Ranked #1

20th Century Boys (Manga)

Being a fan of T. Rex, I was immediately interested in a book that referenced him in the title. I was even more interested to find out it was by Naoki Urasawa, the genius behind Monster. I started reading it right away, and hardly put it done till I was finished with it, and also finished the sequel right after that. Well there's two things I want to say in the opening paragraph, first is that even though this is an amazing Manga series, I can't help but feel it isn't quite at that level of Monster, and that being said, neither is it the #1. Certainly it is amazing enough that I don't mind seeing there, but just wanted to say that. Second being a big fan of music, I found the references in this series to be rather shallow. I probably had to big expectations because it referenced T. Rex, the forgotten classic band of the late sixties and seventies, I was thinking it wouldn't carter to the typical references. I expected instead of seeing "just like The Beatles" I could see at least a couple of steps down on the popularity scale, something like "just like Van Morrison" or instead of "just like Bob Dylan" a "just like Leonard Cohen". Sure not as many people would get laughs, but they've already gotten their share of stuff. Basically the references, with the exception of T. Rex, is rather typical references to music giants like Hendrix, Stones, Beatles, Dylan, Mitchell, Doors, etc. That was just another thing I wanted to get out there, in case anyone was thinking something similar to what I was thinking. However, this series is certainly still worth reading, and is an amazing mystery series, filled with plot twists, references, and great characters.

The story in 20th Century Boy is a strange one, and can be quite self-contradicting at times. It revolves around a group of childhood friends (there grown up now) who used to hang out at there secret base, reading Manga, listening to the Radio, and just having fun. One day one of the boys called Kenji decided to start righting his own Manga plot, revolving around a hero who would have to save the world from a virus and a giant robot. A simple childish story at first, however in the future when the events starting happening in reality, and the symbol they used for their fort is being used by a strange cult-like leader called "Friend", Kenji quickly finds out that something is wrong. Being the ones who created it, Kenji and his group of friends that knew about the story (or the ones who he managed to gather), now are the only people who can save the world. A save the world plot, that quickly contradicts itself with characters referencing that they can't just be ride out there and be a hero, like in Shounen stories. It quickly moves itself into being an amazing plot, with one big question, who is Friend?

As much as I loved the series though, and Friend himself, Friend is one of the my major complaints about the series. I understand people like Kenji and his friends reason for going against Friend, but what about Friend? Is he just some freak that wants to have fun, so he starts killing of people and trying to put an end to the world. I wanted to feel more of a back-story from Friend than him just having a little fun by killing people and watching other people try to stop him. To me along with the shallow music references, it was one of the letdowns of an amazing story, and seemed rather a pointless villain, even though I can't help but love a crazy guy who makes people call him Friend. Some people might not care about a back-story, but I guess that just comes down to a matter of opinion.

The art was probably the best part of this series, if I base it off of my ratings that is. The art was wonderfully drawn, moments like the first two pages of Chapter 100, not only stand out in my mind for the amazing script, but the drawing was beautiful to behold. Most of the characters didn't even look that great, but I still found myself stopping the reading for a second to gaze upon the beautiful drawings in the Manga, and I never got tired of doing it. Even now I love going back and looking at Chapter 100, the mysterious aura, the music reference, and the great drawings all tied together, and it helped give it that feeling of greatness, and is one of my favorite things about it.

The characters are another one of my favorite parts of the story, though I seem to be saying that for everything. The main character, though absent for a good amount of the series, is a great lead. If there is one line that I remember in that show, it will be what he said to the young guitarist at the crossroads. The other character's also prove to be great characters, from the strange villain of Friend and his twisted and confused servants, the group of childhood friends, and most notably, the hobo called God. God is one of the best characters of the entire series, and his mix of humor and foresight, plus the name, makes him always entraining when he shows up. That's not to say we don't have problems, as I said sometimes the Villains can seem rather pointless, one of my biggest dislikes of the series. However even if they seem pointless, I can't deny that they have some great moments, and if they did have a reason, then I would probably have loved them.

20th Century Boy is a story that has it all, great art, unique and great story, amazing scripting, great characters, amusing references, and most importantly, is just an extremely enjoyable read. As I stated before I can't say I agree with the #1 ranking that is given to on this site, but I don't mind, because Urasawa, once again, presented us with a great story filled with mystery, thrills, drama, and those little hints at other genres like Comedy, Romance, Slice of Life, etc. It's all there, and 20th Century Boy is certainly worth reading. read more

Story:
While the whole "saving the world" kind of storyline isn't anything new, it does it so well that it makes the reader so engrossed in the story and not want to stop reading. The switch between timelines are done so well that it hardly leaves you confused on what is going on. There are so many twist and turns in the story which makes nearly every chapter such an enjoyable read.

Art:
The art is quite detailed and even as the art was already quite good from the start, as it goes on it steadily improves. I have to say Urusawa's distinct art style definitely is growing on me as it's such a refreshing treat compared to the sea of "Moe" that is pretty common in anime and manga.

Character:
My favourite aspect of 20th Century Boys has to be the cast of characters and their development through out the story. All of them have interesting traits and everyone was given a time to shine.

There isn't much cliched character archetypes here, most of the characters act mostly realistically so no annoying tsunderes etc. One example would be Yoshitsune as at the beginning he would seem like one of those stereotypical anime characters with glasses which are usually really weak and cowardly but it turns out he was the one that really stood up for his friends and always tried to do everything to help them.

The main character, Kenji seemed like the most "normal" out of all the characters, while some people would find him boring and they'd probably like Otcho (Kenji's best friend) more but honestly there isn't anyone more suited that him to be the main character since he's the most normal and easiest to relate to.

Final Thoughts:
I saw 20th Century Boys ranked quite highly here in MAL and I'm glad I gave it a chance. It's truly a masterpiece in my eyes. It's highly recommendable and I can't even say it enough you HAVE to check this manga out. After finishing it I literally just took my time thinking about what an amazing manga I just read.

Also how can you not want to read a manga that has a villian called Friend and a homeless guy called God. read more