Reviewed by Justin Bateman
Stars Toshiaki Karasawa, Etsushi Toyokawa, Takako Tokiwa,
Yukiji Setoguchi, Yoriko Douguchi, Kenichi Endo, Fumiya Fujii
Written by Yasushi Fukuda, Takashi Nagasaki,
Naoki Urasawa & Yusuke Watanabe
Certification UK 15
Runtime 142 minutes
Directed by Yukihiko Tsutsumi
Originally serialised in a manga magazine, it was always thought that 20th Century Boys would be too big, too complex and too expensive to be made into a live action film. And in a sense the naysayers were proven right – but only because it has been adapted into a trilogy.
The story begins in 1969 with a group of elementary school children building a secret base (made of grass) and writing the Book of Prophecy (a notebook with some sketches), a fantasy adventure about the future of mankind. Fast forward 30 years and the creative force behind the book, Kenji (Karasawa) is a convenience store manager looking after his absent sister’s daughter, Kanna. A school reunion, a mysterious symbol, a missing professor and the death of a childhood friend, Donkey, all seem to be linked. Kenji and his old school friends try to figure out why Donkey died, while a deadly virus is spreading across the world and a sinister cult led by a masked figure known only as Friend is swiftly gaining a following. As the story unfolds, it becomes apparent that whoever is behind the impending global apocalypse is using the Book of Prophecy as their template for destruction. And just as Kenji gets close to discovering who Friend is, he’s framed by the organisation for the terrorist activities. Forced underground, he and his gang make a plan to stop Friend from destroying mankind and thus save the world.
Perhaps inevitably, such a huge, sprawling tale with so many relevant characters can be hard to follow as the backstory is set up. This isn’t helped by large chunks of it being shown as flashback and indeed flashforward, but keeping up is just about possible and the plot rattles along at a fair old lick. While some mysteries are cleared up, there are still a lot of questions left unanswered at the end and some of them are pretty big. Who is Friend? Is Kanna really the chosen one? Who survives? All of this might leave some viewers vaguely unsatisfied, even knowing there are two instalments to come. In fact, there are enough cliffhangers throughout for this to have worked just as well, if not better, as a television series. But overall it’s engaging, the central performances are strong and from a technical perspective the cinematography and editing, although not groundbreaking, have enough flair to keep things interesting. Well worth a look — but only if you’re prepared to invest in two more episodes.