Human Lost: Ningen Shikkaku

Despite the poor reviews if you have read the 1948 novel you realise that this is much more than a CGI anime film witha convoluted story line that makes little or no sense. It is in fact a vivid reimagining of a japanese classic, putting the plot and character in to a futuristic world. Initially I came in blind before erading the book ,And even then i could comprehend the plot. However my full amazement at this film came once i started reading the novel. Once I rewatched it I began to feel nostalgia, remembering the book and marvelling at the epic that was Human ... lost. This is a brilliant film, however if you go in blind with no intention of reading the novel then you will, most likely, have wasted your time.

I seen the UK Premiere of this movie at Scotland Loves Anime, and it was also the first time I've seen an anime movie on the big screen and also the first time I've willingly watched any anime in the original Japanese with English subtitles.

This movie was very enjoyable, I'm not a professional reviewer by any means and it's not something I do very often but I do feel the need to recommend this movie.

The story is loosely (and I mean very loosely) based on the autobiographical novel "No Longer Human" by Osamu Dazai. The biggest change being that the movie takes place in a ... cyberpunk 2036 and while I can't comment on the novel seeing as I haven't read it myself from what I've heard the movie does represent some of the main themes of the novel in its own unique way. Regardless the story is satisfying and has left me the urge to read the original source material.

The art uses a mixture of well done CGI as well as traditional 2D artwork that compliment each other very well in my opinion and even at times add some nice contrast.

The characters were likable enough and were quite well animated.

The movie is quite enjoyable and -I'd say at least- fairly unique in the way that it has adapted its source material, it's definitely worth a watch and I look forward to watching it again when it hopefully gets a dub release and its blu-ray release.

(SPOILER FREE)

I do agree the story was not quite appealing, but I believe this movie was quite creative and very ambitious.

The original source is a novel by Osamu Dazai. A story about a man named Oba Yozo, a man that had lived a life of misery and was brought to ruins. The reality about the novel is that the entire story was basically Osamu Dazai's autobiography. His consciousness struggling to cope up with despair and questioning his own human self. The anime uses this story and twists it into a different setting. While completely twisting everything, they still stick with the elements from the novel.

If ... you all want to watch the movie, I highly suggest not to watch the movie just for the story, but see it as a work of art. Try to look through the emotions of the characters rather than their motives.

So, as i am not expected the movie quite high. And i don't have a chance to read the novel that some people refer it as an adaptation, and really pointing every scenes as my personal satisfaction. I am surprisingly ended enjoying the movie quite long. Its a decent movie, actually. Idk why people called it bad, because for me its just your standard 3G movie with a highly detailed used of Sci-fi terms on it. The plot kinda convoluted as how they used some kind of a back forwarding style to told the storyline. However, since you understand the main point you might actually ... getting entertaining. For me, its hit my satisfaction, so no way the movie had a scores below 6. I am completely lazy too to begin some long ass commentary about the movie. So, i just make it a simple scoring, base on my satisfaction. This is what i feel about the movie.

Story : 7. For the sake of a great story wise, its not the best. But the main story indeed had pretty decent aspect on it. Idk how people reacted so over disliking their high hope. I know this is generic. But its still consistence at their aspects of human lost concept. They even considering to kill the heroine for the sake of their true plot. Its even contained one of my favourite style of the stop telling, a back forwarding style. Eventhough, the end kinda unsatisfying, knowing the society keep the same as before. Its still understandable with the dark tone that the movie had. Afterall, there was no human, the male MC realised that he was no longer human, and for the purposes of why he needed to alive felt too solid in the end. An endless battle against uncontrolled human lost. Once again, it was a fine ending to completely closed the entire convoluted storyline. How long he kept fighting? Idk. The cliffhanger style of the end showed me that the ending is depend on your own decision. Continuations. Idk. So, yeah, its a 7/10 for the sake to give a respectable reason to the sacrificial thing that heroine did there.

