Margins
人間失格 / Ningen Shikkaku book cover 1
人間失格 / Ningen Shikkaku book cover 2
人間失格 / Ningen Shikkaku book cover 3
人間失格 / Ningen Shikkaku
Series · 4 books · 2009-2020

Books in series

No Longer Human, Vol. 1 book cover
#1

No Longer Human, Vol. 1

2009

In honor of the 100th birthday of Osamu Dazai, Usamaru Furuya retells Dazai's most important work No Longer Human in modern day Tokyo where modern vices can bring ruin to the self-loathing. Furuya's adaptation of No Longer Human takes place nearly seventy years after Dazai's original. Set in modern day Tokyo, Dazai's tale details the life of a young man originally from a well-off family from Japan's far north. Yozo Oba is a troubled soul incapable of revealing his true self to others. A weak constitution and the lingering trauma from some abuse administered by a relative forces him to uphold a facade of hollow jocularity since high school. The series is composed of three parts, referred to in the novel as "memorandums," which chronicle the life of Oba from his teens to late twenties. The comic is narrated by the artist, Furuya himself, making appearances at the start of each volume. In many ways, it could be said that Furuya has traveled a path that may be similar to Dazai's. Maybe that is what led these two together after 100 years. In this first of three parts, alternative comic artist Usamaru Furuya appears to be overcome with deadlines. While he has been published by some of the biggest names in the comics industry, his star still shines brightest as a cult favorite, an underground artist whose emo comics are the voice of a new generation. To escape the duldrums of work, he loses himself in the internet and comes across the journal of a man whose life sounds very familiar—Oba Yozo. In Oba's First Memorandum the teen is overcome by an intense feeling of alienation. This pressure is so strong he cannot cope with others making it impossible to socialize with those who surround him, even his own family. To counter this Oba plays the role of the fool in order to establish interpersonal relationships.
No Longer Human, Vol. 2 book cover
#2

No Longer Human, Vol. 2

2010

Furuya's adaptation of No Longer Human takes place nearly seventy years after Dazai's original. Set in modern day Tokyo, Dazai's tale details the life of a young man originally from a well-off family from Japan's far north. Yozo Oba is a troubled soul incapable of revealing his true self to others. A weak constitution and the lingering trauma from some abuse administered by a relative forces him to uphold a facade of hollow jocularity since high school. The series is composed of three parts, referred to in the novel as "memorandums," which chronicle the life of Oba from his teens to late twenties. The comic is narrated by the artist, Furuya himself playing the role originally held by the author Dazai, who makes appearances at the start of each volume. In many ways, it could be said that Furuya has traveled a path that may be similar to Dazai's. Maybe that is what led these two together after 100 years. In the second volume, comic artist Usamaru Furuya has become obsessed over Oba's behavior. Noticing how tormented this young man must have been, he begins to question whether he should continue reading these memoirs. He fears he may see his own future going down the same path. But, despite his fears he reads on now smitten with Oba and the cast of fre-nemies around him. Oba's Second Memorandum focuses on his college days. Increasingly paranoid about keeping up appearances he begins to neglect his studies and his ambitions of becoming an artist are now a thing of the past. He is spending money left and right. And soon finds himself in a destructive cycle of drinking and self-loathing. Spurred on by a fellow aspiring artist, he begins to take advantage of his family spending money like water to maintain his bad habits. So when the money well dries up, he tries to escape life entirely; fearing that his family and in turn the world has abandoned him. But his charms continue to linger. From here he begins to take advantage of his unique personality to live off the one-sided love of the women around him. Whether it be the experienced bar owner or the or the single-parent comics editor, Oba's heart never truly opens up but if these women give him another chance on life, he is willing to take it as long as their own personal expectations do not overwhelm him.
No Longer Human, Vol. 3 book cover
#3

No Longer Human, Vol. 3

2009

In this final volume of No Longer Human, Yozo has been lulled into a sense of comfort with his new life and young wife. All that he holds dear is completely destroyed when he finds out that the person he loves is even potentially worse off than he. After his wife is sexually assualted by a business acquaintence, Yozo can no longer invision her as the beautiful pure woman that tamed his soul many months before. Now his wife is little more than a doll for charming men, and instead of confronting her or even devising a threat for divorse, Yozo simply moves on. But moving forward towards nothingness is not progess. It can only be seen as the end. From here on out Yozo's life is sub-human and when comic artist Usamaru Furuya realizes that, he is glad he has the opportunity to work and live his life as he pleases (even with the pressures of work constantly lurking).
No Longer Human Complete Edition book cover
#1-3

No Longer Human Complete Edition

2020

Osamu Dazai's classic tale retold by Usamaru Furuya is now in a complete omnibus edition! Set in modern-day Tokyo, Dazai's tale details the life of a young man originally from a well-off family from Japan's far north. Yozo Oba is a troubled soul incapable of revealing his true self to others. A weak constitution and the lingering trauma from some abuse administered by a relative forces him to uphold a facade of hollow jocularity since high school. The series is composed of three parts, referred to in the novel as memorandums, which chronicle the life of Oba from his teens to late twenties. The comic is narrated by the artist, Furuya himself, making appearances at the start of each volume.

Authors

Usamaru Furuya
Usamaru Furuya
Author · 12 books

Usamaru Furuya (古屋兎丸) is a Japanese manga creator from Tokyo. His production covers a variety of art styles and genres, such as horror, humour, slice-of-life, erotica, sci-fi, always with a personal surrealistic touch. Society oppression and the human condition are common themes in his body of work. Furuya showed an interest in comics making since elementary school. He graduated from Tama Art University, where he had studied sculpture and oil painting. His manga career started in the alternative magazine 'Garo', in which he published a series of one-page comics called Palepoli (1994-1995). He then worked on Short Cuts (1996-1999), a gag manga serialised in the mainstream magazine 'Weekly Young Sunday'. Other short stories from the same period were collected in the books Garden (2000) and Plastic Girl (2000). Over the years Furuya has created work for a number of manga magazines, underground and mainstream. Among his series available in one or more Western languages are: the dystopian The Music of Marie (2000-2001); the surreal horror Lychee Light Club (2005-2006), loosely based on a play by Norimizu Ameya; the post-apocalyptic 51 Ways to Save Her (2006-2007); Genkaku Picasso (2008-2010); No Longer Human (2009-2011), adaptation of a novel by Osamu Dazai; Amane Gymnasium (2017-2020).

Osamu Dazai
Osamu Dazai
Author · 38 books

Osamu DAZAI (native name: 太宰治, real name Shūji Tsushima) was a Japanese author who is considered one of the foremost fiction writers of 20th-century Japan. A number of his most popular works, such as Shayō (The Setting Sun) and Ningen Shikkaku (No Longer Human), are considered modern-day classics in Japan. With a semi-autobiographical style and transparency into his personal life, Dazai’s stories have intrigued the minds of many readers. His books also bring about awareness to a number of important topics such as human nature, mental illness, social relationships, and postwar Japan.

548 Market St PMB 65688, San Francisco California 94104-5401 USA
© 2025 Paratext Inc. All rights reserved
人間失格 / Ningen Shikkaku