20th Century Boys: The Perfect Edition, Vol. 8

20世紀少年 [20th Century Boys] #8

by Naoki Urasawa, Takashi Nagasaki (Contributor), Akemi Wegmüller (Translator)

Während ein unbekanntes Virus die Welt in Angst und Schrecken versetzt, beginnen die Vorbereitungen zur Expo 2015. Die bevorstehende Veranstaltung gibt den Menschen Hoffnung, doch auf einmal wird der vor Kurzem verstorbene „Freund“ gesichtet! Und was hat es mit dem angeblichen Attentat auf den Papst auf sich? Alles deutet auf eine ereignisreiche Eröffnungsfeier der Expo hin.

Genres: Manga, Comics, Seinen, Graphic Novels, Comics Manga, Science Fiction, Japan

456 pages, Paperback

First published August 30, 2016

About the author

Urasawa Naoki (浦沢直樹) is a Japanese mangaka. He is perhaps best known for Monster (which drew praise from Junot Díaz, the 2008 Pulitzer Prize winner) and 20th Century Boys.

Urasawa's work often concentrates on intricate plotting, interweaving narratives, a deep focus on character development and psychological complexity. Urasawa has won the Shogakukan Manga Award, the Japan Media Arts Festival excellence award, the Kodansha Manga Award and the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize. In 2008 Urasawa accepted a guest teaching post at Nagoya Zokei University.

Series list (not including short stories collections):
- Pineapple ARMY (パイナップルARMY) 1985-1988, written by Kazuya Kudo;
- YAWARA! 1986-1993;
- Master Keaton (MASTERキートン) 1988-1994, written by Hokusei Katsushika;
- Happy! 1993-1999
- MONSTER 1994-2001
- 20th Century Boys (20世紀少年) 1999-2006
- 21st Century Boys (21世紀少年) 2007
- PLUTO 2003-2009, based on Tezuka Osamu's Tetsuwan Atom
- BILLY BAT 2008-2016
- Master Keaton Remaster (MASTERキートン Reマスター) 2012-2014
- Mujirushi (夢印-MUJIRUSHI-) 2017-2018, collaboration with Musée du Louvre
- Asadora! (連続漫画小説 あさドラ!) 2018-ongoing

Reviews

[P.E.]

Unnerving Ostinato


20th Century Boy - T-Rex


As the cover suggests, this 8th tome focuses on Friend and his past.

An event is staged when the Pope visits Japan and honours the dead body of Friend. This one stands up and shields the Pope from a sniper, becoming the World President. This is one part of a world agenda aimed at spreading Friend's New Notebook of Predictions as the major religious text and substituting all religious and political leaders.

And then, we discover Friend's childhood through his eyes... Creepy tendencies are already at play: Sadakiyo becomes his victim and main supporter, feeding Friend's need for external validation at all cost, especially when that implies distorting reality with concerning dedication and steadfastness... For instance: as Friend could not visit the Ōsaka World Exposition in 1970 but affirmed the contrary, he hides throughout the summer holidays and writes down a detailed diary about his imaginary visit to make it pass as truth and impress his schoolmates. A gaping void appears several time when Friend watches his reflection or wonders about his problematic identity. Friend grows up persuading himself he can only exist and appear to others through the consistent use of elaborated lies.

In the later sections of this eventful tome 8, the state of some districts in Tōkyō is shown, three years after Friend became the World President, supposedly for saving the world from a deadly virus again, secluding the population in something like giant restricted areas, building a colossal structure to his insatiable ego, towering menacingly over the impoverished and dilapidated neighbourhoods of the capital of Japan in the 21st-century, elaborating monstrous, giant Potemkin-like structures "to protect mankind from extraterrestrial invasion", reminiscent of certain of the most successful colossal structures invented by Simon Stålenhag.

The fight of the memory of the general public against official propaganda is not over, quite the contrary.


