This is the story of a group of boys who try to save the world! 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!
Reads R to L (Japanese Style), for audiences T+
Contrary to what his actions as an adult have led Kenji and his pals to believe,
back when they were children, Fukube really wanted to be their friend. Fukube
even went so far as to let them read all the latest manga magazines he
diligently purchased in the hope of winning their friendship. Yet despite all
this, Fukube still felt like an outsider. Fostering a sense of superiority
toward all the other children around him, how did Fukube's actions as a little
boy serve as an indication of the kind of man he would eventually become? Next,
the clock is rolled forward to the third year of the Friendship Era, a
frightening time in which the virus has decimated most of the
world's population, and the vaccine is available only to a lucky few. Tokyo has
been quarantined behind a giant wall that is patrolled by both the Global
Defense Forces and the Friend's secret police, and yet while life on the inside
is made to resemble Kenji's childhood from the 1960s, the world beyond the wall
is a desolate wasteland. Two young siblings come to the aid of an injured man
who has managed to break through the barricade, and his name is Otcho!
Author Biography
Naoki Urasawa's career as a manga artist spans more than twenty years and has
firmly established him as one of the true manga masters of Japan. Born in Tokyo
in 1960, Urasawa debuted with BETA! in 1983Â 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 a romantic comedy (Yawara!
AÂ Fashionable Judo Girl), a suspenseful human drama about a former mercenary
(Pineapple ARMY; story by Kazuya Kudo), a captivating psychological suspense
story (Monster), a sci-fi adventure manga (20th Century Boys), and a modern
reinterpretation of the work of the God of Manga, Osamu Tezuka (Pluto: Urasawa
Tezuka; co-authored with Takashi Nagasaki, supervised by Macoto Tezka, and with
the cooperation of Tezuka Productions). Many of his books have spawned popular
animated and live-action TV programs and films, and 2008Â 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 is a three-time recipient of
the prestigious Shogakukan Manga Award, a two-time recipient of the Osamu Tezuka
Cultural Prize, and has received the Kodansha Manga Award. Similarly, Monster
has been nominated three times for the Eisner Award in America. Urasawa has also
become involved in the world of academia, and in 2008Â accepted a guest teaching
post at Nagoya Zokei University, where he teaches courses in, of
course, manga.