20th Century Boys Volume 1 Review
I have been reading a lot more manga than I ever have before recently and I was looking for recommendations on various websites which almost all told me to check out 20th century boys by Naoki Urasawa. The story itself is a bit about the coming of age of a group of boys and their runnings into a cult called The Friend. It follows main character Kenji as he slowly learns more about the cult through people ending up dead and disappearances in his town. Hes trying to live his life running his own business and taking care of his sisters daughter, but something is happening.
The 20th century is ending and as they move forward to the year 2000 Kenji also looks back on his life at the mistakes and choices he made along the way. The book often flashes back and shows the characters at various stages in their life. It is only after one in the friend group commits suicide after leaving a suspicious note, that Kenji brings the gang back together to try and sold the mystery.
The story is a mystery as well as a bit of a coming of age story. While reading I cant help but feel vibes similar to IT from Stephen King (the original movies). Everyone of his friends are doing something with their life, but they know they are somehow connected to this cult and cant figure out why. Volume one ends with them basically deciding to check out this group in more depth and check out what the rest of the friend group is doing.
The art is great and the story pacing is done in a way where you want to just keep reading and finding out more. This is broken up a bit by flashbacks into the past which reveal how characters ended up where they are and how they got there. Many of them had dreams but you see those slowly fall apart in time as life happens. Each character ends up being fleshed out nicely and ultimately makes you feel connected to them.
I expect big things from this manga going forward and recommend anyone who is into manga and a cult/mystery drama to check it out. I have already binged the second half of volume 2 which I will review probably next week, but you can find the volumes on amazon or a few manga reading sites if you want to read them now. The volumes themselves arent too expensive for what you get but there are a lot of them. Definitely give this manga a look. You can check out more in depth detail at myanimelist, here.
https://myanimelist.net/manga/3/20th_Century_Boys?q=20th
-Calaber24p
Another great manga by Urasawa Naoki (๑•‿•๑). I binged that one too, and also Monster.
For any aspiring manga artists, or anyone who's interested, check out his documentary called Manben. That was where I learned about 20th Century Boys. I also kept seeing them on recommended lists, so I decided to give it a read.
His show Manben is interesting. It features mangakas of different genres, and you get a glimpse of how they develop their stories, their quirks, and their drawing style. Fascinating to watch them work, and makes you appreciate manga even more (๑✧‿✧๑).
Im going to watch this now actually. I havent read monster, its on my list though. I have a few graphic novels and other manga ill review in the upcoming days. Do you recommend any in particular ?
Yes! Most with English subtitles are on YouTube. You might find some of the featured manga interesting to read too.
As far as recommendations, I've read very few . . . ( > ‸ <). This year, I'm planning on reading 50 to 100 manga though.
What genre do you gravitate towards?
I watched one last night it was really interesting, pretty technical though since im not much of an artist. You should review the manga you are reading, Id love to see it. I like mystery type stuff honestly, but im open to a lot.
Cool! (๑•‿•๑) And yes, I guess it's geared toward aspiring manga artists. But still really interesting to watch.
I've never done a review, so I don't really know how to go about that. I mean, I understand the concept, but knowing me, I'd probably end up writing an essay and going on all kinds of rants and tangents, haha (๑˃‿˂).
For mystery, I watch Meitantei Conan (or Case Closed in English). I haven't gotten around to reading it yet, but I'm caught up with the anime. That one's more of a who dunnit detective story with drama.
I think Death Note is considered mystery. That's a really good one that goes into a lot of philosophy. Even if you're not heavy into philosophy, the drama and pacing keeps you in the story. And I hear the Netflix film was pretty bad.
And then most of Urasawa's other mangas are also mystery, like Billy Bat, Pluto, 21st Century Boys, Monster.
If you like weird and cyberpunk, try Akira. That one is pretty well-known and referenced a lot, so even if you're not into the genre, it might be good to read. That was the first one I read for this year.
For historical, Kingdom and Vagabond are pretty good so far. They're both ongoing. Kingdom is based on China's Warring States era. Vagabond is a dramatized, fictionalized account of Miyamoto Musashi's life. Both violent, very bloody, fast-paced.
If you like horror, most of Ito Junji's manga might creep you out. Even just looking at the images. I've only read Uzumaki so far. Very surreal, and dark. Interesting, but creepy. Something about it draws me in.
And if you ever feel like reading something messed up and super depressing, Oyasumi Punpun.
And then of course, the popular ones like One Piece, Naruto, Bleach, Bakuman, Hunter X Hunter, Gintama. I haven't finished all of them, since most of them were ongoing at the time I was reading.
There are many more, but I've already written too much, so I'll stop there (๑˃‿˂). I hope you find something good from the list!