20th Century Boys

20th Century Boys is three different stories, each of varying quality, all packed into one package. It's a fascinating case of good but misguided intentions. I'm sure given the time to package it all up into three individual manga, Urasawa might well have created one of the greatest works of the early 'oughts. Unfortunately, it was not to be.

Twentieth Century Boys begins passionately, a gripping and unsettling mystery. It begins with a simple dual narrative, following failed dreamer Kenji. There are two threads- one of Kenji's nostalgia for his childhood, a distant and long forgotten place- and Kenji's drab day to day life as a shop owner. And then, it suddenly all changes, with the arrival of Baby Kanna into Kenji's life. And around Kanna, strange things begin to happen. There isn't much more to say there. From that point on, the story rockets forward through plot points and characters, through suspicions and murders and suicides. The plot develops quickly, led on by these mysterious happenings centered around a mysterious cult leader.

The dual narrative becomes a brilliant narrative device, with warm nostalgia suddenly coloring themselves ominously. It is a race through Kenji's shared childhood to discover what he as forgotten. Paranoia. Fear. Conspiracy. This is one of the aspects of twentieth century boys that made me incredibly uncomfortable, because after all, nostalgia is just our faulty recollections of forgotten memories. I have little to fault here. It is evident, that Urusawa is a talented and capable storyteller.

But his brilliance in the minutae- dialogue, and panels and feelings- that is all lost for a lack of vision. I see Twentieth Century Boys as a three act tale. The first is Urusawa at his best, direct and purposeful in his story, dragging the reader along through a Kafkaesque maze of terror and apprehension. The first act left me biting my nails, worried about our protagonists and their struggle against some unknown greater evil. And that feeling, that heart-racing tension builds and builds and build. And then finally, we come to

And then, nothing.

Nothing at all.

All of a sudden, the story collapses. The tension goes away. Our characters see themselves out the door. Where twentieth century boys had once been an incredible thriller, all of a sudden we are faced with a parable of some kind. I don't know what to call that second act. There are feeble attempts at political commentary that don't ever go beyond whimpering cries of "freedom" or "fascism". Without that same purpose and intention driving the story forward feverishly, I found myself bored by the tale. Things happen, but they are all drab and droll, and the characters cliche now. Where the first act seemed like a seminal genre work- one of the best thriller manga in years- the second act is miserable and dragging.

The third, is even worse. Lacking any intention at all, the third is an amalgamation of loose story threads and a rushed ending. Urusawa tries to bring a variety of different points, from references to the American outsider culture of the sixties, and seventies- references to peaceful protest and Ahimsa, and then somehow manages to pull a full on Nuclear Gandhi move amidst it all. To top it off, the story ends in the direst cliche of shonen manga- happily ever after.

I think this is a work worth analysing. It was almost certainly a response to the '95 Shinrikyo attacks, due to its major themes being free thought and cultism. I don't claim to know any of the personal motivations of the authors, and little exist for Urasawa, but I think that this was a work he felt compelled to write. And there is that fundamental flaw, when I see an artist work and improve not what they are best at, but attempt to appeal to traditionalist senses of what an intellectual work must be.

There are many authors who set out to entirely raise the bar for fiction. Few even reach that preexisting bar. Urusawa is at his best not trying to artificially make his story "moral" or "deep". Twentieth Century Boys is at its best where it starts- atmospheric and tense. It's a pity that its all downhill from there.

Art: 6/10 Practical, if unexceptionall. It is clean and defined, with sharper angles lending it a certain menacing quality. There isn't much to say here.

Character: 7/10 Assuredly the one strong point was how relatable many of the characters feel. There is a certain humanity to each of them in all their portrayals, that show multiple facets. There are occasions where I find the development was forced, or perhaps irrational, but ultimately I found myself recollecting at the very least the protagonists.

Story: I found this the hardest point to rate, as I mentioned in my review. It varies so wildly in quality that I ultimately give it a 5. The first arc is easily a 9/10. The second a 6/10. The third a 2/10.

