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Finally we know the true idendity of Friend :

Do you remember of Katsumata : the student who "died" when our heroes were at the college ? He was Friend !!

AHH, so thats who it was. So there were like three kids with that mask on then. Fukubei, Katsumata, and Sadakiyo. SO when SadaKiyo left Katsu replaced him I guess.
-Supposedly this kid had died during middle school before the dissection experiment not college, just for a correction.

I seriously can't remember who katsumata is. D:

You're not alone. D:

I was reading 21st Century Boys before it was completely scanlated, which was a really long time after I finished 20CB. D:

I just finished rereading the whole thing and I'm a bit confused too. Katsumata was the kid during the childhood years that died right before the carp dissection. And rumor was that he became a ghost after... So i don't get it? Wasn't it made official that he died???? So no one knew he was alive while wearing the mask? Or was Katsumata actually a real ghost throughout the whole series and it's a big supernatural genre? Another thing I'm confused about is the virtual attraction thing. It seems as though it's connected to reality and right after introducing the virtual world, I had a feeling what the people in the simulator did affected the actual past... Just because how kenji went back into the simulator at the end and made his old self correct all the mistakes he made in the past. Also, when you see katsumata in his mask as a child in the past, he talks about being an imitator of an imitator and alludes to his future take over as "Friend" when Fukubei dies. And that scene didn't even take place in the virtual world, but in the actual past from Manjoume's memories. I'm guessing he also held supernatural abilities.

And still the biggest mystery is katsumata. As far as I can remember, he is only mentioned as the carp dissecting guy. The villain trio from the childhood sect was Fukubei, Sadakiyo, and Yamane. Katsumata was just the ghost that monchan feared of seeing in the science room when he had to go back that night to turn on the fish tank... Other than that, I can't recall any relations he had with the trio because he was dead..

Him being dead was only a rumor. The three Musketeers were actually four. Remember in volume 16 when Fukube looked at himself in a mirror and saw a faceless head and screamed like a girl ? It was Katsumata. Most likely.

As for the whole simulation thing actually being a device to go back in the past... I don't think there's actually something to understand. Naoki Urasawa clearly wanted to end his manga by any possible means, because he made it drag for too long. I noticed during the last 5 volumes or so that Urasawa himself seems to be lost in all the hints he drops at each chapter, and realized it was a bad idea to introduce a new Friend while he could have ended his manga at Fukube's death. So he just made this... ending... and stuff... Things just happen, turn off your brain and enjoy the conclusion.

PS : Pluto kicks ass.

The ending is hilarious! Who could think that Friend #2 was Katsumata-kun...
There were some hints. But I could assume such thing only jokingly.
Virtual atraction was nothing more than a simulation, based on Fukubei's and/or Katsumata's memories, I think. And Kenji's "changing of past" was nothing more then completing a game and correcting his mistakes, at least virtualy where he could do this.
If manga ended after Fukubei's death it would feel incomplete in diferent ways. Because one of the best things about Urasawa's manga, true for Monster and 20CB/21CB is the law that "No key character disapears forever before finishing his part in the plot".
KATSUMATA-KUN BANZAI!!!!!

Ok, one issue with the virtual attraction. Didn't Kanna speak to the child Kenji using her powers? wasn't that something that happened to the real Kenji in the past? because there is an early flash back where Kenji randomly sits up in bed as a kid and looks all deep. Virtual Kenji relays the message to the Adult Kenji but how did the Virtual one know that if the program is based on Fukubei's memories?

This sequel ruined 20th century boys for me. The protagonist magically becomes a guitar strumming hippie who's suffering from amnesia!?!

4/10 EPIC FAIL!

Huh? WTF are you talking about he was already a guitar strumming hippie who suffered amnesia in 20th Century Boys, 21st Century Boys was basically tying up loose ends.

Exactly why it's 4/10. It's a manga about a guitar strumming hippie who was thought to be dead and manages to grind everything to a halt in the last few chapters.

Wohoo! This is the greatest manga for me! It's super awesome! Heroes/Protagonists who are slightly immortal on story where looks like supernatural turned to be 3/4 realistc. The only thing bugs me is Kanna's super power :) But it's already paid to me because she's cute.

My Conclusion about Katsumata:

Katsumata is a forgotten guy. He's not classmate of Kenji and Co. because he's from other section. As you can see, Katsumata being death is just another bombastic created rumor by fukubei. That's why on their 6th grade, they have rumor about katsumata dissecting carp on science room. Maybe because science room at night is fukubei's secret meeting place with his gang so the effect of the rumor is other kids wouldl not go there at night. Reference: 21st Century Volume 1, when the old woman from jijibaba's store attacked katsumata because of stealing the badge and then yamane and fukubei were on the scene, fukubei said that a "death penalty" is to be given to katsumata where fukubei and yamane ignore the appearance of crying katsumata "I am not the one who stole it" by fukubei saying somethign like this: I hear something but I can't see anyone(Natural Child's Scheme). And about the no face thing, those "no face" thing have only shown in virtual reality. Maybe because the virtual reality is really based from fukubei's memory and didn't have a picture or a great memory of what's katsumata's kid's face is because we knew that katsumata undergone a plastic surgery. It's like the case of fukubei's masked character on the virtual reality. He doesn't have a normal face but have a face of an adult face of sadakiyo. Maybe because hiding the face of the two 'friends' on the virtual reality is done to make it harder to figure out who's friend.

Oh gotta read another works of Naoki Urasawa. Some said it Pluto kicks ass.

And oh, I disagree about 4/10. For me, It's 11/10!

hmm i don't think you understand this manga at all... Well atleast I don't understand you..

there's still one thing that was left unanswered... why did Kenji not approve of how Kanna grew up to be? What's the story behind that little part?

I have a question that kinda bothers me..
How did Kenji survived that time? o.o (at the bloody new eve)
I mean okay so he saw Friend's face then the robot exploded? and theen? o.o
Did it explain it or is my memory too dumb? -.-

Btw, 20TH CENTURY BOYS FTW!!
DAMN I LOVED THIS MANGA XDD (I just finished reading it all)

P.S. wow Katsumata-kun o.o..

When I read the last chapter I was so godamn angry...

"WHO IS THAT GUY AND WHY IS KENJI CRYING WHYYYYYYYY"

Overall, it was a fun ride but Urusawa`s endings are always like that.

Another question..
Why didn't Kenji want to sing Bob Lennon again?

A lot of things are left unanswered but overall I think it was great :3
Gonna read Pluto now :D

Hmm that's where the author left us to think on our own. My guess is he did miraculously survive and the 2nd friend maybe knew he's still alive and let him live or make sure kenji lives knowing that he has an amnesia. My basis is friend's final plan is created for revenge on kenji's mistake when they were children. The revenge is so valid because that affected katsumata's life terribly. Labeled as dead and invisible by everyone because of what kenji did when they were children(the ultraman badge thing). It happened because everyone believed that katsumata's a thief not kenji. It's like you don't exist.(oh it hurts). After all, friend got a hold of the whole world and he can even track kenji and made he stays alive until his memory recovers.

If you have seen the movie, they made an extra changes in the event when kenji almost die in the explosion. Fukubei aka Friend (the one and only friend in the movie), did something on the bomb so it will explode on a delayed manner.

Ooooh I see O.O thank you so much, that was a great help xD