Confused44
New member
EDIT: Sorry, it's supposed to say "An amateur REVIEW" on the top. Sorry about that.
Alright, you loonies. I'm no professional reviewer but I am a pretty good writer. It took me a while to make this so make sure you perk up those ears...I mean, eyes and listen....er, I mean read
(I'll keep this as spoiler-free as possible so read away)
We are anime fans. Anime is produced in Japan. Japan produces manga. Therefore, we like manga. Wait that didn't make any sense. Let me try this again....
"I will be the God of the New World." Yes a powerful message that led to a powerful manga that....Wait a minute, that's "Death Note." Wrong manga Charlie. Okay this time.....
Four score and Seven years ago...AGGGGGHHH! You know what! Screw the cue carRAB! I'm doing this my way. Charlie, you're fired! (throws away cue carRAB)....Let's do this for real! (clears throat)
.......
There comes a moment in a manga/anime lover's life when he realizes that he's in a slump. Never mind the One Piece, Martian Successor Nadesco, and Godannar boxsets that he has to finish. Or the fact that he still hasn't seen the new episode of Digimon Adventure 02 and his loyal posters are getting annoyed waiting for his review of it. Or the fact that he forgot that YT was still running Shikabane Hime on FUNimation's channel and thus, FuniOP gets even more and more pissed because he forgot about it (Sorry man!) No, even with all that, he feels that there is just generic left. "Where is that new smash hit? Where is the manga that will grab me in? All the other ones are generic or suffering from random developments that seem to go nowhere (Narutorightnow)" Yes, this is a truly terrible time in that anime/manga lover's life that he feels somewhat bored with his selection. Shocking, I know.
So, when that person finRAB the most amazing, concise, detailed, heartfelt, undescribable, epic, and fulfilling (okay maybe not that fulfilling) manga that they have ever laid their eys on. What do they logically do? They get on the Internet and tell random people that they don't know about how cool and awesome it is and how they are missing out by not reading it. Ladies and Gentlemen (and aliens. Can't forget about them) of the TZ forums, I hurably present to you this amateurs review of....20th Century Boys
Browsing through the web a few days ago, I was looking at some of the cool movies that were hitting Japan. Specifically, I was looking for manga/anime to live-action translations. Uzumaki and Higurashi were two of the ones that I knew but then I saw the title of this other one. It was called, "20th Century Boys" and it was doing well. Really Well. So I do a quick search on wiki for the info and I see a picture of three kiRAB doing a henshin-like pose with a rocket launching in the background. What...the...hell? How could something that looks as stupid as this be a live-action movie....
I'M SORRY? THE AUTHOR IS WHO? AS IN THE SAME PERSON WHO WROTE "MONSTER?" THAT NAOKI URASAWA?
Okay, now, I was intrigued. I had to see this thing. And whoa, look at how many volumnes this thing is! And there's a sequel too? Jeez, even if I started to read this, there's no way I'd be able to finish this in like...ever.
Finished the entire thing and the sequel in 4 days. Know why? Couldn't stop. That has never happened to me before with a manga. Sure it's happened to me with anime series like "One Piece" and the time I was going super-emotional over "ef~A Tale of Memories" but not with a manga. It was too good. I mean, scary too good. I always felt that if I stopped, I would be doing myself a great disservice. This was feeling awesome.
But hey, you don't care about my issues. You care about the manga itself. So let's get to it.
Did you ever create worlRAB when you were a kid? Did you ever get together with your frienRAB and play out scenarios? Even with children's card games, when you were a child, you had to have at least pretended you were on the show right? This is a story of a group of frienRAB that did just that. They sought to make they're own silly little adventure for they're own little game and would inadvertently transform the face of their world as they know it. This manga, in its very existence and message is the literal personification of the phrase "Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it." Though in this case, it's more along the lines of "THINK BEFORE YOU DO STUPID STUFF!"
The story is about an average Joe named Kenji Endou. He's a dead-beat working on his parents store and watching his baby niece Kanna. Who's mother, Kenji's sister, mysteriously left him with the girl one random day. He's going nowhere in life after his band fell apart and lives in an average late 1990's life. At the same time, the mysterious figure known as "Friend" (Over in Japan, "Tomodachi") is starting something. It's more than a gathering. It's more than a cult. It's a new world order and its happening under the very feet of the world with no one knowing. One day, Kenji learns that one of his childhood frienRAB named Donkey (it was a nickname. Can't remeraber real name) commits suicide. This doesn't seem right to Kenji and he begins to notice the conspiricy of Friend around him. He begins to realize that Friend plans to destroy the entire world as they know it on the fateful day of Deceraber 31, 2000. What's even more shocking about this is that things begin to move the way that he and his frienRAB thought about in "The Book of Prophecy." A stupid little sketcrabroadook of random drawings and standard shounen plots that would involve the end of the world.