Overall: Twentieth Century Boys earns itself a deserved 6/10. I love parts of this manga, parts I absolutely adore. But then then I am again reminded of the whole laser pistol debacle, and I want to drown myself in misery. Give the first arc a chance. Don't bother with the second and third halves, you'll end up disappointed.

“Lets take back our symbol”

20th Century Boys is the masterpiece of Naoki Urasawa ( yes I think is even better than Monster), it has one of the greatest stories ever told in any work of fiction and an almost perfect cast of characters. One of the reasons that I love this manga is that I have always like stories about adults dealing with problems that have a connection with their childhood, and this manga has probably the best of this type of story since Stephen King’s “It”.

A. Story
This manga has a very dark, brutal, mature and realistic story. It will show you what could happen if humankind makes all the worst possible decisions it could make. It will also show you how much can corruption ruin the world but it will also show you that even in the worst circunstances, some people will always continue fighting for a better future, as hopeless as this battle could be.
The premise is that cult/political party is slowly rising in bout power and popularity in Japan, the leader of the group is man who always wears a mask and only goes by the name “Friend”. An adult called Endou Kenji starts to investigate this cult and realise that certain events that are currently happening (involving the cult of Friend) have a conection with events of his childhood. So now Kenji and the rest of his childhood friends have to investigate and recall their childhood days to understand whats going on and prevent a possible catastrophe.

B. Characters
The characters in 20th Century Boys are very real, don’t expect to see your classic shonen protagonist that has a dream that wants to acomplish. No, Endou Kenji is not that sort of protagonist. He is just your normal kind of unsuccessful adult who only wants to continue living in peace but is force to face a unknown treat that tries to destroy his eveyday life. Kenji has a great character progression, at the begining he will just try to do things for himself, then he will fight to protect his family, his friends and to discover the true behind his childhood days. Kenji is a hero, he might not look like one at all in the begining but when his character stars to change, you will truly look at him as someone inspiring, eventhought it was never his intention to inspire someone. However, when I think about 20th Century Boy, the first word that pops in my mind is “Friend”. Friend is simple the best manga antagonist I have ever seen. I consider Friend to be by far the most evil character in any manga or anime, even Johan Liebert looks like an angel if you compare him to Friend. The things that Friend plans and is able to do in the manga should be consider the work of the devil himself, of someone who truly despise humankind. One of the most important aspects of Friend and the entire story is his identity, the manga will constantly tease you with reveling Friend face and identity and I guarantee you that once you figure it out who Friend truly is, it will blow your mind. Other incredible characters of this manga are the friends of Kenji, specially Otcho, Donkey and Yoshitsune, those 3 are some of the best secondary characters you will ever see in any anime or manga. Yukiji, Manjome and “God” are also really great characters.

C. Art
As always, Naoki Urasawa’s art is great, is not the greatest manga art you will ever see but it is perfect for this type of story. It perfectly capture all the depressing, mundane , dark but also realistic aspects of this story.

D. Enjoyment

This story was on hell of a ride, is my second favorite manga of all time. If you like realistic and dark stories, you should give a chance to 20th Century Boys, it is a true masterpiece in storytelling and character development.

20th century boys is very different for all I ever saw, you have a couple of guys living in a "adult world", but is the type of a children mind, the capacity of the "friend" persuade people is very high, but in fact, the people are easiest persuaded, like ONU, the first minister of Japan. The world is to idiot, the people don't think and follow a crazy man who didn't show his face, who convinced them just making a couple of magic tricks.
The minority part of people, who have a behavior like a real adult, it's the "resistance?" part of that world, and we have the main characters of the history fighting the "friend", they think like a real "adult" they try to fight like a real "adult, but they never won.
So, in the end of history we have this part of the real "adult" making a change, they start to act like adult of the mind of children, and the "friend" start losing the war. So, what's the deal of that??

