QueenMisanagi

The whole BSD fandom when the initial art came out and now we finally have an answer

Within the book lie many universes and in one of them, Dazai Osamu is perfectly normal and perfectly happy…

He is a writer with a breakout bestselling novel, No Longer Human, enjoying his newfound fame.

(when it comes to Akutagawa)

Spoilers ahead

So in the original Death Note, Light Yagami is a WINNER. He is a handsome, popular boy who was a top scorer in the nationwide high school exam. He also got a perfect score in the university entrance exam of a top uni. Girls like him. His family loves him. His family is doing well financially too. From the outside, he is perfect.

He is your typical school prince in a shoujo manga. And this is a very important aspect of his character -- that there is visibly nothing wrong with him. He shouldn't be angry at the world. The only thing that made him mad was his father's influence because of his father's work with the police. Yes, he was upset with the injustices of the world and he wanted to do something about it... but again, having his background, you wouldn't expect someone like him to be Kira. Therein lies the complexity of his character. He was a teenage boy who was too intelligent and somehow also bored of life. I am no psychologist but he had been described as a sociopath and a narcissist by people. This is even part of his allure. Is he just straight up mentally troubled because he threw everything away when he was born with everything most people would want?

In the new live action, however, I was so confused. The first scene was him accompanying a friend to a Misa Misa concert. So that's the first difference: He has a friend he seems to genuinely care about. While old Light Yagami did have friends, he didn't really consider them friends or up to his level. He saw pawns and lackeys.

Then he works as a minimum wage worker for a restaurant. HUH?

I had to check the label of what I'm watching. Is this correct? Is this really Death Note?

Then, HE GOT BULLIED by some gangster-looking punk. So is this justifying why he wanted revenge? The Death Note was dropped on his way home back from his work.

He wrote the bully's name and then felt guilty and tried to erase it. Later on, he tried to find out what happened to the bully and he got a panic attack after finding out that the bully died. OG LIGHT YAGAMI WOULDN'T REACT LIKE THIS.

Anyway I stopped watching after that. They butchered Light's character. They made him human and justified his actions. Well, okay, I skimmed the other parts and in another scene still in the first episode, he cries and throws the Death Note over the roof of a tall building. OG LIGHT YAGAMI WOULD NEVER.

Why did they change him so bad? Are they finding a way to justify his actions? Is the bullying situation in Japan so bad that they have to incorporate it in the story somehow so that Light seems relatable? I looked into comments of people on Reddit and there are some who like him because you can root for him and he is sympathetic. Okay self-projectors. This isn't some k-drama where you want to root for the bullied kid and he finally he gets some divine power to right some wrongs.

OG Light was a tragic and beautiful character who felt it was his divine right to use the Death Note. This 2015 Light is someone I don't know and I won't acknowledge. He's a random wimp who got a notebook he doesn't even want to use.

No Longer Human Manga by Junji Ito, based on Osamu Dazai's Novel

Well, I finally bought this beauty. (That's one way to phrase it!)

Spoilers alert: I will discuss the differences

There are many differences in terms of the story. Let's just say it's based on the novel and not a 100% faithful adaptation. Junji Ito added scenes that highlighted the horror elements of Yozo's experiences (abuse, etc.) and it wouldn't be Junji Ito if they weren't scary-looking.

But in a way, I think it was justified to show the abuse scenes this way. Abuse, assaults are truly horrific experiences. No, they are not exaggerations. This is how a person lives with the trauma. It is really like living in an endless, gruesome nightmare. I say this as someone who (barely) survived similar abuses. So, in a way, it felt validating. It felt like another layer of validation, after reading about the isolation, loneliness, etc. in the original novel.

Another difference is that there were so many deaths. So. Many. Deaths... Characters mentioned in passing in the novel were suddenly given more prominent roles and were murdering people, Junji Ito-style.

I also found it funny how they introduced the part where Yozo got involved with the socialist movement. It felt like this: Do you know what's worse than inciting murder? Joining a socialist group.

Okay, Japan. We know how you feel about this ideology, then.

Another big difference was IRL Dazai's inclusion in the manga. While IRL Dazai did more obvious self-inserts in his other stories like The Beggar Student, iirc there are no scenes of named self-inserts in No Longer Human.

In the manga, there are extended scenes of IRL Dazai and Yozo in rehab together. For the ending, IRL Dazai also visits Yozo.

While the novel is quite vague on what happens to Yozo, Ito's manga version confidently decides what became of him.

In the battle versus Verlaine towards the end of the story, we get to meet (albeit very briefly) Port Mafia members who are also ability users. What caught my attention was that an ice manipulator was named (Karen) but the rest were not. I was particularly interested in the gloomy boy who seemed concerned about her. This boy could manipulate time.

I was working on a fic (Becoming Dazai Osamu) where the two of them were semi-prominent characters so I was researching who the inspiration for this boy could be (an author or a character) and I ended up searching for characters who could manipulate time. I hit a dead end then so I just used another name.

Fast forward to now and I have another theory. The boy's name could be Bernard from Bernard's Watch. It's actually a British TV series from the '90s that had a reboot in the '00s (with slight variations) and it also aired in Ireland, Australia and several countries in Eastern Europe. It's been made into a book as well. And apparently, the inspiration or concept for this whole series was an episode of The Twilight Zone called "A Kind of Stopwatch".

In the story, Bernard was given a pocketwatch that could stop time for everyone else, but in return, it uses iron molecules in his body, giving him aneamia. (A reference to the gloomy nature of the character?) His mother is also dead and his dad is never around. (In the book, the boy referenced that everyone in his family is gone... okay a bit extreme.) And finally, one of his friends is named Karen who likes ice skating!

This is just a theory, however. And it made me think how Asagiri could have stumbled upon this obscure show and book from the '90s. I checked and Bernard's Watch itself wasn't translated into Japanese nor was the show syndicated in Japan. They're still available, but in its original English format.

However, other books by Andrew Norriss' (the author) were translated to Japanese such as Aquila, Jessica's Ghost, etc. Most of them dabble in magic realism. So perhaps this was how Asagiri could have been familiar with Norriss' works.

How it ended…

A rare show of fatherly affection. These are photos from the stage play and I’m uploading it here as reference for Chapter 23 of The Crimson Era.

TOP by Ueda Keisuke (English Translation)

【TOP】Lyrics Within my clenched fist What remains unchanged even now Someone's wishes and feelings I have burdened

If you want to laugh and call me foolish Let them laugh Never give up so The summit is a lonely place Is it hope or despair? Only god knows the world

Fences and towering walls I'll leap over them, smash them down without fear Until I grasp the future beyond

I don't want to stumble, so I hide my weakness Pretend I'm fine I don't cry even if I am sad. No need for tears. Cast aside longing for what you don't have and false bravado. Raise your fist.

The view I saw at that place I aimed for, Never forget it as you move beyond.

If you want to laugh and call me foolish, Let them laugh. Never give up so The summit is a lonely place. Is it hope or despair? Only God knows the world. Don't fear, challenge it. Raise your fist.

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