators LOVE AND RESPECT because they DESERVE IT!!! ALSO SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!
What's it about?
"No Longer Human" is kinda confusing (lol). We're looking at a story through Usamaru Furuya's eyes. In the story, he's staying late at his office looking for a new story to write into a manga. While scrolling through various stories he comes across an "ouch" diary (Basically someone's sad/depressing/miserable life being documented) and decides to look into it, especially after seeing the pictures of who it's about.
Now, we move onto the the entirety of the diary. Our main character is Yozo Oba, who we start off seeing at 17. He's known as a class clown and an amazingly good looking guy. However, we find out very quickly that he does it because in reality, his father always pressured him to "be a man" and "be ordinary" due to his lack of connection with others and how he couldn't show his emotions well. Oh, I should probably mention that Yozo comes from a rich family (Which is very important throughout) so he also starts off very rich but keeps it on the down-low.
Yozo then meets a guy named Masao Horiki. (And I just have to say, I actually just don't like this guy. Idk his vibe is off and later on he makes me more mad but I'll talk about that later...). Yozo and Horiki become quick friends and they go out for dinner. Horiki is pretty carefree and outgoing, but I have to admit, he's a pretty bad infuence. I say this because once Horiki finds out Yozo is rich, he tells him they should go out. From there, Yozo makes it a habit of going out to brothels and drinking a lot too. evernyually, Yozo pretty much gets consumed by that lifestyle and stops going to school. By this point, he's also joined a radical political group because he just kinda spoke out randomly. During these political group meetings, he pretty much doesn't listen and ponders on the fact that he can't remember what his father looks like.
Skipping a bit, Yozo's dad gets pretty upset at the fact that Yozo, who is supposed to be going to his prestine school, hasn't been showing up. So, sets up Yozo into a hovel apartment and lowers his allowance to 60,000 yen a month, which is about 375 USD. After this scene, we're brought to the political group eating outside together where he talks to a woman named Misaki, who he confides in to tell her that he hasn't eaten. She takes on a slightly sisterly role and makes sure that he eats properly. A little later, the political group plans to blow up ten corperations and appoint Yozo as the captain of it all. He appears nervous about this but we then cut to the woman and Yozo eating dinner and she offers to buy him a laptop to "keep up with what's going on in the world". (The way he words it is kinda convelouted). Eventually, they both get pretty drunk and have sex, with the edition of Yozo calling her body slatternly (which means dirty or untidy) as he imagined it (His words not mine). He then gets a knock on the door. He recognizes the voice as Saski, Misaki's partner (idk if they're married or just dating) and he flees through the window. He concludes that Saski had it out for him and concluded that that was the reason he was made captain of the operation.
