#fukubei

[remivill]

Who are you...?

[cruisersensei]

actually i have a whole fanmix for whatever friendship-like unholy thing fukubei and sadakiyo have and can elaborate on every single song on there, but my favorite one is gallery piece by of montreal, because i just love the I WANNA BE YOUR ONLY FRIEND lyric that doesn't fit in with anything else in the song but somehow makes sense in a twisted kind of way. just like their relationship. not friendship but something that desperately tries to convince everyone it's friendship but lacks pretty much everything friendship is.

[therandomwind]

Love conspiracy theories? Give 20th century boys a try. An innocent children's game turns into something that will shake the whole world.

[allseeingbirchtree]

the true 20th century boys experience is finishing the manga, having a good old laugh at fukubei’s expense, chatting a bit with your friends about how he is a foil, of sorts, to johan liebert — a very ordinary, very human, everyday evil hidden beneath layers of pompous mystery and specialness, — then re-reading the beginning and having another laugh at his pathetic multi-level marketing cult, then re-reading his flashback and musing, bittersweetly, on the way he is even more of an ephemeral existence than sadakiyo and he needed to take on the identity of such a seemingly invisible person as him just to hold on to life, saying “damn. what a sad evil man. no wrongdoing he’s ever committed could make him happy and content” and then fearfully realizing, for the first time, that you kind of sort of like him. a lot.

[wheatormeat]

Why is every urasawa middle aged male character the embodiment of "my wife left me" is he ok

[rye-views]

20th Century Boys. 20世紀少年. 7.6/10

I would recommend this manga to my friends. I would not reread this manga.

I wish I had a ballsy friend like Kanna in my youth.

Yama-san killing Chou-san...what a bitch move. Sadakiyo killing Mon-Chan was a gasp from me. Fukubei really has a shit character as a child. He treats Sadakiyo so terribly.

Creating Tomodachi land is really crazy impressive. I love Kenji's rock soul. I like the religious folks who came from what's considered bad lifestyles.

Kenji talking about it being easier to be a man of justice than evil is an interesting concept. Can you imagine being so hellbent on your grudges from childhood that you yourself never change as a person?

Memorable Quotes: "When yer bowling, ain't nobody ever tries to aim for the gutter. Nothing happens unless you try to throw a strike." "No, Fukubei! Cooking's all about screaming at the food!" "Don't disrespect another man's books." "Dreams are a thing of the past." "You cannot live if you do not have strength"

[chioniphilia]

currently reading 20th century boys and oh god sadakiyo and fukubei are faggots aren't they

[shonpota]

I don't know if any black star fans knows about 20th century boys but I am so obsessed with it.

I wonder if Yakou can be compared with Katsumata. Katsumata have a bare presence in the childhood and often being mistaken as other guy. I start to wonder if Yakou exist in the casts' childhood but nobody and not even himself remember it because it happened a long time ago.

Also an incident about identity theft between Fukubei and Katsumata can be possible because physical alterations operation exists and everyone is good at acting, so if one of them can fake as others, it will be horrible and scary, Menou might be able to do it.

[nicomrade]

i think it all boils down to it ends on putting the last puzzle piece in place and lacks any time spent gazing at it in its complete state. whys the last vol of 21st cent boys more mystery solving when the first was hot robot action that was barely foretold? why not swap the two? first finish solving the mystery, then catharsis as conveyed through the medium of awesome robot action? if you tell me something is real and then immediately close the book i do not have time to really grasp w the implications of that truth. you are rushing me and im a scared foal who wants to stay in the middle of this road.