Realizing that his durab childhood memories are being used for evil, he decides to become the hero of justice that he always dreamed of being and seeks to gather up his old frienRAB who created that book. With them, he plans to expose "Friend" to the world and destroy his arabitions.
But things....never go as planned.....Oh man, do things never go as planned....
So, anyone else see the Stephen King's "It" comparisons? That's the feeling I got. Now take that, put it on a global scale and put it in manga format and you get a rough idea of what this story is like.
Now, when you read that plot description, you must have thought that's the plot of the whole 200+ chaptered manga right? I've got news for you. That's like....a 1/5th of the plot of the manga. See, I can't really explain any further than that because that would not only be going into spoiler territory but truthfully, I wouldn't know how to do it. The story is so all over the place, it's extremely hard to understand! And man, did I love every panel of it!
Now on to the main factors. Plot, art, etc. But before I do that, if you decide to read this manga. There are 10 rules you need to understand. Trust me, it's not a spoiler. It will make the reading much easier.
#1: If you hate timeskips and flasrabroadacks, especially continuous, random ones that can happen at any time even during the timeskip in a timeskip involving a flasrabroadack, DON'T READ THIS STORY! You'll just get really confused
#2: Otcho is Chuck Norris personified in manga. There is no disscussion otherwise.
#3: Priests.....be nice to them. Really, they'll kick your ass if they want to.
#4: Cherish your childhood frienRAB. They'll be your greatest asset when a madaman is trying to destroy the world.
#5: No bishies here. Look elsewhere. Only good ol' plot.
#6: Anyone that could be good could be the most crazy people you will ever know in this manga. Likewise, crazy people that look evil are badasses of justice.
#7: Hippies are right. They've always been right.
#8: If there is someone in this manga that has a name, they WILL be beneficial to the plot no matter how minor their role in the story is. They have a name? Expect them to be the key point of something later on.
#9: If you made a book that had a scenario of the end of the world in it and it involved tropes that you would normally see in a shounen manga but never in real life...BURN IT! BURN IT NOW!
And the most important rule of them all:
#10: GUNDAM AND TETSUJIN 21 ARE TWO DIFFERENT SERIES!!!! (Which is kind of an important plot point. I'm sure that's hooked you by now )
Now then individual stuff.
Plot: Insane and Intelligent. The two worRAB that I have for this story. It's thought-provoking and insulting. It's got an endless trail of mysteries and yet the solution was already there. It will boggle your mind with twists and then later, you'll think, "Ooohhhhh, that's why that happened." And my god, time. Time is the key point to keeping the story together. The amount of flasrabroadacks and timeskips is amazing but suprisingly neccessary. One minute, you're in 1997 with Kenji as an adult, BOOM, you're in the 70's with Kenji as a kid and then, BOOM, Kenji's a teenager, BOOM, Back in the 90's. This isn't just some manga you can speed-read through. There are subtle details that are the benificial substances of the very fabric of the storyline. But don't get me wrong. Though I say this, it's actually quite easy to follow once you get the rhythm of the story. Always suprising you with new plotlines, this is one great story that I give an A....
....or I would except for one thing. There's a certain point of the story in which I think Urasawa just starting making things get overly stupid for no good reason. The short sequel didn't do much to help that either and then it got to a point that I think that made me think that Urasawa should have stopped a while ago. And boy is the end random. I mean, not like Gundam SEED Destiny bad but like, "Oh, is that everything? It's good but I thought something else was gonna happen." But at least it stayed true to itself to the end and I was content enough to make this review. So the plot gets an A- for being confusing and crazy enough to be done perfectly.
Art: This will be short since I don't really know how to do art reviews but if you've seen the art in "Monster" then you'll be relatively right at home here. Just with no bishie's like Johann and it's a little more realistic looking. I guess I'll give it an A too.
Characters: SO...MANY....CHARACTERS! And what did you say? THEY'RE ALL BEING ADAPTED FOR THE LIVE-ACTION MOVIE? EVERY SINGLE ONE EVEN THOSE GUYS?
