Good concept, poorly executed.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Blistering performances.

Apparently, millions of Japanese are willing to worship a man in a mask who only talks about his childhood... and apparently, the hero of his childhood is Kenji, so one would imagine that all these idiots would leave Mr. Friend behind and go and worship Kenji instead. Right?Nope. Instead, this cult's followers burn each other alive, blow up airports and have developed a lethal virus that completely drains the human body of all blood. Hey, I'm not opposed to daft plots when they're amusing, but 20th Century Boys pretty much lacks humour, as "mysterious" people point Kenji - the film's protagonist - in the right direction so that he can play a game in which he may or may not get to save the world.Yeah, it's that dumb. And upon figuring out that all these terrorist attacks taking place are being scheduled by the events of a comic Kenji drew as a kid, instead of taking the said comic to the authorities on finally finding where he left it some 25-30 years ago, Kenji instead runs over to a friend's house, digs out his old guitar and jams out in the morning's early hours!But that's perfectly logical, since Kenji once aspired to be a glam-rock star.With a running time of well over 2 hours, I can't recall the last film I watched during which I spent almost as much time looking at the clock. Unfortunately, the sheer humdrum and stupidity of the film all got too much to bear and I eventually turned it off. I now waste even more time over this crap-fest by advising other IMDb users of its sheer awfulness.Avoid.

The 20th Century Boys trilogy shoves a science fiction story in your face, while actually telling a completely different story about a group of boys growing up in the 20th century. This is made plain by the title alone, but as with many Japanese works, what you see is not actually the important part. And yet it turns out it was all along. In fact, pretty much everything that happens after Kenji's school reunion in the film's timeline is practically irrelevant. There's a robot or two, (dysfunctional) laser guns, UFOs, epic explosions, a world-wide plot to extinguish mankind and lots of blood… but these things are all simply tools used to advance the real story.And the real story could barely be any more simple. It's the old human drama about what could have been, what should have been, mistakes that were made in the past that continue to haunt the children and the whole of mankind.The story is told by alternating between bits and pieces of the boys' youth and the consequences they bear in the future. There are many main characters, some mere caricatures and others more detailed. None of them is really elevated above the level of a stereotype though. "Tomodachi" creates a cult which grows to become a world-wide movement, Kenji becomes the legendary leading figure of the idea of resistance, Kanna the leader of a more tangible resistance group, Occho the lone wolf who does the hard work. And that's all you really need to know about them. Other characters play more or less important roles on the sidelines, but what exactly they do is rarely more than hinted at. In fact, what exactly the main characters do is also never really more than hinted at. Part of this may be due to the constraints of condensing the epic story of the manga into under 8 hours of film, but it doesn't really matter in the end. The appeal is in the why, not the what or the how. And the "why" is told through repeated important scenes in the characters' childhoods and subtle conversions between the children's future selfs.The movie is an homage to growing up in the 20th century, with 1960's Japan revived, throwing in many cultural references that viewers not very acquainted with Japan will simple overlook. It's a celebration of rock music and melancholy for the past, both the past of Japan in general and specifically the past of all characters involved. The movie is wearing the mask of a science-fiction/action movie, just as "Tomodachi" is wearing his mask, but what it's actually about is for the viewer to find out.

I saw this movie last year. I have read comic because I like this comic. Writer is Naoki Urasawa. This writer's other works is very nice, YAWARA,PLUTO, and Monster. '20th century boys' is exists to Chapter3. This movie is Chapter1. I felt that it was very interesting because I saw this movie. Hero is Kenji Endo. Story to which story of imagination spoken with friend when Kenji is child actually occurs.Book of prophecy is very terrible book. This book was written Kenji and friends. Kenji fight to Tomodati with Kenji's friends.Kenji brings up the child of the elder sister of Tomodati and Kenji.Tomodati attacks Kenji aiming at the child.The child's name is a Kannna. Kannna is a girl who has the curious power. Tomodati is very scary existence. The true colors of Tomodati is not turn out, but it is possible to expect it. I will saw next movie. I am looking forward to the next movie.

This show is about a group of young boys and a girl who while playing together, created their own sci-fi fantasy cartoon about the world in the future being destroyed slowly beginning with an unknown virus that destroys major cities and ending with giant robots and laser beams that would kill millions.Many many years later, 1 of the group decides to act out the child play fantasy and make it become reality. The story takes the viewpoint of Kenji and shows how he reunites with his childhood friends to discover who is the one behind the cult whose leader is known as friend.Overall i found the show to be completely ridiculous, full of plot holes and a comedy of errors. It is very obvious that the director or the script writer must have lacked a whole lot of common sense to have created a film like this.What made it worst was that the movie was 3 hour long. Above the 2 1/2hour mark you'd feel so infuriated at yourself for wasting money and time on such a crab lousy show.My word of advise... avoid at all costs! It'd be more entertaining watching my toe dance than to watch this show. Least watching my toe dance doesn't make me feel stupid!I rated this show 2/10, 1 for the chick in the movie so that the show wouldn't become a sausage feast and another for the creativity behind the really cool name they called their cartoon - The book of prophecies.