20th Century Boys: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"This symbol is a symbol of friendship."''|'''Otcho''' in the first chapter of ''20th Century Boys''}}

 

 

It's the year 1997, and Kenji Endou's life is going to change forever. As a youth, Kenji harbored dreams of becoming a rock star; now, however, he's stuck working in his late father's convenience store (formerly liquor store). On top of that, his older sister has disappeared and has left Kenji to take care of her infant daughter.

 

 

The letter convinces Kenji that Donkey's suicide was, in fact, a murder. In his efforts to unravel the mystery behind his old friend's death, Kenji learns of a man known only as Friend who is the founder of a very popular cult. A cult that uses the symbol shown in Donkey's letter, a symbol that was in fact used by Kenji and his friends back when they were kids.

Adapted into a [[Live Action Adaptation|live action film trilogy]] that is among the most expensive Japanese film projects in history. The films are very faithful to the manga, which has inevitably led to criticism that they're impossible to follow if you haven't read it, due to time constraints forcing some important characters into smaller roles.

 

* [[Abandoned Hospital]]: Kanna finds out some information about her mother in one. It isn't really a creepy one, though.

* [[Amusement Park of Doom]]: Friend Land. What happens there supposedly pales compared to [[Room 101|Friend World]], but the audience never sees the latter.

** {{spoiler|Sadakiyo}} of all people, pulls one of these right at the end by {{spoiler|putting a knife to Friend's throat and stopping him killing everyone at the expo grounds.}} {{spoiler|"I'm a good guy" indeed!}}.

* [[Big No]]: Kanna, when she finds out her tape player is broken {{spoiler|after also finding out that Friend is her father.}}

* [[The Blank]]: Friend occasionally appears as this after the mask is taken off. Justified as it's only {{spoiler|in a virtual reality program.}}

* [[Boke and Tsukkomi Routine]]: Two of Friend's followers are a manzai comedy duo {{spoiler|who spread Friend's blood-hemorrhaging biological weapon to Osaka.}}

* [[Book Ends]]: The first and last chapter of the series both show the scene where Kenji puts ''20th Century Boy'' on the PA, although in the last chapter you see it from a different point of view.

* [[Call Back]]: ''Loads'' of them throughout the series. For one thing the sheer amount of characters who're shown early in the series and make appearances in the last arc is staggering: it's clear [[Naoki Urasawa]] is not the kind of guy who simply forgets about even the smallest of characters and events.

* [[Calling the Old Man Out]]: {{spoiler|Kanna manages a pretty good one against Friend late in the series.}} Subverted in that {{spoiler|her father is dead by this point, and the man behind Friend's mask is an impostor.}}

** Friend himself is a thorough deconstruction of the [[Evil Overlord]] character archetype. {{spoiler|Flashbacks reveal the first man behind the mask believed himself a special person since childhood and, once shown up by his schoolmates, decided to prove them ''dead'' wrong. He does so at first by exploiting other people's need for a savior/messiah to make himself one, then frames the real heroes for his nefarious plans - the plague-spreading mecha - to take over Japan; and finally frames ''himself'' as a hero by "coming back from the dead" and "saving" the Pope, thus assuming enough power to become President of the world. And none of it would have happened had he not also used his underlings' desires and wishes to keep them loyal to him almost to the bitter end.}}

* [[Defector From Decadence]]: {{spoiler|Many major supporters of the first Friend decide to betray the second one and help the protagonists. Not so much because they realized that they're wrong but because they truly believed in the ''real'' Friend and not an ''impostor''.}}

* [[Disproportionate Retribution]]: At the very end of the series, we finally find out that the reason why {{spoiler|the impostor Friend}} was trying to destroy the world and it all started when {{spoiler|they were children, and Kenji stole a plastic toy badge from a local store and let him take the blame for it}}.

** Don't forget {{spoiler|The first Friend.}} The reason that {{spoiler|he became Friend}} in the first place was to {{spoiler|get back at Kenji and his friends for showing him up when he was a child.}}

* [[Drugs Are Bad]]: During her [[Heroic BSOD]], Kanna is offered some "Love and Peace", only for flashback!Kenji for remind her that he didn't need drugs to be a great musician.

