Did you ever daydream of being a superhero as a child?
As the protector of justice and defender of all that is good?
Most kids did, I’m sure, making your own secret bases with your best buds and sharing
in adolescent fantasies crafted around the stories you read in comics and manga.
Far from being unusual, these are the common occurrences that make us look upon our childhoods
with nostalgia.
But, of course, when making those heroic tales, there’s no way you can have a great hero
without a cunning villain to act as their foil; who is Light without L, Yang Wenli without
Reinhard, Gon without the perverted and depraved clown man?
And so you would construct cool, complicated villainous schemes that the great hero would
have to battle against; huge robots, anti-proton bombs, killer viruses that sucked the blood
out of your body akin to the horror’s of Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
And then you grew up.
You witness those figments of your imagination disappear with the other childish hopes you
once had, and you submit yourself to the all-encompassing system that crushes hopes and subjects you
to the monotony of the world: life.
“What makes old age so sad is, not that our joys, but that our hopes cease.”
But what if those nefarious ideas weren’t dismissed as the naive aspirations of young
children?
What if you woke up one day, only to realize that a man was beginning to carry out those
villainous schemes you once daydreamed of to their most horrifyingly real extent.
Huge robots, anti-proton bombs, killer viruses; those childhood fantasies are now coming to
life and terrorizing the world.
And you and your old friends are the only ones who may have the key to stopping it all,
as the ones who created this plan so many years ago.
This is the story of 20th Century Boys, by Naoki Urasawa, renowned mangaka and creator
of other beloved manga series, Monster.
The story follows Endou Kenji, a norm al convenience store manager just trying to get by.
He’s long forgotten many of those lofty aspirations he once had: he abandoned his
teen love for the guitar and rock n roll, and having to take care of his missing sister’s
baby daughter, ties him down to a life he’s not satisfied with.
However, things quickly begin to take a turn in this ordinary life of his when one of his
childhood friends Donkey- yes, that was his nickname- commits suicide and a new cult begins
to extend its reach into every crack and crevice of society, led by a charismatic man they
call “Friend”.
And Kenji soon realizes that this cult is enacting a scheme far more sinister than it
seems on the surface; world domination.
and it’s all according to the master plan that Kenji and his friends once drew up as
children.
As Kenji becomes tangled up in vast conspiracies and dangerous mysteries, he is left with no
choice but to abandon the peace he once had.
In order to wage war against this overwhelming power that is Friend and his followers and
prevent what they will enact onto the world, Kenji must gather his old friends who have
all embarked on their own paths of life, and unexpectedly become the heroes of justice
they once aspired to be.
Just as Naoki Urasawa did with Monster before this, not only does he write compelling and
tragic main characters, but even more so brilliant and eternally memorable villains.
Friend follows in the footsteps of Johan Liebert by being one of the most utterly mysterious,
compelling, sadistic, and devilish antagonists to step foot onto a manga page.
In this way, both stories follow a similar narrative, in that the hero, Tenma in monster
and Kenji and co. in 20th Century Boys, must unravel the twisted story of their respective
nemesis, who were ironically birthed out of the actions of the heroes themselves- in order
to stop them.
It sets the foundation for a beautiful dynamic between the characters, as the protagonist
carries the burden of guilt for every action the antagonist takes, knowing that they were
the ones who allowed this to happen.
Friend’s desire to rule the world is both insatiable and ingenious, with the ironic
contrast being that his intricate master plan is simply taken out of the old drawings of
a group of prepubescent boys.
In this sense, Kenji and his friends lay out the plan for exactly how anyone with enough
determination could rule the world, as Friend follows just that…
And how are you supposed to rule the world without knowing all of it’s languages?
This video about 20th century boys is brought to you by Rosetta Stone, an excellent language
learning program that can immerse you in no time in whatever language
you choose.
子供のころから、日本語を分かるのがとてもかっこいいと思ってきたので、三年前、サブタイトルを読まずにアニメを見るためや日本語で書かれたマンガを読むために日本語を勉強し始めた。現在、日本語をわかるようになってきたけど、まだまだ上手じゃないと思うから、もっと自分で勉強したいよ。授業で日本語を勉強するなら、試験だけのために習って、とても便利じゃないと思う。でも、Rosetta stoneを使ったら、会話できるようになるし、聞く練習できるし、それに複雑な漢字の読み方を習えるよ。If
you want to watch anime without subtitles, or simply just learn Japanese or any other
language for that matter, osusume dayo.
