20th Century Boys

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the song , see 20th Century Boy.
20th Century Boys

Volume 1 cover (Japanese version)
20世紀少年
(Nijyusseiki Shōnen)
Genre Sci-fi, Mystery
Manga: 20th Century Boys
Author Naoki Urasawa
Publisher Flag of Japan Shogakukan
Demographic Seinen
Serialized in Flag of Japan Big Comic Spirits
Original run 30 January 2000 – 2006
Volumes 22
Manga: 21st Century Boys
Author Naoki Urasawa
Publisher Flag of Japan Shogakukan
Demographic Seinen
Serialized in Flag of Japan Big Comic Spirits
Original run 2007 – 2007
Volumes 2

20th Century Boys (20世紀少年 Nijyusseiki Shōnen?) is a science fiction mystery manga created by Naoki Urasawa. It won the 2001 Kodansha Manga Award in the General category,[1] an Excellence Prize at the 2002 Japan Media Arts Festival, and the 2003 Shogakukan Manga Award in the General category.[2]

Urasawa wrote 20th Century Boys along with another popular title, Monster, for 2 years (Monster ended in 2001). It was licensed by VIZ Media in 2005; however, at Urasawa's request, it has been rescheduled for release after Monster finishes its English serialization due to a change in art style over time.[3]

20th Century Boys seems to have been inspired in parts of the story by the works of Stephen King, containing allusions to It and The Stand. However, the story draws allusions mostly from rock and roll, with its title based on T. Rex's famous song, "20th Century Boy".

The last chapter of the story is being serialized under the name 21st Century Boys. Also, a live action movie adaption is planned to be released in August of 2008, directed by Yukihiko Tsutsumi[4].

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

Growing older is pretty rough and Kenji is finding out just how hard it can be as life starts wearing down on him. On top of trying to make ends meet running a convenience store he has to care for the niece that his missing sister left in his care. Memories of youth make it easier, until those memories come back to haunt him.

Kenji and his old friends are slowly being drawn into a mysterious conspiracy that could threaten the world. Who is the mysterious "Friend" and how does he tie into Kenji's youth? Why are there disappearances and deaths tied into Ochanomizu University? Their memories hold the keys to the puzzle, but time and age have clouded their minds.

The strange occurrences and the reach of the "Friend" conspiracy grow by the day. It will all culminate on New Year's Eve 2000. Will Kenji and the others be able to put together the puzzle and save the world?

[edit] Characters

Kenji Endō (遠藤健児?)
The central protagonist of the first half of the story, which revolves around his childhood in the '60s to the present day. He is generally laid-back, and appears to be heavily interested in Rock 'n' Roll. He, his relatives, and friends play crucial roles as the plot unfolds. He disappears after the events of the "Bloody New Year's Eve", but is rumored to still be alive. A man with a striking resemblance to Kenji, singing his songs on an old guitar has appeared in later volumes. In volume 19, the man reveals himself to be Kenji.
Kanna Endō (遠藤カンナ?)
Kenji's niece, she serves as the protagonist for the events in the aftermath of the "Bloody New Year's Eve". She seems to possess supernatural abilities from which the source is unknown, coupled with her charisma she makes an able leader. She leads a rebel faction against "Friend" under the moniker, "Ice Queen". It is later revealed that her father is Friend.
Otcho (オッチョ?)
Kenji's childhood friend and benefactor, he typically is referred to as "Shōgun". He is in prime physical shape, and has escaped certain death many times. Originally believed to be Friend, it has been revealed that he was simply living in Asia's seedy underground after his son died. Later in the story he serves as a protector for Kanna and her mission. His real name is Chōji Ochiai.
Friend (ともだち Tomodachi?)
An enigmatic character who draws on the childhood ideas of Kenji and his friends to commit acts of terrorism to gain power. Friend pretended in the New Year's Eve of 2000 to have saved the world from a pandemic of hemorrhagic fever (similar to Ebola). That, adding to his unique charisma, made him the political leader of Japan with his "Friendship Party", and a great moral figure of the 21st century. He remodeled Japan in a retro style, presumably to evoke nostalgia of the main characters' childhoods. His motives remain unclear, but it is known that he is somehow involved with Kanna and her mother Kiriko. Friend's original identity was Fukubei, however when Fukubei was killed, a new "Friend" took his place. His Identity was revealed in "21st Century Boys" as being Katsumata.
Yoshitsune (ヨシツネ?)
Kenji's childhood friend who once made the mistake of ordering 1000 printer cartridges when he only needed 4. He was one of Kenji's friends who answered the call to fight back with him on the Bloody New Years Eve. In the year 2014 he is the leader of an underground organisation bent on taking down Friend.
God (神様?)
God is an old homeless man who is bent on the return of Tenpin Bowling as a major sport in Japan. God has the power of foresight and can see what will happen before it comes to pass. God was the one who warned Kenji and told him of his future. Later in the series, God becomes extremely rich by using his foresight to play the stock market. With his newfound wealth, he became the first Japanese civilian to travel into space.
Yukiji Setoguchi (瀬戸口ユキジ?)
Kenji's only female childhood friend. During Kenji's school years, Yukiji was a high toned tomboy, whereas in the manga's adult years Yukiji is portrayed as a rather professional feminine woman. She is reunited with Kenji working at an airport in Tokyo as a customs official, often comically mistaken for a narc, along with a drug sniffing dog named Blue Three (pronounced "Buru Surii" a Japanese pun on the name Bruce Lee). Yukiji too also assists Kenji in the event of the Bloody New Year's Eve. Since Yukiji has acted as Kanna's guardian replacing Kenji after his mysterious death/disappearance. In the 3rd of Era of Friend she has opened a dojo, teaching a large amount of neighbourhood children Judo as she once learnt as a child.

