20th Century Boys/Fridge


 * 20th Century Boys. I loved all the twists and turns the manga took me through and was blown away by the revelation . And then the whole stuff about started and I began to feel the fatigue a lot of people felt towards the end of 20th Century Boys. I was underwhelmed by the epilogue, 21st Century Boys, especially at the revelation of  but it just seemed like a cop-out. It was  Then it hit me. The whole manga has been about Kenji and his friends struggling to remember the past. The manga was remarkable in that it pretty much addressed every single character and explained all these lingering events that were sometimes only mentioned. Except  I didn't even remember  when it was revealed. The brilliance of it was that most readers probably had the same reaction of  Not even we, the readers, could remember. Just brilliant. -- User:Brain Damage
 * To expand upon this, the fact that was the boy who'd  was only in fact ever a rumor. And the best part is we're treated to exactly how the rumor began in the first place. In the flashback to the event that spawned his reason for hating Kenji so much  Such a simple childhood moment spirals completely out of control, and Urasawa's a genius for it.
 * My own personal Fridge Brilliance regarding is that both he and Sadakiyo had the same mask, same clothes, and same interests. Whereas Sadakiyo made something of himself (a teacher),  instead chose to simply become . Sadakiyo was the good version ("I am good"), whereas  was the bad one.
 * And one small addition to help pull this all together: if was always alive, why did they rumor get treated as fact, even to us readers? Well, look at how he's presented in the manga, like the editor above said: . And what happened to Sadakiyo after he moved?  created the rumor that he died. And that rumor worked as well (though to a lesser effect). -- User:Shadow Stained Sky
 * One more: we are constantly shown the scene where Kenji plays the song 20th Century Boy over the school's PA system, but only at the very end of the series are we given the major significance of this: in the epilogue we see on the rooftop, climbing a fence and getting ready to jump off and kill himself, when suddenly, he hears 20th Century Boy being played over the PA. This causes him to stop, listen for a moment, and then climb back down to safety. In other words, if Kenji hadn't played the song,  would've killed himself and the second Friend wouldn't have existed (hell, we could even say that  might not have become the first Friend). On the other hand, as Kenji did play the song, it saved 's life, but caused a lot of chaos in the world years later. Irony at its best, and sheer brilliance. - User:Rea 2 Tea
 * The second Friend telling Kanna that he's a 20th Century Boy makes even more sense with that taken into account... Urasawa vs Mind - 1:0
 * Not to mention it gives a whole new meaning on the series' title. Just pure brilliance. - User:Fiftysix
 * Plus the other two times that scenario was shown, it always ended with Kenji saying nothing ever happened. --User:marcell X
 * I was always wondering what the meaning of the crosswalk story, until I finished 21th century boys where it hit me, Kenji might be the hero now, but he was, in a sense, like he told that guy, "the devil". it all happened because of him. --User:marcell X
 * One for me after reading the series:  driving desire was to be famous, well known, recognized. His Start of Darkness stems largely from his attempts at being consistently ignored or overshadowed. Then I realized that Friend's mask was mentioned as a being a  mask.  could be read as . He was broadcasting his identity from the moment he first appeared. -- User:Sgamer 82
 * When I found out was Friend, I wondered who, and figured it was probably just some random goon. Then I started to wonder what  had been doing for all those years, and I suddenly realized: he'd probably  quite early on. Hell, it's completely possible  -- User:thatother 1 dude
 * The guy who killed Kenji's sister faintly noticed, which means they could had been changing shifts all through the story up until . So it hit me, was rather serious and more adult like, while  was more child like, so he was the one  and probably the one only one who says "KENJIIIIII LETS PLAAAAAAAY". --User:marcell X