20th Century Boys: Prelude to the 21st century (Part 1)

[grazzt]

Since someone was complaining about the lack of non-porn manga...here you go!

Volume 5 of 20th Century Boys ramps up the tension as we approach the new millennium (in story, of course). Plus, since they seem to be so popular as of late, an embedded video featuring Naoki Urasawa singing.

First off, our story thus far (reads right-to-left):





Take a guess about the exploding building. It will be relevant later.





This "Book of Prophecy" was a game a group of friends played, with them as the heroes who stop the villains. Unfortunately for them, one of their number (known only as "Friend") is insane, starts a cult, and begins reenacting the events of the Book of Prophecy. He's already gotten as far as the bombing of Haneda airport, and has framed another member of his old friends, the protagonist Kenji Endo, as a terrorist. To top it off, the cult has managed to get members elected to Japan's version of parliament (as "the Friendship Party").

Oh, and what's the signal they were talking about above? Well that's a problem, they can't quite remember what that exploding building was going to be. Until it happens.





There goes the Diet. It probably could have been worse: only 32 members of the Diet were killed and 91 were seriously injured. Oh, and it turns out the Friendship Party were the least damaged by the explosion, since they were having a planning session in a nearby hotel.

That was December 21st. Flash forward to December 31, 1999. Kenji and friends have been trying their best to stop Friend, but they can't seem to find him. Unfortunately, the terror that the Book of Prophecy presaged is about to make it's entrance. Especially unfortunate for these two random guys.







Oh, did I forget to mention that the disease Friend's cult is spreading makes you explode blood? Sorry about that.

All scans taken from Spectrum Nexus and not the Viz translation.

Finally, Naoki Urasawa performs a song from 20th Century Boys. Enjoy!

Oh, in case you were wondering about the title, it's because he's riffing on Bob Dylan and John Lennon.

Comments

[mullon]

I was the one complaining about that, and I want to congratulate you on choosing such a fine specimen to prove otherwise.

Though in retrospect, what I really should have said was "I think we need to do something about how all the manga posted here is porn (and Naoki Urasawa and Junji Ito), and the porn posted here is horrifying."

[cf105]

We need to do a good porn week to break in the new community. Anybody else in?

[mullon]

I don't trust porn weeks in this place anymore.

[cf105]

Last one was pretty horrific wasn't it. Maybe we should wait for a few months until the dust settles then.

[glimmung]

God no.

[thanekos]

ah, Friend's " giant robot. "

the chapter with the robotics professor is pretty funny.

[grazzt]

Man, I almost forgot about that. I'll have to do a post devoted to that and to the crappy cult comedians.

[selke]

This would be my favorite manga ever. And now I need to put in the movie. There goes my Monday.

[grazzt]

I don't know about the movie. The trailers look great, but I'm worried about them cramming down a 22 volume manga into six hours of film. I'd imagine you would lose something.

[selke]

I've only seen the first, but it's actually not bad. They cut things out, but from what I remember it's really pretty faithful to the books. Even outside of the books, it's a good movie to check out. :)

[luxshine]

In a very, very weird coincidence, just today I finished reading 20th Century Boys (and 21th Century Boys too... I just couldn't stop reading)

It's such a wonderful manga.

[lysythe]

Naoki Urasawa composed and performed that song? Hot damn. Mangaka crush increase!

[grazzt]

Yeah, before he became a mangaka, he wanted to become a rock star. There's an interview on Youtube where you can see him performing live.

[ar_feiniel]

I really like this! Esp the panel with the giant robot.