Summary of No Longer Human by Junji Ito

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Step into the haunting world of No Longer Human by Junji Ito, a chilling manga adaptation of Osamu Dazai’s classic masterpiece. In this full story summary and dark psychological analysis, we explore the tragic life of Yozo Oba — a man unable to connect with humanity, trapped behind masks of false smiles, and spiraling into despair. #NoLongerHuman #JunjiIto #MangaSummary #StoryExplained #PsychologicalHorror #HorrorManga #OsamuDazai #DarkStory #JunjiItoHorror #MangaAnalysis #FullStorySummary #JapaneseLiterature #HorrorStoryExplained

Transcript

00:00Welcome back to MythBriefs. Today, we step into the shadowed pages of No Longer Human by Junji

00:07Ito, a haunting descent into the mind of a man who could never belong. Prepare yourself,

00:13this is not just a story, it's a confession from the edge of humanity.

00:18The story of No Longer Human unfolds like a haunting confession,

00:22a journey into the mind of a man who never felt human to begin with.

00:27Junji Ito's adaptation of Osamu Desai's literary masterpiece transforms an already tragic

00:33tale into a chilling visual descent into despair. We begin with Yozo Oba, a young man whose life is

00:40an endless masquerade. From an early age, he learns to survive by wearing masks, not literal ones,

00:48but masks of behavior. He makes people laugh, acts clumsy, plays the fool. To everyone else,

00:56he seems charming, harmless, maybe even naive. But inside, Yozo feels like an alien among humans.

01:05He cannot understand emotions, he cannot feel a connection to anyone, not even to himself.

01:12He watches people interact and imitates them, like a stranger studying an unfamiliar species.

01:18Behind his polite smile lies a deep, unshakable emptiness.

01:22Yozo's childhood is defined by this performance. He grows up in a wealthy family but never experiences

01:30warmth or genuine love. His father is a strict politician, more concerned with appearances

01:36than affection. His siblings keep their distance. So Yozo retreats further into his act, hiding his

01:45alienation with humor. But this constant performance erodes his sense of self. Over time, he begins to

01:53lose track of who he really is, or if he even exists at all. As Yozo enters school, his world becomes more

02:01complicated. His classmates see him as the funny one, the harmless clown who makes lessons bearable.

02:07Teachers think he's light-hearted and carefree. But it's all a lie, a calculated survival tactic.

02:16At night, when no one's watching, Yozo sinks into a silent panic, wondering why he was born in the first

02:23place. When he moves to Tokyo for college, his fragile disguise begins to crack. The bustling city

02:31only amplifies his sense of isolation. He starts drinking heavily, frequenting bars and surrounding

02:38himself with other lost souls, artists, drifters, and political radicals. One such figure is Hariki,

02:46a man who pulls Yozo deeper into a lifestyle of reckless indulgence. Hariki is dangerous, manipulative,

02:54but Yozo clings to him out of fear of being alone. It's during this time that Yozo meets a young

03:00woman named Tsuniko. She's quiet, vulnerable, and, like him, carries invisible scars. The two form a

03:09desperate bond, not out of love, but out of mutual hopelessness. They begin living together, drowning

03:16their days in alcohol, avoiding reality. But their connection is built on despair, and despair is a

03:23fragile foundation. One night, in a moment of complete surrender to their misery, Tsuniko proposes they end

03:31their lives together. Without hesitation, Yozo agrees. They throw themselves into the cold sea.

03:40Only Yozo survives. The incident leaves him shattered. His guilt is overwhelming, yet he still cannot feel in

03:48the way a human should. He's arrested for the attempted double suicide, his family disgraced.

03:56His father pulls strings to keep him out of prison, but the price is exile from his family's home.

04:02Yozo is now completely alone in Tokyo, with no purpose, no identity, and nowhere to belong.

04:10The rest of part one follows Yozo's spiral into further detachment.

04:14He becomes entangled with women he does not love, drinks himself into oblivion, and drifts from place

04:21to place. The mask he wears in public grows heavier, harder to hold in place. Every day feels like a

04:29performance he never auditioned for, one he can't quit. By the end of this first act, Yozo stands on

04:36the edge of something irreversible. He has lost Tsuniko, lost his family, and lost the illusion that he

04:43might one day fit into the world of human beings. All that remains is a hollow shell of a man, and the

04:50deep, suffocating darkness that is slowly swallowing him whole. Yozo's descent accelerates.

04:58His life becomes a series of fleeting encounters and temporary shelters, each one more unstable than

05:04the last. The people around him see a man who smiles, jokes, and drinks without care, but inside,

05:11he's drowning in a sea of numbness. After Tsuniko's death, Yozo drifts into a relationship

05:18with a bar hostess named Shizuko. She offers him food, drink, and a bed to sleep in, but the

05:25connection is shallow. He treats her kindness as just another disguise he must maintain, pretending

05:32to be grateful, pretending to care. But Yozo's dependence on alcohol deepens, and with it,

05:39his ability to keep the mask from slipping begins to fade. Through Shizuko, Yozo meets Yoshiko,

05:46a gentle and innocent young woman. Yoshiko radiates purity, a quality Yozo finds both comforting and

05:54terrifying. For a brief moment, he wonders if she might be the one person who can accept him for what

06:00he truly is. He marries her, hoping that marriage will anchor him, give him a role he can play

06:06convincingly. For a time, it almost works. Yoshiko's kindness softens the edges of his despair.

06:15She sees him not as a failure, but as someone worth loving. Yozo starts to think maybe, just maybe,

06:23he can live as a normal human being. But that fragile hope shatters when a neighbor attempts

06:29to assault Yoshiko. The incident leaves her emotionally broken and Yozo spirals into rage and guilt.

06:37The event confirms his darkest belief, that he is cursed, that everyone close to him will suffer.

06:44His drinking becomes uncontrollable. He gambles away what little money they have.

06:50Eventually, Yoshiko's family intervenes, taking her away from him. Once again, Yozo is abandoned,

06:58stripped of the illusion of belonging. Now utterly destitute, he turns to morphine,

07:04letting the drug numb whatever fragments of emotion he has left. His body weakens,

07:10his mind frays. The few friends he once had vanish, unwilling to watch his self-destruction any longer.

07:18Hariki reappears, but not as a savior, only to exploit Yozo's weakness for his own gain.

07:24In the final stretch of his confession, Yozo is caught in a police raid for drug possession.

07:31With no one left to defend him, he's declared mentally unfit and sent to a remote asylum.

07:37Here, stripped of all distractions, Yozo faces himself, or rather, the void where his

07:43self should have been all along. Junji Ito's illustrations turn these final scenes into

07:50something nightmarish. Yozo's face becomes a mask of twisted expressions, sometimes human,

07:57sometimes monstrous. The world around him warps and distorts, reflecting his total disconnection from

08:03reality. In his last written words, Yozo does not ask for forgiveness. He does not seek redemption.

08:11He has never been human. He will never be human. And now, at the end, he no longer wishes to try.

08:25If this journey into the dark world of no longer human gripped you, don't forget to like the video,

08:31subscribe to MythBriefs, and ring the bell so you never miss our next story from the shadows.

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