20th Century Boys by Naoki Urasawa
- Edition: Perfect Edition (VIZ)
- Publication: 27/09/1999 - 24/04/2006 (14/07/2007 for 21st CB)
- Volumes: 11 (1 Epilogue Vol.)
- Chapters: 249 (265 incl. 21st CB)
- Demographic: Seinen
- Genre: Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
- Adaptations: Live Action Film Trilogy (2008 - 2009)
527 Days.
That. That is the time it took me to start 20th Century Boys finish it. That is a laughably long amount of time to start a manga series and complete it, regardless of how long and bloated it can feel.
20th Century Boys was somewhat of a little voice in the back of my head for the (almost) 1.5 years I spent reading it on and off, every time I thought about reading manga, I would be reminded of this story and its characters and just how long it had taken me to get around to.
I have finally finished reading this manga and to be completely honest, am relieved it is over.
I have finally finished reading this manga and to be completely honest, am relieved it is over.
I hope to not be misunderstood, 20th Century Boys is an incredible accomplishment of a series and stands beside a number of others in Urasawa's shockingly impressive works. The same man who wrote and drew series like Monster, Pluto, and Billy Bat also has an Epic which spans across decades of characters, twists and mysteries, leaving you with an enormous tale, something which feels hard to capture whenever anybody even tries to speak of it.
Describing 20th Century Boys is a seriously difficult task, it fails to even create a simple initial premise and feels like a tangle of cords to unravel. I've never seen anybody able to effectively communicate to others what this series is even really about, without the other person having read it for themselves. Regardless of this hopeless task, I will try, for the sake of the review and for the sake of the 527 days spent putting off this very moment.
20th Century Boys effectively revolves around a group of kids from the late 1960s who simply from living their lives and enjoying their youth, unknowingly create the first set of ripples which will lead to the extinction of humanity in the 21st century. This is a story that starts off as a drop of water in the ocean and quickly turns into a tidal wave. In their youthful innocence, cruelty and wild imaginations, these children lead the world into facing a childish apocalypse. One with giant robots, world-dominating bad guys and cartoon-like dangers threatening the existence of the entire world. Sounds wild, doesn't it? Well the most wild part is that it somehow actually works. The series becomes a staggering monstrosity of deceit, fear and treachery. The unraveling of this story is a long and surprising one.
Much like Urasawa's other works, 20th Century Boys is stuffed with a plethora of unique characters of all shapes and sizes, so many unique identities showing up and playing a part in this enormous clockwork of a plot. The mystery of the story is what really gets things rolling and keeps you flipping to the next page, despite some beats and arcs doing it better than others. It's hard to even criticize something this huge because its such a difficult challenge to even try to attempt stories of this scale. That being said, it has moments where things start to creak and crumble.
If I were truly invested from start to finish I doubt I would have had such a difficult time getting to the end of the series. The tangle of story begins to become frustrating after some time, understandably so.
To follow such an exorbitant amount of plot threads and characters and their respective arcs and interactions and greater role within the ever progressing whole narrative is extremely difficult for the reader and especially one who would get quickly tired of such a task. 20th Century Boys is not for the faint of heart, not for one who would give up so easily, but is the reward at the finish line worth it?
Following the ending of 20th Century Boys in August of 2007, Naoki Urasawa would return to untangle the last few plot threads in December of the same year. 21st Century Boys acts as the series' epilogue and true ending to the legendary tale. Not so much as a way to fix or properly end the series, as I believe the main story's ending still adequately did so. But to bolster it, in a way. To almost clean up how jagged and quickly things seem to take a turn into the finish line.
I've failed to yet mention what is arguably 20th Century Boys' strongest quality by far, and that is presentation. It's no surprise that Urasawa stands as one of the most impressive artists in his field, with what I would argue as some of the best character designs in the industry. I am enamored by how he uses shape and visual identifiers to make characters memorable and easily distinguishable from one another. Even in a story as convoluted as this, I only found a couple moments where I had characters mixed up with one another, and even then, it was almost intentional to the plot.
Urasawa manages to create some of his most brilliant 2-page spreads and standout panels in this series of his, so many jaw-dropping page turns and build-ups. Panel composition is unsurprisingly top notch and there isn't a single page that isn't meticulously crafted with a good reading flow kept in mind. I find that Urasawa likes to use a huge variety of panel compositions, which keep things fresh at all times. You'll find that pages will shift between close-ups and environmental shots constantly, giving you plenty of opportunities to build the mental framework of the characters within the world they occupy, this is the kind of comic making that sets apart the good artists from the great artists, and there is no shortage of great comic-work here.
Kenji, the headstrong main character, Ocho the badass action-man, Kanna the passionate daughter, Yukiji, Yoshitsune, Maruo, Chouno, Kyoko, Kami, Donkey, Kiriko and much more. All of these characters define themselves somehow in this sprawling story and although its hard to remember so much of the details. 20th Century Boys is very much a manga series that wants you to look at the whole picture, and the journey you took with its characters that lead you to the greater vision.
I have my gripes with the series and I honestly believe its scale becomes a detriment in the long run, sacrificing opportunities for deeper moments with its characters for another coil in the big tangle, but I am beyond impressed and fascinated by what Urasawa achieved in this story.
Thank you so much for reading!
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