21st Century Boys

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Alternative Titles

Synonyms: 21stCB, 21 Seiki Shounen

Japanese: 21世紀少年

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Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 2

Chapters: 16

Status: Finished

Published: Dec 25, 2006 to Jul 14, 2007

Genres: Award Winning, Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi

Theme: Psychological

Demographic: Seinen

Serialization: Big Comic Spirits

Authors: Urasawa, Naoki (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 8.43¹ (scored by 49,435 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #193²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #150

Members: 94,978

Favorites: 925

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Wikipedia

8.43

Ranked #193Popularity #150Members 94,978

MangaBig Comic SpiritsUrasawa, Naoki (Story & Art)

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Volumes: /2

Chapters: /16

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Synopsis

As the conflict between Kenji Endo, his childhood friends, and cult leader "Friend" comes to an end, two mysteries remain—Friend's true identity and whether the threat of an "anti-photon bomb" before his death was legitimate. Hoping to find an answer, Kenji, alongside the United Nations, decides to use a virtual reality program created from Friend's childhood memories in this conclusion to a long journey that will span dozens of decades.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

20th Century Boys and 21st Century Boys' combined storyline won the Grand Prize at the 37th Japan Cartoonist Awards on May 9, 2008.

VIZ Media published the manga in English under the VIZ Signature imprint from January 15, 2013, to March 19, 2013, and later as a 2-in-1 omnibus volume. It was also released in Brazilian Portuguese by Planet Manga; in Chinese by Tong Li Publishing Co., Ltd.; in French by Panini Comics; in German by Planet Manga; and in Spanish by Planeta DeAgostini.

A complete edition of 21st Century Boys was released on December 28, 2016, in Japan by Shogakukan. It features the entire series in colored pages and a new ending unique to the publication. VIZ Media published the version under the title 21st Century Boys: The Perfect Edition on June 15, 2021.

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Characters

Endou, Kenji

Main

Friend

Main

Endo, Kanna

Main

Ochiai, Chouji

Supporting

Sada, Kiyoshi

Supporting

Koizumi, Kyoko

Supporting

Minamoto, Yoshitsune

Supporting

Hattori, Fukubei

Supporting

Kaminaga, Kyuutaro

Supporting

Setoguchi, Yukiji

Supporting

Reviews

Jul 22, 2009

DrBoondigga

Recommended

Surprised that no one has reviewed this, while it may not be at the same level of 20th Century Boys, it's only two volumes, it's the ending, and it's a great read despite it's short length. If anything I am a little disappointed that it didn't show us a bit more of an "aftermath" to things, I was particularly begging for Friend to have a good reason for what he was doing, but it never came. 21st Century Boy simply wraps up the story of 20th Century Boys story, starting off with the concert that we saw near the end of 20th Century Boys, and ... leading us into the events we saw on the final page. 21st Century Boy is short, but intriguing and satisfying ending to the great series created by the genius mind of Naoki Urasawa.

The story is directly finishing the events that happens in "The New Book of Prophecies" and finishes up all the mysteries of "who friend was?" and "who replaced him?" and the relationship between the people who were directly involved with the friend personality. I don't want to give away to many spoilers, though if you're reading this I assume you've already finished 20th Century Boys, in which case, get your ass out that in read the sequel. The story is similar to 20th Century Boys, but is more answers, and has the interesting way of searching the past to find out what to do in the present that was presented in 20th Century Boys, just taken to higher levels here. If you like the story of 20th Century Boys, you don't have to worry about this, it's a great sequel with a compelling story.

As expected from anyone familiar with 20th Century Boys, this one is filled with great artwork, and will make you actually want to take a second to look at the great artwork that Urasawa turns out in this story. The character's still aren't nesscairaly attractive, but it doesn't matter, the artwork is filled with detail and beauty on the character's, and is amazing to behold. Truly a genius to both write and draw this, the artwork gets a ten out of ten here, the only ten I gave in the review stats.

The character's presented in 21st Century Boys are all characters we have seen before, but this time we get to take a deeper look on the children through Kenji's interaction through them, and we also get to see some of Friend's old servants on a deeper level as well. Mainly it is particularly Kenji and the villains of the past series that shine in this, as they are the focus of the story, and prove for some extremely interesting angles in the story, especially the interaction between the people of Friends, and seeing how there are things they change on and things that stay the same.

Overall, 21st Century Boys proves to further answer the final events in the New Book of Prophecies, but not much after that. We get a nice little conversation at the end to, but I did feel like there were some loose ties in there, like all the talk of a "confession" between two of the character's never go anywhere, it certainly feels like an incomplete ending, but is still satisfying at that. I guess to sum it up it felt like there should have been another chapter, and that was just the end to a good chapter. Of course you should read it right after 20th Century Boys, and you shouldn't even have to read this to decide that, but if you did, I hope this helped you to decide to read this great series.

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Aug 3, 2017

r053_

Mixed Feelings

This is more of like a gift from the author to those who wanted more. It gave a feeling of making amends, saying sorry, doing things right for the second time.

I thought this sequel weakened the story a bit. It has more scenes from when they were kids, which gave some answers but at the same time also raised a few more questions.

It also shows a bit of how the relationships between the characters evolved from when they were kids to now that they are older. Even Yukari and Kenji are hinted at being more than friends, after all this time.

I still feel like the ...

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Jun 19, 2024

Kirida-San

Not Recommended

*Spoiler free - Rapid Review*

*(My 20th century boys review for context)
Perhaps the most over-rated manga ever.

It may be Gigguk's favourite manga, but this manga is *extremely* over-rated. Despite having good characters that are properly characterised and play off each other well, the manga fails to support the plot with a paper-thin mystery that should have only lasted 100 chapters. It's a hodgepodge of many ideas that don't support each other and the resolutions of plot points are really boring. Which, is exactly what this manga is, boring. The art is decent and certain scenes look great, the actual story is so random and bad that ...

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Poll: 21st Century Boys Chapter 3 Discussion Rasco - Mar 6, 2012	12 replies	by RGreatDanton »» Jul 4, 5:34 AM
Poll: 21st Century Boys Chapter 2 Discussion Rasco - Mar 6, 2012	10 replies	by RGreatDanton »» Jul 4, 5:28 AM
Poll: 21st Century Boys Chapter 1 Discussion accela - Apr 28, 2008	17 replies	by RGreatDanton »» Jul 4, 5:19 AM
Poll: 21st Century Boys Chapter 16 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Rasco - Mar 6, 2012	56 replies	by taleco »» Jul 1, 8:56 AM
Poll: 21st Century Boys Chapter 15 Discussion Rasco - Mar 6, 2012	13 replies	by evilcatboy »» Jul 1, 5:07 AM

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