Well this was a long, disturbing, and weird as shit book but I'm kind of glad I read it as I learned a lot about a person I never knew about despite being extremely famous in Japan.

This is about Yozo Oba, a young man who you grow with from his childhood to adult years. A weak person who always worries about others thinking of him as something, well, not human. And so he plays the part, acts a certain way, to make sure he is liked. But in doing so he alienates and destroys the people around him. Suicided, murder, betrayal, so much this person Oba does to only end up hurting everyone around him.

The idea of this book is great. There's moments that are horrifying. Not in the supernatural way you might be used to with Junji Ito but more realistic and horrible human nature horror. And in the end the opening few chapters are fantastic, heavy, and disturbing. As we get further into Oba's life, it starts to feel lost on what story it wants to tell. The plot feels halted without any clear reason to drag on storylines. I get the drug storyline and why it's important but the needlessly endless pages of tripping just didn't work for me. The extra scenes of relationships to only barely be mentioned later felt pointless as well.

Still, it is a very intriguing book. The art is fantastic, and when it IS good it's great. I just wish more of it fit the great part of it. A 3.5 out of 5.