BookDragon Books for the Diverse Reader

21st Century Boys (vol. 02) by Naoki Urasawa, with the cooperation of Takashi Nagasaki, English adaptation by Akemi Wegmüller

21st Century Boys 2So why is it that all good things are supposed to come to an end? I’d be perfectly happy with another 20 more volumes. Really, is that too much to ask?

With an enormously huffy sigh of resignation, I moaningly offer a final post for Naoki Urasawa’s 20th-into-21st Century Boys. Yup, this is it. Really. The series stops here.

The Friend might be dead, but total annihilation still looms. Kenji’s gone virtual, searching for desperate answers by confronting his own 20th-century-boy past in order to find the anti-proton bomb detonator and prevent the latest threat to world destruction. Meanwhile, Kanna is out in the real world trying to find the same remote control, even as less-than-cooperative representatives of the supposed-to-be-peacekeeping UN Forces think she’s the “devil’s daughter” and impede her any way they can. While everyone is on high-octane search mode, the Giant Robot suddenly starts moving … ready to initiate Armageddon one last time. Be warned: “All kinds of stuff up the road for you, kid …”

I only wish that meant more Urasawa ‘stuff’ for me, sniff-sniff. First Monster, then Pluto, and now 20th-21st Century Boys. All finished! Withdrawal starts now. I guess I can always line up all 18 + 8 + 24 volumes, respectively, and have my own in-denial-mangafest … maybe facing the endings get easier the 16th time around or so?

Oh, Naoki Urasawa – wherefore art thou my next series?

Readers: Young Adult, Adult

Published: 2013 (United States)
21 SEIKI SHONEN © Naoki Urasawa/Studio Nuts
Original Japanese edition published by Shogakukan Inc.

Discussion