Billy Bat

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This is simply the best Manga i have ever read!

The Manga started pretty weird but we all know Naoki Urasawa. He is not just drawing Manga, his works are simply art with a way deeper meaning than it might appear at first glance.

Billy Bat is using historical information, known conspiracy theories and different aspects of life in a way.. it just simply blows your goddamn mind. I read his other works and many other seinen or just manga with deeper meaning but Billy Bat is just something else. And don't lemme start with the ending.

Give it a shot.
You might think it's weird or boring ... at time. Maybe you dislike history. But if you understand the deeper context. This is probably the most brilliant piece of "Manga-Art" you can find on this planet. Trust me.
You won't regret reading this Manga and it might inspire you.

So I won't waste your time and give it to you straight: Billy Bat is not for everyone. This manga's story structure is nigh impenetrable to the average reader(at least I hope I'm average), the story itself has loads of ups and downs and story threads that take forever to pay off. You'll also have to tackle at least a dozen different characters at any give time, and many of them will just be kind of...irrelevant. Additionally, you'll never be sticking with any one character for very long, and the lines between where one ark begins and another ends will be blurred for large portions ... of the manga. It switches a lot between story threads, and this detracts from the experience by melting the stories together at many points. There's other, smaller flaws, but they're largely unimportant.

Now if none of the above deters you from reading, let me give you some positives that might entice you to actually read this manga. Firstly, the art is excellent. It's sharp, professional, clear, beautiful, just perfect. The dialogue is also rather well-written(or at least the translations are) and though the story can take some deep dips, it also soars to amazing heights and had me losing sleep at some points because I just had to know what comes next. The story structure itself is also very well done, even if it's constant jumping between different story threads can be very tiring and annoying. It really feels like the artist had much of this planned out from the start and it flows together very well, if you can bear with it for a while.

Overall, Billy Bat is a good manga. It is, however, a rather difficult read and will probably deter a lot of readers early on. I would recommend it only if you want to read something unique, and are not so concerned with things like traditional protagonists or normal story flow. Otherwise, stay away. You really won't be missing THAT much.

With the works of Urasawa that I’ve read, I can safely say I’m not a fan of his. To me it appears some of his works contain the same common ground of presentation—one slow, tedious, stretched-out slog of an endeavour—that I’m repulsed by. Billy Bat’s insidious nature too dictates improper planning and lack of direction.

There are some positives I can extract out of this manga. Billy Bat has a well-established premise that exudes intriguing mystery through a bizarre comic character. This peculiar entity maintains its mystique dimension throughout most of the manga. The manga is reliant on historical context that I find to be solid ... enough, though sometimes it can be a bit cheesy. And while being considerably slow, the first 90 or so chapters manage to enthrall with some gripping reveals and events.

The second portion of the manga which involves the second Kevin as the protagonist is certainly inferior to everything prior as it feels all over the place. The chapters with the first Kevin as the protagonist had elaborate self-contained storylines that felt significant and memorable; something I can’t say about everything after where nothing sticks out or manages to form a path encompassing clear direction.

Don’t you find it disappointing how the continuous deepening of the mystery only leads to an ending that feels so anticlimactic and underwhelming? When I take into consideration how some of Urasawa’s works were serialized simultaneously, I can’t help but think there isn’t a full-fledged picture in his mind (or the one whom he collaborates with). It clearly manifests in Billy Bat’s lack of cohesion. As a whole the story doesn’t really make any sense and feels too disjointed to determine a solid finalised impression of its overarching narrative. By the end it’s not clarified what Billy Bat is and how it came to be a universal entity. Implementing some symbolic purposes isn’t enough when the character or concept itself isn’t clear or doesn’t make sense. You can talk forever about the message conveyed through an idea and how it’s fascinating, but if it can’t secure a believable and consistent spot in the narrative, it’s bad writing.

And the message itself? I tried to piece together the scattered bits and came to the conclusion that Billy Bat is the manifestation of a two-sided coin of ideology or will. The "wrong" way to use Billy Bat is by dividing, corrupting and contaminating the world—a process that is done by people who fall into the category of: Having a desire to rewrite history in order to appease one's selfish wishes and regrets (which can also be a desire to repair humanity's mistakes; both are things that could lead to the destruction of the universe) and having a desire to conquer the world by means of brainwashing, indoctrination and authoritarianism (using Billy Bat’s radiation of happiness and influence as a weapon to control the masses as depicted by the imposter Chuck Culkin and his successor)—these are 2 of the 3 Billy Bats who are divided.

And so the "real" Billy Bat—the one whose usage is "correct"—is the one who has the power to unite the entire world and portrays humanity in its most pure and ideal way. "Keep drawing" Billy Bat as it will be the force which humanity will be dependent on unanimously: That’s what I got from the two Kevins’ realization and the ending portion with the two soldiers. Billy Bat can lead to either the destruction of humanity or to its unification.

The progression of the plot is dependent on precognition whose telling controls the characters, and therefore the characters remain superficial with no explored-upon or elaborated motivational merit. And that includes both empty shells of protagonists. The two Kevins are driven by a willingness to unite the world by using Billy Bat, and that’s about it. The second Kevin is especially bad considering not only is he a derivative character, but he also lacks personality.

Billy Bat insists everything that occurs is according to its plan, and so some characters are detached from free will. Although it's a theme that is touched upon with some characters, it affects too much of the cast to justify their lack of depth since then it would be indicative of redundancy.

Even the characters that seem to have more depth to them fall flat. Take for example a character like Kurusu: They clearly tried to write an elaborate characterisation of him and his motivations, but ultimately it was as hollow as it was badly concluded. He’s a one-dimensional character who represents the side of persons who want to use Billy Bat to erase their regrets and past life. But the worst part about him is that he was introduced as an ominous, scheming individual with an intriguing mystique only for his character to end on a side-story undertake that is related directly to no relevant character—not even the first Kevin whom confrontation with him at the beginning has established a long-term conflict to be resolved.

What you need to understand from this is that the manga is entirely dependent on its plot. And that’s a problem when—along with the negatives of the plot I’ve presented thus far—it has many questionable elements. There are many cuts that try to provide tension and thrill, but their over-usage ruins the flow of the story. Some characters know certain info without reason; they go to a certain place, but their reasoning or justification to go there are nonexistent. It’s not complemented well by Billy Bat’s convenient telling which has tendencies of serving as a plot device. Other forms of convenience include the second Kevin managing to stop Kurusu from destroying the world by altering the preconceived future sight of Kurusu fulfilling his wish. So basically, the plot struggles to be the great dominant force of the manga.

I’ve tried Billy Bat several times and ended up dropping it until recently when I picked it back up and finally read it from start to finish. I felt like there was something, an aura which gravitated me towards trying it again and again. As I’ve said, there is an excellent premise here. The surreal mystery and uncertainty of the start are impeccable. But after finally finishing it, it felt like a miss-opportunity; a luring idea whose true potential has been neglected.