is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Naoki Urasawa. It was originally serialized in Shogakukan's manga magazine Big Comic Spirits from 1999 to 2006, with the 249 chapters published into 22 volumes. A 16-chapter continuation, titled 21st Century Boys, ran in the same magazine from 2006 to 2007 and was collected into two volumes. The series follows a young man named Kenji Endo and his friends, who notice that a cult-leader known only as "Friend" is out to destroy the world, and that his cult icon bears a striking resemblance to a symbol developed during their childhoods. The series makes many references to a number of manga and anime from the 1960s–1970s, as well as to classic rock music, with its title being taken from T. Rex's song "20th Century Boy".
A trilogy of live-action film adaptations, directed by Yukihiko Tsutsumi, were released in 2008 and 2009. The manga was licensed and released in English by Viz Media, and distributed in Australasia by Madman Entertainment. The films were also licensed by Viz in North America and by 4Digital Media in the United Kingdom.
20th Century Boys has received critical acclaim and has over 36 million copies in circulation. It has won several awards, including the Shogakukan Manga Award, the Kodansha Manga Award and the Seiun Award.
Plot In 1969, young boys Kenji, Otcho, Yoshitsune and Maruo build, in an empty field, a hideout they call their secret base, in which they and their friends can get together to share manga and stolen pornographic magazines and listen to a radio. To celebrate the event, Otcho draws a symbol for the base that would represent their friendship. After their friends Yukiji and Donkey join the gang, they imagine a future scenario where villains would try to destroy the world, and in which the boys would stand up and fight; this scenario is transcribed and labelled .
In the late 1990s, Kenji is a convenience store owner, finding solace in his childhood adventures as he takes care of his baby niece Kanna and his mother. After Donkey is reported to have committed suicide, Kenji stumbles upon a large cult led by a man known only as "Friend". With current events beginning to resemble actions from the Book of Prophecy, Kenji and his former classmates try to remember who knows about the book. They find more events unfolding such as bombings and virus attacks in San Francisco, London, and a major Japanese airport.
Kenji and his former classmates eventually uncover a plan to destroy the world on New Year's Eve of 2000, referred to in the latter part of the story as the Bloody New Year's Eve, with the use of a "giant robot", which is later revealed to be a giant balloon with robotic appendages, which spreads the virus throughout the city as well as other cities. Kenji manages to get inside the robot to plant a bomb, but is presumed dead when it explodes. From this event, the members of the gain widespread political popularity and power by presenting a vaccine that counters the virus, and thus take all the credit for saving the world.
Fourteen years after Bloody New Year's Eve, Kanna is a teenage girl who works at a Chinese restaurant. After she tries to defuse some interaction between various mafia groups, she discovers that a patron's friend had witnessed a Chinese mafia member get killed by a corrupted policeman. The mafia member mentions an assassination attempt on the Pope as he visits Japan. She then finds herself being hunted by members of the Friends while trying to unite the mafia groups to her cause. Meanwhile, Otcho manages to escape a maximum security prison.
Kyoko Koizumi, who attends Kanna's school, impulsively takes on a school assignment of covering Bloody New Year's Eve, but soon becomes entangled in activities involving both the Friends and the people who oppose them. After surviving a brainwashing program, she joins with Kenji's friend Yoshitsune and his resistance force.
Friend reveals a new plan, a continuation of the Book of Prophecy, in which he plans to kill every human being on Earth except for sixty million of his followers, but he is then assassinated by his chief scientist Yamane. Following this, Friend's funeral becomes a worldwide spectacle, held in a stadium with the Pope giving the address. Partway through the service, Friend appears to rise from the dead, and is shot in the shoulder by his own assassin. By saving the Pope, Friend is elevated to deity like status. Meanwhile, there is a worldwide viral outbreak that threatens to kill everyone except those who have been vaccinated.
The final portion of the story takes place in a newly remodeled Japan, under the "Era of Friend", who has instituted numerous bizarre changes, including the establishment of an Earth Defense Force, reputedly to protect Earth from an imminent alien invasion, exiling those without vaccinations, and forbidding travel across regions, under penalty of death. During this time frame, Kanna, who is revealed to be Friend's daughter, leads an insurgency against Friend's government, enlisting the aid of numerous groups, including the survivors of rival gangs and mafia organizations. During this, Kenji, apparently also risen from the dead and carrying his trademark guitar, reappears.
The series spans several decades from 1969 to 2017, the last of which in the chronology of the series, becomes 3FE (3rd Year of the Friend Era). The series makes three distinct timeline cuts during the story; one from 1971 to 1997, one from 2000 to 2014, and one from 2014 to 3FE. Several parts of the series are also told in flashbacks to previous events as the characters attempt to unravel the mystery of who Friend is and how to stop his plans of world destruction; most of the character's childhood backstories through the 1970s and 1980s are told in this fashion.
