[Review] [SPOILER ALERT] 20th Century Boys & 21st Century Boys

Let's take back our symbol !

Hello ! Pear's here 😁

I just finished an old manga series called "20th Century Boys" and "21st Century Boys" as recommended by Andre, who already finished it first.

To begin with, let's see what's this manga about,

"20th Century Boys (20世紀少年 Nijūseiki Shōnen) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Naoki Urasawa. In 1969, young boys Kenji, Otcho, Yoshitsune and Maruo build, in an empty field, a hideout they call their secret base, in which they and their friends can get together to share manga and stolen pornographic magazines and listen to a radio. To celebrate the event, Otcho draws a symbol for the base that would represent their friendship. After their friends Yukiji and Donkey join the gang, they imagine a future scenario where villains would try to destroy the world, and in which the boys would stand up and fight; this scenario is transcribed and labelled Book of Prophecy (よげんの書 Yogen no sho). In the late 1990s, Kenji is a convenience store owner, finding solace in his childhood adventures as he takes care of his baby niece Kanna and his mother. After Donkey is reported to have committed suicide, Kenji stumbles upon a large cult led by a man known only as "Friend". With current events beginning to resemble actions from the Book of Prophecy, Kenji and his former classmates try to remember who knows about the book." - Wikipedia (click the link for further information)

The genre are Mystery and Science Fiction, to be honest i like the drawing style and how detailed it is compared to the manga trend now (which is moe moe shit-as Andre told me). The story is well-told, even for someone who doesn't like to notice small things and tend to read fast, i could follow the manga's pace. The conspiracy there and how the plot twist scattered here and there amused me, like, whoa so clever ! But my problem is I weak to mystery and thriller manga as the tense so high that I frightened over some drawings 😂. Well.. who's not frightened over this :

....not frightened ? well maybe it's just me..
AND YES, YES HE IS HATTORI FROM NINJA HATTORI-KUN.

The villain here use the Ninja Hattori mask to conceal himself. Now I have quite a trauma over an anime series that i used to like.

goodbye, my innocent soul

But wait until you see the live action one :

matsuri festival mask ?

...well i want to laugh at that. Not scary as the one in manga 😂

and the villain (after story this and there) changed to another mask, which is basically like a mummy with "Friend" symbol in the front :

this reminds me of Aoyama Gosho's drawing style

in the live action one. not as creepy as the manga tho

The hand gesture reminds me of Death Parade's OP 😂

everybody put your hands up~

I highly appraise the tense situation Urasawa-sensei made with the drawing, as the mystery and psychological genre lover (yet quite coward when it comes to something thriller) the drawing supports the story as it goes. At first I frowned at the series as there's so many chapters, but when you're deeply enchanted by the story, you'll find yourself at the final chapter soon 😀. I highly recommended the series for you who already tired with moe moe, time-travelling, mainstream fantasy manga one 👍. After reading the 20th Century Boys, you have to continue reading the 21st Century Boys as the latter is the conclusion and explanation what happened behind the whole series.

So, there's my review for 20th Century Boys & 21st Century Boys. Hope after reading my review, you're interested in reading the series 😊.

BONUS : 

I never watch the live action but I find this funny.

Toshiaki Karasawa, who played Kenji in live action

Joo Sang Wook, a South Korean actor

THEY HAVE SIMILAR FACE !! 😨