What did you think of 20th Century Boys when you first read

Also, which version is your favourite?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6fMWguYVME
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xdY10RhB0s

>>133995674
sudalala

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>>133995694
>they will never make an awesome adaptation out of this God-tier manga
>you will never sing Gutalala Sudalala every time the anime intros
Cruel, cruel world.

Honestly I can't really remember. I know I had a good time reading it, but I can hardly remember any of what happened besides there was some sort of cult.

>>133996091
Same. For some reason I can't remember 90% of it.

>>133995674
overrated

I really enjoyed it up until the point where I caught up with the translated releases. Then it was like a year between releases (at least, that'sthe way i remember it) of additional content. Basically lost interest at that point.

>>133995876
The live action animation was more than decent though.
I'm even gonna go as far as saying it was great.

>>133995674
how the hell would anyone trust Friend if they never saw his face or name? That was too much imo.

I loved it until the first showdown 10/10, but everything after is 7/10.

>>133995674
I was hooked on it until second time skip.

Then it just felt weird.

>>133995674
I think Kenji should have stayed dead.

Anime when?
>>133996091
>>133996125
Same, I read it 5 years ago for fucks sake

It was pretty good but I felt like characters "died" way too many time, also the fat dude in the prison looked just like the fat kid from the group of friends. The author can only draw one fat guy I guess.

>>133995674
Liked it.
21st century boys was unnecessary

i finished reading it two days ago
the first part is amazing, the part with Kanna and the first timeskip is so-and-so,
the ending was kinda disappoiting

>>133998482
Didn't only Fukubei and Kenji "die"
I really liked the mafia/yakuza priests

>>133995674
Loved it. Second part had a lot of awful bits like the virtual reality shit though.

>>133995674
It's like that childhood friend you used to hang out with, but then forgot when you grew up.

was pretty good
but the way that friend was killed............ shame

One of my favourite manga, but for two issues:

- Characters ducking out for a hundred chapters, then being reintroduced wit no reminder who they are or what they've done

- Characters on the verge of revealing an important plot point and either getting interrupted or distracted and leaving the reader blue-balled for another few dozen chapters

It's not just 20CB that suffers from that though, Urasawa falls back on those two plot devices waaaaay too much for my tastes.

>>133998929
Which friend?
>.....
Fuck off

>>133998941
>Characters ducking out for a hundred chapters, then being reintroduced wit no reminder who they are or what they've done
This isn't really a problem for the more memorable characters though.
But yeah some of the childhood friends suffer from it

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It felt so anti-climatic when he was revealed as the bad guy.

>>133999018
did they explain how he survived the fall?
was his entire plan based on people not checking his body?

>>133998984
The guy who stabs the music star near the start was one of the worst offenders. He's introduced as a throwaway character for all of about 3 pages, then, what, 60 chapters later, he's brought back as a semi-import character. Then he comes back AGAIN in the last third. It wasn't until my second or third read that I realised who he really was.

That it was a shit attempt by Urasawa to redo Johan but changing the 'what's his name and who is he' to 'what's his face and who is he'.
And, in the end, Friend was basically doing nothing and did nothing to become a world superpower and there is no mystery.

It's shit and I wasted my goddamn time reading this shit.

>>133998941
It was well done with Monster, since it fueled the mystery of figuring out who and where Johan is but it was completely anti-climatic with Friend because it was clear that Urasawa wrote himself in a corner.
The biggest point was that virtual simulation that 'seeing his face will make you kill yourself or die'. It was clear Urasawa had no clue what to do to make it work and the reveal, after pushing the damn thing for a long period was a large head on a kid's body.
Wooo.

Nothing about 20CB is good except maybe a social commentary how no one really knows how or why history gets to a certain point, not even the people to forced it to that point but it was horribly done.

Fantastic manga, and better than Monster imo. Also the only manga I've cried to, mostly because of the yazuka priest's story about saving a guy in a river or something. The VR was kind of retarded, but I enjoyed it because of how ridiculous the manga was in general.

I have no idea what happened in 21st Century Boys because I do not remember it at all. I think there were aliens or something?

>>133999464
21st century boys just explained the identity of the second friend and wrapped up a few plotlines but left others open
Is Billy Bat worth reading while ongoing or should I wait until it's finished?

