"Human Lost," the latest computer-animated flick from the folks at Polygon Pictures ("Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters"), is being touted as a futuristic update of the classic Osamu Dazai novel "No Longer Human." To say certain liberties have been taken with the material is an understatement: I've been over my copy a few times now, and I can't seem to find the part where people transform into giant human-eating monsters.
"Human Lost" takes place in a dystopian future Tokyo where a computerized system called SHELL (which stands for Sound Health Everlasting Long Life, if you must know) helps keep people from dying well into their 100s. However, it can't prevent some folks from getting "lost" — losing their humanity and transforming into gruesome creatures out for a bite of their fellow citizens.
Thankfully, there's a crack team to deal with these monsters called HILAM (Human Intelligence, Laboratory, Mechanist), who take one down in the film's opening sequence, set on the mean streets of future Takadanobaba. One wonders if college students still get drunk there.