Loosely based on auto biological novel written by Osamu Dazai’s “No Longer Human”, Human Lost tells a story of a future where the human race have transformed into something inconceivable. In this era humanity have exceeded the requirement of conventional medicines and doctors, due to the cutting edge technology of nanomachines and SHELL system. These events have led many humans to surpass the typical age of death making them live beyond 120 years of age. As a side effects of this evolution of humanity, Japan has fallen into the depth of chaos, enduring many problems from economic falls and terrorism.
But the main struggle is against the grave issue from humans becoming “Lost”. Those who fall victim to this Human Lost phenomenon become agitated monster-like existence that seeks violence without any prudence. Reducing numbers of humans turning Lost, SHELL has tried their best until now but are afraid of its disruption as time goes on. After this intro, the story follows with our main protagonist named Youzou Oba who is originally orphaned and is struggling with his artist career. Oba stumbles across a man named Masao Horiki who hands over a drug to Oba and his friend that can activate the state of Human Lost. Oba’s friend starts getting into the state of Lost as they try to make their way towards SHELL’s headquarters and later on Oba also transforms into the state of Lost. When his friend starts devouring him, Oba winds up developing into an altered Lost and gains the attention of SELL and HILAM an Anti-Lost Agency.
Later, Oba becomes the target of HILAM, SHELL and Masao trying to exploit his abilities to change the future of the world. Oba is now stuck with this form being a hybrid of both human and monster, making his mind getting out of control, throughout the movie his struggle with this form is showed. Helping him keep his mind under control, Yoshiko Hiiragi, the girl who appeared at the start of the movie has similar powers. Not planning to go into complete spoilers because we want you to enjoy the epic moments for yourself, later on the master plan of Masao is revealed where not only him but several others let the future of the world depend on Oba’s power. With very less choice, Oba is stuck where he has to make his mind endangering decisions and not only his own sanity but also humanity is affected in extraordinary ways. Finally, Oba will seize to exist as a human being but the reason behind that is the one you need to witness for yourself.
The readers found ‘No Longer Human’ interesting because it explores how humans analyze the world in an almost complex patterns. Human Lost shows this strange though provoking theme from the perspective of the main character ‘Oba’ who has caught up into the situation where his action will not be seen in multiple ways. It makes you wonder if living forever is really as great as we imagine. It might not be that great in reality and can lead to some worst consequences even to those who wish for it.
Human Lost seems psychological thriller anime at first but as the plot moves forward one can see it as a sci-fi anime. The balance between humanity and advancement of technology has been a great debate in the world of technology as it can be a great help but a big obstacle at the same time. Human Lost explore the probabilities of how far man can go in chase of prolonged life and the way this idea has been depicted is great and unique in many ways. It’s a movie for the fans of sci-fi, drama, psychological thriller and all of these themes are perfectly mixed to depict the concept of longevity.
Soundtrack plays an integral role in making an anime film hit. There need to be a strong background music that could accompany every scene to enhance the power and beauty of the visuals and make it more compelling. Human Lost closely understands that power of soundtracks and delivers some epic tunes that enhance the power of each intense moment or fight scenes. The soundtracks of Human lost are so good that the fans may even buy them if they release separately.
Polygon Pictures is famous for its incredible work like Ajin and Knights of Sidonia, their CGI still does not make much of a great impact. If you don’t like CGI anime even if they are good then you would not like the animation of Human Lost as it won’t be able to appeal you visually. There are some epic moments with great CGI in Human Lost but those who don’t like CGI would not like it that much.
The theme and concept of Human Lost is loosely based on the concept of No Longer Humans by Dazai. The reason why we say ‘loosely based’ is because Human Lost hardly depicts the concept of No Longer Humans and attempts to explore the same concept in different manner. The character of Oba have hard time with his flaws, past and actions but his the part where he becomes a monster depends more on choices he made rather on psychological dejection like Dazai. Although there are some indication of double suicides.
Applying the same figurative method of No Longer Humans, Human Lost strives to show the weakness of human and the perception of freedom. It sounds good but only when it comes to read it as an autobiography book like No Longer Human but for a psychological thriller anime film with the theme of sci-fi, it be too risky. This makes some scene quite plain and boring which is not a good thing for a movie that claims to be psychological thriller. Although theses slow moments doesn’t become a problematic as it fulfills the purpose of the plot.
【🎁プレゼント】
『HUMAN LOST 人間失格』一般試写会
太宰治の「人間失格」を原案に、SFエンターテインメントとして再構築した劇場アニメ▽40組80名様
▽11月20日(水) 開場 18:00/開映 18:30
▽応募はこちら→https://t.co/aWVIUPwkyu#HUMANLOST @HUMANLOST_PR pic.twitter.com/WlNzFeGxth— MOVIE WALKER PRESS｜ムービーウォーカープレス (@moviewalker_prs) October 20, 2019
Human Lost is a very different anime movie. The viewers have admired its approach of depicting different aspects of life, longevity, death, drama, action, psychological elements and sci-fi but there also viewers who didn’t like it. The positive and negative aspects of Human Lost does not lie in the poor or good movie—it’s beyond that—but it lies in its peculiar theme. The movie is highly recommended to all as it was worth our time and can be taken as a distinctive anime film. Those who haven’t watched it yet should watch it in theatres. Those who have watched it, let us know what you think about the movie.
