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A review by crookedtreehouse
Naoki Urasawa's 20th Century Boys, Vol. 13: Beginning of the End by Naoki Urasawa
3.0
There was a point in [a:Bill Willingham|12444|Bill Willingham|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1347423972p2/12444.jpg]'s [b:Fables, Vol. 1: Legends in Exile|21326|Fables, Vol. 1 Legends in Exile (Fables, #1)|Bill Willingham|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1375392441l/21326._SY75_.jpg|1138855] where he reached the intended/imagined climax for the original story, and it took him many issues to find his groove, which resulted in a lot of people bailing on the series because it seemed directionless.
I feared that was happening in this volume, as the core mystery had been solved and resolved in the twelfth volume, and, sure, there was another apocalypse on the horizon, but wouldn't it just be basically retreading volumes 6-12?
Well, it was for a couple of chapters but then Urasawa reached back and reminded you that he'd pushed several storylines to the side ages ago, and decided that now was the time to pick them back up and return them to the complicated fold of the overarching story.
It worked for me. I am once again intrigued to see where the story is going, and I'm glad that the Who Is The Friend storyline is over, because it was never going to be satisfying (it wasn't) or actually important to the story, even though it was The Primary Storyline for twelve volumes. I'm excited about the various people trying to fill the vacuum of power left behind by The Friend, and reintroducing even more characters from the 1960s/70s storyline into the 2015 storyline.
I don't know if it will work, and I'm not sure how I'd be satisfied by the story going forward, but I'm going to be optimistic as I dive into volume 14.
I feared that was happening in this volume, as the core mystery had been solved and resolved in the twelfth volume, and, sure, there was another apocalypse on the horizon, but wouldn't it just be basically retreading volumes 6-12?
Well, it was for a couple of chapters but then Urasawa reached back and reminded you that he'd pushed several storylines to the side ages ago, and decided that now was the time to pick them back up and return them to the complicated fold of the overarching story.
It worked for me. I am once again intrigued to see where the story is going, and I'm glad that the Who Is The Friend storyline is over, because it was never going to be satisfying (it wasn't) or actually important to the story, even though it was The Primary Storyline for twelve volumes. I'm excited about the various people trying to fill the vacuum of power left behind by The Friend, and reintroducing even more characters from the 1960s/70s storyline into the 2015 storyline.
I don't know if it will work, and I'm not sure how I'd be satisfied by the story going forward, but I'm going to be optimistic as I dive into volume 14.