Characters
The central protagonist of the first half of the story, which revolves around his childhood in the early 1970s to the present day. He is generally laid-back, with an almost recklessly careless nonchalance, and is heavily interested in rock 'n' roll. works at his family's store which used to be a liquor store but has since been converted to a subsidiary convenience store.20th Century Boys manga, Volume 1 He, his relatives, and friends play crucial roles as the plot unfolds. Kenji's whereabouts are unknown after the events of the Bloody New Year's Eve and he is presumed dead. He reappears in 3FE as a traveling musician under the alias (a reference to the main character of Ashita no Joe). After barely escaping the robot's explosion in 2000, he experienced amnesia and wandered throughout Japan before regaining his memory during the events of 2015.20th Century Boys manga, Volume 19, Chapter 11 His song becomes a popular underground anthem against Friend's oppression. He is named after the Japanese musician of the same name.
Kenji's childhood friend who created the secret base with him. He is nicknamed after the famous samurai Minamoto no Yoshitsune due to the fact that his family name is . Ever the nervous, unconfident, and self-deprecating little guy of the group, Yoshitsune is nonetheless one of the few who answered the call to fight on Bloody New Year's Eve, where he is believed to have died. In the year 2014, Yoshitsune has become the dependable, albeit reluctant leader of an underground organization bent on taking down Friend. By 3FE, the group is now known as the after the Minamoto/Genji clan. In the live-action film series, his full name is given as .
Kenji's portly childhood friend. After answering the call to fight, he is believed to have died in Bloody New Year's Eve. But in 2015, he is the manager of singer under the pseudonym . Namio is one of Friend's favorite entertainers, the singer of the official theme song of Expo 2015, and a former bandmate of Kenji's. Using Namio's influence and connections, the two secretly investigate and subvert the Friends, such as inserting subliminal messages in videos. After meeting Friend, Namio draws his face, allowing Maruo to identify him. In 3FE, Maruo tracks down Keroyon and Kiriko and helps distribute the vaccine. In the live-action film series, his full name is given as .
Kenji's childhood friend, whose real name is .20th Century Boys manga, Volume 4 Around 1988, he was sent to Thailand by his Japanese trading company, but went missing for a week; upon his return he quit the company and divorced, and a year later was in India. Originally suspected to be Friend (perhaps due to the fact that he was the one who thought of the symbol which Friend's cult uses), he actually went to receive enlightenment and training from a monk after the death of his son, and was simply living in Asia's seedy underground. In 2000, Otcho is in Thailand doing jobs such as "saving" kidnapped tourists, going under the alias . In prime physical shape, he has escaped certain death many times, but a local drug boss allied with the Friends hunts him. When he gets a plea from Kenji for help, Otcho returns to Japan. He was arrested after the events of Bloody New Year's Eve and is housed in a maximum security prison, before eventually escaping. In 3FE, Otcho takes on the job of riding the robot and shooting down the flying saucers that will disperse the virus.
Kenji's female childhood friend and former classmate. During Kenji's school years, Yukiji was a tomboy who was able to fight off the bullying twins, Mabo and Yanbo. Kenji and Yukiji had crushes on each other as children but neither had the courage to confess, with Kenji's only attempt being misunderstood due to its vagueness. At the beginning of the series, Yukiji is a single unmarried woman who works as a customs official (often comically mistaken by Kenji's friends and local townsfolk for a narcotics officer). She bumps into Kenji and the gang at an airport in Tokyo when her disobedient drug sniffing dog named Blue Three (a Japanese pun on the name Bruce Lee), attacks Kenji.20th Century Boys manga, Volume 2, chapter 1 Yukiji assists Kenji during Bloody New Year's Eve and, following his disappearance, becomes Kanna's guardian per his wishes.
Kenji's niece, originally introduced at the beginning of the series as a toddler under Kenji's care when her mother disappeared.20th Century Boys manga, Volume 2. After Kenji's apparent death and the time-skip, she is the series' new protagonist. Following the events of Bloody New Year's Eve, she returns to Tokyo as a high school student. She seems to possess supernatural abilities such as ESP and weak telekinesis. Her father is revealed to be Friend, who claims her abilities to be the result of a secret medicine given to her mother before childbirth. Coupled with her charisma, Kanna makes an able leader, as she unites Tokyo's Thai and Chinese mafia organizations to save the Pope, and later assembles a faction against Friend where she is known under the moniker of .
A childhood friend of Kenji's whose real name is . He moved to Germany and became a rugby player before retiring to take care of his ailing mother. After she dies, he started his own business with a partner. He returns to Japan to attend Donkey's funeral, and later answers Kenji's call to arms on Bloody New Year's Eve. Mon-chan survives the event, but prior to this, he was diagnosed with a terminal illness. He is later seen hospitalized in 2002 due to his disease, showing Yukiji the information he has collected while investigating the Friends. Mon-chan suddenly leaves the hospital with no warning and disappears, which is later revealed to have been to contact Sadakiyo in an attempt to investigate further, not knowing Sadakiyo's involvement in the group. Sadakiyo kills him on behalf of the Friends, taking the information he has gathered.