>>133999667
Definitely wait, it's basically a confusing mishmash of plot threads that make exactly zero sense right now, and it's showing no sign of ending.

>>133995674
The cover makes it look like the coolest shit ever. But unfortunately the actual story isn't as gr8.

>>133999724
I've read that the likely final antagonist showed up but yeah with Urasawa you never know

>>133999868
Yeah, the 'final boss' of 20CB showed up when there was still a good 150 chapters still to go. And even then, he was arguably less of a threat than some of the other people on Friend's side.

>>133999950
Killing Friend was probably the only real good twist in 20CB. I really didn't see that coming.

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>>134000000

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Cool.

Anyone seen the movies? Only saw the first, but I remember being disappointed that they only ever played fragments of Bob Lennon, considering how vitally important it is to the rest of the series.

>>134000000
>I really didn't see that coming.

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>>134000000
I was expecting Friend to become the evil and crazy big boss. When he died i was expecting him to come back to life like a staged miracle.
>checked

Still waiting on anime

>>134000128
Well, he did come back but it was somewhat meh.
I was half expecting shit like the Saw movies were everything was keikaku, even after he died.

What really annoyed me in 20CB is how there's obvious evidence of magic or supernatural forces, like that bowling guy who could do stock market or predict the future. And maybe also Friend who could bend spoons.
And that shit was never properly explained. I don't see why Urasawa added that to the story, especially when Monster never had such a thing.

What was up with Kanna's abilities anyway?
Or with God's
I mean friend's was just tricks

>>134000240
>>134000197
The manga was clear on Friend being all tricks.

>>134000240
Or was it?

>>134000290
WAS IT?

>>134000328
Put on a goddamn fucking trip

>>134000197
I think the supernatural element was to make you think that Friend was all-powerful and far more of a threat on every level, rather than just being very, very clever and devious. When you get down to it, he just had a talent for conning folks and surrounding himself with the right people at the right time. It's entirely a bluff, but in such a way that you don't realise it until long after the fact.

>>134000043
>>134000328
Here he is, the pathetic, lonely faggot att whore who feels the urge to attract attention in every thread

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>>134000000
You did it!

>>134000422
>Here he is
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLbhCDgjZN8

This manga probably had the best use of the timeskip as a plot device among all other manga.

>>133995674
>What did you think of 20th Century Boys when you first read it /a/?
That is worse than monster.
Urasawa is an unmatched talent for drawing/composing but is the worst when comes to put together the plot.

I am glad that after 20th CB he has stopped writing the plots.

>>133996387
I watched the first one but it was kind of shit.

>>133999464
Friend's dictatorship gets to the point where he's constructing an alien defense program based on the book of prophecy from their childhood. It comes out of nowhere and goes nowhere, but I like it.

It's not as tightly executed as Monster, but I like them the themes and subject matter more.

>>134000328
This is why I prefer 20CB.

>>133995674
I really like the way mangaka draws characters. But other than that, well, it wasn't "bad" but so many people consider it a masterpiece I expected something exceptional. It had the generic "too long and too much unnecessary shit" syndrome.

I'll admit at least I had no idea where it was actually going, and didn't see the latter part to be some sort of musician cowboy travelling in alien-spook mecha dystopia western, so at least I can say it went to places. Ridiculous places. To the limit I didn't really know if it was supposed to be a comedy. Maybe my biggest problem was how the beginning set the story to be a realistic thriller but at least in the part where they started using deus ex super science time-travel simulators I felt it wasn't exactly what I expected.

I also thought I hated the "second" mystery dude (it's been time so I don't really remember his name), but in the end it was well executed and logical twist. Still felt like it was a twist to prolong the story.

Tl dr fun ride that went places that were so out there I have hard time considering it a masterpiece.

>>134001848
That's kind of what makes it good, in my opinion.

>>134000000
Holy shit

>>134001945
I can understand where you're coming from, but then again I was really looking forward to a realistic thriller, as I just read Monster.

>>134001945
But then again, I'm the kind of person who would enjoy a movie with the sprawling length of 10 or so hours.

>>134001987
I did read it before Monster, which in retrospect was more coherent. 20CB just has a lot of elements that appeal specifically to me (a worldwide conspiracy, the theme of music, a plot that goes off the rails with borderline science fiction.)