[edit] Timeline

The story of 20th Century Boys is told in four different time arcs: the '60s and '70s, the late '90s, the year 2014, and 3FE, or the Third Year of the Friend Era.

[edit] School Years

1969: Kenji, Otcho, Yoshitsune and Maruo build, in an empty field, a hideout they name their secret base, a place all their childhood friends can get together to share manga, stolen porn magazines and listen to a radio. To celebrate the event, Otcho draws a symbol for the base, that would represent their friendship. After Yukiji and Donkey join the gang, they all start imagining a future where villains would try to destroy the world and they would stand up to them and fight, and thus is created the Book of Prophecy.

They imagine a giant robot destroying Tokyo in the beginning of the 21st century, as well as laser weapons and other references to old sci-fi movies. One day, Fukubei, a rich and lonely boy from their class, invites Kenji and his friend to his house to read manga magazines, in order to befriend them and join their group. Failing in his plan, Fukubei follows them to the secret base, finds the Book of Prophecy and becomes amazed with it; as he reads through it, Sadakiyo, a bullied and tormented kid also sneaks in and reads the notebook, while making friends with Fukubei. The two get together with a bright kid from their classes, Yamane, and start what they call the New Book of Prophecy. Yamane tries to make Otcho join their group, by telling him what they were creating. Instead, Otcho steals Yamane's idea of a germ warfare for his group, and Kenji thinks of the places that would be affected by the virus before the robot's showdown in Tokyo.

At the end of summer of that year, the two bully twins, Yanbo and Mabo, find their secret base and force Maruo to destroy it. When Kenji finds out, he cares little, as no one was using it anymore, but as he hears the humiliation the twins made Maruo pass through, he goes to avenge his friend by fighting Yanbo and Mabo, soon accompanied by Otcho. As they are about to lose, Maruo, Yoshitsune and Donkey join in the fight, and later comes Yukiji holding a flag with their symbol, to mark the field as theirs, reopening then the secret base.

1970: This year, happens in Japan the famous Osaka World Expo. Fukubei had been dreaming of going to it for a year already, and Kenji found out about the Expo through him and spread the news, so in 1970 all the kids are talking about going to it. Some kids who had relatives living in Osaka, including class-representative Gucci and Yamane, formed the Expo Group and planned to stay there all summer; Fukubei was to be one of them, and take Sadakiyo along, but is denied by his family. Wanting to be the popular kid who got to see the whole Expo, Fukubei pretends to go to Osaka while staying in his house through most of the summer break.

Kenji and his friends also plan to go to the Expo for a couple of days, but Kenji is instead taken by his family to a beach house, Donkey's plan to go to Osaka by bike fails and Yoshitsune faints from heat in the American Pavilion line, shortening the other's trip. By the end of vacations, Fukubei and Sadakiyo make a huge Teru-Teru Bozu as a prank in an abandoned house where it was said to have a ghost, and all the kids in their class get interested in the story and decide to have a test of courage at night. Fukubei comes along wearing Sadakiyo's mask, pretending to be him, and have Sadakiyo hide in the mansion in order to move the Teru-Teru Bozu around and scare the group, but the plan backfires as Sadakiyo runs away and the kids find out it's just a prank. Fukubei threatens to kill Sadakiyo if he tells anyone that it was his idea, while Kenji and Otcho go alone to explore the second floor of the mansion.