Art, animation, sounds in combination : 8. Its sounds pretty overproud, tho. But for me, its way high of 3G standard. Eventhough, i can't completely attached with the used of full 3DCGI, for this movie, its kinda decent. No complain for me. The art somehow matched perfectly with the theme of show. The sounds from HanaKana made me believed that this movie had a potential. And the ending songs with a mixed language lyric on it, and the rap, felt so good on my ears. So, yeah, its 8 for me in general.

Characterization : 6. Its had a lot of trouble to be honestly. The male MC started out with such an unsatisfying matter. Its personality kinda generic and cliche for the sake of a good characters at the end game. The development of his characterization was so low-effort knowing his changed was so predicted. The attempt to get him into a likeable people kinda forced for me. In the end, his mature end personality ended forcefully with the help of the girl decision. Fortunately, the heroine had a nice personality that suited well with her VA. I love her design, tho, even at the end she just sacrificed herself. However, her touch for the chaos world were so naive and cringe. Maybe its just her typical. But, thats just turned to be a disliking point for me. That was what i dislike over her characterization that made her into that situations. Such a shame. Well, i guessed a 6 shall be enough, besiding any supporting character that had a zero development on their characterization. Yeah, zero, and acted as an additional only over our 2 main characters.

Enjoyment : 7. Its tell much. No needed my long shit explanations. It just my own satisfaction that somehow enjoying this convoluted movie. If you love a sci-fi with a good detailed art, and nice action on it, the movies suit you. However, when you just need a simple story telling with a simple theme of such a classical film, this movies somehow did not suit your expectations. So, yeah, without any hate, and judge it very objective, 7 is enough for my satisfaction.

Overall, i just used my usual averaging scores to concluded everything. Its pretty standard, yet, its suit well with the movie concept. With the love of HanaKana, i hereby stated that the movie deserved my 7/10 on my list.

Thats it all from my short review.

My first movie in full CGI. It was high quality, and though I really felt like a videogame at times, there were moments were I realised that yes, there are things that you simply couldn't do with traditional animation, like the small swaying of bodies, the split second microexpressions. They took great care in the animation and the choice of cast was also stellar. Story-wise, it had an interesting beginning and build up and the dystopian settings were intriguing. Unfortunately it unraveled towards the end and they rushed everything into a jumble of very Evangelion-esque tropes, which was quite disappointing. The characters also seemed to ... lack depth, and had tragedy that was just touched upon to justify their reactions but lacked exposure. It might have worked better as a series, imo.

First of all if you don't want to watch the movie, you should listen to the theme song, as it encapsulates everything wrong with it and is the funniest thing ever.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUqpLRiGCII
Now to the review, if you like me read the original novel I must say this is a MUST WATCH, and the reason why is as follows.
First of all, this is the most senseless, distasteful and even as a reimagination of a classic it doesn't work, since it seems the writer doen't understand the character of Yozo at all, and turns him into a suicidal hero, and honestly I was going to say more about ... it myself, but the later half of the movie is something to be experienced first hand.
So why do I thing this movie is a masterpiece if it is such a disgusting thing by itself?
Well, just because this feels like one of those fake movies that exist inside a comedy show, and I laughed from beginning to end, but there were to things that probably helped it, I watched with a friend and with 2x the speed.
And if like me you wanted to know, they never truly say "ningen shikakku" in sequence inside the movie, they do and they don't, they say the 2 words inside a phrase and it was pretty funny hearing it, and funniest of all is that the monster the people become in this universe is called lost, get it? like. Because they are NINGEN SHIKAKKU!!!! BAHAHAAHAHAHAHA

Very Complicated and intricate story let down by short run time not allowing for proper set up.

Cool action scenes [check] :0
Loser protag [check] ;p
monsters [check] :D
sci-fi dystopian future setting [check] :)
mechs [check] :}
3d [check] :(

I enjoyed the overall themes and message of the story, however alot of concepts are thrown out without ever being fully explained.
...
Seriously though 2036 is not all that far off in the future so it seems odd that the world would be as bad/drastically changed in less than two decades from the time the movie aired. 2100 seems like a safer bet for the technology and social changes shown.

I got some Neon genesis evangelion vibes from this one