Book Review: 20th Century Boys
<div class="IPBDescription">The ultimate conspiracy theory.</div> I think everyone, during their childhood, knew a pretty crazy kid. It didn't really matter much though, cause you either moved... or he went away...
You know the kind with all the wires in the wrong places, right? Well for me it was some poor kid back in Year 4 who always carried around a rabbit sock puppet and was quite frankly insane. I'm sure we all have our own personal little crazy kid.
Now imagine that kid is planning world domination because you weren't nice enough to him during your childhood.
That's the basic premise of 20th Century Boys, one of the most extremely well written pieces of fiction I have ever had the pleasure of reading.
Back in the early 70's Kenji and his childhood friends made a secret base out in the field. Too show they were all members of the club they created a logo only they would know about. Only 'true friends' would ever know about the logo. Skip foward 20 years later and a mysterious cult like group share the same logo.
Though of course all the childhood friends have all grown up, and everyones forgotten about it. That is of course until the logo appears outside the house of a man who died when all of his blood mysteriously leaked out of his body...
Kenji walks by the house on his way home, and the logo sparks his interst. He has of course forgotten all about it, but at his school reunion he asks his friends and noone else seems to remember.
From there things start to take a turn for the massively creepy. Slowly but surely Kenji and his friends start recalling their childhood, how they made that secret base in the field and how the jokingly made a 'Book of Prophecy' that was a diagram of how they'd save the world from evil with giant robots and whatnot. Problem is... the books starting to become real... and people are starting to die all around the world, including old school friends...
The manga itself spans about 50 years of time. From the 1970's right through to the 2010's. Currently there are 16 Volumes in total (It's still ongoing). Volumes 1-5 are centered around the 1990's and remembering the childhood of the 1970's, then we skip forward 10 years... and try to unravel the mystery even more.
What makes it so damn enjoyable to read though, is that the author has an extremely firm grasp on his story and where he wents it to go. Minor details from some of the early volumes start coming back into the story and slowly, but surely you can see the plot unfold. Unfortunately everytime you think you've gotten a hold of where the series is going, you're yanked in a different one you never could have imagined.
Currently the book is only available in Japanese and due to forum policy I cannot give you any more clues. You might try googling the title...
If not, you can only pray this masterpiece gets licensed for a stateside release (And not butchered to death during the Americanisation...)
'Ring ring, goes the phone and all preparations are complete'...
You know the kind with all the wires in the wrong places, right? Well for me it was some poor kid back in Year 4 who always carried around a rabbit sock puppet and was quite frankly insane. I'm sure we all have our own personal little crazy kid.
Now imagine that kid is planning world domination because you weren't nice enough to him during your childhood.
That's the basic premise of 20th Century Boys, one of the most extremely well written pieces of fiction I have ever had the pleasure of reading.
Back in the early 70's Kenji and his childhood friends made a secret base out in the field. Too show they were all members of the club they created a logo only they would know about. Only 'true friends' would ever know about the logo. Skip foward 20 years later and a mysterious cult like group share the same logo.
Though of course all the childhood friends have all grown up, and everyones forgotten about it. That is of course until the logo appears outside the house of a man who died when all of his blood mysteriously leaked out of his body...
Kenji walks by the house on his way home, and the logo sparks his interst. He has of course forgotten all about it, but at his school reunion he asks his friends and noone else seems to remember.
From there things start to take a turn for the massively creepy. Slowly but surely Kenji and his friends start recalling their childhood, how they made that secret base in the field and how the jokingly made a 'Book of Prophecy' that was a diagram of how they'd save the world from evil with giant robots and whatnot. Problem is... the books starting to become real... and people are starting to die all around the world, including old school friends...
The manga itself spans about 50 years of time. From the 1970's right through to the 2010's. Currently there are 16 Volumes in total (It's still ongoing). Volumes 1-5 are centered around the 1990's and remembering the childhood of the 1970's, then we skip forward 10 years... and try to unravel the mystery even more.
What makes it so damn enjoyable to read though, is that the author has an extremely firm grasp on his story and where he wents it to go. Minor details from some of the early volumes start coming back into the story and slowly, but surely you can see the plot unfold. Unfortunately everytime you think you've gotten a hold of where the series is going, you're yanked in a different one you never could have imagined.
Currently the book is only available in Japanese and due to forum policy I cannot give you any more clues. You might try googling the title...
If not, you can only pray this masterpiece gets licensed for a stateside release (And not butchered to death during the Americanisation...)
'Ring ring, goes the phone and all preparations are complete'...
Comments
Sounds good though. Being that it's a manga, I'm going to assume it's not very common everywhere?
BUT if you wanna pick it up. If your local city has a Kinokuniya bookstore, they have a giant manga (Original japanese and translated) section.
It will of course be in the untranslated original japanese section.
But, you say that it's all in Japanese anyway? Won't matter much then, I guess.
Oh crap... looks like my capslock is playing up again.
Heaven forbid you should share information on a subject you brought up. -_-
<a href='http://www.thehawks.org/hawks/bt/index.php?dir=./20th_Century_Boys' target='_blank'>la da de la da dum</a>
And i know of atleast 4 Comics where the name Kenji is mentioned. I swear it's like the whole "Bob" name... Except, for Japan. <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->
I assume that you have read Monster by the same author as well, I finished the whole series with a minimum level of understanding. I just didn't get the moral of the story. I suppose the manga itself is supposed to be symbolic and open to the readers' personal interpretation.
I assume that you have read Monster by the same author as well, I finished the whole series with a minimum level of understanding. I just didn't get the moral of the story. I suppose the manga itself is supposed to be symbolic and open to the readers' personal interpretation. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yeah I have
3 of his mangas have already been turned into anime format. Monster, Yawara and Master Keaton, I pray to god 20th Century Boys gets the same treatment.
And like those 3, have Madhouse also do the animation for it...
EDIT: ALWAYS forget about Yawara... always...