Billy Bat 15

Billy Bat #15

by Naoki Urasawa, Takashi Nagasaki

Chuck Culckin, reconocido como el inventor de Billy Bat, muere. Kevin Goodman se hace cargo de continuar. Al mismo tiempo, Duvivier intenta comunicarse con el Sr. Smith. Por último, en el sótano del parque de atracciones, Finney busca desentrañar el secreto del pergamino. 

Genres: Manga, Mystery, Comics, Seinen, Fiction, Graphic Novels, Fantasy

200 pages, Paperback

First published September 22, 2014

About the author

Urasawa Naoki (浦沢直樹) is a Japanese mangaka. He is perhaps best known for Monster (which drew praise from Junot Díaz, the 2008 Pulitzer Prize winner) and 20th Century Boys.

Urasawa's work often concentrates on intricate plotting, interweaving narratives, a deep focus on character development and psychological complexity. Urasawa has won the Shogakukan Manga Award, the Japan Media Arts Festival excellence award, the Kodansha Manga Award and the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize. In 2008 Urasawa accepted a guest teaching post at Nagoya Zokei University.

Series list (not including short stories collections):
- Pineapple ARMY (パイナップルARMY) 1985-1988, written by Kazuya Kudo;
- YAWARA! 1986-1993;
- Master Keaton (MASTERキートン) 1988-1994, written by Hokusei Katsushika;
- Happy! 1993-1999
- MONSTER 1994-2001
- 20th Century Boys (20世紀少年) 1999-2006
- 21st Century Boys (21世紀少年) 2007
- PLUTO 2003-2009, based on Tezuka Osamu's Tetsuwan Atom
- BILLY BAT 2008-2016
- Master Keaton Remaster (MASTERキートン Reマスター) 2012-2014
- Mujirushi (夢印-MUJIRUSHI-) 2017-2018, collaboration with Musée du Louvre
- Asadora! (連続漫画小説 あさドラ!) 2018-ongoing

Reviews

[P.E. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Billy's Legacy


Timely Sountrack

We reach the year 1990. How time flies.
The Pseudo Chuck Culkin is no more.
The bat scroll, decoded by taciturn Cpt. Finney contains two encrypted series of numbers, both ending with "20010911".
We explore an alternative route in Kurusu's past, when he becomes a talented artist, gaining world recognition for his Silver Bat series, more or less taking the part of Chuck Culkin Enterprise in the alternative timeline. Timmy Sanada, the son of pseudo Chuck Culkin and his Japanese American mistress Naomi is ready to take over and replace a weary Kevin Goodman as the main illustrator of the Billy Bat comics. And... I'm happy we follow again the life of Jacky Momochi and her daughter Maggie, a student filmmaker.

Are we heading towards a great gathering of all Billy-Bat-drawing artists in the near future?


Be it as it may, I learned about the existence of this perfect Japanese pangram in this tome, please have a look!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iroha

See also:
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams

[Emi gosto ruim · Rating 4 out of 5]

o final desse volume socorro

[Jacek]

Back to great pacing, great scenes, great developments, great twists, and only occasionally awkward dialogue. There's much here that'll be familiar to readers of older Urasawa. But that's a writer's prerogative. You've done something before? Doesn't matter. Do it again. Who knows how it'll work out this time, after all. Maybe less stirring, maybe more. The permutations and combinations are different. There are depths in subtleties. It's all one song. Fail better.

One thing that seems clear, in any case, is that I should have reread Volumes 1-13 after that inadvertent two-year break. Anyway, for now, let's carry on through and get to the end. There's still an entire fourth of the series ahead. I can let an eventual re-read be informed by the totality.

[Frey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gasp

[Ibbo · Rating 4 out of 5]

L’eterno ritorno Urasawiano

[Vittorio Rainone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ho ripreso Billy Bat dopo tanto tempo: di quest'opera di Urasawa mi colpisce sempre l'estrema chiarezza narrativa, unita a una concatenazione di eventi complessa e a una successione serrata di scene diverse.
Così: pur non ricordando molte cose di quanto era successo finora, sono riuscito a godermi il volume senza grossi problemi, ritrovando tutti i personaggi principali, avendo anche la sensazione che la storia si stia finalmente muovendo parecchio, pur nel rispetto del suo tipico modo di procedere a spirali fra presente, passato, futuro, storie a fumetti.
Mi viene da dire: per la densità di ogni volume, BB meriterebbe di essere letto tutto insieme, ma senza concentrarlo in poco tempo, altrimenti l'uniformità della dinamica che lo caratterizza rischia di allontanare il lettore.