4,5 rounded up to 5


See also:

The Stand
The Penultimate Truth
Radio Free Albemuth
La Ville
1984
V for Vendetta

[Whitney Jamimah]

I am just consistently dead over this story. The farther we go my awe for just how deep and meticulous Urasawa was able to go expands, like, exponentially. I am so in love with these characters and I am holding my breath so hard for them as I make my way into the last 3 volumes.

[Koen Claeys]

Reading this in 2022 during a pandemic in a tumultuous world… at times it seems so prophetic…. Incredible….
So good….

[Andy]

Another time jump filled with mysteries. The manga is fascinating as it caries the storyline even further. I appreciate the chapters showing Friends perspective from childhood. Hope we get to see more of that.

[Vishanth]

SO much to talk about.

First off I wanna talk about how insanely cool this cover is for volume 8. The one and only cover with friend on it and it's the only one that doesn't have the title on it. Simply has the text "Yoo-hoo, kenji-kun. Come on, let's play" that is just so freaky and awesome.

The first half of this book occupies a similar role to the first half of volume 3 in that it's the grand climax for this second story arc and man is it tense. I've gotta say I loved the first story arc set in 2000 but this 2014 time skip arc we've had since volume 3 has been phenomenal and I have no idea if Urasawa can top it. The first half opens with a Spanish priest once again Urasawa is a master and introducing and getting us to fall in love with new characters so I've haven't much to say. The storyline revolves around the book of prophecy being translated into Latin and made to look like a holy text. It's a great piece of foreshadowing of what's to come. Friends grand plan is to ascend to godhood. The final piece in order to achieve world domination. This climax was so intense and I noticed how fast I read it simply because there was very little dialogue. Urasawa's art is the true storytelling mechanic in this climax. All our characters meet up to come up with a plan to prevent the popes assassination. A storyline continued off from previous volumes. We got Chono back into the fold which makes sense for this climax. I also love the little Nitani flashback we got with the priest very interesting and wholesome anecdote. The climax itself is genuinely some of the best fiction I've ever read. Urasawa's panelling is like a film scene. Otcho, Kanna and Chono desperately trying to find 13 just for it to be a red herring for Friend to miraculously resurrect and take the bullet for the pope. The plan is honestly so out of this world that it completely fits for this story. Prophecies and armageddon. These are all words associated with biblical themes. To make friends final plan to ascend to godhood was perfect. Knowing how gullible and in desperate need of leadership the real world is I can absolutely see everyone buying into Friends act.

The second half completely takes a detour and has a little jump back in time before it starts us off on our new story arc. We finally get to see the Friends origin story. All the mysteries of their childhood are layed out now and Urasawa takes such a huge gamble with Friends characterisation that I think is absolutely genius. As it turns out our prophetic charismatic Friend who won the hearts of the people and took over the world with his ambiabilty and friendship was nothing more than a pathetic bully in his childhood. This whole time we keep hearing the word friend and to reveal the inverse of this notion, bullying, especially in association WITH friend himself is genius. Friend is a disturbed child who deep down envied Kenji, his ability to lead other, to be the talk of the town and charasmatically bring together a group of people and come up with silly stories. It's fascinating to see how much of Kenjis personality that Friend adopted into his persona. Because that's exactly it. He doesn't know who he is. Everytime he looks at himself he sees a blank face. He even tried to wear Sadakiyos mask and for a while lived in his shoes. It's why later on he always dons a mask. Fukube is the mask. His real face is the one with bandages and an eye symbol on the front. What's so brilliant about this origin is that if he wasn't so focused with coming up with these eloborate lies and schemes just so he could get some attention then he could have very easily just been friend With Kenji and the gang. His voyeuristic obsession with the gang and their antics made him miss out on a normal childhood. We were lead to believe friend was someone who was left out and was bitter about it so he recreated all this madness to fulfill his childhood dreams. But no. Friend is that one person who had every opportunity to be a normal friend to someone and his own self destructive, obsessive, passive lying behavior made him out to be the bitter outsider. He is entirely at fault for his own person and I think that is absolutely perfect. An outside like Sadakiyo whom the world is cruel towards and has every right to blame the world is not someone who will become a villain. A truly disturbed person who is the fault of their own suffering is someone who can become villain. I love that their is no sympathy of victimisation of friend he was always a very disturbed child. It genuinely breaks my heart even more for Sadakiyo. I really hope he's alive...

