▪	RELEASED BY:		VIZ MEDIA
		▪	AUTHOR / ART:		NAOKI URASAWA
		▪	FORMAT:		JAPANESE / B&W
		▪	PAGES:		216
		▪	RATING:		OT
		▪	RELEASE DATE:		10/20/2009
		▪	REVIEW DATE:		12/19/2009
		▪	REVIEWED BY:		SCOTT CAMPBELL

As boys, Kenji and his friends came up with a bunch of stories about an evil organization bent on world destruction. As adults, someone is now turning their fantasies into reality!
At the beginning of this new manga from Naoki Urasawa, failed rock musician Kenji has memories of his past that come rushing back when one of his childhood friends mysteriously commits suicide. Could this new death be related to the rise of a bizarre new cult that's been implicated in several other murders and disappearances? Determined to dig deeper, Kenji reunites with some of his old buddies in the hope of learning the truth behind it all.

Continuing on in volume five of the series, the possible end of the world seems all too near! The giant robot has already been built and now awaits the Great Awakening. With the Friend's identity still a mystery, the countdown to the apocalypse continues, day by day, minute by minute - for on December 31, 2000, humanity will meet its final hour. Hoping to get as many people who knew about their group's emblem involved in their clandestine efforts, Kenji's crew reaches out to their childhood antagonists: the twins Mabo and Yanbo. Back when they were kids, Yanbo and Mabo terrorized Kenji and company to no end. As adults, and with a crisis looming, will the evilest brothers in history now fight on the side of good?

This is a very exciting volume of 20th Century Boys, as certain catastrophic events start to unfold within it. A lot of the story elements that had been building since the beginning are now coming to a climax, and it’s exciting to see these events come to light. This science fiction/mystery soup of a book is downright entertaining from its detailed visuals, to its intricate story and characters. The story is especially captivating in this volume and readers will really enjoy what it has in store for them. The plot has always been really crazy, and very much of the “fantastic and fictional”, but somehow it always manages to seem so real and likely to be something that actually could occur in some ways. It’s this realism and believability that makes it such a great science-fiction read. Beyond that, it also has some continuing humour to it - even if it is dark humour – and the character development always continues in a way that helps to keep the story fresh and not just more of what we read last time. This is a fantastic series for the mature reader – it’s a real treat to have authors/artists who are making manga for us adults who still like to read books with pictures!

The visuals are still the same great quality we would expect from Urasawa, and now with all the added action they shine even more. Characters show a lot of very real and believable emotion, and varied emotion at that. The subtleties that the art manages to bring out in these characters are a sign of a really great artist. The detail in the art is another obvious reason to read this book – it’s not always that you can find this much professional detail in a manga these days. The art is just awesome – it’s very involving because it’s so good and you can’t help but feel you’ve found something really special and are therefore pretty lucky to be reading it. With a book so full of great story and great artistic quality, who wouldn’t give this one a chance? Unless the genre is of no interest to you at all, you’ll likely find something about 20th Century Boys very worthwhile.

It is especially relevant to read a bit about this author because he so good and so well-known – he’s really a bit of a “modern master” in many people’s eyes. Naoki Urasawa (author and artist for 20th Century Boys) has been a highly recognized and successful manga artist for more than twenty years. Born in Tokyo in 1960, Naoki Urasawa's career as a manga artist spans three decades and has firmly established him as one of the true manga masters of his generation. A graduate of Meisei University, Urasawa debuted with “Return!” in 1981 and hasn't stopped his impressive output since. Well-versed in a variety of genres, Urasawa's oeuvre encompasses a multitude of different subjects, such as romantic comedies (Yawara! A Fashionable Judo Girl), gritty urban dramas (Pineapple ARMY), swashbuckling detective stories (Master Keaton), captivating psychological thrillers (Monster and 20th Century Boys) and modern reinterpretations of the work of the God of Manga, Osamu Tezuka (Pluto: Urasawa × Tezuka). Many of his books have spawned equally popular animated series, and 2008 saw the theatrical release of the first of three live-action Japanese films based on 20th Century Boys. No stranger to accolades and awards, Urasawa has received the Kodansha Manga Award, and is a three-time recipient of the prestigious Shogakukan Manga Award and a two-time recipient of the Osamu Tezuka Cultural Prize. Similarly, Monster has been nominated twice for the Eisner Award in America. Urasawa has also become involved in the world of academia, and in 2008 accepted a guest teaching post at Nagoya Zokei University, where he teaches courses in, of course, manga. Combining a breathtaking cinematic visual style with stories known for their penetrating psychological depth and maturity, Naoki Urasawa remains one of the most exciting creators working in the medium of comics today.

IN SUMMARY:
20th Century Boys has reached a very exciting set of plot points in volume five – readers will be more than pleased with how things are turning out in this exciting story of apocalypse. Extremely professional art added to that gives us a very involving series not to be missed!