Introduction If you really make a wish from the bottom of your heart a real wish... itll come true. Billy Bat A sentence that youll only hear once in Billy Bat but its essentially the driving factor of many sprouting themes and ideas in one of Naoki Urasawas most critically acclaimed works. The starting quote might suggest an easy read without any uniqueness to it but the narratives structure is very clustered and the number of focused characters and themes is nearly limitless. This amounts to a majority of takes I have on this piece of art. Thus I decided to write a structured review in contrast to the disconcerted narrative of Billy Bat. My ability is simply not of Urasawas quality. Writing As Ive already mentioned the tale isnt straightforward. Its especially at the start confusing jumping from place to place time to time with nearly no hint of a joint that holds everything together. This burning issue kind of gets fixed towards the end. Nonetheless there is still a lot of room for ones own interpretations because of the loose explaining and various decisions so no plot point cant be clarified. Not my favorite type of narrative progression most of the time they feel like a way for an author to hide their inability to write but mastered well enough to not be disliked. Structuring aside the wordsmiths ability to face risky decisions is incredible. They dont fear to just throw the most popular characters away or write controversial dialogue. Unexpectedness is the result but failing to write a compelling cast is another outcome which Ill further delve into in my Character section later. Something I always have a positive impression about among my favorite writing contributions is the authors ability to write thoughtprovoking dialogue inbetween. This happens frequently throughout Billy Bat. The first example I grasped is this one: reading direction 10000https://i.post.cc/fyPXqjtX/Screenshot20240613185728.png A phenomenal take on artistic influence. These sequences happen on various occasions during the tale due to the tight selection of themes. Honestly my favorite aspect of fiction are perplexing themes. Therefore I just decided to make it its own headline. Themes Something I havent mentioned on purpose yet is to mention anything in relation to the historical genre that is enlisted on Anilist. The storyline takes place across many centuries especially during the 20th century. The reason for this decision lies in the decisiveness historical events take upon the topics present in the work. I hate being spoiled even to a minor extent and sporadically also like to read reviews beforehand. Two things that dont go well together. Due to the majority of people like myself only reading the first and last lines of a review Ill try my best to spoil only a minority of essentials in the introduction and the deep dive happens in the subcategories like now. During my reading I took notes of themes I perceived. Resulting in more than 10. A general thread running through them is a rather uplifting vibe and detail to reality. Continuing my showcase for thoughtprovoking dialogue the portrayals of racism and prostitution tend to provoke the reader to go easier on people suffering from them. The antiracism line in here is unexpectedly vivid I didnt anticipate reading in a Japanese comic: Who cares if youre black or white? If we turn this place into a slaughterhouse...only read blood will run Diane Goodman Or the conversation between the MC and a prostitute: reading direction 10000https://i.post.cc/ZK7Zgs5X/Screenshot20240613190112.png Billy Bat is a story established writers use as a message to humanity. And I always love that. Examples for that is the novel The World of Yesterday by Stefan Zweig or the Ghibli movie The Tale of the Princess Kaguya by director Isao Takahata. Because of the historical fondness of the writer duo thoughtful dialogue like my examples can happen at the most crucial times history provided. Both moments happened in the 1950s an infamous century for racism right before the famous speech by Martin Luther King Jr. picked up later in various segments to spread positivity. The most ambitious subject featured is art. This shouldnt surprise anyone as the protagonist is literally a mangaka. The first page sequence already included artistic values. But it goes way deeper than that. Delving into the influence importance or merit of art. Other themes briefly mentioned in the manga are: Police Superiority Peace War Time Traveling/Changing Nazism Characters The weakest part for me is the character writing. For many Urasawas best ability. For me in Billy Bat it just isnt. It is still above average youll hopefully notice my positivity to it after I evaluate my POV. What exactly did I dislike? It was the inconsistency between the characterization of the main cast. None of them were multidimensional with one or two out breakers. The formula the authors took was characterizing through one or two crucial life experiences. My favorite example is Chuck Culkin getting saved by Hitler. After that crucial experience he starts to behave like Hitler and inherits his thriving for success and develops narcissism. Due to those trades and Hitlers influence on the market he becomes one of the biggest figures in buisness. A clear indication of the success of Nazis post WWII who profited from WWII without punishment a complex theme rarely depicted in fiction. Chucklins character arc is still not perfect like for many other similar builtup characters the cause for the development is just not believable enough. The best character in Billy Bat for me is Oswald the murderer of JFK. Only present in a fifth of the story. His arc might be short but is rich of details full of motives and layered. His persona is surrounded by Nietzsches bermensch theory. An bermensch is a human who has his own morales and possesses a will to power. This might seem like a stretch but there were evidences I found that indicate the possibility that it was intention. Firstly his characteristics are perfect for the theory because he tries to find any opportunity to be a hero and fears to hurt anyone a pacifistic motive. Secondly the chapter he first appeared in was named Thus Spoke Oswald a reference to Nietzsches Thus Spoke Zarathustra the philosophical writing the bermensch thesis was mentioned in the persona of the character Zarathustra. Thirdly in chapter 50 Oswald cries about his failure to not reach the same recognition as Napoleon Caeser and Alexander the Great three of the most famous bermensch examples. In this conversation between Oswald and Kevin protagonist Kevin denies their greatness suggesting a negative opinion the authors mightve on Nietzsches philosophy. Art Urasawa is not among the best manga artists. His sense for artistic values is topnotch though. The narratives structure heavily relies on different use of colored comics in different art styles uncolored comics and graffiti. Character designs tend to be realistic enough playful enough and unique enough to not feel anything than perfect. Same goes for the amount of dialogue per page or size of panels. Perfect in what it wants to be but also not flabbergasting. The Ending Please only view if you have finished Billy Bat. reading direction Conclusion Billy Bat is a manga I could talk about for hours the loose structure the artistic values the character details the engaging themes the ending... I didnt even analyze the character Billy Bat. Ultimately it is Naoki Urasawas message to the world it has its flaws but despite that it is simply beautiful. In my rating system it is a 4/5 but it cant be compared to the 100 metric system so Ill just give it a 100 indicating general positivity