What we get next is a brief introduction to our new storyline. 3 years later and friend is the president of the world. It's not just Japan that's the dystopia. It's the entire world. By using the virus he has been able to control the world to his means. It's kinda scary how true to life this dystopia is. Complete with a Berlin wall parallel, government using notions of aliens to distract the public from the current political climate, curfews, killer viruses and promises of relocating to Mars. Urasawa is Kamisama in real life because it's insane how much he predicted. It's cool how we had Kenji as protagonist for story arc 1, Kanna for story arc 2 and it seems Otcho is gonna be a pivotal pov for story arc 3 which I am down for because shogun is my guy. I like how the new brother and sister duo is akin to Kenji and Kiriko. I'm also intrigued how Kamisama is gonna fit into this knowing his role back in the past. I have so many theories and the mysteries are still thick. I love it when stories keep getting deeper, the villain keeps winning and our heroes are really pushed to the edge. I genuinely don't know if the heroes can defeat this enemy and I haven't felt like this in a story for a while.

[Emi]

El Papa hará su visita al peor barrio de Tokio y Kana y los demás han conseguido que las dos mafias rivales que dominan el territorio colaboren para protegerle, casi nada! Los acontecimientos se precipitan y nos encontramos con un salto de tres años adelante, donde vemos que las cosas han cambiado muchísimo. En los años 1960s descubrimos más cosas de lo que ocurrió aquel verano en el aula de ciencias...

Si hay algo destacable de este manga es la capacidad que tiene para pasar del presente al pasado, adelantar varios años y volver de nuevo atrás sin que te pierdas; introducir personajes nuevos con sus propias historias que tienen su sitio en la trama principal; y los niños de los años 1960s, que realmente se comportan como niños cuando están de vacaciones.

Cada volumen que leo me alucina más lo bien ligado que está todo.

[Lori]

I was wondering why the cover writing was different than the others... and once I got to that point in this volume, I was greedily turning each page. Another fantastic installment.

[Chris Pinner]

Maybe the strangest book yet. Also the embossed message on the cover being different from every other book in the series threw me for a minor loop.

[Rory Wilding]

2015 – specifically in an alternate 2015 in the world of 20th Century Boys – is the Year of Destiny as despite the Friend, who was revealed to be Fukube, was assassinated by Yamane, is the world finally saved or is this the next stage of the Friend’s grand plan to destroy the world? As Kanna and the surviving Boys prepare for what the evil organisation is planning next, a priest from Rome may have uncovered what is coming in the near future.

Based upon reading Pluto and Monster, both of which are by Naoki Urasawa, one of the things that make the author great is he can make a compelling figure out of the most insignificant characters in his books that will in some way significant in the next chapter or so. After the sudden death of his mentor, Father Perrin, Brother Luciano discovers a book in his mentor’s office, which is a book of prophecies that Luciano initially regards as “very trite, hackneyed stuff”. However, as he delves deeper into what really happened to Perrin, as well as the recent news of the Pope is visiting Japan to pay his respects to the Friend, Luciano uncovers an assassination plot towards the Holy Father.

This volume, at the first half of it, is ridden with Catholic redemption as we do see flashbacks of who Luciano was before becoming a priest as he was a street punk that was all about drugs, booze and women, until he meets Father Perrin, who lets him read the Bible and thus a holy light shine upon Luciano. Clichéd as the flashbacks are, Urasawa writes them with such emotion, especially when we’re seeing what Luciano is going through in his current situation, in which he has to somewhat downgrade his religious position to reach Japan.

