Nothing can surpass the terror of the human soul.

Yozo Oba lives a life full of shame. Wounded by a delirious anxiety, he highlights the terrifying distance between his own sense of happiness and the joy of the world around him. He plays the clown in his corrupt life, wearing a mask for those around him, as he plunges downward, locked in an embrace with death.

The immortal and supposedly autobiographical work of Osamu Dazai has been excellently adapted here into manga by Junji Ito. The illustration opens up the text of the novel line by line, subjecting Yozo’s mental landscape to something even more subtle and grotesque. This is Ito’s ultimate work of art, proof that nothing can surpass the terror of the human soul.