Anime Summer 2024: NO LONGER ALLOWED IN ANOTHER WORLD, Suicide Is Painful
The protagonist wants to die, making for a gloomy adventure that tries to be cheerful. The series is now streaming on Crunchyroll.
Trigger warning: suicidal thoughts run rampant in the show. Get help at that free site, please, as needed.
No Longer Allowed in Another World
The first two episodes are now streaming on Crunchyroll. Subsequent episodes will debut every Tuesday.
A writer known as Sensei, who is working as a corporate drone, makes a suicide pact with his girlfriend. Before they can carry out that act, they are killed in an automotive accident.
Sensei is not happy to be reincarnated in another world, where a magically-powered priestess named Annette informs him that she has brought him to her world, where he is needed as a hero. Sensei doesn't care about being any kind of hero; instead, he immediately seeks a way to kill himself.
First published in 2019, the manga series that serves as inspiration for the anime adaptation, written by Hiroshi Noda and illustrated by Takahiro Wakamatsu, makes reference in its title and its protagonist to Osamu Dazai, who wrote No Longer Human, first published in 1948, which concerns a double suicide that the author carried out.
Dire as the premise sounds, the anime series, produced by Atelier Pontdarc and directed by Shigeki Kawai, tries its hardest to make it all lighthearted and fun. But I must say it's quite a difficult feat to make suicide a laughing matter, and the series fails utterly on that score. Through two episodes, it's filled with characters who have no understanding of what a severely depressed person who is contemplating suicide is experiencing. They are full of well-meaning yet shallow cheering, but Sensei needs professional help.
That is not just my opinion. In the the second episode, Sensei pointedly says he has attempted suicide many times, which is a clear signal that he needs more than cheering from the sidelines. Perhaps I'm taking this all too personally, since I've fallen into the depths of clinical depression several times in the past, and contemplated suicide. I realize that this is just an anime, but I can't stop myself from being disturbed by the show.
Summary: Just don't.
