20th Century Boys was a manga about the power and danger of nostalgia. It was a story about a group of childhood friends who grew up in 60s and 70s (late Showa) Japan, who basically had their childhoods literally weaponized not just against them, but the world as a whole, and who ultimately had to go into conflict with their childhoods to save the world and themselves. 21st Century Boys serves as an epilogue to answer one last lingering question – why?
Picking up very shortly after the events of the conclusion of 20th Century Boys, the plot follows the surviving members of the original group of friends, focusing on particular on Kanna and Kenji. Kenji tries to dive into the virtual reality version of his own childhood to find out what lead The Friend down this road. Meanwhile, Kanna tries to deal with the remaining elements of The Friend’s plan in the present, as it turns out he had a backup plan. Meanwhile, the UN forces who are trying to clean up after The Friends (plural) plan wonder if they can trust these people who are basically a bunch of schlubs.
Without spoiling the plot of this single-volume manga, 20th Century Boys takes the pretty clear tack that kids can be remarkably shitty to each other. Our protagonists were no exception. Further, the ways that they were shitty as kids were ways that had direct impacts on the arc that lead to The Friend, so the plot becomes our main characters having a reckoning with how and why they were crappy kids. Well… less our main characters, and more Kenji in particular.
In all, 21st Century Boys is a good epilogue to 20th Century Boys, but naturally if you haven’t read the manga, you will be absolutely lost.
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