By Naoki Uraswa, Published in English by Viz Media
With the passing of friend in the last volume, one would think the next volume would be tying up loose ends. But as Urasawa has done throughout 20th century boys he ends up again twisting expectations and in the process of answering some questions creates even more suspense. It makes for another good volume, though the constant reveals are starting to wear just a bit thin in places.
The volume starts with the massive public memorial for friend, and the friendship parties continued internal purge of less than loyal members. Manjome is at a loss at what to do, though some want him to become the leader he is lost without friend. So he decides to head into the virtual world of 1971 to seek answers. Kanna and Yoshitune have the same idea, and convince Koizumi to head back to friend land as well. Yoshitune and Kyoko than end up heading back to 1971 together to search for answers as well, with eventually Kanna joining them as well.
In terms of plot this is a light volume as it feels like everything is mostly setup here. We do see Kami-sama in the past running a bowling alley and how Manjome first met friend. But in terms of big plot development we don’t have lots here. We do have nice bits of character moments, including when Kanna runs into Kenji and Donkey in the past. It gives the series a chance to catch its breath a bit, which is nice given the pace of the last few volumes.
Things pick up again though when we see what Donkey saw in the high school class room back in 71. Here Manjome, Kanna, Koizumi and Yoshitune see the origin of friend and see him come back to life. His return to life is less dramatic than one would think, but seeing him remove the VR headset from Manjome is a powerful scene. And it’s a pretty good cliff hanger going into the next volume.
Uraswa is still a top notch master of suspense as he slowly ratchets up the tension in the volume until the dramatic return of Friend. But the story is also starting to strain a bit under the massive weight of the plot twists and turns the genre calls for. Hopefully this is the start of the end as any more plot reveals will start to lose its impact and the character drama would start to take a back seat to plot. That’s usually when this kind of work starts to lose its impact and the reader becomes numb to the shocks and turns.
But 20th century boys isn’t there yet and is still one of the better reads published in English. Viz again has done another great job adapting the work, as it’s very readable and does a good job of explaining any cultural bits. As long as the end is near we should be in for a great ride.
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