20th Century Boys (2 Discs & 24 Page Book) [2008] [DVD]

I'm a US resident but I ordered this from the UK because I didn't want to wait for the US release. It definitely was worth the money. The movie is fantastic, really high quality, and overall pretty good acting -- there's some overacting but it's in kind of a silly, manga-esque style. It's great to hear T. Rex in the movie, and I love the scene where Kenji plays it on his guitar. I'm reading the manga as well and I think the movie struck a great balance between being faithful to the source and simplifying the story -- the only scene I felt really shouldn't have been cut was the rest of the story of how the police chief tracked down Friend's identity.

Literature to live-action feature film is always a tricky transition. Writers and artists are bound only by their imagination when it comes to creating fantastic worlds and larger than life characters. When it comes to making a film, constraints are plentiful, and when it comes to making, not just a film, but a trilogy based on one of the most popular Manga titles in Japan, the margin of error is pretty vast. Thankfully, with the original writer on board, along with a director with a clear passion for the source material, a stellar cast (not to mention a few billion Yen), the first instalment of 20th Century Boys shows that not only can it be done, it can be done superbly well.
This synopsis is epic on a literally global scale. A group of young friends in 1969 Japan meet in their secret hideout to listen to rock music and fantasize about saving the world from villain's hell bent on mankind's destruction, adventures which they record in their `Book of Prophecies.' Flash forward to 1997 and the group have gone their separate ways. The main protagonist, Kenji, has abandoned his dream of being a rock star and works in a dead-end convenience store job, looking after his sister's baby daughter, who she left with Kenji before vanishing. The friends are brought together again by the sudden death of an old friend, and the mysterious disappearance of the entire family of another. Meanwhile, a cult lead by a bizarre masked man known as `Friend' is growing in popularity, and the events prophesised in the book of fantasy written by the group when they were children start to happen across the globe. On investigation, Kenji discovers that the cult is planning to fulfil a doomsday prophecy on the eve of the millennium. The world is plagued by terrorism and fear, and the friends unite to battle the evil cult, coming
If that hasn't convinced you that this is the best movie ever, then I don't know what will...20th Century Boys is a truly faithful representation of the Manga original. The acting and shot composition was designed to make this a living incarnation of Naoki Urasawa's work, and that is the end result. The sometimes-convoluted plot could have made for difficult viewing, but there is enough humour, action and just plain good acting to make it thoroughly enjoyable throughout. The soundtrack is amazing, with a great mix of classic rock (including the eponymous T-Rex song), J-Rock and a score inspired by 70s prog rock, truly encapsulates the spirit inherent in Urasawa's story. If you thought the recent `Death Note' films worked well as manga-movie translations, you ain't seen nothing yet! Chapter 2 is scheduled for release in Japan around now, with the third and final chapter due at the end of the year. Also, the 24-volume original is also (finally) being translated to English, due for release in America in 2009. I personally can't wait. The world of 20th Century Boys is one you will want to be immersed in, and the end of the first chapter will leave you wanting so much more. A must see! Review by 20framespersecond

A bunch of school kids write a comic strip called The Book of Prophesies in which an evil villain sets out to destroy the world only to have them heroically defend it which years later they find starts to come true, and seemingly behind it is a cult which uses their secret gang symbol. Quite simple in premise this is a very complex tale that keeps you on the edge of your seat constantly, flashing back to their early 1970s childhood and sometimes forward to the 2015 setting of the second movie with most of the action taking place in the late 1990s as virus attacks and explosions wipe out cities around the world! Most manga to movie translations (which tend to be more to anime than live action) tend to oversimplify to appeal to the lowest common denominator but not here, there is so much happening that blink and you'll miss something! However, it is nicely balanced and very enjoyable.

One important thing, this is just the first part of a trilogy; it seems the plan to release it as 3 separate DVDs has been abandoned meaning if you want the next two parts you have to buy 20th Century Boys Trilogy - The Complete Saga [DVD] [2010], which as it seems to contain the same bonus disc makes this part redundant!