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21世紀少年
16
2
Finished
Dec 25, 2006 to Jul 14, 2007
7.4/10
Average Review Score
55%
Recommend It
11
Reviews Worldwide
Surprised that no one has reviewed this, while it may not be at the same level of 20th Century Boys, it's only two volumes, it's the ending, and it's a great read despite it's short length. If anything I am a little disappointed that it didn't show us a bit more of an "aftermath" to things, I was particularly begging for Friend to have a good reason for what he was doing, but it never came. 21st Century Boy simply wraps up the story of 20th Century Boys story, starting off with the concert that we saw near the end of 20th Century Boys, andleading us into the events we saw on the final page. 21st Century Boy is short, but intriguing and satisfying ending to the great series created by the genius mind of Naoki Urasawa. The story is directly finishing the events that happens in "The New Book of Prophecies" and finishes up all the mysteries of "who friend was?" and "who replaced him?" and the relationship between the people who were directly involved with the friend personality. I don't want to give away to many spoilers, though if you're reading this I assume you've already finished 20th Century Boys, in which case, get your ass out that in read the sequel. The story is similar to 20th Century Boys, but is more answers, and has the interesting way of searching the past to find out what to do in the present that was presented in 20th Century Boys, just taken to higher levels here. If you like the story of 20th Century Boys, you don't have to worry about this, it's a great sequel with a compelling story. As expected from anyone familiar with 20th Century Boys, this one is filled with great artwork, and will make you actually want to take a second to look at the great artwork that Urasawa turns out in this story. The character's still aren't nesscairaly attractive, but it doesn't matter, the artwork is filled with detail and beauty on the character's, and is amazing to behold. Truly a genius to both write and draw this, the artwork gets a ten out of ten here, the only ten I gave in the review stats. The character's presented in 21st Century Boys are all characters we have seen before, but this time we get to take a deeper look on the children through Kenji's interaction through them, and we also get to see some of Friend's old servants on a deeper level as well. Mainly it is particularly Kenji and the villains of the past series that shine in this, as they are the focus of the story, and prove for some extremely interesting angles in the story, especially the interaction between the people of Friends, and seeing how there are things they change on and things that stay the same. Overall, 21st Century Boys proves to further answer the final events in the New Book of Prophecies, but not much after that. We get a nice little conversation at the end to, but I did feel like there were some loose ties in there, like all the talk of a "confession" between two of the character's never go anywhere, it certainly feels like an incomplete ending, but is still satisfying at that. I guess to sum it up it felt like there should have been another chapter, and that was just the end to a good chapter. Of course you should read it right after 20th Century Boys, and you shouldn't even have to read this to decide that, but if you did, I hope this helped you to decide to read this great series.
As the conflict between Kenji Endo, his childhood friends, and cult leader "Friend" comes to an end, two mysteries remain—Friend's true identity and whether the threat of an "anti-photon bomb" before his death was legitimate. Hoping to find an answer, Kenji, alongside the United Nations, decides to use a virtual reality program created from Friend's childhood memories in this conclusion to a long journey that will span decades. [Written by MAL Rewrite]
This is more of like a gift from the author to those who wanted more. It gave a feeling of making amends, saying sorry, doing things right for the second time. I thought this sequel weakened the story a bit. It has more scenes from when they were kids, which gave some answers but at the same time also raised a few more questions. It also shows a bit of how the relationships between the characters evolved from when they were kids to now that they are older. Even Yukari and Kenji are hinted at being more than friends, after all this time. I still feel like theseries hasn't ended yet, this makes me want to reread the whole series all over again
*Spoiler free - Rapid Review* *(My 20th century boys review for context) Perhaps the most over-rated manga ever. It may be Gigguk's favourite manga, but this manga is *extremely* over-rated. Despite having good characters that are properly characterised and play off each other well, the manga fails to support the plot with a paper-thin mystery that should have only lasted 100 chapters. It's a hodgepodge of many ideas that don't support each other and the resolutions of plot points are really boring. Which, is exactly what this manga is, boring. The art is decent and certain scenes look great, the actual story is so random and bad thatI really cannot recommend this manga to anyone. It's a shame this manga is heralded as a "rite of passage" to be a "proper manga fan", because this is such elementary writing. And the entirety of the mystery plots are a joke. It's like, 10 different genres stuffed into a single story and it just doesn't work. Period. Trying to be so many things at once is a detriment. I'd say 3-4 out of 10, but the admittedly novel, albeit failed, approach and some scenes jump it to a 5/10.* (My review for 21st century boys) This was a pointless sequel. Why this couldn't have been part of the original manga is beyond me, particularly because the story did not end in the last manga. It's really odd. It's like watching a movie, the movie ends, then having to take out the DVD and put another entirely separate DVD just to watch the ending. Alas, onto the manga itself. This was the most disappointing ending to a manga I have ever read. Two weeks of reading, and many years when it was releases, for a horrible conclusion that answers nothing, with nothing set-up or paid off, with the usual 20th CB nonsense. Once again, I'm baffled that this manga is rated so highly. But I appreciate the fact that people are able to enjoy things I don't, and vice-versa. I'm NOT a contrarian, and if your opinion differs, be civil. Your opinion is as valid as mine. Don't rate this as "confusing" just because you disagree with my view, instead, criticise the actual writing of the review. That's what it's there for. Don't be a child. Thank you for reading my rapid review, have a nice day/night!
This is filled with spoilers This was the manga where Im like. I want a conclusion i want it to end. Ive read 20th century boys and I loved it but I was desperate for more. i want an actual ending to such a great journey. I dont want to prolong the journey any longer, not only that, they put some sort of I can feel you with my heart mechanic therefore I must drive the story forward to this direction. The virtual reality word is evident and “realistic” enough fro me to comprehend. The esp aspects sure is unrealistic but Im still fine with itbecause its not overpowered. On this part of the manga however its soooo overpowered and the threat doesn’t feel like a threat at all. The real threat died a long time ago I want a closing ceremony to the epic master piece that is 20thcentury boys. Thats why Im considering this medium as separate from the main series.cause I understand I enjoyed the main series more than this. i prefer if this was more heart warming moment than another kenji saves the world stuff.
As the short epilogue to 20th Century Boys, most of what I have said about 20th Century Boys applies to 21st Century Boys. Despite the time gap between the release of the final chapters of 20th Century Boys and the beginning of 21st Century Boys, there is virtually zero dissonance between the two series, and thus you can very easily get right into 21st Century Boys as soon as its predecessor is over. The narrative this time around is far more heavily focused on one thread rather than multiple converging threads as you might be used to with the bulk of 20th Century Boys, however,this could just be because all of the threads have converged already. Although my problems with 20th Century Boys are kind of amplified here, with very questionable uses of ESP and other supernatural business like ghosts and people somehow being able to feel the emotions of a data clone of themselves in a VR attraction, at this point in the story I wasn't able to care so hard about my problems with the story as much as I was engrossed with seeing satisfying ends to nearly every character's arcs. Despite the nature of 21st Century Boys as being written for the expressed purpose of providing an ending that fans wanted to the series, it never felt like fanservice or rushed to shut fans up, which I will admit makes me respect Urusawa's integrity as an author for not caving in fully to fan demand.