I think the manga 20th century boys it's a tribute to the manga industry, who made part of the life of much of the children, mostly in Japan. The good guys of history just starting won the fight when they enter in play, like a prank evening in a Sunday.
We have many "Easter eggs" of the other titles, like the "master" who trains Ochiai, like the mostly part of the action histories, always have a mysterious master who trains the good guy.
I recommend the history, it's very different, but it's made incredible good, you start to believe, "that" world it's possible, can happen, you enter in that crazy "prank evening", and you going to leave very satisfied.

20th Century Boys is about a group of men (and one woman) who, when they had been children, had been best friends, sharing a "secret base" in an overgrown field: a sanctuary where they could read manga, listen to music, and hide from the most evil twins in history, Yanbo and Mabo. One day, their "creative genius," Kenji suggested they bury a time capsule, fill it with their treasured possessions, and agree to unearth it only when the earth was in grave danger, for they would then save it.

Years later, they find themselves leading ordinary, unglamorous lives, their dreams of greatness long-buried under the dust of adult pragmatism. But then strange deaths caused by a mysterious virus begin occurring, and murders and disappearances occur one after another. Then one of their number becomes one of the dead, and all the clues point Kenji to a mysterious man who calls himself "Tomodachi (Friend)," who uses as his sign a symbol known only to Kenji's circle of friends.

As the scale of damage and the number of deaths rapidly increase, Kenji realizes that all the terrors are occurring as he had once set down on paper, in a story he and his friends had written, and buried in the time capsule they had sworn over.

20th Century Boys is difficult for me to summarize without giving too much away, but even if I were to divulge half of its secrets, we would still not be anywhere near solving the mystery of "Friend" and of his motives.

At first glance, 20thCB seems to be a crude shounen manga that would probably not appeal to everyone, judging by the artwork alone. But it is not. True, there are no pretty boys or girls to easily fangirl (or boy) over in this series, but this kind of story does not need exaggerated, surreal beauty in its artwork to survive. This truly is a graphic novel, where the plot moves with speed, certainty, and intelligence rather than rely on hundreds of feathers and cherry blossoms to depict angst and drama. The art is actually pretty polished as well, the inking clean and deliberate, and the panels arranged simply but effectively. Like movies these days, many manga artists tend to rely on "special effects" or glamorous art rather than plot to attract readers, but 20thCB has enough plot that any eye candy would just be a bonus.

Character development in 20thCB is also something I liked. Kenji grows and changes as the series progresses, and so do the other characters. The dynamics between the friends are believable, and their heroism so simple and understated.

I can't really find much to say about this manga, simply because it's so good and interesting and I probably wouldn't be able to do it much justice. But if you're looking for a fast-paced intelligent plot, masterfully created characters, and a mystery that can have you at the edge of your seat, then give this series a chance.

For a big fan of corny and repetitive psychological horror manga, I was surprised to find that this manga kept me more tense and short of breath than any of them had in ages. After scrolling through the same old routine stories and stereotypes this manga is a breath of fresh air. It gave me a chance to actually immerse myself into a story and ACTIVELY read.
This review is completely subjective because this manga may not do this for you, but for me, this manga reintroduced me to a world of actual quality manga. Here's a more general idea of what is to be expected of the manga.
Though the art is something to get a little bit used to at first, it has an arguably iconic style. The art does almost all the characters justice with very basic shape language setting a tone befitting of each situation. Sometimes though, the more powerful moments are impeded by it's simpler art.
The best part of the manga is how it encompasses thriller mystery in a direct and effective way that other manga often skirts around. The plot builds up perfectly and the once one-dimensional characters evolve with it.
If you think you'd enjoy making 16 theories in the first few chapters, only to forget all of them in the lieu of the story, please check it out. It's a personal favourite.

Manga you should read before you die. One of the greatest mangas of all time. Masterpiece. The story is like a combination of 1984/The Clockwork Orange/Monster and Anohana, dark and colorful at the same time. I guarantee you will never be bored in every chapter, each chapter even makes you more curious, the mysterious feeling will always envelop you. The timeline shift is perfect. This manga can play with your feelings, very emotional. The art is classic Naoki Urasawa. The character development is outstanding. The character's details are amazing. The background story of each character is beautiful and heartwarming. Naoki Urasawa is a fucking genius.