After classes start again, Sadakiyo moves to another school, and in retaliation, Fukubei makes up a rumor that he died. Everybody's talking about a ghost that Kenji and Otcho said to have seen in the mansion after the incident, stealing this way the attention from Fukubei, who pretended to have gone to the Expo. Later in the year, Fukubei and Yamane meet with a young salesman named Chuck Manjoume, and Fukubei bends a nasa-developed spoon with one hand, much to the amazement of Manjoume. Later, Fukubei bent all the spoons in the school cafeteria in an attempt to be noticed, but the teacher never told anyone who did it. Sadakiyo soon comes back to be part of the New Book of Prophecy's group, as he's bullied in his new school as well, and Fukubei predicts a miracle to happen in the end of the following year's summer.

Sometime between then and 1971, the empty field of the secret base is bought by Kaminaga Kyuutaro, a bowling company representative, and turned into a bowling alley. Everybody who had been to the secret base, including Fukubei, attends a closing ceremony organized by Kenji, where everyone puts one personal belonging inside a box and hide it under a tree.

1971: Without the secret base, Otcho starts studying for Middle School exams, Kenji starts listening to rock music all day, Maruo and Keroyon are made to help their family's business, and Yoshitsune tries to make new base in another field. One student from their school year, Katsumata, dies one day before a carp dissection experiment, and a hoax spreads that his ghost is seen at night in the science room. Chuck Manjoume returns and seeks Fukubei, asking the boy to work with him bending spoons as entertainment, and gives him his business card.

In the last day of summer vacation, Mon-chan forgets to turn on the fish tank and, fearing a negative reaction from his teacher, asks all his friends to come with him at night help him, but, fearing Katsumata's ghost to appear, only Keroyon, Konchi and Donkey accept. Donkey, not believing in ghosts, goes inside alone, only to find that the fishtank is already turned on. On his way out, he accidentally sees the body of Fukubei hanging from the ceiling, apparently dead, while Yamane and Sadakiyo watch. Fukubei then opens his eyes, and demands Donkey to tell everyone about the miracle he just witnessed, but Donkey refuses, saying it was all a trick, and Fukubei tells Yamane and Sadakiyo to banish him. Scared of their reaction, Donkey jumps from the second floor window and runs away, not telling anyone about what he saw. Unsatisfied, Fukubei tries to get out of his hanging trick, but slips and really starts to suffocate.

Middle School: Kenji and Yoshitsune move to the same school, and in 1972 Kenji buys a guitar with his allowance money, practicing famous rock songs. In the same year, Fukubei contacts Manjoume, who arranges him to be in a prodigy children television program to bend spoons. But just before the show goes to air, Fukubei's trick is revealed in a newspaper and the show is canceled. Manjoume cuts his relationship with the him, and he promises himself that he'll get revenge on everyone who laughed at him and called him a fraud. Some years later, Kiriko, Kenji's older sister, gets him an electric guitar, and he starts seriously practicing playing.

[edit] Adult years

During the late 70's and early 80's, Kenji, Otcho and Mon-chan go to separate colleges and, while Otcho and Mon-chan go on to work in big companies, Kenji starts a band and keep running his family's liquor store. Yukiji starts living in her grandfather's dojo following her parent's death. Fukubei joins a religious studying group with Pierre Ichimonji, but they have different ideals, and soon Fukubei leaves the group and searches for Manjoume again in 1979, proposing the creation of a cult, and thus giving birth to the figure of Friend, as Fukubei comes to be known as. During the 80's, Otcho gets married and have a son, but pays little attention to his family. One day, while in a business trip in Thailand, his son is killed in a car accident and, blaming himself for it, Otcho goes missing for a week in the jungle, where he meets an old monk and starts training with him. Later, Otcho leaves his wife and goes to Tibet.

The Friend cult starts using the secret base's childhood symbol as a symbol of their own, and start making free demonstrations with tricks such as spoon-bending and levitation, while gathering a growing number of followers. By the later 80's, Kenji's father dies, and Kiriko starts running the family business, while Kenji looks for small jobs and concentrates on his band. In 1989, he meets for the first time with a nameless high school teenager, who identifies Kenji as a Man of Justice and himself as an Evil. Later, Kenji's band is kicked out of a live broadcast and their drummer is hired to play in another band, ending Kenji's musical career.

