VideoVista have my review of Yukihiko Tsutsumi’s 20th Century Boys.

Watching this film put me in mind of archeology or anthropology.  It is based upon a series of manga which, while hugely successful in Japan, have yet to acquire much of a cult status in the West.  Because of the popularity of the source material, the film and everyone involved in t seem to be making a real effort to produce a film as close to the source material as possible.  So in effect, the film is this huge homage to this pop cultural deity that I have never heard of.  It’s like some weird and incomprehensible religion; to those within the sphere of influence of the manga, clearly the film is a big deal.  To the rest of us all of the slavish respect seems irrational and incomprehensible.  Which is probably a good state to be in when it comes to popular culture.