Japan Synopsis
20世紀少年 －第1章－ 終わりの始まり
In 1969, Kenji, an elementary school kid and his friends built a secret base during their summer holidays. They fantasized that they had to fight villains who were out to conquer the world and wrote them in the Book of Prophecies. Years later in 1997, Kenji becomes a convenience store manager and leads a regular life after giving up his dreams to become a rock star. His boring life is suddenly turned upside down when his old classmate dies mysteriously and an entire family in the neighbourhood disappears. At the same time, a religious cult and its mysterious leader, Friend emerges and a strange chain of events duplicating exactly the events described in the Book of Prophecies follow. Is this the beginning of the end of the world? Who is Friend?
The 2007–2009 Japan Window
362 Japan films released in this three-year window, ranked here by audience rating. 20th Century Boys 1: Beginning of the End sits at position #178.
Titles With Overlapping Themes
Films and series that share thematic tags with 20th Century Boys 1: Beginning of the End. Number on each card indicates how many keywords overlap.
Other Titles From Cine Bazar
The 2000s Japan Landscape
Catalog density by release year in the 2000s. Highlighted year (yellow) is when 20th Century Boys 1: Beginning of the End premiered. 1020 total titles in this decade from Japan.
Budget & Box Office Efficiency
At a 2h 22m runtime, production spent $141K per minute on screen and earned $220K per minute back.
Reception Benchmarks
Ranked #2,517 of 4,579 Japan films indexed here (45th percentile by TMDB audience score).
Among Japan Science Fiction productions specifically: #226 of 566 (top 40%).
Production Details
| Primary Country | Japan |
|---|---|
| All Production Countries | Japan, Thailand |
| Original Language | Japanese |
| Production Companies | Cine Bazar, TOHO |
| Runtime | 2h 22m |
| Release Date | August 19, 2008 |
| IMDb | tt1155705 |
| Official Site | www.4digitalmedia.com |