Junji Ito Opens Up About No Longer Human in New Interview

Junji Ito is one of the greatest masters of horror the world over, and arguably, the greatest horror mangaka to ever dip their pen into the medium. With numerous horror stories under his belt, he is seeing two of his biggest properties receive adaptations in the form of Toonami’s upcoming Uzumaki anime and a live action Hollywood adaptation of his succubus story, Tomie. Now, having recently released a new manga adaptation of the story, No Longer Human, Ito has sat down with Viz Media to dive into the story itself and reveal how he came to create this new adaptation.

Ito takes the opportunity to discuss how he came to adapt the Osamu Dazai story, his history with No Longer Human, what other stories of Dazai he has experienced in the past, what changes he had to make in adapting this terrifying tale, and what he hopes that his readers will take away from his adaptation. No Longer Human follows the story of Yozo Oba, struggling with depression and anxiety as his world warps into something that is steeped in horror.

Junji’s strength in horror is his ability to take the mundane and carry it into a nightmare, with terror that is sometimes so vast and unspeakable that it is hard to understand. With the likes of sharks stomping around on spider legs and giant human heads floating through the sky in search of victims, we’re sure that No Longer Human will be another of Ito’s horror masterpieces.

Will you be picking up Junji Ito’s No Longer Human for the holidays? What is your favorite tale from Ito to date? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and Junji Ito!

No Longer Human is currently available for purchase and the official description of the series reads as such:

“Mine has been a life of much shame. I can’t even guess myself what it must be to live the life of a human being. Plagued by a maddening anxiety, the terrible disconnect between his own concept of happiness and the joy of the rest of the world, Yozo Oba plays the clown in his dissolute life, holding up a mask for those around him as he spirals ever downward, locked arm-in-arm with death. Osamu Dazai’s immortal―and supposedly autobiographical―work of Japanese literature, is perfectly adapted here into a manga by Junji Ito. The imagery wrenches open the text of the novel one line at a time to sublimate Yozo’s mental landscape into something even more delicate and grotesque. This is the ultimate in art by Ito, proof that nothing can surpass the terror of the human psyche.”