[Vicenç Sanz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Que Urasawa en un auténtico genio no debería sorprender a nadie cuando tiene obra como Monster, 20th boys o Yawara en su haber, así que es normal que Billy Bat tenga un nivel altísimo. La cosa está en que sigo sin tener claro si la serie en su conjunto me acabará gustando o no, ya que el muy mamón sigue abriendo líneas argumentales a la vez que recupera cosas que creíamos olvidadas.

Y en éste tomo quince pasa precisamente eso. De un lado seguimos adelante con la historia del nuevo dibujante para Billy Bat, una historia que es lineal en el tiempo (por decir algo) y que tiene varias ramificaciones interesantes.

Luego están los flashbacks, o los saltos temporales hacia atrás para contarnos otra historia relevante, incluso para recuperar cabos sueltos… y aquí Urasawa vuelve a lucirse, ya que empieza a verse un tapiz general para la obra, una intención en algunas cosas que habían quedado colgadas y que nos demuestra que no ha olvidado.

En éste quinceavo tomo me lo ha pasado como un enano, y eso, en una trama que no visitaba desde hacía meses, tiene un mérito enorme. Además, no sólo he disfrutado con todos y cada uno de los capítulos del tomo sino que me ha hecho recordar tomos anteriores con mayor cariño del que sentía por ellos y me ha hecho mirar hacia los siguientes con interés en lugar de con cierta apatía.

Así que ya os debéis haber dado cuenta de que me ha gustado mucho, quizás no sea el tomo que más me ha gustado hasta el momento, pero sí que es el tomo que ésta obra necesitaba a éstas alturas (o que yo necesitaba leer de la misma). Un auténtico gustazo.

[Ignacio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nueva patada hacia adelante con los personajes más avejentados, acontecimientos traumáticos para occidente en juego (la caída del muro, un avance del 11S), bonitos guiños a la privatización de la acción del estado... en una historia que se bebe como el agua gélida. Entra fácil pero no termina de saciar. Como ocurre con Urasawa, la lectura distanciada entre tomos me difumina el panorama general y lleva a perderme muchos detalles. La verdadera valoración queda para la segunda lectura, con la obra ya cerrada.

[Guylaine Boisvert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Même après autant d'années, j'éprouve toujours un certain malaise lorsque je vois une histoire fictive qui parle de l'attentat de World Trade Centre. Combien de temps doit-il s'écouler avant que cela fasse partie de notre histoire, comme l'assassinat de JFK?

Autrement c'est toujours aussi intéressant et amusant de voir comment peuvent être réinterprétés des faits historiques.

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

I suppose given that a bunch of other historic events have happened in this story so far, the 911 arc shouldn’t be too surprising. What is surprising is that the old characters are coming back especially Kevin, is he alive? Survey’s still out on that one because I’m not sure

[stanley snyder · Rating 5 out of 5]

the fact that they're going to make me appreciate more Kurusu character after his real backstory before Kevin Goodman changed it it's really something I've enjoyed, and at the end of the volume we see Jackie is back! I've missed her soo much!

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

So good.

[Solim · Rating 5 out of 5]

All the conspiracies unfolding one after another since the beginning of this manga. Another one in here. A few more volumes left!

[Dr. Tosetto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Le cose hanno preso una piega inaspettata e stanno evolvendo in fretta...

[Riley Hoover · Rating 4 out of 5]

*4.5

[John Lemonsmith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disney Land's secret illuminati research basement!?
Twin Tower conspiracy!?!
This series is culminating to a suspiciously scary story close to the present day.

[Íñigo Carrasco · Rating 4 out of 5]

no sé de cuántica, espero que no me arruine la experiencia.

[Princess Keziah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is Kevin Yamagata Alive?!

[A A · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great chapter as always

[Milenrrama · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tremenda patada temporal hacia adelante pega y el cabrón del autor sigue abriendo temas.