After announcing that they were planning to publish No Longer Human (Ningen Shikaku) by Usamaru Furuya in September 2011 at New York Anime Festival, Vertical released a statement on their website today saying that the news was "premature".
From the official statement on Vertical's website:
"Due to a communication error between the company's New York and Tokyo offices, the property was falsely presented as slated for publication. While the licensors for this series and Vertical are currently actively in contract negotiations, the North American rights have not been secured. Vertical, Inc. will continue to work with the rights holders for No Longer Human with hopes to properly acquire the license, and it apologizes to all parties involved in this unfortunate and unintentional error."
So until this snafu gets sorted out (and hopefully it will soon), fans of this 3-volume series will just have to wait a little longer to read it in English.
Based on the novel by Osamu Dezai, No Longer Human focuses on a young man from a good family who gets caught up with the wrong crowd, and begins a descent into debauchery and self-destruction.
According to Wikipedia, Ningen Shikaku was originally published in 1948, and is the second-best selling novel in Japan. It was adapted as a live-action movie in 2009 and adapted into an anime. Furuya's adaptation is a 3-volume series, with the third volume due out in Japan in mid-2011.
Image credit: © Usamaru Furuya, Coamix/Shinchosha
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