Top 10 Manga Like 20th Century Boys [2024 List]

20th Century Boys

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.

For Kenji, a simple convenience store manager who once dreamed of becoming a rock 'n' roll musician, a host of memories from his past come rushing back when one of his childhood friends mysteriously commits suicide. Could this new death be related to the rise of a bizarre new cult that's been implicated in several other murders and disappearances? Determined to dig deeper, Kenji reunites with some of his old buddies in the hope of learning the truth behind it all.

20th Century Boys has finished publishing and it has 249 Chapters. It is also Known as: 20世紀少年, 20 Seiki Shounen, Nijuu Seiki Shounen, Nijuusseiki Shounen, 20thCB

Genres: Science Fiction , Historical , Drama , Mystery , Psychological

Try our anime quiz: Anime Characters Guessing Quiz/Game

10. Eden: It's an Endless World!

Eden: It's an Endless World!

In the panic surrounding a worldwide pandemic which kills 15 percent of the population and cripples many more, a secret organization, the Propater, topples the UN and seizes control of much of the world. A boy and a girl, raised in an abandoned virology research center, immune to the virus, are attacked by the Propater and escape. 20 years later the boy is the most powerful drug lord in South America. He aids his son from behind the scenes as he evades and eventually with the help of mercenaries from Nomad (some of them former Propater operatives) fights the Propater. As the plot develops focus shifts away from the main character and develops many sub-plots dedicated to terrorism, Human-improvement, the struggle of the developing countries and the power battles between the drug cartels and Propater.
Based strongly on Gnostic mythology, all major characters are named after gnostic deities, and have analogous roles.
Warnings: Eden contains a lot of very graphic violence and some sex scenes.

Eden: It's an Endless World! has finished publishing and it has 127 Chapters. It is also Known as: EDEN ~It's an Endless World!~, Eden: It's an Endless World!

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9. Bloody Monday

Bloody Monday

A virus deal clinched in Russia on the Christmas eve. Purpose: unknown. Two clues: a mysterious lady "Maya", one of the gangsters, and "Bloody Monday", the keyword for the project.
Then an incident happened in far-distant city of Tokyo. Fujimaru Takagi, a second grade student at Mishiro Gakuin high school, is commissioned to find out the truth by Public Security Investigation Bureau for his great ability as a super hacker. Now, Maya, approaching to Fujimaru, as his high school teacher...

Bloody Monday has finished publishing and it has 96 Chapters. It is also Known as: BLOODY MONDAY, Bloody Monday

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8. Nijigahara Holograph

Nijigahara Holograph

Suzuki is a troubled boy. He's lived with uncaring foster parents for most of his life, alienated from the other kids at his school, owner of a cynical, unhappy mentality. Komatsuzaki is a violent, unpredictable bully whose head trauma causes him to act in mysterious, inexplicable ways.

Arakawa is a no-nonsense, normal girl who pines after Komatsuzaki but can never have him. A teacher with just one working eye. A mother who committed suicide. A daughter in an endless coma. Attempted rapes, murders, extortion, sexual deviance, and a freakish explosion in the butterfly population. All of these elements are whirled together in a story spanning 10 years, a tale of blackness, pain and apocalypse. And maybe just a bit of hope and redemption.

It's a spiritual cross between the misanthropic suburban malevolence of Kyoko Okazaki's Rivers Edge and the eerie mysticality of Donnie Darko.

Nijigahara Holograph has finished publishing and it has 15 Chapters. It is also Known as: 虹ヶ原ホログラフ, Rainbow Field Holograph

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7. Liar Game

Liar Game

Wishing she would live up to the ideal, Kanzaki Nao's father named her thusly for “honesty”. Nao has more than lived up to her father's wishes—even exceeding them and earning the label of "a foolishly honest girl". This makes Nao the least qualified candidate for the high stakes 'Liar Game', where winning requires deceiving the opponent out of their money and losing means receiving massive debt. However, that doesn't stop a box containing a hundred million yen in cash and a card informing her of her participation in the game from arriving at her doorstep, nor does it stop her from being promptly tricked out of the entire sum of money. Upon hearing that a genius swindler, responsible for the bankruptcy of a major corporation, is being released from jail, Nao goes to the swindler, Shinichi Akiyama, to enlist his help. With that, the two are drawn into the dark, greed-filled, and deceptive world of the Liar Game.

Liar Game has finished publishing and it has 203 Chapters. It is also Known as: LIAR GAME, Liar Game

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6. Dead Dead Demon's Dededededestruction

Dead Dead Demon's Dededededestruction

Large mysterious alien ships have been looming above Japanese towns for three years, filling the sky. Everything changed three years ago. And yet, nothing has changed.