In the early 90's, both Yoshitsune and Maruo get married, and have children of their own, while Yukiji starts working in Narita airport's customs and Donkey becomes a science teacher. In 1994, Kiriko's boyfriend is murdered by the nameless highschooler Kenji met 5 years prior, now working for Friend. The cult gets bigger, and starts gaining political influence. The nameless man starts dating Rena, the teenage daughter of professor Shikishima, a big authority in robot-building, and gets her to join the cult as well. Fukubei, off his Friend disguise, starts dating Kiriko, and soon she moves in with him and they have a daughter together, named Kanna. Kiriko spends her days working on a vaccine against a virus that has been plaguing Africa. Upon finding the truth about Fukubei and the cult, Kiriko gets Kanna and runs back to her family, begging for them to take care of her daughter for her, which Kenji accepts.

The beginning of the series takes place during the late 1990s, where Kenji is a convenience store owner, finding solace in his childhood adventures. He has to take care of his niece, Kanna, who his older sister left with him some time ago. He also has to take care of his old mother, who constantly nags him of what he had done to their family liquor store.

He has no knowledge of the dark conspiracy around him, until he learns that Donkey, an old friend of his, recently committed suicide. He begins to dive deep to figure out Donkey's sudden death, when he learns of a large cult organization, under a mysterious man only known as "Friend". As well, he learns that this cult seeks to destroy the world on New Year's Eve of 2000. Realizing that this madman is drawing his plan from a story he and his old friends came up, he decides to round them all up and figure out this mess. Kenji realizes that his only hope is to find the "Book of Prophecy", where he wrote scenarios in which he and his friends would save the day.

However, he is already under the watchful eye of Friend, Kenji having shown himself to Friend during the cult's meeting. It becomes evident later that Friend is also interested in Kanna, who possesses latent powers. He sends several members to kidnap her, but are unsuccessful, as Kenji returns to the store, with an old notebook in his hand... Kenji's family must now live in secrecy in order to escape Friend's grasp.

It is now the year 2000. Otcho, another old friend, becomes the main focus for some time. Living in Bangkok, he is being hunted down by a local drug lord, when he receives a call from Kenji, who has not spoken to in years. When he first explains of his plan to save the world, Otcho is at first skeptical, but later agrees to return to Japan.

When Otcho returns, he finds out that Kenji is a wanted terrorist. He leads Otcho to an unused subway station, where he and his supporters have been staying for some time. They begin to formulate a plan to stop the end of the world. Based on the Book of Prophecy, they learn that an unnamed building must explode to herald the beginning of the end. Before Otcho can find it on time, the Japanese National Diet Building explodes...

On December 31st, 2000, as Tokyo begins to sleep, a giant robot appears and begins rampaging across the city, spreading the lethal virus which has been plaguing the world over the past few years. Kenji and his crew take off and head to the machine, unsure of whether they'll be able to stop it, but knowing full well they are the world's last hope...

[edit] 2014

Mankind has overcome its greatest obstacle. Kanna is now 17 and living in Tokyo. As the story progresses, the past is revealed: Friend is alive and well. Keeping up with Kenji's mission, Kanna decides to take the stand and take down Friend. Kenji's old friends begin reappearing to aid her in her quest. But when they begin their plan, they find that Friend might still have a card up his sleeve. With the revelation of the New Book of Prophecy, Kanna tries to stop the inevitable before it is too late...

But all of her efforts are in vain.

[edit] 3FE (3rd Year of the Friend Era)

The series jumps even further into the future, where Friend is now the President of the World, after resurrecting himself from the dead, and halting the assassination of the Pope. Sanae and Katsuo, two children who has been sheltering Otcho, must now search for Kanna, AKA The Ice Queen, and warn her of an impending danger. All the while, in the northern frontier, a biker stops in front of a checkpoint, with a guitar on his back, and a familiar face...

[edit] References

  1. ^ Joel Hahn. Kodansha Manga Awards. Comic Book Awards Almanac. Retrieved on 2007-08-21.
  2. ^ 小学館漫画賞：歴代受賞者 (Japanese). Shogakukan. Retrieved on 2007-08-19.
  3. ^ 20th Century Boys Delay. Anime News Network. 2005-07-09
  4. ^ Mainichi newspaper

[edit] External links