Friend (20th Century Boys)
Friend is the identity used by several characters in 20th Century Boys.
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Friend (Fukubei Hattori)
- Main Article: Fukubei Hattori
In the late 1960's, Fukubei snuck into the secret base which Kenji and his friends created to read their Prophecy Book. While there, he ran into the masked boy SadaKiyo, who was also sneaking in. Sadakiyo asked Fukubei to be his friend. Fukubei agreed, but told Sadakiyo never to refer to him by his real name, but to call him 'Friend' instead. Fukubei would go on to form a group that consisted of himself, Sadakiyo, Yamane, and Katsumata. The four of them, after reading The Prophecy Book created by Kenji and his friends, decided to create what they believed to be a better version entitled The New Prophecy Book. As an adult, he developed his Friend persona into a charismatic cult leader. Taking advantage of what he saw as people's desire for a saviour, he used magic tricks to make people believe he was a supernatural being that had come bearing salvation. In the 1990's, he seduced Kiriko Endo so he could manipulate her into developing a virus that would destroy humanity and a vaccine for it. Kiriko also gave birth to Fukubei's daughter, Kanna Endo, who lived with her brother Kenji in her early childhood years. Katsumata would later confirm that he and Fukubei had somehow successfully experimented on Kanna in the womb, imbuing her with special abilities. Considering Fukubei's constant lying and use of tricks, it is likely that Kanna's powers were an attempt to reproduce and build on Katsumata's precognitive abilities, rather than an original discovery by him. Fukubei was shot and killed in the science room at his former school by Yamane in the early morning of 1 January, 2015. His death was confirmed by Otcho, and later by Manjoume. Shortly afterward, Katsumata took Fukubei's place as the second Friend by posing as Friend's body lying in state, only to stage a phony 'resurrection' later on.
Friend (Katsumata)
- Main Article: Katsumata
Katsumata was the forgotten fourth member of Fukubei's Group, and the man who took the place of Friend after Fukubei's death. His face is never shown throughout the series and he is depicted as one who is faceless and forgotten. Although it is unclear and never properly stated, it is hinted that he was always working behind the scenes in Friend's plan right from the beginning. He bears a strong hatred for Kenji Endo, who was ultimately responsible for his "death" as a child. In 1971, Kenji stole a prize from a local candy shop, leaving Katsumata to take the blame. He was scolded on the street in front of many of his classmates by the shopkeeper for supposedly being the thief. Afterwards, Fukubei and Yamane approached him and said that what he did was worth the penalty of death. Fukubei then proclaimed, "Today, you died," and from that point on, Katsumata was unacknowledged by his classmates. It seems that because Fukubei and Yamane confused Katsumata with Sadakiyo, they spread the rumor that Sadakiyo died instead, leading to no one calling or writing to him when he moved away. Katsumata's apparent death took place the day before the carp dissection going on at his school. Katsumata had really been looking forward to this, and a rumor was made up that his ghost was seen carrying out the dissection in the science room that night. It was believed among Kenji's classmates that when Donkey was terrified by something in the science room, it had been the sight of Katsumata's ghost.
Later, Katsumata's supposed death would take place the day before carp dissection happened. A rumor was made that his ghost was seen carrying out the dissection in the science room that night, and it was believed that Donkey, one of Kenji's friends, was terrified by something in the science room. Immediately following Fukubei's death in 2015, Katsumata assumes not only the Friend identity, but had plastic surgery to look identical to Fukubei. Katsumata eventually joined Fukubei's group as the fourth member, and never showed his face since he was wearing as a mask. Unlike Fukubei, who faked having supernatural powers, Katsumata seems to have precognitive powers as a result of the experiments of Kanna Endō's powers. Also, his reason for destroying the world differs from Fukubei's, in which he believes the world was unnecessary, while Fukubei simply wanted attention, and get fixated on beating Kenji. Upon Fukubei's death, Katsumata took his place as Friend and continued his work. He created a new virus and destroy all of humanity, keep sending small boxes of vaccines to the rebels, knowing they'll tear themselves apart with the antidote.
Katsumata later murdered Kanna, while making Kenji to watch, as revenge for his transgression against him many years ago. Even when Kenji apologized for what he did to him as a child, Katsumata refused to accept his apology, and at that point, Katsumata was killed by the explosion of a flying saucer, which Fukubei's former assassin, Number 13 crashed it in a helicopter.
Overview
In appearance, Friend (友達 Tomodachi) was an identity held by a masked mysterious and charismatic cult leader. The two Friends are most easily distinguished by their favored masks: Fukubei's Ninja Hattori-kun mask serves as an oblique clue to his identity, while Katsumata replaces it with the now iconic symbol-bearing mask. Katsumata often dressed similar to SadaKiyo, wearing a mask to hide his face. Because of this, the identity of the masked boy in some scenes is unclear, as Sadakiyo, Katsumata, and even Fukubei had all at one point worn the mask to disguise their identities. To maintain the deception, the second Friend had plastic surgery to make his face similar to the original.
The original Friend lacked any special powers. To accomplish their 'prophecies', they staged events and used trickery in order to make it seem that they had divined the future. However, the second bearer actually possessed precognitive abilities allowing them to perceive future events.
The ultimate motivation of Friend depends on the man behind the mask at the time. Fukubei bears a grudge against Kenji owing to an inferiority complex and his own questionable mental state. Katsumata's grudge is much more specific, hailing from the time Kenji allowed Katsumata to publicly take the blame for a petty theft at a local shop, resulting in his being excluded and ignored by the other children. Further, since Fukubei died unexpectedly and the final parts of the New Prophecy Book were written by Katsumata, it is unclear what Fukubei's ultimate goal would have been had he lived.
The original looked to enact the plans set out in the Prophecy Book. This was a notebook collaboratively written by Kenji and his friends when they were kids, mostly in their secret hideout. The book predominantly records the group's childish, manga-inspired hero fantasies. These eventually converge into a narrative of events in which the group unite as adults to stop an evil organization bent on destroying the world with biological weapons and giant robots. The Prophecy Book is one of the original documents containing the unique eye/hand symbol designed by Otcho. Many years after the book was written, the mysterious cult leader known only as 'Friend' orchestrated numerous criminal and terroristic events which eerily followed the narrative recorded in the Prophecy Book.
Through their actions, a Japanese political party came to be formed that was aligned with them with this being the Friendship Democratic Party.
Notes
- The concept of Friend was created by Naoki Urasawa where it featured in the 20th Century Boys universe.
In other media
Films
Appearances
- 20th Century Boys: (2010)
External Links
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