20th Century Boys (vol. 22) by Naoki Urasawa, with the cooperation of Takashi Nagasaki, English adaptation by Akemi Wegmüller

Confession first: even though I’m posting after the fact, reading this was a little birthday present to myself. The older I get, oh how I loooovvvvve the manga that much more! Must be an age-escapist thing!

The Friend has shockingly confessed that he’s the mastermind behind the destruction of the world thus far, and he’s going to annihilate the rest in the next seven days. Hoping against all odds to stay alive, the survivors are hiding in their homes trying to escape the flying saucers with their fatal virus-inducing spray. Tokyo is suddenly, eerily quiet, but the underground revolutionaries have their own plans for survival – armed with vaccines, bad-buys-turned-good, another behemoth robot, the “emblem of justice” … and so much more.

Kanna knows the only safe place is Expo Park, and she’s planning an enormous music festival to draw everyone there. Getting the big name performers to show up is just gonna be a minor detail, right? In order to get the masses rocking (and evacuating), Konchi wires up what’s left of a radio tower, and suddenly, the city is humming, singing, shouting, revolution-ing to the latest version of “guta-lala … suda-lala” … which can only mean that the song’s originator is really back … “to settle things, once and for all.”

Got goosebumps?

Tidbit: Just to clarify, while this volume 22 is the final 20th Century Boys, the series has two more volumes under the fast-forward title of 21st Century Boys. Make sure to stay tuned. In the meantime, check out all the previous volumes of 20th Century Boys by clicking here.

Readers: Young Adult, Adult

Published: 2012 (United States)
20 SEIKI SHONEN © Naoki Urasawa/Studio Nuts
Original Japanese edition published by Shogakukan Inc.