and my standards for coherence and consistency and impactful character writing are VERY DIFFERENT for a story that consists of nothing but turns and twists and lies and half-remembered memories and wrongly remembered memories and a VR reconstitution of someone else lying about their memories and pretend deaths and real deaths and masks and lying and hiding and flip and flopping. thats fine. if anything its good that most of the main cast is so consistent and/or has such straightforward character arcs. THATS GOOD. we gotta leave the complicated stuff to the way the story is told. thats my reader position going into it. im not asking any one character to blow my socks off or for the mystery itself to sound cool once unraveled, i only ask for it to be competently told

well it still disappointed me. like to be clear 90% of the manga is so awesome and a great ride but when it comes the time to wrap up and end it just flops it really hard. like, its cute that that one detective had it all figured out from the start! well, can i see his notes? this feels like such a perfect setup for a "wrapup" at the end. LET ME READ HIS NOTES !!! why cant i read his notes. why wont you wrap-up ur mystery after introducing such a perfect setup for it? and like yes we See his notes but we read like "sadakiyo other friend" ok well thats nothing. give me a proper wrapup after 22~24 volumes of this spanning over decades both in-story and irl. u are teasing and edging me rn. also it maybe shows the writer themselves have sort of lost the plot as well !.

this missed opportunity is emblematic of the problem is what im saying. and its probably the only thing i can truly criticize this work for. "it lost sight of its own mystery somewhat towards the end". this above is also kind of nothing id consider to be real spoilers and i promised id spoil this entire manga so now lets go in a bit deeper there, in the dark 👉

regarding loose threads i would point to- i forgot her name- the badass evil butch lady whos pregnant w friends child. like whats the conclusion on that? or the OTHER lady whos pregnant w friends child? like i dont mean to say im completely lost as to what happens at the end of a pregnancy but its like- what is this supposed to say to me? can a character turn into the camera and tell me "children r awesome and what make this world go round so we cant treat these kids as evil before-birth, we should celebrate them existing at all". thatd help me out a lot. this is kind of nothing and doesnt matter in the grand scope but its stayed with me. maybe because we are missing any "real ending" feel so i also feel like im missing the thematic Meaning of the work

can we talk about sadakiyo? i love sadakiyo hes awesome. so he for sure definitely died in that car like there was no hint that maybe he hadnt, it was a pretty normal conclusion to his arc. he was, after all, just a tool to friend and so when the tool doesnt wanna serve u anymore u kill it. fine. whys sadakiyo alive at the end? what purpose does he serve? to be in a coma??? and die again??? ok well dont do this to my man sadakiyo. fucking flopesque. and i UNDERSTAND that this ^ death being undone is a repetition of the fukubei motif v

so fukubei. i love fukubei hes awesome. so he for sure definitely died in that classroom shot by i forgor- otcho? anyway otcho checked his body, that was fukubei AND he was dead. then he shows up again ?!!! what were they thinking!- lol im joshing i dont mind that he shows up again later cause thats a BODY DOUBLE ! :D classic mystery writing. wait whats this in 21st cent boys- FUKUBEI DIED AS A CHILD???? well WHO was this fucker otcho checked the body of if not fukubei. couldnt be- i forgot his name. couldnt be carp boy due to we clearly draw a "before" and "after" fukubei's death in how people consider friend. and the "after" is carp boy. so the "before" cannot be carp boy. can only be fukubei. but fukubei died as a child ...

and u see this would be a delicious twist to me cause it gives u this sort of timeline:

fukubei fakes his death as a child but its a trick and hes fine -> he also starts burrying other kids by spreading rumors theyre dead when theyre literally fine [sadakiyo namely] -> fakes his death as fukubei on bloody new years -> fakes his death again as friend and then is fine [at the world expo, the whole pope thing] -> wait hold on that last death was real. it was definitely real. -> wait hold on that first death was real. it was real.

we do get foreshadowing for it too which is yummiful for me. this ^ is an awesome chain of narration yes keep showing me this guy dying but then hes fine and then tell me that no, actually, these fake deaths, were all real. he really did die. i think what breaks it for me is that the way that fake-hanging in the classroom is framed THAT mystery was solved completely and entirely on the last repetition we saw of it, like its just not brought up or a point of mystery again. so then coming in cutely on the last chapter of the last 21st boys volume and tell me "he died as a child" is like ok but u didnt mystery solve that one for me u didnt thats not how mystery writing works u dont get to put foreshadowing together off screen and tell me the answer later u have to put the foreshadowing together on screen thats how this mystery story contract works.