We get a similar scenario with recurring character Nitani, who we learn more about his Yakuza background where he encounters a priest – who ends up being the current Pope – he bonds with during a set-piece that is similar to William Friedkin’s Sorcerer. Again, this is a cliché that is repeated after the first one, but since Nitani has been established as a great supporting character earlier in the series that we are rooting for him to save his misguided friend.

As much as our heroes are trying their best to prevent this assassination plot, even some of the villains including the Leader of the Friendship and Democracy Party, Inshu Manjome, don’t have a full grasp of what the Friend is planning. With multiple characters from both sides participating in the big set-piece that is the assassination plot, it’s not as explosive as Bloody New Year’s Eve, but the outcome is just as devastating as the Friend having faked his death and revealed himself to the world and save the Pope from said assassination. With the world embracing the Friend more and more, with a new virus unleashed everywhere, leading to an even darker future, what happens now?

Instead of going forward, the manga jumps back in time as we see the childhood of the Friend himself, Fukube. As delightful to see Kenji and the old gang as youngsters, through the perspective of Fukube, we have a boy who is conflicted about his own identity, seems invisible to the schoolmates around him, and whatever friendship he does make, he treats them horribly through manipulation and abuse. Although you do get a different perspective to previous events from the Boys’ childhoods, which plant some of the seeds of Fukube’s origin as the Friend, there is still an air of mystery about Fukube’s rise to power. Urasawa just loves to keep us thinking.

With only glimpses of a dystopian Tokyo that has walled itself from the rest of the country, the only characters we know at this point are two siblings – continuing Urasawa’s great writing towards children – both of which finds on an adventure with Otcho, also known as “Shogun”. Where are the remaining Boys? What happened to Kanna? Is Fukube still the Friend? And who is that guy riding that motorcycle? 20th Century Boys is all about mystery and continues to be so brilliant.

[Salomé]

J’aime toujours autant cette série mais le problème des longues séries de manga c’est que si on ne lit pas tout à la suite, on oublie l’intrigue… Et c’est un peu ce qui est arrivé. Mais je compte tout de même continuer et je relirai tout un jour, les uns à la suite des autres pour rester plongée dans l’histoire.

[Des Fox]

Another perfect volume, but I'll tell ya, reading this in 2026 America is chilling. We are living in a world right now where truth and lies are difficult to discern, staged assassinations and a cult of personality are essentially leading us with the intention of satisfying Biblical doom. It's stranger than fiction. Feels like something a kid would come up with...

[Bella Azam]

Love this volume! Its so goof bcus we finally get to see or slowly uncover the friends past. It makes me annoyed and irked at his behaviour but i understand now why he acted certain ways. I cannot wait to finish this series bcus things are getting very interesting

[Nelliamoci]

In questo volume si scoprono finalmente tantissime cose su uno dei personaggi più misteriosi di questa storia.

Ciò che stupisce e lascia ammaliati è il potere della fantasia di Urasawa: quante cose, a 4 anni dalla pandemia, sono state così precise…

[Chris Leathley]

The expansion of this story from volume one on is just dizzying! Drawing so many narrative strands together and frequently wrong-footing the reader, ‘20th Century Boys’ is shaping into a dystopian masterpiece. Can’t wait for the next volume…

[Taylor Rabbitt]

4.5 ⭐️

[JuiceReading]

I would spend all my buddies for this to keep going!!
Down with the wall! There are no friends!!

[Ben Inzero]

I finished the whole series! This has to be one of my favorite mangas of all time. A story that will stick in my mind for a VERY long time.

[Elisa]

5 ⭐

[Tony]

Damn, can’t even hate him. He played y’all bad. Damn even I would have believed him.

[Etienne]

One of the best one of the series! We get good story evolution and also interesting background of our Friends. Love it! Vol. 9 coming in the mail at the moment, I just can't wait!

[Fimp Crumpadi]

Peak

[Bea Tris]

10/10

[Alex]

The story continues to spiral into completely unbelievable schlock, and it's a mess. But it's a pretty fun mess. I'm now just more on for the ride as to see what crazy thing will happen next. It's still a fun comic, but I do miss the emotional maturity, the character development and growth, and the palpable tension and believable mystery of the first 3 or 4 volumes.

