Naoki Urasawa's 20th Century Boys, Vol. 10 (10)

The meeting which Kanna has arranged has been interrupted by a man who styles himself a savior, and who dies for his cause. Now the police are outside, demanding the crowd disperse. Has Kanna achieved her goals, or was this gathering a failure? The young detective, Chono, is able to keep the police force at bay, at least for now, by claiming he’s protecting a crime scene. How long can that last?Koizumi, home from Friend Land, goes to see her favorite band but finds there is something different about them. Turns out they fired their guitarist, Damian Yoshida, because of irreconcilable differences. Koizumi can’t stop dreaming of Friend Land, and the strange boy who tries to take off his mask. She doesn’t want to see his face, though, fearful of what might happen to her if she does.Koizumi attempts to speak with Kanna at school, but that doesn’t turn out very well. Instead, she’s approached by someone who calls themselves a Dream Navigator. They inform her that she is soon to go to Friend World, like it or not. The very thought is frightening to Koizumi. Her parents, on the other hand, seem thrilled for her and have no clue how dangerous a place it really is. A terrified Koizumi remembers the card she got from Yoshitsune. Can he help her? Things go from bad to worse when she sees the new home room teacher, and recognizes his face…This series just gets better and better. It seems as though things are gearing up to happen during the Pope’s planned visit to Japan. Obviously, the Friends have an agenda, but what is it? To further ingratiate themselves to the world? Or maybe take it over? Either way, they need to be stopped. Not to mention, they need to be outed as the true perpetrators of Bloody New Year’s Eve, and Kenji needs to be exonerated.Koizumi is playing a dangerous game, but with the aid of Yoshitsune, she may just turn out all right. And what we think we know turns out to be very wrong, which leaves us back at square one again. Makes you wonder why so many people put their trust in a man who never ever shows his face, based on the alleged actions of some of his followers. And what does Kanna’s mother have to do with anything? More questions than answers here!Anxiously awaiting the next volume.

With the 10th volume of "Naoki Urasawa's 20th Century Boys", this volume is more Kyoko Koizumi-centric as the majority of the all chapters are about her. But with her storyline, two major plot lines are revealed. One, who was the face that she saw in the virtual game world and two, what relation "The Friend" has with Kanna.Although, the latter is no surprise to the reader, as earlier volumes have shown us that Kanna's mother (Kenji's sister) was in a relationship with a man who is the friend and they had a child, the fact that her father is "The Friend" is revealed to her for the first time. But also, we get to see how Yukiji has pretty much accepted Kanna as her own daughter and loves her as one as opposed to a friend of Kenji who raised her because he asked her to.But the main storyline involves the identity of Sadakiyo, the young boy who was always wearing a mask. In many ways, his character was a red herring because earlier on, we thought this boy with the mask was "The Friend". But he turns out to be a person who had a deep connection with the Friend and it is revealed in this volume of what connection the two have.Similar to an earlier volume which was Kyoko Koizumi-centric, some may be disappointed that the other characters were not as featured as much but in this case, it's hard to be upset because we do get a little of Otcho, Yukiji and also Kanna but the revelations that are featured in this volume are quite important to the storyline and to see Sadakiyo seeing things in a new light because of Kyoko is quite intriguing.Of course, this storyline continues in volume 11 and it will be interesting to see how the storyline continues.As always, Naoki Urasawa knows how to grab the attention of the reader. His artwork and how he is able to capture the sense of action and emotion through the pages is magnificent and so far, this series has been engrossing and highly enjoyable thus far.Needless to say, readers are being setup for something huge and I definitely can't wait for the next volume. Overall, a gripping and exciting tenth volume of Naoki Urasawa's "20th CENTURY BOYS". If you haven't started already and you are looking for a deep, well-drawn, well-written manga series, Naoki Urasawa's "20th CENTURY BOYS" is highly recommended!

well this volume started off slow mainly due to the fact that there was some confusion as to who the friend might be. but that was soon dismissed. i have to say the best bit of this volume was most definitely the last chapter. where it did something it does not usually do. it made to parallel time line fit into place which is something i love in any series.

Une sorte de secte a pris le pouvoir au Japon au tout début du XXIè siècle à la suite d'une machination terroriste qu'un petit groupe de personnes a tenté de déjouer, sans succès. La machination est la mise en place quasi exacte d'une histoire créée dans les années 1970 par un groupe de gamins. Quel lien a le chef de la secte ('The Friend') avec ce qu'il reste du groupe de gamins et de leurs familles qui s'oppose à lui ? Comment mettre au jour toute cette affaire ? A ce stade de l'histoire, deux personnages sont mis en avant : Kanna, la nièce du leader du groupe de gamins, et Koizumi Kyoko, une lycéenne qui a levé le lièvre de la conspiration en préparant un devoir de classe sur le sujet. Dans ce volume, l'identité de 'l'Ami' est révélée. Ou en tout cas, l'identité d'un très proche de 'l'Ami'. Naoki Urasawa, maître des conspirations totalitaires dans des ambiances glacées et angoissantes ( Monster Intégrale Luxe volume 1 (regroupant tomes 1 et 2)  et  Pluto, tome 1 ), excelle à nouveau ici. A noter: la citation de Robert Johnson et de la légende du carrefour... Monster Intégrale Luxe volume 1 (regroupant tomes 1 et 2)Pluto, tome 1

Loved this series up until about book 15 or 16.. It became to drawn out..The Story is great but takes wayyy too long to develop (in my opinion).