so theres that + the mentionned incongruity created with this whole "friend changed !!!" "hes not the same guy anymore!!!" stuff thats only here to confirm the reader suspicions/plant reader suspicions that fukubei DID die as an adult that last time and then the guy at the expo w the pope was another guy entirely- a fake. thats fine if that IS your end game solution but if its just a red herring ure gonna have to be clearer about that at the end . . . when you mystery solve your mystery. and not do it off screen. do ya get me?

and dont get me started on kenji stealing that space force badge or whatever thats nothing, not foreshadowed in the slightest, doesnt matter. carp boy's obsession w kenji couldve just been that him playing 20th cent boys song that one time dissuaded him from suicide but then neither kenjis group nor fukubei's would accept him and that made him Weird. and want to crawl into their skin and play them like puppets. thats awesome. no need to add more shit thats not even a mystery but paced with the beats of a mystery unravelling. DONT WASTE MY TIME ON ADDING POINTLESS BULLSHIT THAT DOES NOT RING TRUE!! IS MY POINT !! when you still have AN ACTUAL MYSTERY GOING ON YOU APPARENTLY RAN OUT OF TIME TO UNRAVEL PROPERLY !!!

also, again, sadakiyo did not survive that car explosion and would not give his mask to wear to a bunch of orphans that mask is a symbol of his isolation and of fukubei's [and also carp boy's] manipulation of him that have rendered him literally faceless. you will have to notice the 3 kids who wear that mask have either panels of themselves faceless or talk extensively about not having a face. you will also notice that sadakiyo was freed from this as an adult when they found a childhood picture of him that showed his face properly. and he stopped wearing that mask. and was EXPLICITELY asked by kenjis group to stay w them and not sacrifice himself. his childhood drama was all resolved. do not tell me that he survived that car explosion- SOMEHOW- and then UNDID his own character arc, started wearing the mask again,? put it on other kids ???? no no no this is nothing you are losing your own plot this does not ring true he would not do this. this is nothing. this is meaningless. do not spoil a perfectly good character arc this way and waste pages on this when you still have more mystery to solve. what are we doing here? lets move along i beg you

also what does carp boy even care about the world expo since he was "dead" we dont even know his status re: the expo like did he go?? did he wanna??? this is important to 20th cent boys who got to go and who wanted to is important. like again i do like that its carp boy and he didnt die as a kid, that reveal was done properly, but it also raises a LOOOOT of questions that shouldve been answered w the rest of the vols instead of having more bullshit that doesnt matter happen in 21st cent boys.

THE TWO WORKS ALSO LITERALLY DIRECTLY FOLLOW EACH OTHER IS THE THING? why is it split in two like this? i sorta assumed wed get a timeskip between 20th & 21st cause like thats what those numbers mean? and also the nature of 20th cent boys is the timeskips. that or itd be a POV shift, ANYTHING that marks it as clearly "different" and "seperate" from what came before- but still the same story. 2 vols of fukubei POV. or carp boy POV. to uhm, WRAP UP THE MYSTERY? but no its just meaninglessly quarantining the last 2 vols just to piss off readers (whether theyre aware of the sequel or not! i knew about it! still annoyed me!!!) it also confuses librarians!!!! i saw this IRL!!! they do not know where to put 21st boys on the shelf in relation to 20th boys!!! just make it one manga

also of course the politics of 20th cent boys r kinda weird but mostly well meaning which id guess is also true of urasawas works in general id have to reread monster but like he never fully commits to that ACAB anarchist spirit and thats too bad. but ive literally never commented on this before because his mystery writing usually slaps so hard. but this time it flopped so im commenting on it.

