No Longer Human by Usamaru Furuya was first released with English translation by Vertical and NOiSE by Tsutomu Nihei was first released with English translation by Tokyopop. Both have since gone out of print with volumes of No Longer Human reaching into the hundreds and NOiSE selling for around $80-$90 USD. These were originally pricey to collect, but it was announced at Anime NYC that Kodansha is bringing these originally hard-to-find and out-of-print manga series back to print in the Fall of 2022.
No Longer Human is getting a new format release, a Complete Edition that collects all three volumes of No Longer Human by Usamaru Furuya. NOiSE is a digital-to-print release, so it was released digitally first and will be coming to print in the future.
No Longer Human was written in honor of the 100th birthday of Osamu Dazai. Usamaru Furuya retells Dazai’s most important work No Longer Human in modern-day Tokyo where modern vices can bring ruin to self-loathing. Furuya’s adaptation of No Longer Human takes place nearly seventy years after Dazai’s original. Set in modern-day Tokyo, Dazai’s tale details the life of a young man originally from a well-off family in Japan’s far north. Yozo Oba is a troubled soul incapable of revealing his true self to others.
A weak constitution and the lingering trauma from some abuse administered by a relative force him to uphold a facade of hollow jocularity since high school. The series is composed of three parts, referred to in the novel as “memorandums,” which chronicle the life of Oba from his teens to late twenties. The comic is narrated by the artist, Furuya himself, making appearances at the start of each volume. In many ways, it could be said that Furuya has traveled a path that may be similar to Dazai.
NOiSE is set in the BLAME! universe. As detective Musubi Susono investigates a series of child kidnappings, her own partner is viciously murdered. But when the investigation takes a brutal turn, she is suddenly confronted by the killer—and his sadistic silicon creature.
Official release dates for both have yet to be revealed, but they are slated for Fall 2022 release according to Kodansha’s website.
In addition to the No Longer Human Complete Edition and NOiSE, Kodansha also announced that the following manga is coming to print: Wistoria: Wand and Sword, Go, Go, Loser Ranger!, Run Away With Me, Girl, Shonen Note: Boy Soprano, As a Reincarnated Aristocrat, I’ll Use My Appraisal Skill to Rise in the World, Miss Miyazen Would Love to Get Closer to You, Avant-garde Yumeko, An Older Guy’s VR First Love, The Iceblade Sorcerer Shall Rule the World, In the Clear Moonlit Dusk, Shangri-La Frontier, I Was Reincarnated as the 7th Prince, So I’ll Take My Time Perfecting My Magical Ability, and PTSD Radio.
They also revealed a new omnibus format for Noragami, Fire Force, and No. 6, manga box sets of Sweat and Soap, Wotakoi: Love Is Hard for Otaku, Rent-A-Girlfriend, and Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro, a Fully Compiled Edition of The Ghost in the Shell, a Collector’s Edition of Dissolving Classroom, and a paperback edition of KATANAGATARI.
Check out all of the new manga series that have been announced for 2022 so far!