A few other weaknesses -- they bring things up and then never seem to resolve them. The Italian priest was brought up had a nice chapter, and then he just is swept away having absolutely nothing to contribute to the story. They already knew the pope was going to die so his contribution to the story is basically nothing. Same with the Frog guy in America was re-introduced last volume and hasn't done anything of value in the story since then.

The waffling between fantasy and reality. The Friend and his daughter are characters that don't make sense unless they have supernatural powers. It just doesn't really make sense otherwise - and yet they still have gone back and forth on if the Friend is just tricking people or if he actually can do things no human can do. It makes sense to try and be mysterious but at a certain point they should have leaned into the fantasy elements of the story rather than trying to be playful - it just gets irritating.

The Friends plans make no sense. This is the main gripe with how unbelievable it's become, because the Friend's motivations and actions don't make sense. And are we really going to believe it's because he was ignored for a summer by his friends? He's gone this crazy?

There are still 4 more volumes so some of these issues may be addressed, but overall it feels a bit more like a JJ Abrams thing right now. It's more about having unexpected and wild things happen, and less about setting up and paying things off.

So why still 3 stars? Well because the characters are still charming. The art is still incredible. The framing and pacing of the action is great. The suspense and page turns are thrilling. The amount of wild twists is still exciting. And despite all the complaints, if you turn off the logic part of your brain - the story is a lot of fun and still has interesting stakes with compelling characters that you like. And Urasawa is still a master of introducing characters, giving them nice moments to get a glimpse of their personality, and having them influence the story in a new or fun way.

[Michael Sorbello]

This is a review of the entire series.

Humanity, having faced extinction at the end of the 20th century, would not have entered the new millennium if it weren't for them. In 1969, during their youth, they created a symbol. In 1997, as the coming disaster slowly starts to unfold, that symbol returns. This is the story of a gang of boys who try to save the world. Failed rock musician Kenji's memories of his past come rushing back when one of his childhood friends mysteriously commits suicide. Could this new death be related to the rise of a bizarre new cult that's been implicated in several other murders and disappearances? Determined to dig deeper, Kenji reunites with some of his old buddies in the hope of learning the truth behind it all.

This is basically the manga equivalent of a Stephen King novel, channeling themes and plot devices from the likes of It, Dreamcatcher, The Running Man and quite a few others. A young group of friends that make an innocent promise which ends up creating the most dangerous cult in the world, a 'friend' turned into the world's greatest evil, a strange suicide that reunites a group of adults to solve a mystery from their childhood which ended up leading to an apocalyptic police state, clever use of cultural references, rock songs and historical allegories to tell the full story, extremely small actions resulting in extremely massive consequences, an eerie threat lurking in the shadows that may or may not be of supernatural origins, kids overthrowing a totalitarian regime and rebelling against society while fighting against a sinister threat that no one else knows about; sound King enough for ya?

Though I don't think it's quite as good as Monster by the same author, it's definitely very close. It's a masterpiece of intricate plotting, interweaving narratives, deep character development and psychological complexity. The villain's presence is suffocating from the very beginning while remaining mysterious and terrifying until the final chapter. It's intense, it's relatable, it's horrifying and it's an emotional rollercoaster. Be careful who you call your friend and be careful of the promises you make. You might just end up causing the end of the world.

[Bryce Beal]

I really, honestly, adore this series. It's been a long time since anything sunk its teeth into me in such a strong way. The cast of characters is vast, but each of them are deep in their own way, and Urasawa's ability to spin a mystery that remains engaging over these eight books, each around 400 pages, is a testament to his incredible skills as a storyteller.

But, while this volume had a lot of highs, and revealed a lot of information that I've been practically salivating for since the first volume, I feel like it's finally starting to drag on just a little bit. I've heard the second half of this series is a bit weaker than the first, and so far I'm definitely getting that vibe. Hoping the last four books continue to be as quality as the rest have been!

