Rate this book

20th Century Boys, Tome 22 (2007)

by Naoki Urasawa(Favorite Author)

4.29 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

2809400377 (ISBN13: 9782809400373)

languge

English

genre

Science Fiction

publisher

Planet Manga

series

20th Century Boys

review 1: Masterful. This has been an amazing series. I have yet to read such an imaginative allegory of loss of innocence. When added to Urasawa-san's trademark beautiful mesh of several plot lines, I rate 20th Century Boys somewhere in my top 5 favorite manga. Things I learned/felt:- Few childhood dreams come to fruition.- Some of our childhood dreams should NEVER come to pass, no matter how badly we want them to happen.- I feel the frustration of millions of "children of the 60's" who thought the world would be drastically better by 2000. Much is better, some is similar, some is worse.- There comes a time when we all must grow up. Not just for ourselves, but for all humanity.- There is no cure-all to suffering and grief. As the monk said, in the end we must find a way to g... moreet up and walk forward, even with the pain.- Imagine a world ruled by the pains we experience as children. Now lets make sure that world never exists.Now I have to read 21st Century Boys. :) But that's fine.
review 2: After 22 volumes, the last three chapters kinda crap out. Kenji returns to a recreation of their (The Friend/Kenji and his Groups) 1960 neighborhood. Kenji's "big evil" was stealing a "Defender of Justice" badge from a candy shop. The friend apparently did all this plotting and copying of Kenji's childhood story of Apocalypse for... that? Repenting for stealing?Anyway, Otcho shoots down two UFO's that are about to spray the deadly virus that would kill the world at Kanna's "expo-Woodstock" event. Number 13, the assassin for the Friend's party redeems himself by slamming his helicopter into the last UFO saving the "expo" crowd from total death. We don't know what happens to the clone (?) Sadakayo and the Friend he stopped at Kenji's old school recreation.Kenji goes back to the "expo" concert and plays with Haru Namio ("Charlie") and his other 1980 bandmate. The crowd, after the whole story about them sucking, unexpectedly HATES Kenji's band. They want Kenji's "Guta-rara/lala, Suda-rara/lala" song.The epilogue shows Kenji returning to the 1960 neighborhood and seeing him and his friends as kids. He basically says he's returned to right a wrong. And... that's it.After 22 volumes, I'm kinda disappointed with this ending. I knew the world wasn't going to end (obviously from the previews that Goodreads has plastered for the whole volumes set) but I expected a bit more than that. Maybe "21st Century Boys" the "epilogue" two-volume set fixes this, but I kinda doubt it.I dunno if "Monster" is better but after the past year or two of reading this series I don't know if I want to invest my time into that just yet given this ending. less

Download links for: 20th Century Boys, Tome 22

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