20TH CENUTRY BOYS by Naoki Urasawa
English Edition – Viz Media
Japanese Edition – Shogakukan

Genre: Manga/Science Fiction/Mystery

I doubt whether this can seriously be called a “review,” and as such I’ll be titling this sort of thing “Mini-View” in order to emphasize that it’s short, to the point, and doesn’t go particularly in depth about the story itself. But I’ll be happy to discuss anything further in the comments should anyone be curious about my take on things.

Today I finished reading 20th Century Boys and 21st Century Boys by Naoki Urasawa. I’m afraid I got tired of waiting around for the volume by volume releases, so I borrowed someone else’s translations. Frankly, I wanted to get to the point already. This is a wonderful series, but after a while, the complete lack of clues as to the identify of Friend gets absolutely maddening.

Of course, having already read the series isn’t going to stop me from buying all the volumes as they come out. But it was all I could do short of reading spoilers which, you know, I wouldn’t.

So, having gotten to the end of 20th Century Boys, all I really know is…Urasawa has a twisty turny mind. I have serious doubts as to whether I could create such a complex story. In fact I doubt that most people could and still have it come out coherently.

So, the two obvious questions:

Was it good?

Yes, it was quite good. Of course it was good. We are talking about Urasawa. His stories are epic. This one spans almost 20 years in 22 volumes (plus however many volumes are in 21st Century Boys, which functions as the conclusion of the series).

Did I like it better than Monster?

Actually, no. I still like Monster best. This has nothing to do with the quality of one story over the other. It’s just a personal preference.

You’re still my favorite, Johan!

So, here are a few things I’ve noticed about Urasawa stories based solely on Monster and 20th Century Boys (sadly, Pluto doesn’t really fall into this same pattern, but then Pluto isn’t solely an Urasawa work):

1 – Everything is about your childhood. If you turn out to be the most evil person on the planet, it’s because someone did something to you in your childhood that probably made you feel unwanted or unloved. And oh…you remember. You remember for a loooonnggg time. And you get your world takeover plans started early. If you don’t have it worked out by 6th grade, you’re slacking. In fact, you’re not even a proper Urasawa villain. Get out.

2 – Even if we start out with a male protagonist, there’s going to be a formidable female protagonist coming along anytime….

3 – Regular old bad guys can be turned into good guys. They’re not really bad if they don’t have Questionable Childhood Memories.

4 – Ordinary dark-haired protagonists get a power-up halfway through the story and become UBER.

And that’s about the gist of it.

Well, no, not really. That would be giving 20th Century Boys WAY too little credit. So much happens in this story that it’s near impossible to summarize in a reasonable length. It, along with Monster, would make great fodder for some kind of analysis paper. If only I felt like writing one….

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What’s all this? I won something? That never happens. The last contest I won was in high school—for neatest handwriting on a set of collegiate applications.

That’s not a joke. The college gave me a T-shirt.

No, really–I can’t even choose between two sealed Netflix packages to guess which one is the DVD I want to watch first. You would think that, eventually, the odds would fall in my favor, but no. Even Rosencrantz and Guildenstern didn’t have this kind of trouble.

All of this is leading up to my announcement: I’m one of the winners in the 365 Days of Manga giveaway offered via Suvudu.(!!!)

For this contest, the odds are actually really good. There’s a new name chosen every day, and that person receives five free manga from the writer of the 365 Days of Manga reviews, Jason Thompson (author of Manga: The Complete Guide).

I said I’d post a photo of myself with the manga I received, so here it is:

This is probably the only time you’ll ever see my photo (unless I end up at a convention somewhere, and I simply have to post about it). Call me camera shy if you like, but we all know it’s really just paranoia. ;D

The titles that I received include the following:

Speed Grapher
Category: Freaks, vols. 1 & 2
Flesh-Colored Horror: The Junji Ito Horror Comic Collection
Tomie 2: The Junji Ito Horror Comic Collection

Having seen half of the anime earlier this year, I’m somewhat familiar with Speed Grapher, and now I’ll be able to see how closely it follows the manga. Category: Freaks is a title I’ve never seen, and I’m definitely looking forward to trying it out. As for Tomie 2 and Flesh-Colored Horror, I think I was just surprised to see a ComicsOne manga show up at my door. I haven’t had one of those in years. I’m pretty sure the last ComicsOne title that I owned was Maico 2010 (wow, why don’t I just keep dating myself?).

Thanks, Jason! I’m really looking forward to reading them.

Additionally, I picked up 20th Century Boys, vol. 5 over the weekend. I haven’t had a chance to read it yet (deadlines will prevail over my pleasure reading) but I’m absolutely itching for the chance to get started.

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MONSTER by Naoki Urasawa
Viz Media, 18-volume manga series
Madhouse, 74-episode anime series

Genre: Psychological Suspense Thriller/Horror/Manga

Once again, Pink Raygun has kindly accepted one of my articles. This time I tackled a rather lengthy subject (at least, it’s lengthy when I write about it)–namely, the Monster animation. Granted, this is a book review site, and I only touch lightly on the manga. But, frankly, I consider the two rather interchangeable (as the article will explain) so I don’t have any qualms about linking to it here. Monster is Monster.

I begin with a general overview of the series and follow with short pieces on each of the major characters. I then talk about the animation itself as well as its American release. Keep in mind that I did write this before the first episode aired on Syfy (October 12). The show is now in its third week with two episodes every Monday night. I’ve been watching them religiously despite the fact that they keep me up far past my bedtime.

If you haven’t been watching, you should be! I’m still leery of the dubbing, of course, but anyone who knows anything about anime knows that’s just how it is. Although I will say that Liam O’Brian is a fantastic Tenma.

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PLUTO, vol. 5 by Naoki Urasawa
Viz Media, 2009, 194 pages, 978-1-4215-2583-9, Paperback, $12.99

Book Get! is a new category for listing recent book acquisitions. Had I been doing this back when TRE was getting its most recent facelift, the Book Get! posts might be competing with my reviews for supremacy.

Today I’ll only be posting one acquisition despite how tempting it is to start with the order I received on Monday (then I’d have eight or nine things to include).

This afternoon I picked up a copy of Naoki Urasawa’s Pluto, vol. 5. It’s sheer coincidence that I even knew it was available; had I not been browsing blogs all last night and this morning, I wouldn’t have discovered that the release date was last Tuesday.

This one took some hunting to locate in the store, however. My local Borders is notorious for not having books out by their due dates (thank goodness I didn’t go looking for it last week–I would have been quite miffed to discover that it was still in a box somewhere), and fairly often I have to search the store for carts with the new releases that haven’t been stocked yet.

I had to do that today, though a very nice employee did try to help me. He even went into the back room and searched the manga boxes in an attempt to locate it for me. He didn’t find it, but that’s because it was already on a cart. I found it a few minutes after thanking him and letting him move on to a different customer.

I’m definitely looking forward to reading Pluto, vol. 5. I only finished volumes 3 and 4 a couple of weeks ago, for that matter, so the story is still fresh in my mind. I’ve had an introductory post about it in the works since June, so maybe I’ll finally get that finished. Sometimes it’s just difficult to know what to say about something when you really like it.

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