* [[Earn Your Happy Ending]]: And how! So much bad stuff happens not just to main characters in this, but to pretty much {{spoiler|the ''entire world''}} which makes {{spoiler|the final defeat of Friend all the more awesome.}}

* [[Enemy Civil War]]: {{spoiler|After Friend is replaced, Manjoume starts planning a coup. After Friend publicly admits his atrocities, most of his army up and rebels.}}

* [[Faux Symbolism]]: Otcho's explanation of {{spoiler|how he came up with the symbol that later became the Friend group's: he took the "continue on the next page" marker and drew an eye over it.}}

* [[Flash Forward]]: {{spoiler|The first chapter has one with grown-up Kanna seeing Shikishima's new robot outside her apartment in 2018}}, which doesn't happen until ''the penultimate chapter'', not counting the two volume epilogue.

* [[Gratuitous English]]: Crops up a few times in the story itself but most notable in the pre-volume title pages. For example: {{spoiler|"Kyoko met Kenji of his boyhood, and saw something she should never seen ... it was the face of the "Friend"!! Who will survive the world of indistinguishable of friend and foe to the last!?"}}

* [[He's Back]] ( {{spoiler|Kenji}}, and with about ten levels in [[Badass]] too.)

* [[Hope Spot]] (The first two arcs are really two long Hope Spots)

* [[How We Got Here]]: The first chapter includes a scene during a UN summit in the 21st Century where several people are introduced as having saved humanity. Subverted in that {{spoiler|it happens twice during the course of the story, once about a third of the way through and once again towards the end.}} Also {{spoiler|since both times are similar it is hard to tell which one is the one being shown in the first chapter}}.

* [[I Just Want to Be Special]]: {{spoiler|This drove Fukubei to create the cult of Friend}}.

* [[Ironic Nursery Tune]] (From the first time Kenji sees Friend in the video. You can hear it in all its glory in the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W18Kup-eqQA movie trailer.])

* [[Killed Off for Real]]: Plenty of people, including {{spoiler|Friend himself. [[Disc One Final Boss|Halfway through the series]].}}

* [[La Résistance]]

* [[The Law of Conservation of Detail]]: Of all the people, places, and things in the series, Maruo's son is perhaps the ''only'' one that doesn't gain significance later on.

* [[Loads and Loads of Characters]] (To give you an idea how many, the movie trilogy is estimated to include a cast of ''three hundred'' named characters...and that's probably less than half the original cast.

* [[Loners Are Freaks]] (Masao and Friend, both to extreme extents. Subverted with {{spoiler|Sadakiyo}} but just barely; {{spoiler|he's ultimately revealed to be on the good side but still a bit ill-adjusted and rather creepy}}.

* [[Misfit Mobilization Moment]]: When Kenji and his [[True Companions]] prepare to try and {{spoiler|take down Friend's huge mech, which is currently smashing it's way through Tokyo}}.

* [[Music for Courage]]: This happens pretty much every time {{spoiler|Kenji}} plays {{spoiler|his}} song in the final arc. Every time it does happen is ''extremely'' awesome, though.

* [[My Death Is Just the Beginning]]: ({{spoiler|Friend had a successor lined up in the event of his death.}})

* [[Never Suicide]]

* [[No Infantile Amnesia]]: Averted as a constant plot point throughout the story is the cast's imperfect memories of their childhood. Though played straight and Justified in Kanna's case.

* [[Nothing Is the Same Anymore]]: After the series's first major [[Time Skip]], where {{spoiler|things are suddenly set 15 years later in a Japan ruled by Friend}}. See [[Your Princess Is in Another Castle]] below.

** {{spoiler|Later revealed to have the name of Kaminaga Kyuutarou, aka "Kami-sama" (God).}}

** ''Friend'', for that matter.

* {{spoiler|[[Our Hero Is Dead]]}}: {{spoiler|Throughout the entire middle part of the series}}.

* [[Pensieve Flashback]]: {{spoiler|The [[Simulation Game|Bonus Stage]] is effectively one of these, though it's not [[Intangible Time Travel]] as people can interact with the people and objects, effecting things apparently until the program is "restarted".}}

** 'GUUUTAALAAAAALAA SUUUUDAALAAALAAAAA!'

* [[Power Walk]]: Kenji and co. do one in a manner most baddass when they head off to {{spoiler|take down Friend's mecha.}} In fact, the image of them {{spoiler|silhoutted against the robot's eyes}} is one of the most iconic ones in the series, leading to it being duplicated almost perfectly in the movie adaptation.

* [[Psychopathic Manchild]]: Many of Friend's followers come off as this. The scene where they're arguing over how to build their [[Humongous Mecha]] {{spoiler|and then later when they're laughing hysterically and cracking jokes about the carnage it causes}} demonstrate it best.