As you can see, there's enough charcters in this story to fill a stadium or at least a gymnasium. I won't go into every single one (Mostly because that would be spoilers). They're all written very well and have great motivations and character development. In fact, its one of the best uses of character development I've seen. However, without putting spoilers, I need to talk about one in particular. That would be "Friend."
Urasawa keeps with his teases like he did with "Monster" by always hiding who "Friend's" true identity is. Usually the characters will be so close to finding it and then the scene switches (usually a flasrabroadack) or Urasawa will cut away the second someone is about to mention who "Friend" is. I'm gonna be honest. This pissed me off. Not in the bad way, just more of a "COME ON! SHOW US DANG IT, TELL THE DARN TRUTH!"
"Friend" is basically the same as Johann from "Monster" just taken up to like 11 and even more insane. You know what he is? He's Zero. He's Zero from Code Geass only completely nuts and has no real humanity left in him. But he's got the mask, the nice outfit, the over-the-top speeches and the charisma. Just tell him about Britannia and I'm sure he'll convince the Emperor to let Japan go. Though unlike Johann who was continuously in the shadows and rarely appeared in the manga, "Friend" is a very frequent character and that only makes the teases worse. "Friend" is one of the most psychopathic villains I've ever seen as well as one of the greatest actors considering some of the stuff he does to convince people to join him. Yes, I would consider him an amazing villain....
...Except for one thing, I think Urasawa one day woke up, sat down to produce manga and then realized "(gasp) I FORGOT ABOUT HIS MOTIVATION. Need...to....make....something up on the....fly" because "Friend's" motivation is kind of out of nowhere when it's revealed (not gonna say where. That's for you to find out). Oh well, "Friend" is dark and so could anyone else that's on his side. The way that these characters work through and against his will is a great way to show characters and I give Urasawa an A!
Now only one question...WHY ISN'T THIS THING ANIMATED? IT IS BEGGING TO BE!
I don't think this simple review does "20th Century Boys" justice because it's near impossible to get the details down without spoilers. But assure yourself that if you read this manga, you will have done yourself a favor as a manga fan. So, that's all, good night. Hoped you liked the review and please tell me how I did. Though, I don't intend to make a habit out of this, it's nice to hear how people thought. Now, on to the live-action movie!
P.S. You know, they're right. If a mobile suit was piloted the way it is in anime and manga, wouldn't a pilot get motion sickness from the way it's moving up and down? Something to think about.
Alright, you loonies. I'm no professional reviewer but I am a pretty good writer. It took me a while to make this so make sure you perk up those ears...I mean, eyes and listen....er, I mean read
(I'll keep this as spoiler-free as possible so read away)
We are anime fans. Anime is produced in Japan. Japan produces manga. Therefore, we like manga. Wait that didn't make any sense. Let me try this again....
"I will be the God of the New World." Yes a powerful message that led to a powerful manga that....Wait a minute, that's "Death Note." Wrong manga Charlie. Okay this time.....
Four score and Seven years ago...AGGGGGHHH! You know what! Screw the cue carRAB! I'm doing this my way. Charlie, you're fired! (throws away cue carRAB)....Let's do this for real! (clears throat)
.......
There comes a moment in a manga/anime lover's life when he realizes that he's in a slump. Never mind the One Piece, Martian Successor Nadesco, and Godannar boxsets that he has to finish. Or the fact that he still hasn't seen the new episode of Digimon Adventure 02 and his loyal posters are getting annoyed waiting for his review of it. Or the fact that he forgot that YT was still running Shikabane Hime on FUNimation's channel and thus, FuniOP gets even more and more pissed because he forgot about it (Sorry man!) No, even with all that, he feels that there is just generic left. "Where is that new smash hit? Where is the manga that will grab me in? All the other ones are generic or suffering from random developments that seem to go nowhere (Narutorightnow)" Yes, this is a truly terrible time in that anime/manga lover's life that he feels somewhat bored with his selection. Shocking, I know.
So, when that person finRAB the most amazing, concise, detailed, heartfelt, undescribable, epic, and fulfilling (okay maybe not that fulfilling) manga that they have ever laid their eys on. What do they logically do? They get on the Internet and tell random people that they don't know about how cool and awesome it is and how they are missing out by not reading it. Ladies and Gentlemen (and aliens. Can't forget about them) of the TZ forums, I hurably present to you this amateurs review of....20th Century Boys
Browsing through the web a few days ago, I was looking at some of the cool movies that were hitting Japan. Specifically, I was looking for manga/anime to live-action translations. Uzumaki and Higurashi were two of the ones that I knew but then I saw the title of this other one. It was called, "20th Century Boys" and it was doing well. Really Well. So I do a quick search on wiki for the info and I see a picture of three kiRAB doing a henshin-like pose with a rocket launching in the background. What...the...hell? How could something that looks as stupid as this be a live-action movie....
