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I don't normally post manga reviews here, since I already read enough manga that it's not a challenge. But I'm making an exception for this one because I think it might be a good first manga for someone who's never read any before. And because it's just so amazing.
I can't imagine this not being one of the best things I read all year. Click here to buy it from Amazon: Naoki Urasawa's 20th Century Boys, Volume 1: The Prophet
Half the fun of reading this is the intricate, fractured way that the story jumps from past to present to uncertain times and possibly stories-with-the-story, letting the reader try to assemble the pieces. And another quarter or so is the way that I had no idea whatsoever where it all was going. So I won't reveal too much.
A group of Japanese boys form a secret club in the sixties. These scenes are suffused with a nostalgia that's both bright and dark, like a Ray Bradbury story: children and childhood can be cruel, but it was a time when anything seemed possible, everything was new, and friends were forever.
Years later, one of the boys has died mysteriously. Is it connected to a bizarre cult? Why is the club's secret symbol turning up everywhere? And what do rock music and giant robots have to do with it all?
I have no idea, but this is the most compelling, weird, and evocative thing I've read in ages. The weaving together of the American modern myths of salvation through rock music and the Japanese modern myths of giant robots, plus cross-cultural iconic themes like apocalyptic cults, is brilliant. Though most of the story is very male-centered, a woman shows up at the end, in a hilariously memorable scene, whom I suspect is one of the main characters, and I love her already.
The art is somewhat similar to Urasawa's moral thriller Monster, but a little more realistic and less cartoony: the characters are very expressive, but (deliberately) not pretty.
Spoil me for further events and be squashed by a giant robot. But feel free to discuss volume one in spoilery detail in the comments.
I can't imagine this not being one of the best things I read all year. Click here to buy it from Amazon: Naoki Urasawa's 20th Century Boys, Volume 1: The Prophet
Half the fun of reading this is the intricate, fractured way that the story jumps from past to present to uncertain times and possibly stories-with-the-story, letting the reader try to assemble the pieces. And another quarter or so is the way that I had no idea whatsoever where it all was going. So I won't reveal too much.
A group of Japanese boys form a secret club in the sixties. These scenes are suffused with a nostalgia that's both bright and dark, like a Ray Bradbury story: children and childhood can be cruel, but it was a time when anything seemed possible, everything was new, and friends were forever.
Years later, one of the boys has died mysteriously. Is it connected to a bizarre cult? Why is the club's secret symbol turning up everywhere? And what do rock music and giant robots have to do with it all?
I have no idea, but this is the most compelling, weird, and evocative thing I've read in ages. The weaving together of the American modern myths of salvation through rock music and the Japanese modern myths of giant robots, plus cross-cultural iconic themes like apocalyptic cults, is brilliant. Though most of the story is very male-centered, a woman shows up at the end, in a hilariously memorable scene, whom I suspect is one of the main characters, and I love her already.
The art is somewhat similar to Urasawa's moral thriller Monster, but a little more realistic and less cartoony: the characters are very expressive, but (deliberately) not pretty.
Spoil me for further events and be squashed by a giant robot. But feel free to discuss volume one in spoilery detail in the comments.