Blue Literature
No Longer Human
Host Sakai Masato
There are numerous women in No Longer Human,
and Dazai himself was quite the playboy.
Osamu Dazai Photo: Shigeru Tamura
Love Affairs
In Kamakura, he caused an uproar by attempting a double suicide with Shimeko Tanabe.
Shimeko Tanabe
Dazai survived while Shimeko passed away.
He married Michiko Ishihara after they were brought together by Masuji Ibuse.
Michiko Ishihara
One of his lovers, Shizuko Ota, helped write The Setting Sun.
Shizuko Ota
Tomie Yamazaki
Sponsored by the Asahi Shimbun
And Tomie Yamazaki was another lover with whom he finally committed a double suicide.
Such intense, rich relationships.
Intense, rich
relationships
Intense, rich
relationships
Among those, there's one incident that sticks out.
It happened when Dazai was 27.
Hatsuyo Oyama, his common law wife at the time,
Hatsuyo Oyama
With collaboration from Mr. Eiko Fujita
committed adultery with Dazai's brother-in-law
while Dazai was hospitalized and being treated for his drug addiction.
What influence did this incident have on Dazai, and on No Longer Human?
The masterpieces are blue.
The masterpieces are blue
This is the last episode of No Longer Human.
1932
Winter
No Longer Human
Episode Four
New World
Yozo Oba
Is anyone here?
Yes!
Is this Oba's?
Yeah.
Are you one of those pushy salesmen? I don't want to buy anything!
No, I'm, er...
Horiki!
It's Horiki, isn't it?
It's been a long time. I'm happy you found this place.
I have something to tell you.
Uh...
He's an old friend of mine.
Ah, sorry about that!
It's okay.
What's with your hair?
Well, you know...
Dear, don't stand around in the doorway. Why don't you have him come in?
Oh, that's right, come in.
You seem to be doing well.
We got married.
How many have you had now?
Don't ask me that.
How many years has it been since I last saw you?
I had a couple things to take care of.
A couple?
Probably nothing worth mentioning.
What's this?
I heard your comics sell pretty well.
Please get us some tea... Actually, better make that sake and snacks.
Okay!
I don't have much time, forget the sake.
It's all right.
Have you cured your OCD?
You used to wash your hands just about every time you said something, didn't you?
Hey, did you come to drag up bad memories?
No.
I'm fine now.
I feel like I became a real human thanks to her.
She seems like a nice girl.
Yeah.
Her specialty is trust.
Her specialty is trust?
Yeah.
She even trusted someone like me.
Isn't society just a collection of individuals?
After she told me that, I realized that society really was just a collection of individuals,
and I was no longer scared.
Society isn't that big of a deal.
Hey.
Oh, have you been drinking again?
Hey, are you a virgin?
How rude to ask a question like that all of a sudden!
I'll quit drinking...
If you marry me.
Save me.
I beg of you.
So you tainted an untouched virgin.
I was reborn after meeting her.
She's my Maria.
Let's get this one.
Let's rent it together,
and live here, just the two of us.
But... Should we really?
We'll manage to afford it somehow.
Somehow?
All I have to do is draw comics that sell.
Please go downstairs.
You shouldn't come in here.
But...
Believe in me.
Okay.
I'll do anything to protect Yoshiko.
She's the first person that made me want to live for someone besides myself!
Nice, nice!
So you're finally in the mood.
Draw quickly.
Society wants to know everything about you!
You can become the most popular clown in Japan!
This is your reward.
I've got the manuscript!
That's how it is.
When I'm not working, I occasionally take her to the cinema or to eat in Ginza.
This must be what people call happiness.
But...
People who read your comics will eventually want more excitement.
You haven't read any of my works, have you?
I'm a hardcore clown.
Don't underestimate me.
It's all lies anyway.
I can draw anything.
Maybe about half of it is true?
Well, I don't care either way.
And after that?
I'm asking what you're going to do after that.
You'll run out of material to sell quickly.
Well, that's definitely a problem.
That's why I'm thinking about drawing something I really want to draw.
Like that?
I haven't had much work lately, but I make enough to eat.