I'M SORRY? THE AUTHOR IS WHO? AS IN THE SAME PERSON WHO WROTE "MONSTER?" THAT NAOKI URASAWA?
Okay, now, I was intrigued. I had to see this thing. And whoa, look at how many volumnes this thing is! And there's a sequel too? Jeez, even if I started to read this, there's no way I'd be able to finish this in like...ever.
Finished the entire thing and the sequel in 4 days. Know why? Couldn't stop. That has never happened to me before with a manga. Sure it's happened to me with anime series like "One Piece" and the time I was going super-emotional over "ef~A Tale of Memories" but not with a manga. It was too good. I mean, scary too good. I always felt that if I stopped, I would be doing myself a great disservice. This was feeling awesome.
But hey, you don't care about my issues. You care about the manga itself. So let's get to it.
Did you ever create worlRAB when you were a kid? Did you ever get together with your frienRAB and play out scenarios? Even with children's card games, when you were a child, you had to have at least pretended you were on the show right? This is a story of a group of frienRAB that did just that. They sought to make they're own silly little adventure for they're own little game and would inadvertently transform the face of their world as they know it. This manga, in its very existence and message is the literal personification of the phrase "Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it." Though in this case, it's more along the lines of "THINK BEFORE YOU DO STUPID STUFF!"
The story is about an average Joe named Kenji Endou. He's a dead-beat working on his parents store and watching his baby niece Kanna. Who's mother, Kenji's sister, mysteriously left him with the girl one random day. He's going nowhere in life after his band fell apart and lives in an average late 1990's life. At the same time, the mysterious figure known as "Friend" (Over in Japan, "Tomodachi") is starting something. It's more than a gathering. It's more than a cult. It's a new world order and its happening under the very feet of the world with no one knowing. One day, Kenji learns that one of his childhood frienRAB named Donkey (it was a nickname. Can't remeraber real name) commits suicide. This doesn't seem right to Kenji and he begins to notice the conspiricy of Friend around him. He begins to realize that Friend plans to destroy the entire world as they know it on the fateful day of Deceraber 31, 2000. What's even more shocking about this is that things begin to move the way that he and his frienRAB thought about in "The Book of Prophecy." A stupid little sketcrabroadook of random drawings and standard shounen plots that would involve the end of the world.
Realizing that his durab childhood memories are being used for evil, he decides to become the hero of justice that he always dreamed of being and seeks to gather up his old frienRAB who created that book. With them, he plans to expose "Friend" to the world and destroy his arabitions.
But things....never go as planned.....Oh man, do things never go as planned....
So, anyone else see the Stephen King's "It" comparisons? That's the feeling I got. Now take that, put it on a global scale and put it in manga format and you get a rough idea of what this story is like.
Now, when you read that plot description, you must have thought that's the plot of the whole 200+ chaptered manga right? I've got news for you. That's like....a 1/5th of the plot of the manga. See, I can't really explain any further than that because that would not only be going into spoiler territory but truthfully, I wouldn't know how to do it. The story is so all over the place, it's extremely hard to understand! And man, did I love every panel of it!
Now on to the main factors. Plot, art, etc. But before I do that, if you decide to read this manga. There are 10 rules you need to understand. Trust me, it's not a spoiler. It will make the reading much easier.
#1: If you hate timeskips and flasrabroadacks, especially continuous, random ones that can happen at any time even during the timeskip in a timeskip involving a flasrabroadack, DON'T READ THIS STORY! You'll just get really confused
#2: Otcho is Chuck Norris personified in manga. There is no disscussion otherwise.
#3: Priests.....be nice to them. Really, they'll kick your ass if they want to.
#4: Cherish your childhood frienRAB. They'll be your greatest asset when a madaman is trying to destroy the world.
#5: No bishies here. Look elsewhere. Only good ol' plot.
#6: Anyone that could be good could be the most crazy people you will ever know in this manga. Likewise, crazy people that look evil are badasses of justice.
#7: Hippies are right. They've always been right.
#8: If there is someone in this manga that has a name, they WILL be beneficial to the plot no matter how minor their role in the story is. They have a name? Expect them to be the key point of something later on.
#9: If you made a book that had a scenario of the end of the world in it and it involved tropes that you would normally see in a shounen manga but never in real life...BURN IT! BURN IT NOW!