this also why i brought up the pregnancy plot at the very start ^ or felt annoyed by the way the story slowed wayyyy down w a lot of scenes we have to read twice in the same volume due to the POV shifts happening to waste time rather than build tension. your mystery solving in such a big-scope mystery story is your keystone. if it fails, im going to start poking at the whole stone arch and notice you swapped some limestone and concrete within the marble or whatever. im not a stone guy. understand my metaphor. if ur keystone is fucking awesome i dont even fucking care that u used dirt in that arch. its an awesome arch and the change of material looks cool.

i only had praise for billy bat but here i left 20th cent boys on a bitter taste BECAUSE the billy bat mystery/ies is way better at stringing you along and lying to you in subtle ways and does not bring sadakiyo back to life or end its sequel "2 bat 2 billy" on a paragraph that reads "so in truth kevin had died on his first flight to japan! and it was the perfect opportunity for his assistant to steal his identity and walk around pretending to be him!" and now thinking about that whole fukubei died as a child thing again i realize it was even-er foreshadowed-er than i realized but its just not revealed well so i reject it on instincts it feels like im being gaslit. as true as it is. as planned as it was. and thats maybe the mark that something was truly fumbled at the end there, that i cant accept this no matter how much i realize it had been there all along. 6 out of 10.

ok i need to get outta bed and extensively spoil this entire manga cause its ending is so thoroughly flopped and also i had torturous visions i need to distract myself from

[brokensoulmates2000]

20th Century Boys and understanding Fukubei

TW: spoilers of 20th century boys.

Btw, my native language is not English so beware any mistakes :)

I like Naoki Urasawa's work. A lot. And I like noticing parallels. A lot too. So it's interesting to see how many of the ideas he used in 20th Century Boys pop up in Monster. The most important one probably being the identity problems his antagonists face.

You see, Johan and Fukubei share more than style. They are both men that barely understand themselves. Johan is a monster with no name and Fukubei is a man with no face. Their poor identity stems from the context they come from: one faced the aftermath of war and was the result of scientific experimentation, the other one lived through an era of hype for future progress that could never live up to its expectations. Now, in this... meta? Rambling? I'm not gonna do a deep dive on Johan cause there are far better essays analyzing him. I'm just pointing one of the many similarities between 20th Century Boys and Monster cause it's fun and I need an introduction before I dwell unto my subject: Fukubei.

On one of the first times he's introduced, he's showing his back to us while answering a question from his follower. Right there, he says he's Collins. We'll see this point being repeated over and over with him finally discussing it in far more detail the night he's killed in the science room. He's Collins because he was so close to the moon but never got the change to walk on its surface. He was overlooked and forgotten. No one ever paid attention to him.

It's clear what Fukubei wants: attention and recognition. The first person who notices him and spreads his story about the expo is Kenji and without him knowing, he gives Fukubei the thrill he was looking for: the feeling of being alive.

That's how Kenji became an important part of Fukubei's journey. He wants to be like Kenji and he wants his attention. I won't go into detail about their relationship cause I want to dedicate it its own post, but this is enough info for now.

To be honest I’m a bit inclined to believe Fukubei wanted friendship, but instead absorbed others. This all thanks to his poor grasp on his identity: he doesn't know where he ends and others start.

Also, let's note that Fukubei doesn't identify with either his name or Hattori. When he meets Sadakiyo, who is confused what to call him, Fukubei replies he should only call him friend.

And in that point the term "Friend" encapsulates Fukubei's emptiness. His lack of connection to his identity that it would only get worse as time went on.

This manga is full of motifs. One of the most important being the teru-teru bozu which captures the complex relationship between Fukubei's sense of self and his lies. The teru-teru bozu is introduced as a symbol of deception and tricks. Later we see many panels of Fukubei identifying with it.

Also -and this is me using the opportunity to share all of the screenshots I took of this manga- let's see when the narrative parallels him to the teru-teru bozu.

Just like Fukubei says when Sadakiyo asks why not draw a face on the teru-teru bozu: it's scarier without one.

There's a pretty big emphasis on how lies impact Fukubei's identity. They are there to compensate for his lack of identity. He believes his own lies and he later identifies with them so much being called a liar offends him. Again, let's see his reaction when Donkey calls on his bluff, and when he says to Manjome what he wants.

