20th Century Boys 11

Naoki Urasawa – Viz – 2010 – 23 volumes

This volume was a lot more exposition than we’ve yet seen in this series. Not a whole lot of action, nor any detailed flashbacks, nor were there Earth-shattering revelations of any kind. Just a lot of talking. It was still interesting though, and even 20th Century Boys needs to catch its breath sometimes.

Sadakiyo… hm. The situation with Sadakiyo gets very strange, very fast, and that develops while Kanna is being told that her father is the Friend (something I still doubt, though it was brought up in the early stages of the story). Basically, Sadakiyo knows damn near everything, and he learned it all from Mon-chan. Of course, we don’t learn what “everything” is, and “everything” is written in a cryptic, stained, and crumbling shorthand. So we’re left with the characters puzzling through their memories. Unfortunately, their revelations don’t really mean much at this stage, they mostly seem like major plot points for another day. But it’s still fun to see Yoshitsune and Yukiji hanging out together. And “everything” is important enough that the Friend organization would torch a building full of elderly people to destroy it. The head Dream Navigator is a ruthless, ruthless lady, and it looks like she’ll be back for more at a later date.

The story does explore Kanna’s background a little more, as it moves on from the point where she is told she is the Friend’s daughter (and why would you believe that? Especially under the circumstances in which she was told?). She learns what she can about her mother, absent for all these years. The truth of the matter winds up being pretty ugly, though it makes sense in a way, too. After all… would a nice lady have a kid with a man who turned into the Friend? Hmmm.

At this point, when it’s been established that all manner of craziness can and will happen, there are nonsensical things I am waiting to happen. I don’t know that the characters have ever said that Kenji was actually dead. In this volume, they mention he went off by himself, he put his life on the line, pretty much everything except “he gave his life.” I’m waiting for Kenji to show up. And I’m waiting for him to show up in some outlandish role that doesn’t make sense until three volumes of action/explanations make it clear that it somehow fits perfectly in the logic of the story, and has since the beginning.

As for the Friend, other than a lingering theory that it’s some sort of double personality for Kenji, I have no idea who it could be, and it seems like he’s relatively unconnected to Kenji’s group of friends at this point, at least the ones that had been established at the beginning of the story. That makes him a little less interesting, especially since the significance of Kenji’s class is lessened by new people coming out of the woodwork now, but… who am I kidding? I’m still dying to know who he is and how he fit in with Kenji’s group.

I’m also interested in the role of music in the series. Kenji is a musician, a tape of his songs is what keeps Kanna going, and in this volume, we see a speech he made about how all the classic rock songs are simply a part of his flesh and blood, and he only needs to close his eyes to feel any one of them. Also, given the fact that the series is named after a T-Rex song, and the first scene of a boy being bound and gagged and a song blasted over the PA has still not been explained… I’m waiting more and more for music to come into things. I’m not sure if I’m reading too much into it or not, but it’s still an interesting element.

A quiet volume, sure, full of characters pausing to try and sort things out, but I still have yet to see 20th Century Boys lose its forward momentum. It’s still getting better and better. It trumps Monster about a hundred times at this point, and is probably the best series I’m currently reading. Amazing stuff.

This was a review copy provided by Viz.