[Denny B.]

Questo volume è dedicato all’Amico.
Entriamo per un attimo nella sua mente e lo si vede forse per la prima volta per quello che era da bambino: solo, senza amici, ignorato.
Da adulto è tutt’altro che ignorato: finisce addirittura per essere idolatrato come una divinità dopo quello che succede all’Expo 2015 con il Papa.
Eppure l’Amico è rimasto un infante che vive in un eterno passato.
È un bambino che tratta il mondo come se fosse la sua scatola dei giochi. E se un giorno decidesse di chiuderla?

Dubbi leciti dopo la lettura:
- Come fa l’Amico a essere ancora vivo?
- Il piano di Numero 13 era quello di sparare all’Amico fin dall’inizio oppure doveva solo uccidere il Papa? E perché a un certo punto Manjome ordina di fermarlo?

[Ame Lia]

Quando credi di aver capito come andranno le cose Urasawa trova il modo si sconvolgere tutto senza mai essere banale o esasperante

[Gianfranco]

È diventato un fottuto Dio.

[Casper Paaske]

A more psychological look into a deeply disturbed person. Both the story and the characters are taken into twisted directions!
And the cover… the cover is scary…

[Sunread26]

Chronique complète :
https://sunread26.wordpress.com/2023/...

Extrait :
On approche de la fin est pourtant les personnages ne semblent pas s’en sortir. Ami et son groupe continu encore et toujours à suivre son plan macabre. Les flashbacks continuent, tout comme les sauts dans le temps, visiblement l’auteur n’en a pas encore fini avec nous non plus. Utiliser les sauts dans le temps pour faire durer le suspense, qu’elle bonne idée ! Cette série est vraiment une master class comme on dit !

Le voyage du Pape se concrétise, ce qui, malheureusement, confirme le cahier des prédictions et donc sa potentielle mort lors de sa visite. Toutefois, les choses commencent à changer, de nouveaux alliés rejoignent le groupe « anti-ami » (je le mets entre « » car cela à son importance), tandis que d’autres découvrent qu’il y a des ennemis partout, y compris au sein du Vatican. Mais les choses surprenantes s’enchaînent, Ami a fait réaliser un livre donnant l’impression d’être ancien, il s’agit de son livre de prophétie, et il compte bien faire en sorte qu’il remplace la Bible. Petite info du moment, la Bible est le livre le plus vendu de l’histoire dans le monde entier (5 milliards d’exemplaires), suivit par le Coran. Le Pape, ici, ne mourra pas, mais le résultat sera encore bien pire puisqu’Ami fera croire à sa résurrection, et sa miséricorde pour avoir choisi de protéger le Pape avec son corps. Nitani tentera de lui dire la vérité, mais le Pape est entouré de fidèles d’Ami et se voit fourvoyé et converti.

S’en suit un nouveau bon dans le temps, et tout le monde subi encore un peu plus les ravages du temps. La longueur temporelle du récit rajoute un effet de « difficulté » sur ses personnages, qui ont beau traverser les années tant bien que mal, ils n’arrivent toujours à rien face à Ami. L’épée de Damoclès est pourtant toujours là, car Ami se comporte toujours comme un enfant, ne considérant les autres que comme des jouets, car il n’a aucun mal à décimer la population (qui ne se rend compte de rien), il en vient même à les parquer dans des zones entourées de murs désormais. Qu’est-ce qui pourrait être encore pire ? C’est simple un enfant qui se lasse de son jouet… Si Ami, vient à se lasser, ce sera la fin de l’humanité. Le groupe de Kenji continue tant bien que mal d’essayer d’ouvrir les yeux à la population, certains se doute qu’il y a quelque chose de louche (et pas toujours les adultes), mais très peu choisissent d’agir. Encore une fois, tant qu’on ne bouscule pas leur quotidien, il peut devenir aussi pourri que leurs dirigeants.

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