** Friend himself shows shades of this as well. Enacting a doomsday scenario dreamt up by grade schoolers {{spoiler|to show up one of the kids who ''made'' said doomsday scenario}} certainly doesn't help his case.

** Also doubles as a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]]

* [[Putting the Band Back Together]]

* [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits]]

* [[Redemption Equals Death]]: {{spoiler|Many characters trying to redeem themselves, especially the ones that once worked for Friend.}}

* [[Refuge in Audacity]]: Friend basically uses this trope to take over the world.

* [[Retcon]]: After Friend dons the iconic "eye-symbol" mask, the old "hattori" mask is replaced with the new mask in flashbacks.

* [[Rousing Speech]]: Yoshitsune attempts one in the second arc.

* [[Scare Dare]]: ''School after dark.'' {{spoiler|It was just their classmates. Oh, and a boy they thought was dead and whom Donkey mistook for a ghost.}}

* [[Sequential Artist]]: Quite a few characters.

* [[Simulation Game]]: {{spoiler|A painstakingly detailed representation of 1971, used inside Friend Land and can also be accessed from the Diet building. The heroes use it to find details from Friend's plans in the present and, sometimes, interact with their former children selves.}}

* [[Shaggy Dog Story]]: {{spoiler|the first two story arcs, in which Friend ultimately realizes his plans despite Kenji/Kanna and pals' best efforts to foil them.}}

** Yoshitsune said '[[Seven Samurai|seven of us is enough]]", but Kenji disagreed.

** [[Astro Boy|Ochanomizu Engineering]].

** There's COUNTLESS direct references to other classic manga: ''[[Astro Boy]]'', ''[[Phoenix]]'', ''[[Gundam]]'', ''[[Gigantor|Tetsujin 28]]''...

*** When {{spoiler|Kenji}} comes back, he temporarily uses the nickname of [[Ashita no Joe|Yabuki Joe.]]

** The title itself! "20th Century Boy" is a song by T. Rex, which has been covered by [[X Japan|at least one very iconic Japanese rock band]].

** The crossdressing prostitutes comment that Chouno's dancing looks more like judo, a reference to Urasawa's previous work ''[[Yawara]]'', where the protagonist's judo was said to look more like dancing.

* [[Storming the Castle]]: Happens three times in the final arc: firstly when {{spoiler|Kenji}} and co storm the 'castle' of {{spoiler|Moroboshi's killer}} and twice when the resistance storm Friend's tower. The second time is much easier for them seeing as how {{spoiler|all the guards have lost their morale.}}

* [[Stylistic Suck]]: Kenji ''really'' doesn't enjoy the 169th Friends Concert, even apart from the need to keep an eye out for the [[Big Bad]].

* [[Title Drop]]: ({{spoiler|The second Friend drops it as a hint of his identity}}.)

** Plus the title is based off of the T-Rex song "20th Century Boy", which is played a couple of times over the course of the manga. And it is, as the final reveal shows us, ''very'' important to the plot.

** Don't you mean {{spoiler|Kenji}}?

*** Don't forget Kanna. {{spoiler|From taking her first steps to walking into the crossfire of a gang war.}}

** Otcho too. From salaryman to {{spoiler|freelance ninja}} in a couple of years.

** {{spoiler|Neither the readers nor the characters ever see the second Friend's real face at all. They find out his name, though...}}

* [[Un Entendre]]: a [[Crowning Moment of Funny]] involving {{spoiler|Yukiji talking about her drug-sniffing dog. "And then he stuffs his nose into my..."}}

* {{spoiler|[[Villain World]]}}: after the first arc. [[It Got Worse|Gets much worse]] after the second.

* [[Virtual Ghost]]: {{spoiler|Manjoume}} in the epilogue.

* [[We Are Everywhere]]

** The final twenty or so chapters are just full of nonstop wham. To be expected with the [[Grand Finale]], really.

** The Kenji Faction marches off to the big climactic showdown with Friend. Cue {{spoiler|a 15 year [[Time Skip]]. Friend won, and now rules the world while Kenji and friends are regarded as history's greatest villains.}}

* [[Where It All Began]]

* [[X Meets Y]]: ''[[The Stand]]'' meets ''[[IT]]'' with a dash of ''[[Left Behind]]'', minus the religious/spiritual elements.

* [[You Can't Thwart Stage One]]

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:The Epic]]

[[Category:Seiun Award]]

[[Category:Seinen]]

[[Category:Manga]]