And...

Now, Fukubei refuses to acknowledge that the world is out of his control. Let's look at his death scene. How surprised he is of his own mortality. Another example is in chapter 172, one from his pov when he says "My dream is not a dream. It is not a dream, because it really will happen.” Look at the refusal to face the world.

Before I deep dive into a question I have about Fukubei, I would like to talk about the meaning of lighting a candle in the science room just to pay attention to Urasawa's amazing use of symbols. When Donkey steps into the classroom, he reveals Fukubei's miracle to be a trick. When Yamane waits for Fukubei in the classroom to kill him, he reveals him as a liar. Both Yamane and Donkey are men of science, lightning a candle in the middle of the darkness to dissipate the illusions and bring back reality.

Also, they both killed Fukubei in a way. Donkey by ruining Fukubei's miracle and Yamane straight up killing him.

In the science room Fukubei "died" and Friend was born. Friend is this persona, this literal mask people with shaky identities use to hide behind it. After Donkey ruined Fukubei's act in front of his group, Fukubei takes refugee in Friend. Friend is on top of the chain. He is the leader of the cult, the world president, the one who foresees the future. And by merging with him, Fukubei validates his own existence through the validation of his tricks as this persona.

And this mergence was doomed to happen. To hammer the importance of lies for Fukubei's identity before becoming Friend, let's see this panel of Yamane in the science room.

I know many people are intrigued about Fukubei's Friend, but I like Fukubei's backstory more. Especially when we start talking about The Hanging Hill, and a question that pops up while reading that part. Why can't Fukubei see the real ghost?

There are many ways to interpret the scene. The most logical being that maybe this part is there to remind us of Fukubei's inability to see the truth. But was this inability predetermined? Did he develop it? Does this mean that because he can't see the truth, his path was doomed to only see lies? How much agency would he wield in that case? From this reading, some readers might infer that Fukubei is probably mentally unwell. Personally, I'm not a fan of diagnosing characters with something. Maybe because if the story doesn't explicitly say what the character has (in that case, I can judge or seek others to judge how accurate the representation is), the writers code their characters with an agglomeration of characteristics from different mental disorders. Honestly, I won't dip my toes in these waters. Just a thought that occured while reading.

By the way, what Kenji, Occho and Sadakiyo saw in that room was a noppera-bo: a faceless ghost.

In case I forget this in my next essay about Katsumata, it's interesting how just like him, Fukubei had to die before Friend was born. Kinda highlights the unspoken importance of personas in this manga and its influence on the world.

Finally, this leads me to the heart of this post and the next ones: 20th century boys take refugee in Friend. Behind his mask, these men hide their fickle identities and their disillusionment of the future by trying to turn it into what they desire it to be. One of the most important themes in the manga are the acceptance of reality and the process from childhood to adulthood. Will you hide from reality and force the world to bend to your desires? Or will you accept the world as it is and take responsibility for your actions?

One last thing: I love how Urasawa tears down the image of Friend and shows how pathetic and sad the lives of those men behind the mask were. And all of this without justifying their actions. Urasawa doesn't let Friend's lies captivate the reader. He shows the ugly truth behind it. Many times in media, we mistify evil. Maybe because it is in its very nature to be mistified or maybe its in ours to mistify it. Either way, we understand what caused the birth of this persona and maybe for all us, 21st century people, this is the best advice we can receive from someone from the past century.

[remivill]

Les enfants du 20ème siècle

[cruisersensei]

i am deeply in love with urasawa’s name game. i want to marry the concept of fukubei denying others both his real name and nickname in order to construe a better, more interesting identity for himself and accidentally losing sight of who he really is. but i can’t because i have a girlfriend and she would be jealous

[idontthinkimokaymentally]

Hello there Fukubei fans.

[morning-after-nightmare]

evil villain men are assigned the yee yee ass haircut and a built in love for turtlenecks

[plankos]

the guy

[coralsunspear]

My dear Kenji.