Naoki Urasawa's 20th Century Boys, Vol. 2: The Prophet

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This is the story of a group of boys who try to save the world! As boys, Kenji and his friends came up with a bunch of stories about an evil organization bent on world destruction. As adults, someone is now turning their fantasies into reality!

Humanity, having faced extinction at the end of the 20th century, would not have entered the new millennium if it weren't for them. In 1969, during their youth, they created a symbol. In 1997, as the coming disaster slowly starts to unfold, that symbol returns. This is the story of a group of boys who try to save the world.

The Friend, an enigmatic cult leader who plans to destroy the world, declares, "The cosmos has begun choosing those who are true friends." Meanwhile, horrifying incidents are taking place: the emergence of a mysterious virus, the revelations of a man on the run... Kenji tries to find out who this Friend is, but the answer is still far ahead. The footsteps of doom slowly creep closer and a shadow falls over the city...

Yukiji remembers who came up with their group's enigmatic symbol: Otcho. She also discovers that, nine years earlier, Otcho had been working in Thailand but mysteriously vanished. Could Otcho be the mysterious Friend Also, a legendary detective is hot on the trail of the Shikishima kidnappers, but the clues he uncovers lead him dangerously close to the Friends cult. Is his life now in danger as well

Author Bio

Naoki Urasawa's career as a manga artist spans more than twenty years and has firmly established him as one of the true manga masters of Japan. Born in Tokyo in 1960, Urasawa debuted with BETA! in 1983 and hasn't stopped his impressive output since. Well-versed in a variety of genres, Urasawa's oeuvre encompasses a multitude of different subjects, such as a romantic comedy (Yawara! A Fashionable Judo Girl), a suspenseful human drama about a former mercenary (Pineapple ARMY; story by Kazuya Kudo), a captivating psychological suspense story (Monster), a sci-fi adventure manga (20th Century Boys), and a modern reinterpretation of the work of the God of Manga, Osamu Tezuka (Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka; co-authored with Takashi Nagasaki, supervised by Macoto Tezka, and with the cooperation of Tezuka Productions). Many of his books have spawned popular animated and live-action TV programs and films, and 2008 saw the theatrical release of the first of three live-action Japanese films based on 20th Century Boys.
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No stranger to accolades and awards, Urasawa received the 2011 and 2013 Eisner Award for Best U.S. Edition of International MaterialAsia, and is a three-time recipient of the prestigious Shogakukan Manga Award, a two-time recipient of the Osamu Tezuka Cultural Prize, and also received the Kodansha Manga Award. Urasawa has also become involved in the world of academia, and in 2008 accepted a guest teaching post at Nagoya Zokei University, where he teaches courses in, of course, manga.