Naoki Urasawa's 20th Century Boys, Vol. 13 (13)

20th Century Boys, Vol. 13: Beginning of the End begins in the 2014 timeline. Shogun, Kanna, Yukiji, Yamane, and the rest continue their underground movement after shooting the Friend. It's an odd story, and I'm not sure the 2014 timeline is set in stone. A new character is unveiled, the rarely-seen Kiriko, who is Kanna's mother and Kenji's sister. We see her in the 2014 timeline and in a new 2003 timeline narrated by Shogun.It isn't easy picking up this story after not reading it for a long time, but I did, and I'm glad. 20th Century Boys is a very complicated story with a lot of offshoots. I actually began to understand the structure of the series a little better after reading The Brothers Karamazov and Magister Ludi. I used to look at the offshoots as a chore to read - I wanted to get back to the main story - but I eventually decided to enjoy the stories as they come. No, I don't think this is Urasawa's best work. The series contains some of his best work, but the writing simply isn't as good as Monster or Master Keaton, although the artwork is better.Urasawa is a genius at designing characters that simply stand out. 20th Century Boys has a cast of dozens, often in multiple timelines, and each character is drawn so differently from the others that you can always tell who is who. Vol. 13: Beginning of the End marks the beginning of the second half of the series, and heck, I'm hooked again. Great series. ****1/2

Yoshitsune thinks back to that fateful New Year’s Eve, and the man who snapped the picture of them as they faced down the Friend’s menace, none other than Fukube. Why doesn’t he have any childhood memories of Fukube as a boy? Where did he come from and when exactly did he become part of their group? As Yoshitsune and the others try to fathom this, all hell has broken out at the elementary school where rumor has it that Friend has been shot! Kanna recognizes Maruo at the scene, and he tells her he knows a secret way to get into the school, so they can find out what has happened. Meanwhile, Manjome is wakened from a fitful sleep with the news.Kanna is amazed to find that so many people she believed to be dead are very much alive, working to rid the world of Friend. But not only is Friend dead, his identity has been revealed. Who would have thought it?Friend’s group assemble, but they are one short – Yamane, who betrayed them. What are they going to do now? Will a successor to Friend be appointed? If so, who? Everyone accuses Manjome of wishing to take over, but he assures them he has no such aspirations. A new member arrives, whom they refer to as Number 13, claiming there is now room for him at the table, and counseling that they continue with Friend’s plans to end the world. Not everyone agrees with this course of action… and suddenly some of the high ranking members wind up dead!While the others seem content to rest on their laurels now that Friend is dead, Otcho is far from convinced that the threat he represented is over. Kanna says she wants to go with him, since what is happening is her mother’s fault. But Otcho has a story to tell her, one that Yamane told him, about what happened in 2003.Meanwhile, in 2015, people are starting to die…Wow, now we know who Friend is… or was. Not at all what I expected. Him? Seriously? How the heck did he become Kanna’s father? What could Kenji’s sister ever see in him? There must be more to this story than we know.Friend’s followers are divided on whether to continue with his plan or not, but there are fanatics among them, determined to set a dangerous course. I loved finding out the truth about Kanna’s mother, who has been a shadowy figure up until now but who has finally stepped into the spotlight. And in the far-off United States, a player long since forgotten has taken the stage once more.So much going on, and so many threads to follow. I keep hoping at the end of one of them that Kenji will emerge. Guess we just have to wait and see. Great volume, looking forward to the next one!

It seems that I tend to always say with each review that each volume of "20th Century Boys" gets better and better, but its the truth. Naoki Urasawa is a wonderful mangaka and along with his wonderful artwork, his stories are well-crafted and he knows how to entice the readers with suspense.Each chapter continues to build with more mysteries and more shocking storylines and if you thought volume 12 was fantastic, volume 13 is excellent.Nearly every character featured from the original, earlier storyline pre-2000 are featured in this 2016 storyline as we see reactions to the death of "The Friend" but then seeing the chaos that goes within the committee as those who vie for the top position in order to take the place of "The Friend". Some who are for it, some who are against it but all of a sudden, members of the committee are being killed one by one in accidents.Meanwhile, we get to learn more about Kenji's sister Kiriko who was a mysterious character throughout the series but we start to realize that her reasons for leaving Kanna behind were important. Where Yamane-san was responsible for creating a killing virus, it was Kiriko's job to create a vaccine, an antidote. But Yamane has gone so far to create one killer virus that even she is not sure if she can stop it.So, literally the storyline goes through one chaotic scene with people feeling the shock of the death of "The Friend" and then all of a sudden, chaos in the world as people are dying of a new virus with no antidote or vaccine.While we get to see the reunion of Kenji's friends, we also get to see the reappearance of Froggy, who is now living in the United States and I get a feeling that we will see more of him in future volumes.Volume 13 of Naoki Urasawa's "20th Century Boys" once again is exciting and a marvelous volume that I can't wait for volume 14 because this latest volume leaves us with a cliffhanger and to see so much chaos, we wonder how are group of underdogs will manage to stay alive and continue in fighting the Friend's and whoever unleashed the virus in the world.With nine more volumes left of this popular manga series, this series really goes all out with this 13th volume and if you have not picked up this manga series yet, I'm telling you right now, this is one of the best out there and I highly recommend it!

The book came damaged and I can’t remove it after trying😐