*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 Itou. 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 Itou, proof that nothing can surpass the terror of the human psyche. (Source: VIZ Media)

Set in modern day Tokyo, Dazai's tale details the life of a young man originally from a well-off family from 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 forces 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. (Source: Kodansha USA) *Adaptation of the original work of Dazai Osamu.*

Manga based on the original classic novel by Dazai Osamu. Illustrated by Yasunori Ninose, it depicts human beings' negative emotion and sexual intercourse as tentacles, which have enthralled Ninose since he was five years old.

This is the first manga edition in English of The Setting Sun, Osamu Dazai's classic novel, often considered his masterpiece. Set in the aftermath of World War II, this is the story of Kazuko, a strong-willed young woman from an aristocratic family that has fallen into poverty since the war. The book follows Kazuko's journey as she and her family struggle to survive and adapt to the harsh new conditions. In addition to having to move from Tokyo to the countryside, where she is forced to work in the fields to support the family, she has to deal with a difficult divorce, the birth of a stillborn child, and the return of her drug-addicted brother from the war. This gripping and inspiring portrait of one woman's determination to survive in a society that is in the grip of a social and moral crisis tells one story in a fast-changing world, with universal themes that resonates with readers today. (Source: Tuttle Publishing)

Manga version of the novel Ningen Shikkaku by Osamu Dazai.

Portraying himself as a failure, the protagonist of Osamu Dazai's No Longer Human narrates a seemingly normal life even while he feels himself incapable of understanding human beings. Oba Yozo's attempts to reconcile himself to the world around him begin in early childhood, continue through high school, where he becomes a "clown" to mask his alienation, and eventually lead to a failed suicide attempt as an adult. Without sentimentality, he records the casual cruelties of life and its fleeting moments of human connection and tenderness. Source: New Directions

A day in the life of a teenage girl, on the verge of becoming a woman. She is dealing with a depressed mom, coping with the recent death of her dad, school and the other problems girls like her deal on a daily base. While her inner turmoil is boiling, she keeps a cool façade when it comes to portraying what she feels. Sometimes hypocritical, sometimes sad but interesting. [source: manoflabook]

Suwa and her father live alone on the slopes of Horsebare Mountain, eking out the most meager of existences. During the warmer months the beautiful waterfall brings a few sightseers, but when winter comes there is only solitude. Suwa would do anything to escape the life to which her father has resigned himself. And the lure of the river is strong... This early classic from the author of Japan’s greatest modern novel is a dark, elliptical tale of hopelessness that weaves the folklore of the mountains into an anti-coming-of-age story as vividly relevant today as it was when it was written nearly a hundred years ago.

"All we need is to live." From the perspective of the wife who supports the libertine writer Otani, "Villon's Wife" explores the true nature of men and women during the chaotic period following the defeat in the war. "Pandora's Box" depicts the growth of a young man named Hibari through a love affair set in a tuberculosis sanatorium called the Health Dojo, as well as "Cherry" and "Good-bye," four masterpieces from the later years of the literary master Dazai, who lived a turbulent life, have been adapted into manga!