>>134002059
>Borderline science fiction
>Virtual time travel
I admit it was one of the rare mangos that actually mentioned legged mechs would make no sense in reality and guiding one would be impossible because shaking, so I kind of forgave other sins.

>>134001848
How about kill yourself

>>134002125
That part was kind of weird, but I like where it went with the con-man character if anything.

>>134002139
That's a pretty aggressive response to a sensible post, anon.

>>134002229
I was just kidding

>>134002180
The whole "trapped in the past" thing was a good parallel, and, as with the bald guy, facilitated his character development from 2D minor villain to human being.

>>134002270
But it could have been something else than bullshit science. There are endless opportunities for character development and when it's "time travel" in a story that has little need or context for it, it just feels stupid.

>>134002366
I never thought of it as time travel until I saw this thread, but I guess it basically is. It was the weakest part.

>>134002366
It isn't really time travel

>>134003071
>time travel isn't time travel if it's virtual
The world is indistinguishable from reality so there's really no different between simulation and time travel. You can freely interact with people there everything that happened in the town happens in the simulation too, even if the creator was never present to record and recreate those happenings. It basically is time travel.

>>134003206
It's not time travel if it doesn't have consequences affecting the future, dumbass

>>134003276
And what makes you entitled to define what's the definition of time travel? There's no way to know if time travel ever became possible that it would affect the future. Your definition is shit.

>>134003309
Virtual timetravel is just a fancy way of watching a video of something that happened.
You aren't actually in the past.
If you were, your interactions would matter outside your little box, and it would be real time travel.
Even if you just gave birth to a different timeline and went back to your unaltered timeline.
Otherwise is just like watching a video or playing a vr game, as easy as that.

>>134001795
It's the reason I really disliked 20CB.
I didn't think it was magic because I didn't care about it. Bending spoons and predicting the future are not powers that can make the masses believe in you. Then, in the end, there was no magic, everyone lined up and the world turned to shit for no reason and no one knows why or how.

With Johan, everything is given but only with small hints. With Friend, there's no mystery. There's nothing.

>>134001848
The real problem with 20CB is that it highlights the biggest problem Urasawa has with making stories. Namely, a lot of good characters doing nothing while the villain does whatever the fuck he wants with no one being able to stop him.

In Monster, it works since everyone is trying to uncover who Johan truly is layer by layer.
But in 20CB, no one actually does anything.

A good example is Friend's daughter. She gets this whole huge arc for herself. She unites the mafia together to fight Friend. There's a prophecy that says she will die or be assassinated and nothing comes out it.
Then, when she's about to send the mafia to protect the pope, the apocalypse happens and a time skip. She becomes the Ice Queen and does nothing for the rest of the story.

Or that guy who went to prison, gets out of it, protects Friend's daughter, then also does nothing in the story.

Or the MC who decides he will stop Friend, does nothing, manages to stop the fake mecha, literally gets out of the story, comes back at random after lol amnesia and sings on a stage at the end.

None of the characters if 20CB do anything.
It's really what makes the whole story horrible for me. Because it was well done with Monster, even if almost all the characters in that also do nearly nothing, but they all try to figure out who Johan is and actually do succeed in finding him.
In 20CB, there's nothing.

>>134003798
Listen, time travel has no definition as it's as of today entirely hypothetical. It's impossible to prove "real" time travel wouldn't be exactly same as in the manga. The supposition that travelling in the past has to modify future is something picked from trash sci-fi made to entertain people, and I have no idea why you would try to construct a definition based on fiction.

As there is no agreeable definition on time travel outside "interacting with past", there is no reason why the VR wouldn't be classified as time travel. Even the "interaction" part is not necessary, as many famous stories treat time travel as sort of a "ghost form" that can only observe.

The fact that you are witnessing a space that reconstructs past as it happened, in a totally strange and unscientific way (the creator of simulator had no way to reconstruct real historical occurrences he hasn't even witnessed implies either shit writing or that the simulation is more than a simulation, a perfected peek in the past), makes the event as close to "real" time travel as any.