No weapon used against the invaders' ships had any success, beyond destroying part of japan and leaving its economy in shambles. JSDF is fighting a guerrilla battle against the aliens all over Japan. America is joining the "war" effort with more aggressive tactics, dividing Japan over the pacifist principle laid out in Art9. of their constitution.

But this may just be the mundane story of young middle schoolers.

"No matter what happens, I won't back down. At least not until this world filled with lies and deceit crumbles away. (...) The real threat to humankind is not invaders, but me."

Dead Dead Demon's Dededededestruction has finished publishing and it has 100 Chapters. It is also Known as: デッドデッドデーモンズデデデデデストラクション, Honobono Fuufu

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5. Old Boy

Old Boy

Ten years ago, they took him in. He doesn't even know who. And for ten years, he has been confined in a private prison. He doesn't know why. For ten years, his only contact with the outside world has been a television set and the voices of his jail mates. In time, he lost himself. He changed...transformed himself into something else...something hard...something lethal. Suddenly, one day his incarceration ends, again without explanation. He is sedated, stuffed inside a trunk, and dumped in a park. When he awakes, he is free to reclaim what's left of his life...and what's left is revenge.

Old Boy has finished publishing and it has 79 Chapters. It is also Known as: Loose Senki: Old Boy, ルーズ戦記 オールドボーイ, Old Boy

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4. Billy Bat

Billy Bat

The story is set in 1949 and follows Japanese-American comic book artist Kevin Yamagata as he draws the popular detective series "Billy Bat" for "Marble Comics." When he learns he may have unconsciously copied the character from an image he saw while serving in occupied Japan, he returns to Japan to get permission to use Billy Bat from its original creator. Upon arriving there, however, he becomes embroiled in a web of murder, cover-ups, and prophecy that all leads back to Billy Bat.

It is soon evident, however, that the truth of Billy Bat's nature is far larger than Kevin could ever guess, spanning millennia and across the world.

Billy Bat has finished publishing and it has 165 Chapters. It is also Known as: BILLY BAT, Billy Bat

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3. Oyasumi Punpun

Oyasumi Punpun

Punpun is an ordinary young boy growing up in Japan whose age of innocence has reached its end after his father is arrested for spousal abuse and putting his mother in the hospital. With his uncle looking after him, Punpun grows into adulthood facing a series of events which change him, for better or worse, forcing him to contemplate just what it means to be an adult.

Goodnight Punpun has finished publishing and it has 147 Chapters. It is also Known as: おやすみプンプン, Dobranoc, Punpunie, Bonne nuit Punpun!, Boa noite, Punpun, Bona nit, Punpun, Buenas noches, Punpun, Gute Nacht, Punpun, 잘자 뿡뿡, 晚安布布, לילה טוב, פונפון, Buonanotte, Punpun, İyi Geceler, Punpun, ฝันดีนะปุนปุน

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2. Pluto

Pluto

In an ideal world where man and robots coexist, someone or something has destroyed the powerful Swiss robot Mont Blanc. Elsewhere a key figure in a robot rights group is murdered. The two incidents appear to be unrelated...except for one very conspicuous clue - the bodies of both victims have been fashioned into some sort of bizarre collage complete with makeshift horns placed by the victims' heads. Interpol assigns robot detective Gesicht to this most strange and complex case - and he eventually discovers that he too, as one of the seven great robots of the world, is one of the targets.

Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka has finished publishing and it has 65 Chapters. It is also Known as: PLUTO, Pluto

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1. Monster

Monster

Dr. Kenzo Tenma is a renowned young brain surgeon of Japanese descent working in Europe. Highly lauded by his peers as one of the great young minds that will revolutionize the field, he is blessed with a beautiful fiancé and is on the cusp of a high promotion in the hospital he works at. However, all of that is about to change with one critical decision that Dr. Tenma faces one night – whether to save the life of a young child or that of the town's mayor. Despite being pressured by his superiors to perform surgery on the mayor, his morals force him to perform the surgery on the young child, saving his life and forfeiting the mayor’s. All of a sudden, Dr. Tenma’s world is turned upside down by his decision leading to the loss of everything he previously had. A doctor is taught to believe that all life is equal; however, when a series of murders occur in the vicinity of Dr. Tenma, all of the evidence pointing to the young child who he saved, Tenma’s beliefs are shaken.
Naoki Urasawa’s Monster is a tale full of mystery, suspense and intrigue as Dr. Tenma journeys to find out the true identity of the young child. In turn, the fate of the world may depend on it.

Monster has finished publishing and it has 162 Chapters. It is also Known as: MONSTER, Monster

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