Billy Bat

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Japanese: BILLY BAT

Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 20

Chapters: 165

Status: Finished

Published: Oct 16, 2008 to Aug 18, 2016

Genres: Drama, Mystery, Supernatural

Themes: Detective, Historical, Psychological

Demographic: Seinen

Serialization: Morning

Authors: Urasawa, Naoki (Story & Art), Nagasaki, Takashi (Story)

Statistics

Score: 8.55¹ (scored by 20,831 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #122²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #217

Members: 76,188

Favorites: 2,776

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8.55

Ranked #122Popularity #217Members 76,188

MangaMorningUrasawa, Naoki (Story & Art), Nagasaki, Takashi (Story)

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Volumes: /20

Chapters: /165

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Synopsis

Japanese-American Kevin Yamagata now authors the renowned detective comic book "Billy Bat" after serving in the Allied Forces in World War II. But as his series becomes a massive hit, Kevin discovers that his famed character, Billy Bat, already existed before within a Japanese comic. Worried that he may have unconsciously copied something he saw during his time there, Kevin returns to Japan to find Billy Bat's original creator and seek permission for him to use their character. However, as he traces back Billy Bat's roots, he finds himself unraveling a dark and twisted history of murders that somehow involve the character he thought he created.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

More characters
Characters

Billy Bat

Main

Yamagata, Kevin

Main

Goodman, Kevin

Main

Hitler, Adolf

Supporting

Christ, Jesus

Supporting

Oswald, Lee Harvey

Supporting

Einstein, Albert

Supporting

Luther King, Jr., Martin

Supporting

Kiyoshi, Kurusu

Supporting

Momochi, Jackie

Supporting

Reviews

Feb 26, 2025

Vasto-Kurogo

Recommended

A quick glance at the cast is enough to tell you, this manga is going to be a wild ride. Will you understand what’s happening? Maybe. Will it all make sense? Eventually. Will you have any idea where it’s headed? Absolutely not.

Billy Bat is truly one of a kind. I can confidently say there’s never been anything quite like it before, and I doubt there ever will be again. As one of Urasawa’s finest works, it showcases his masterful grasp of the mystery genre. With intricate, interwoven plotlines spanning human history and the physical embodiment of abstract concepts, this story keeps your mind racing, sparking ...

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Feb 13, 2025

3Word

Mixed Feelings

One of Urasawa's great work. This manga is what you'll expect to see from Urasawa's manga. It is thrilling, engaging, suspense and intense. Billy bat is pretty enjoyable an easy to read. It might just be because i was exposed to many higher literature such as Crime and Punishment or Thus Spoke Zarathustra but i think this manga is pretty easy to digest. The character are loveable and it's very easy for me to get invested to each character. Urasawa's writting the character really well to the point some of the character that was first introduced and directed as villain ended up making me shed ...

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Jul 28, 2021

Oxybuzz

Not Recommended

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.

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Poll: Billy Bat Chapter 165 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Aug 27, 2016	53 replies	by Nikoslovescoffee »» Mar 19, 3:51 PM
Poll: Billy Bat Chapter 162 Discussion Stark700 - Aug 17, 2016	4 replies	by Nikoslovescoffee »» Mar 19, 3:20 PM
Poll: Billy Bat Chapter 155 Discussion Stark700 - Feb 28, 2016	9 replies	by Nikoslovescoffee »» Mar 19, 9:29 AM
Poll: Billy Bat Chapter 142 Discussion Stark700 - Sep 6, 2015	5 replies	by Nikoslovescoffee »» Mar 18, 7:06 PM
Poll: Billy Bat Chapter 138 Discussion Stark700 - Aug 9, 2015	5 replies	by Nikoslovescoffee »» Mar 18, 6:30 PM

Billy Bat
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