>>134003979
I think you're reading a too much into it. In Monster you have a strong central lead that gets shit done. In CB you have just a lot of character that contribute to the final outcome in some way during the story. It lacks the strong hero-arc but I don't think that makes it any worse of a story.

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>>134004200
I dunno, I think it hurt the overall story.
You could also argue that Tenma in Monster never really did anything either the entire story.
And I don't think any of the characters in 20CB actually contributed to the final outcome in any way.

What makes Monster good compared to 20CB is Johan. He truly is the best character Urasawa ever created, he even said so himself in an interview, and it shows.

>>134004298
I agree on Johan. Other than than, I don't really understand what your definition on "doing things" is, because arguably the entire function of the side-characters in somewhat both stories is to help in either relevant character growth on physically do something that counts towards the ultimate conclusion. In short, if you'd cut out the entire cast to 2 different characters, the ending would be really different as many events in middle of the story wouldn't have shaped the outcome.

>>133995674
Otcho was so based.

>>133995674
It got worse with every passing volume.

>>134004389
Give me examples of characters accomplishing things or affecting the plot in any significant way.

I'm not saying X shouldn't have happened or removed characters, only that characters, overall, doing do much in the story.

>>134004492
overall, don't* do much

>>134003979
>Then, in the end, there was no magic, everyone lined up and the world turned to shit for no reason and no one knows why or how.
Didn't that happen in real life?

Is it social commentary?

Like nearly every manga ever it was shit after the timeskip

>>134004492
You have to remember I haven't read the story in years so I cannot even state definite names. I just remember many people uncovering relevant clues for the identity of the big bad, seemingly irrelevant people setting up the mechs for a battle, at least the comedy-sidekick-police aiding in leading the mc towards antagonist and if I recall correctly antagonist being defeated by the mc. This I'm not sure, it might have been some sort of asspull and I remember the latter one being crushed under something? But these people definitely forward the story.

I think you have too high standards for what you consider "story". For one, well written story has many more levels than just the mc and antagonist facing eachother.

>>134004492
And at lest the prison break-dude or some else shot the first antagonist giving raise for the second, which definitely counts towards story.

>>134003979
Kanna avoiding death was showing the cracks in the prophecy, yeah? That it wasn't predetermined and could be avoided. That she gathered all the gangs at all is due to her oratory genetics, but rather than being a crazy person like Friend she went in the exact opposite direction because of her upbringing, re: Kenji.

>>134004492
Otcho is in jail, but breaks out with the manga guy who turns out to be friends with the other manga guys who know the girl who went into the virtual reality machine and helps uncover the mystery after joining the rebellion. Then there's the stuff with the singer secretly producing subliminal propaganda, who is friends with the fat guy, and man, now I want to read this again.

>>134004704
Okay, yeah, killing Friend was one important thing but it's really the major single plot twist of the story. After he does that, I think he tries to save Friend's daughter and does nothing much else in the story.

>>134004714
Wouldn't have mattered either way if Friend's daughter died or not.
She dies, Friend destroys the world. She lived, she does nothing.
Also, the prophecy was bullshit since Friend never had powers, so it didn't matter.

Plus, as mentioned, she gathered the gangs, got them to go and fight Friend, but he caused the Apocalypse and she becomes irrelevant for the rest of the story.
Not dying isn't really doing something personally.

>>134004833
The prophecy matters exactly because it wasn't real but still almost happened.

She's less in focus after the second time-skip, but she was keeping the memory of Kenji alive and holding the fractured and disparate members of the 'rebellion' (Kenji's friends, the gangs, that girl, so on) together.

>>134004971
Prophecies don't matter if they aren't reliable.

>>134004833
You might be right on him not doing anything relevant in the latter part, I don't remember, but as I said every character counts towards "something" and they have small roles that form the plot- there really is no strong hero-arc that'd need a strong single character focus. You're right on how they do not do lot, but I for one welcome that as much more competent writing than single character doing literally everything in the story.

But yeah, Monster was better.

>>134004998
But that's the point. The prophecy only existed so far as everyone went along with it.

>>134005056
That's stupid and called a self-fulfilling prophecy, not a prophecy.
Although 20CB is the story of humanity going along with something and not thinking about it, so who knows.

>>134005296
No, it was not a self fulfilling prophecy because it failed.

>>134002059
Are you me?