20^th Century Boys, an adaptation of one of the most popular manga series in recent Japanese history, is a bizarre bland of genres. A long strange journey which goes places you would never expect and manages to make its labyrinthian plot compelling, exciting and just really entertaining.

The main theme of the movies are the mistakes you make in childhood and the consequences they can have on you later in life. The basic story line is, a mysterious cult is growing in Japan and is starting to achieve a great deal of power. The cult is lead by a masked man known only as Friend. The main character is Kenji, a failed rock star now running his families convenience store and looking after his baby niece. After a school friend dies he starts investigating the Friend cult and it becomes more and more clear that the cult is closely connected to Kenji and his school friends and that they have a terrible plan to take over Japan and later the world. Friend's plan is based on a book Kenji and his friends wrote when they were school children called the “Book of Prophecy”. Cult leader Friends face is covered with the symbol Kenji and his friends designed and only they knew about. Is Friend someone they know and why is he trying to make the “Book of Prophecy” come true? The 2^nd and 3^rd films are set 15 years after the events in the first and deal with Japan under the rule of Friend and the resistance against him.

The first thing to know about these films is that they are long between two and two and a half hours each and there is a huge amount of plot. However these long running times add a great deal to the film. The movies are plot heavy with a huge amount of twists and red herrings. The characters have time to slowly develop over the course of the 3 films, even the most incidental characters have well defined arcs. The length of the films also means that the enourmous amount of exposition that has to be delivered to keep the plot moving can be done in interesting ways and leaves time for character moments that may not move the plot forward but add to their development.

The movie has a huge cast of characters and unusually they are almost all given a great deal of depth. From the core cast of characters who we see as both children and adults to the members of the Friend cult they're are incredibly well drawn. You feel that you get to know them throughout the movies, you learn about them and even those that seem to be stereotypes will surprise you. The main villain Friend is particularly well developed. Though we never see his face and rarely hear him speak you never hate the character and want to find out who he is and what caused him to try and make the “Book of Prophecy” reality, in fact by the end of the series “Friend” one of the more sympathetic characters.

Unlike almost every other blockbuster made today the spectacle is second to the characters. You actually care about the characters meaning you are invested in their fate. Though there are a lot of special effects in the movies, particularly parts two and three, they are used to serve the story and characters rather than the other way round. At the climax of the films there is not a huge action sequence, no great battle between good and evil but rather a small and given what's happened in the films rather civil confrontation and then a rock concert (you really have to see the movie to understand).

One of the great joys of the movie is the constantly shifting tone. Though an inconsistent tone is usually a negative for a movie in 20^th Century Boys it works very well. One moment the film may be comedic, then suddenly dramatic and then horrific (and there are some great gory scenes). This is done masterfully and the changes are never jarring. A comedic chase scene ends with the discovery of a dying man, a tender dance (between a policeman and a transvestite prostitute) ends when someone is shot in the head. The plot is complex and you are never sure what is going to happen next, the changes in tone amplify this. Anything could happen next and there is no way of knowing what it could be.

The shift between the first film and the second and third adds to the uncertainty about what is going to happen. The first film in the series is mainly set in the late 1990s and the late 1960s, while the bulk of the second and third film happen in 2015. The films have a unique take on the dystopian future. Rather than high mega skyscrapers and crowded cities of most films set in the near future 20^th Century Boys future is an odd mix of the old fashioned and the futuristic. Friend now rules Japan and is slowly turning Tokyo, now surrounded by a huge wall, into the city it was when he was young while the rest of Japan is left to decay. This setting adds a unique feeling to the proceedings. Futuristic appliances and buildings are there and the juxtaposition between them and the old Tokyo creates a strange atmosphere, which suits the movies perfectly given the events that unfold in the last two movies.

The films aren't perfect by any means. Though the running helps the films in a lot of ways it also leads to a great deal of unnecessary scenes. The filmmakers are slavishly loyal to the manga and include sub plots which could be exercised from the films without hurting the main story. Even though the characters are well written and acted and the scenes themselves are entertaining the fact most of the time you will find yourself wishing you were back at the main story. The special effects can also on occasion be a little weak. On the whole they range from fine to great but when a bad special effect comes on screen it does threaten to take you out of the movie. I would argue that the direction and acting is more than good enough for this not to matter but on such an expensive movie you would expect every special effect to be at least competent.

20^th Century Boys is one of my favourite film series of recent years. It is quite uncommon for a film series that is so unconventional (the heroes are all middle aged, there are very few big action scenes etc.) to be made. I would of assumed that with a budget so large all the interesting elements of the story would have been removed in order to make the films more palatable to audiences. But they didn't and the films are great because of it. In a world where most blockbuster movies lack any kind of characterisation or story development and are content to simply deliver empty special effects to people these movies really stand out a mile.