20th Century Boys

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i was edged the entire time and i liked it. 20th century boys is one of THE mangas to read just because it does everything so well. the characters. chefs kiss. the story. big sloppy kiss. just everything about this manga is so good like holy Naoki Urasawa was cooking in the studio when he came up with this. anyway praise "friend" for he is the best friend. i give this manga a goon out of 10 as that was what the manga was doing to me the entire time.

ignore this wall of text i need it to post this epic review.

(Is the story unique? ... If it was predictable, did you enjoy it anyway because you like this genre/set-up? Do you think the art style is fitting for the story? Were the characters well-rounded? Did they have flaws and strengths, or were they unusually strong/smart/stupid? Did the characters react to situations and events in a realistic way? Do you think others will enjoy/dislike this series, even if you didn't? Why?)

This is a typical Urasawa manga, meaning it starts off great, introduces engaging characters and weaves an intriguing mystery with great care and skill. And then, when it comes time for him to end it and resolve the various plot threads and mysteries... he doesn't.

Instead of a satisfying ending you are treated to multiple masturbatory volumes of the author self-insert becoming a wandering musician while the entire plot up to that point just collapses in on itself with the carefully characterized cast members suddenly acting out of character, chapters ending in increasingly nonsensical cliffhangers that never get resolved satisfactorily and shifting focus to the ... boring messianic musician subplot as Urasawa desperately tries to drag this shit on for as long as he can before his audience loses interest.

Objectively there is a lot to like about this manga. The art is great and most of it is a real page-turner. I will however never read it again: it's not clear whether Urasawa ever had a satisfying ending planned or whether he was just making it up as he went along but in any case what a waste of potential.

Easily one of the most overrated manga I've read in a while.

From reading the first 20 chapters which do a good job of getting you interested you might think this compares to monster but it doesn't.

The story is all over the place, there's so much filler, too many irrelevant side characters which you're supposed to like, an enjoyable twist or turn or progress in the plot is far in between - the majority of the manga is just cheesy dialogue and random things. There's so little substance for a manga with this many chapters.

The villain isn't well written and the way he's defeated is just ... unsatisfying and felt stupid. The main character just isn't good or interesting (same with the side characters) and if anything only makes the series worse.

It's not worth reading.