I'm one of the fan of this series. Actually I really admire Mr. Naoki Urasawa in his talent on almost every Manga. I red 20th, Monster, and now still reading Pluto. He's quite amazing.
Anyways, my impression with 20th CB Part I is not good. I think the movie is suit more for manga fan, but for the people never read the manga version, I think they'll get confuse. Note that, this comment came directly from the one watching the movie with me. She never read the manga version. Oh, and she likes Death Note movie adapation, so there's nothing against Japanese movie.
I personally thought that the movie is OK, because I'm the fan. I reconsidered it and thought that the movie miss so many points in manga. Of course this is unavoidable since it is a very long manga. But many good points, that shouldn't be missed out, were missing ( I will try to recall it since the last time I red the manga is around 1 year ago) Some of these were
- The movie could not convince audience enough to believe that someone like "Friend" might exist. The "Friend" organization and Yumin party looked so unrealistics. I thought this is partly because the very fast pace of movie.
- The appearance of Fukube was so few. I think movie cut out the scene about teacher-ask-for-who-bend-spoons off. So the "Psychic" plot is all blown out.
- Otcho appearance was too short and weightless. I didn't see why he should come back to Japan. In manga, he spent a lot of time in Thailand, and there are lots of flashback on him. In movie, I didn't feel anything when he said "I'm Shokun" in the end. But the phrase really move me when I red manga.
- The cut is a bit confusing. Flash back and flash forward is not well handle enough.
- No explanation about robot at all. No details about the kidnapped professor that made the robot (he didn't appear at all in the movie). I thought most audience in theater feel that the robot is actually a robot (actually it is a big car dressed like robot). Anyways the robot in the movie looks cool enough. I think I understand immediately how they make it "looks like" robot.
- In manga, up until the point where movie ends, I feel that "Friend" is brilliant in the way how he cheat and fake to make people belive him. Up to this point, the only real thing was the deadly virus. In movie, this point is not well handle enough. The "Friend seminar" scene made me think that people attended the ceremony were all dumbasses who believe that "Friend" is real thing. And Friend looked unreal and unconvincing.
- Nothing much said about the burglar "God". His name never even being mentioned in the movie.
- I think the ending should adapt exactly like the ending of part I in manga (the scene where Kanna bring flower to pay respect to Kenji and scene flash to Yumin party come up to get the honourary at UN). I personally think that, in mang, this was being handle this very well. The ending in movie didn't make me feel like "I wanna watch the 2nd part!".
- I thik the actor taking the role of "Kenji" is too handsome :P. Anyways this is not that big deal.
- I did't think they had to insert the "Otcho in the jail" scene at all. It could be left for 2nd part.
- The joint before and after "Kenji-decision-to-go-against-Friend" was not well handled enough. I recall that Kenji lives for many years underground and train himself to go against Friend. He did try to recruit his childhood friend as ally. In movie, it seems as if it happened just after his convenient store was set on fire, if people not paying attention to the date appeared on screen.
- The scene where "Friend" confronted with "Kenji" on the robot. "Friend" appearred on the big structure, the same one in Osaka Expo. In movie, there was no explanation about this structure at all. Actually there was no explanation about Expo at all too, just a bit mentioned about Osaka. For foreigner like me, they wouldn't undrestand what really is the structure.
Anyways, if my memory is correct, the song that Kenji sang on the road is "that song", right? I think the song is nice.
Also, I don't sure about this, but I think the theather that I watch intentionally cut out some part of movie to make the length a bit shorter. I notice that from incontinuous dialog in many scenes. For example, the very first scene where manga writer talk with Otcho has been cut a bit. In my watch, after he ask if Otcho is human, he suddenly talking about his manga. There are other points like this in the movie as well. Anyways I think that mostly 5-10 minutes has been cut off. I will wait for DVD version to see if this is true or not. If this is not true, then the editing of this movie has some problem.