The lifetime subscription for Rosetta stone is normally $299, but if you click on my link
you get it 50% off.
That means $149.50 for interactive Japanese study materials for life; you can take it
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Click on the link below if you’re interested.
Otherwise, Friend will have you purged.
I’m joking.
Or am I?
Ontof the most beautiful aspects of 20th century boys and naoki urasawa’s stories in general
is exactly that, the unpredictability of characters and their blurred lines between good and evil.
Though it often feels in stories that anyone against the protagonist is evil- for example,
many shounen manga make this distinction simple and obvious for the sake of building up a
brave and strong hero who stood up against the incarnation of evil itself- one of the
main lines of questioning that 20th century boys investigates is who is good.
Kenji and his friends are fighting to protect the world, yes; but they’re defending it
from their own machinations.
On the other hand, Friend’s plan- though it includes taking innumerable lives- is one
that also unites the lost souls of the world under his wing under the guise that he is,
in fact, their “Friend”.
Further adding to this, 20th century boys follows the cast of characters through many
different eras of their lives, with time skips a plenty; going from 1969, as children, all
the way until 2018…
This allows for us to personally witness the changes in each character over time.
How they were as kids, and how their upbringing has molded them into who they are in the future.
How the battle against Friend changes them, their hopes and their idea of what is truly
evil.
“The conscience of children is formed by the influences that surround them; their notions
of good and evil are the result of the moral atmosphere they breathe.”
As exemplified in the manga’s title, much of the story revolves around Kenji and his
friends’ when they were young boys, as the root of- well- everything.
Like how the rise of rock music in the late 60’s made Kenji into a hopeful musician
and firm believer in the culture of freedom and authenticity that the music brought with
it.
Likewise, after learning bits and pieces of Friend’s story you begin to see his motives,
what it stems from, and why he would use Kenji’s childhood plan, of all things, to enact world
domination.
All of Kenji’s friends have traveled their own paths as adults; not all of them are fully
on board to risk their lives to supposedly save the world.
They have families, or they’ve left the past behind them; this story is one of the
few times where the entirety of its huge cast truly have their own personality.
Their own arcs, and stories, that truly make the title 20th century boys befitting, rather
than focusing on a single one of the boys or a single character.
In fact, I’d say that a lot of the manga doesn’t even directly follow Kenji; though
he and friend are at the epicenter of it all, Urasawa’s attention to everyone else fleshes
out this story in a nonlinear, and immensely imaginative way.
And when you look at all the other members of the cast, the story asks: are you good
if you decide not to abandon everything to take up arms against a supervillain in what
seems like little more than a childhood fantasy, and instead stay back to support your family?
Or are you evil for choosing not to save the world when you had the chance?
Is Kenji evil for bringing his friends into this, risking their lives, when the burden
of it all really weighs on his shoulders?
These are the questions you consider as you read this story… and
they are ones that never truly get answered.
Because of this tender balance between good and evil, Kenji and Friend are not like light
and darkness, but more akin to two sides of the same coin.
“ again the loss of all those years.”
Moreso than anything else, 20th Century Boys reflects the importance of life, in many different
facets of that meaning.
For one, simply the importance of persistence in life.
What’s great about witnessing a story that occurs over such a long period in these character’s
lives is that you can see them fall, and witness whether they stay down or get back up and
keep trying.
Against an all-encompassing, almost omniscient force like Friend, how can you keep telling
yourself that you can win?
How can you devote your life to a battle you may never win?
But a great manga never shoves these ideas down your throat; 20th century boys does it
through subtle details.
As they discuss a game of bowling, or over a measly bowl of ramen…
You begin to understand the importance of self-reflection once you get older.
Considering what has brought you to where you are, and whether this is what makes you
happy, this is what gives you purpose- and is there a point to doing it if it doesn’t?
How lasting relationships make life worth living, the importance of forgetting and forgiving
others and atoning over time; there is so much to take away from this story in even
its smallest moments.
It makes you reconsider the way you’ve lived their life and the impact that your formative
years have on who you become.
More than telling you the explicit way to rule the world, 20th century boys offers insight
into how perhaps the key to making a world you want to live in, lies in your imagination.
It’s a read that can’t be passed up on.
Thanks for being patient while I took a break, guys.
I’ve got more in store over the summer.
Keep an eye out.
As always…