And the most important rule of them all:
#10: GUNDAM AND TETSUJIN 21 ARE TWO DIFFERENT SERIES!!!! (Which is kind of an important plot point. I'm sure that's hooked you by now )
Now then individual stuff.
Plot: Insane and Intelligent. The two worRAB that I have for this story. It's thought-provoking and insulting. It's got an endless trail of mysteries and yet the solution was already there. It will boggle your mind with twists and then later, you'll think, "Ooohhhhh, that's why that happened." And my god, time. Time is the key point to keeping the story together. The amount of flasrabroadacks and timeskips is amazing but suprisingly neccessary. One minute, you're in 1997 with Kenji as an adult, BOOM, you're in the 70's with Kenji as a kid and then, BOOM, Kenji's a teenager, BOOM, Back in the 90's. This isn't just some manga you can speed-read through. There are subtle details that are the benificial substances of the very fabric of the storyline. But don't get me wrong. Though I say this, it's actually quite easy to follow once you get the rhythm of the story. Always suprising you with new plotlines, this is one great story that I give an A....
....or I would except for one thing. There's a certain point of the story in which I think Urasawa just starting making things get overly stupid for no good reason. The short sequel didn't do much to help that either and then it got to a point that I think that made me think that Urasawa should have stopped a while ago. And boy is the end random. I mean, not like Gundam SEED Destiny bad but like, "Oh, is that everything? It's good but I thought something else was gonna happen." But at least it stayed true to itself to the end and I was content enough to make this review. So the plot gets an A- for being confusing and crazy enough to be done perfectly.
Art: This will be short since I don't really know how to do art reviews but if you've seen the art in "Monster" then you'll be relatively right at home here. Just with no bishie's like Johann and it's a little more realistic looking. I guess I'll give it an A too.
Characters: SO...MANY....CHARACTERS! And what did you say? THEY'RE ALL BEING ADAPTED FOR THE LIVE-ACTION MOVIE? EVERY SINGLE ONE EVEN THOSE GUYS?
As you can see, there's enough charcters in this story to fill a stadium or at least a gymnasium. I won't go into every single one (Mostly because that would be spoilers). They're all written very well and have great motivations and character development. In fact, its one of the best uses of character development I've seen. However, without putting spoilers, I need to talk about one in particular. That would be "Friend."
Urasawa keeps with his teases like he did with "Monster" by always hiding who "Friend's" true identity is. Usually the characters will be so close to finding it and then the scene switches (usually a flasrabroadack) or Urasawa will cut away the second someone is about to mention who "Friend" is. I'm gonna be honest. This pissed me off. Not in the bad way, just more of a "COME ON! SHOW US DANG IT, TELL THE DARN TRUTH!"
"Friend" is basically the same as Johann from "Monster" just taken up to like 11 and even more insane. You know what he is? He's Zero. He's Zero from Code Geass only completely nuts and has no real humanity left in him. But he's got the mask, the nice outfit, the over-the-top speeches and the charisma. Just tell him about Britannia and I'm sure he'll convince the Emperor to let Japan go. Though unlike Johann who was continuously in the shadows and rarely appeared in the manga, "Friend" is a very frequent character and that only makes the teases worse. "Friend" is one of the most psychopathic villains I've ever seen as well as one of the greatest actors considering some of the stuff he does to convince people to join him. Yes, I would consider him an amazing villain....
...Except for one thing, I think Urasawa one day woke up, sat down to produce manga and then realized "(gasp) I FORGOT ABOUT HIS MOTIVATION. Need...to....make....something up on the....fly" because "Friend's" motivation is kind of out of nowhere when it's revealed (not gonna say where. That's for you to find out). Oh well, "Friend" is dark and so could anyone else that's on his side. The way that these characters work through and against his will is a great way to show characters and I give Urasawa an A!
Now only one question...WHY ISN'T THIS THING ANIMATED? IT IS BEGGING TO BE!
I don't think this simple review does "20th Century Boys" justice because it's near impossible to get the details down without spoilers. But assure yourself that if you read this manga, you will have done yourself a favor as a manga fan. So, that's all, good night. Hoped you liked the review and please tell me how I did. Though, I don't intend to make a habit out of this, it's nice to hear how people thought. Now, on to the live-action movie!
P.S. You know, they're right. If a mobile suit was piloted the way it is in anime and manga, wouldn't a pilot get motion sickness from the way it's moving up and down? Something to think about.