I finally got around to reading the second volume of 20th Century Boys and wow it just keeps getting better. Check out my review on the first volume for the story, but the gist is basically theres a cult going around and the main character is somehow connected. He remembers it has something to do with his childhood so hes collecting all of his friends together to try to figure it out.
He slowly remembers more people from his friend group and runs into them during the second volume, including the girl he had a crush on who now works as a police officer. She knows more about the case than he does but the main character is finding it hard to juggle his life, store and keeping the investigation going.
More is revealed about another friend they lost contact with a long time ago that no one has seen in years. He fell off of the map on a journey to Thailand and that was the last anyone heard of him. As they try to track down this friend, the cult gets more aggressive and starts taking out religious figures and is planning attacks on a large scale.
This story is probably inspired a bit by the Aum Shinrikyo cult that attacked the Tokyo subway with saron gas in the 90s. I can definitely feel similarities between the main cult leader and the real life group. The cult in the manga is also using a biochemical weapon to inflict people with a disease so theres that similarity.
Overall volume 2 is just as good as volume 1 and definitely worth the read. If you want to grab the volumes they are pretty cheap on amazon, but also they are probably available somewhere online if you are short on cash. Definitely give this series a look though.
-Calaber24p