Review: 20th Century Boys, Volume 1: Friends

20th Century Boys, Volume 1: Friends by Naoki Urasawa
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It's difficult not to draw the parallels between Naoki Urasawa's '20th Century Boys' and It by the master, Stephen King. After all, both have a group of kids, turn to adults, battling a greater evil through various time periods in their life.

Yet that is where the comparisons end. Where Mr. King's work is one of pure horror, involving the malevolent soul consuming entity of Pennywise, Urasawa's work is more an intricate quagmire of suspense, conspiracy and revelations, through the lens of the major cultural events in several time periods.

Generally, I have an aversion to suspense, mystery thrillers, because they focus too much of the twists and revelations, and eventually write themselves into a corner, necessitating the writers to pull something out of their ass to keep the story going. Also, in many of such stories, the characters are merely. the reader stand-in or exposition machines taken along for the ride. Where, their purpose is more to progress the plot, rather than have any agency of their own. I'm talking about, saving the world from some nuclear holocaust or impending catastrophe, while also living their lives in the remainder of the time.

What drew me to 20th Century boys was how, despite juggling multiple story lines, time periods, with their accompanying revelations and plot progressions, the story still largely focuses on the characters, their lives, personality, past, the decisions they made, or will make, as well as the longing for purpose many of them search for with such desperation.

They're not debonair spies or superheroes; just some adults living boring lives, having forgotten to dream.

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