Creative Staff
Story: Naoki Urasawa
Art: Naoki Urasawa
Translation/Adaptation: Akemi Wegmuller
What They Say
The climax of our story is finally at hand! Mankind faces a crisis, and Kenji is hustling to save the world and the people he loves. But he also must solve the mystery of the Friend. Who is he and why did he become evil? The answer is tied to a memory Kenji has from when he was a twentieth century boy.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
At the end of this journey, we finally get full resolution to the 20th Century Boys saga. After the semi-chaotic hodge podge of plot twists, turns, flashbacks, and drama in 21st Century Boys volume 1; this volume returns to the strong focus we’ve seen throughout the series’ run. The race is on to uncover the secrets behind the Friends’ final plot to destroy the world, an anti-photon bomb. The plot follows two concurrent storylines with Kenji inside the Friends’ Virtual World and Kanna and crew in Tokyo with both trying to learn the location of the remote control that will detonate the anti-photon bomb. The real strength in this volume involves Kenji’s storyline as he traverses the virtual world while observing and interacting with his younger self.
Over the course of the series, there have been so many concurrent plot threads and each has remained extremely strong and focused. But none of those threads were ever quite as interesting and introspective as the flashbacks to the gang’s childhood in the 1970s. These scenes always made the strongest connection as it was the forgotten events from this time period that ultimately spawned all the terror that has been inflicted in the modern day since the start of the series. Working with nostalgia as a baseline, these events played on our own empathy by bringing to the forefront our own memory. How many things happened when we were children that we actually remember? Of what we remember, how much of it is the truth or a falsified truth forged from years of selectivity? Since the whole purpose of Kenji’s trip into the virtual world is to explore his past, learn more hidden truths, and discover who the last incarnation of the Friend really is, we get everything that made the childhood scenes great over the course of the series in an extremely powerful and streamlined manner. The urgency of the situation and Kenji’s own sense of justice works to have our main character confront the demons from his past and attempt a form of reconciliation. It’s all extremely effective and the symmetry of the beginning and the end conversing together in the final moments is a powerful device that seems very fitting.
The other plot thread featuring Kanna and company is decidedly less impactful and interesting. The reason for this is that most of it relies of Kanna’s supposed extrasensory powers that have never been fully explored previously; causing its overuse here to feel more like a crutch than a logical progression of events. Our characters here also do some extremely idiotic things that, for the first time for me, I looked at the page in confusion and frustration. The biggest example of which is this: upon discovering the location of the bomb’s detonator switch, instead of telling the UN forces the location and how the Friend had planned on detonating it, Kanna pulls the “it’s up to us!” card and runs off on her own with only Yukiji by her side. This leads to a series of events that artificially increase the urgency and tension of the final battle. I get that it has to be our beloved characters that tackle the problem, I love the fact that they do and the final battle is quite exhilarating; but just by being a team player and simply telling other people what’s going on would have made things play out in a less stressful (for the characters) manner. Dumb character choices!
Anyway, once the final battle is over the book continues for a couple more chapters that really pay off nicely. The use of symmetry continues to be used wonderfully and it really pays off on an emotional level. Maybe I’m just a sucker for this type of device, but the ability to wrap the story around full circle seems very befitting considering all of the struggles and hardships that have taken course over the last 24 volumes. However, in the story’s process of finally revealing all the mysteries I ran into a problem that really detracted from the book’s impact on me. This series has been in the process of being released here for four years total. While I do understand that it was originally serialized for 8 years in Japan, the final twists and revelations rely too much on what I’ll call “old knowledge.” Characters are mentioned throughout the book and it’s obvious that it is all supposed to mean something; but I just cannot remember who the heck they are talking about! Characters that have never played a big role before, characters that were most likely mentioned in simple passing previously finally come into play in the big picture. Honestly, I really couldn’t care less. You can’t just name drop someone who had no chance in hell of sticking in my memory and expect this revelation to mean anything me. This happened on a slightly smaller scale when the identity of the original Friend was revealed, but it’s just too much here.
Now, I really shouldn’t hold this against the book or Urasawa himself. Such an intricate and sprawling epic should have probably been re-read before finishing – or at least not have had such a large space between reading volumes – and once I do re-read the series everything will probably work even better. But such is the nature of serialized storytelling; events from long ago could be referenced again with no real refresher and that can create a detriment to the present story. That’s what happens here. Especially on the second to the last page. It’s a shame it didn’t hit me as hard as it should but…oh well.
Taken for what is presented, this book provides an extremely taunt ending to the saga. It maintains all of the energy and intrigue that has propelled the series forward and continues to hit all the right notes. Yet you just cannot help but feel that it is nothing more than another protracted ending that really could have been fused together with the ending plot we experienced in volume 22. The story had two extremely important story arcs, that are masterpiece level in my opinion, and a third arc that seemed a little tacked on just to prolong the story; although the third arc did eventually come into its own and become the true final piece of the puzzle. However, by making it not the final piece has made the two volumes titled 21st Century Boys strenuous. It works and it’s still enjoyable but come on, we could have extended the ending of volume 22 for a couple more books to incorporate all of these plot points and have everything end as they did and the finale would have been truly spectacular.
In Summary
I have been an extremely huge fan of this series from the beginning. This was the first series I started review for Chris back in the Mania days and it has always been what I’ve looked forward to the most. To feel so conflicted with all the positive and negative aspects that populate this final volume almost leaves a bit of disappointment in my heart. It doesn’t suffer from “crappy ending” syndrome, but it’s just all the things I mentioned above that could have been tighter, better executed, etc. etc. There is one thing that I do know for damn sure though: this is a series worth owning and re-reading multiple times. Heck, I foresee a full re-read in my very immediate future just so I can experience everything that has been so perfect, hang out with my old friends again, catch onto the clues and the hints with the adjusted foresight in mind, and just relive the thrill of it all. One of my most highly recommended series remains as such down to the bitter end, faults and all. I’m also super stoked that now I can finally watch that third live action movie that’s been sitting on my shelf for just about three years!!
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: A-
Packaging Grade: A-
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: March 19th, 2013
MSRP: $12.99
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