Excuse me.
Here it comes!
It's been a while since we last drank together!
Well...
What's the matter?
This isn't like you.
Uh...
Your boss is downstairs.
Huh?
Was today the deadline?
See, drinking sake right now would be...
What the hell are you saying!
Tell him to wait a bit.
He'll get bored fast and go home while we're drinking.
That'd be bad!
This is...
It's okay, it's okay.
I'm glad you came to visit me.
What about our snacks?
I'm cooking beans...
They'll be done soon.
Nice!
C'mon, drink!
Today's a good day!
U-Uhm.
By the way, what did you come here for?
Oh right.
Day before yesterday, I ran into that flounder guy...
Sounds like your dad passed away.
A month ago.
Seems he had a peptic ulcer.
I know you said you wouldn't come back to Tsugaru until you had become a first-class artist,
and that you resented your father.
But I think the least you can do is follow the moral principles and put up an incense stick for him.
Screw moral principles!
Screw...
Yozo...
I strayed from moral principles long ago.
So what the hell are you talking about?
Moral principles? What a laugh!
You just wanted to get acknowledged by your father!
He was just a politician.
He's not in this world anymore.
Yozo!
Hey!
Are you all right?
It's all the same to me.
My father.
Society.
Even me.
As long as I have her, I...
Yoshiko!
Hold on!
I'll get you some water.
Yozo!
Even this place is hell.
Here too?
There are worse hells than this?
I wonder.
I don't know what to say.
Bad timing, but I have to go now.
Go?
Wait!
Hey!
Being alone with her now is...!
I have to go to hell too.
To hell?
Yeah.
I enlisted.
Enlisted?
In the army?
We're deploying tonight.
I have to get ready.
Bye!
Wait, Horiki!
Don't go!
Please don't go!
Don't ask the impossible.
Aren't you an artist?
Why are you going to war?
The world is about to break.
Maybe I feel it even stronger because I'm an artist.
Yozo.
When does a human cross the line?
It's when he takes things from others because he's hungry. Then he's not a human anymore.
I wonder if you crossed it when you took that woman's life.
I didn't kill her!
I didn't...
Well, listen!
I didn't...
You certainly did, but it's not as bad as it might seem, since you respected her will.
But from now on, spoiled kids can't be allowed to live.
In the coming era, everyone will stop being human and turn into beasts.
If that's happening, I'm heading straight for it.
I'll kill people from all over the world.
Well, take care.
Not like you can.
Why?
Why didn't you save me?
Save, as if I...
...So I didn't really have a job.
It was ridiculous of me to think that something like my comics would sell.
In order to get me a job from that guy, you...
Everything was my fault.
Yoshiko was supposed to be my goddess.
But once you start suspecting someone of something,
that faint feeling capable of changing your idea about them rears its ugly head.
I can't go back to normal, right?
I lack something that a human should have.
I'm... no longer human.
No!
We flushed his stomach, but treating this patient would be difficult here.
Then we have no choice but to put him into a madhouse?
How soon is he going to be discharged?
It would be best to watch over him for three days.
Can't we do it a bit sooner?
Well, I don't think that would...
If we leave him here, he'll just try to commit suicide again.
Geez, all he does is cause trouble for others.
It seems Yo dying is quite against your interests.
Well, I get it.
You're still getting Yo's allowance from his family in Tsugaru, right?
If only I didn't have to look after that trash...
Who do you think you're calling trash?
The Yo we know is very honest and sensitive.
If only he didn't drink...
No, even when he did, he was like a god.
I've been waiting for you.
What would you like?
I'm in pain.
Give me something that will put me at ease.
Very well...
Oh, there you are.
We'll always be together from now on.
In order to find something...
Even if we oversleep,
we still wake up every day.
It's not too late.
We say "hello".
Put on a smile,
no matter how small it is.
Every waking moment,
this world needs you.
It's not too late.
We say "hello".
Next Time
In the Woods Beneath the Cherry Blossoms in Full Bloom
Part 1
Next Time
In the Woods Beneath the Cherry Blossoms in Full Bloom
Part 1