Crazyanimegyrl

No Longer Human (Ningen Shikkaku) [4 episodes] – A high school student becomes lost and alienated. Despondent and aimless, he falls into a cycle of self abuse, depression and drugs that taints his life for years. Told in three chapters, each chapter deals with a different point in his life and the final chapter leaves him standing alone – an empty and hollow caricature of his former self.

Finally!  >=)  My Anime Prayers has been answered and a subbed episode is out!  Can’t begin to tell ya how elated I was to download and watch!  Arigato INP for subbing.

This first episode was dark and haunting — just the way I like it!

The episode begins with the main character [Showa Era – 4th Year: Summer] narrating the story.  He talks of how his life is shameful and he couldn’t comprehend the way a human lived.  The story moves to a woman rushing to a bar where she works as a hostess.  The narrator will be later accused of murdering this woman.  She has spent the day looking for her husband and this caused her to be late.  Her hostess name is Mayumi and later it become known that her real name is Tsuneko.

While she is preparing herself, a Detective and his men are watching a building; there is a Anti-Social Movement Meeting taken place there.  This is where we come face-to-face with the narrator, the main character of the story. The speaker tells of how thousands of jobs has been lost and that things were in dire strait.  He goes on to say how prostitution has increased.  He then repeats part of the sentence and on cue, the boy gets up and tells how in order to pay for the family debt, his sister had to be sold.  This tale sends the crowd into an anger frenzy.  The Speaker tells the crowd to sign up for the movement and help cover arms expenses.  Later, in the bathroom, the Speaker and the boy let it be known that all was a scam.  To steal money from already struggling people.  The student is from a wealthy family and is in fear of losing his living allowance because his father is angry that he has joined the movement.

The Detective and his men bursts through the door of the bathroom, and the student and the speaker jumps out of the window and escapes.

The Detective and one of his men sees the student on the streets and follows him.  He turns down an alley and begins to run.  Slowing down, a phantom that is his father is in front of him.  He has a flashback of  his father telling him that he was going to Tokyo University.  The phantom disappears and the student states that he wanted to become an artist.  He starts running and the Detective chases after him.  The student escapes into the bar where Mayumi works and she hurries to him because the customer she has is troublesome.  The Detective comes into the bar and she hides the student under her dress.  The Detective asked where her customer was, and she tells him that he was in the toilet.  He is hesitant, and keeps staring at Mayumi.  He focuses on her dress and the student thought he was going to get caught.  The Detective eventually leaves and goes into the bathroom.  The man that was in there was not the student.  The Detective takes his leave and the student comes out from under the woman’s dress.

The two leaves the bar and he tells her how she saved his life.  He wants to know why and she asked if he was a Tokko (cop?) and that he was a regular.  She saved him because the Detective was arrogant and she hated him, and he [the Student] was cowering.  The two passes the Detective on the bridge and she holds him off and tells the Student to run.  As he’s running,  he has a flashback of when he was younger taking a photo and the photographer calls him You-chan and being surrounded by laughing women.  Later, his real name surface:  Youzou.  Youzou goes back to Mayumi who’s been hurt by the Detective.  She is glad that he came back for her, and is happy.  Later, the two share a ‘moment.’

Youzou and Mayumi take a good look at their lives and decided that it wasn’t worth too much and they decided to kill themselves together.  On their trip to suicide, they stopped to buy a box of sleeping pills.  They went to the Ocean.  There, they take a bunch of them.  Going to a cliff, Mayumi prepares herself.  She tells Youzou that she’s getting sleepy and moving towards the edge of the cliff, Mayumi asked Youzou to push her, and she would see him soon afterwards.  Youzou abides and pushes her off the cliff.  Afterwards he couldn’t believe that he done.  Later a fisherman sees the unconscious body of Youzou.  Another tells him it was a double suicide because they found women’s clothing on the cliff.  Youzou wakes up in the hospital and hears voice talking of people talking about how they were going to charge him with the double suicide.  The episode ends where it’s unclear whether Mayumi dies or not.

Wow… this first episode was great!  Between being in awe of the dark haunting scenes, the story was good.  It did not fail my expectations at all!!!    Totally recommend this series – especially if you are into dark series. 

What surprises me most is that this series was not picked up sooner.  But that’s just me though.

Rating:  9.0/10

So… shall I leave the link to download the first episode?  Sure I will!

Aoi Bungaku Ep. 1:  No Longer Human

Over and out,

Laters!

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