The plot is great - like somebody mentioned before: The mix between pop culture and historical elements is epic.
The art is also great. Often very detailed and realistic. It's perfect for this kind of story.
Characters are also good. The way they're introduced are always well done, and their development is also good.
I really look forward to getting an ending to this manga. Bet it will be epic, with a lots of plot twists and "WOW"-moments.
Recent chapters have been the long awaited development, not sure if this is the final development in the story though, Naoki may take this to 9/11 as well, he foreshadowed it as well. I kind of get the feeling Billy and Kevin are one and the same, it may all be in his head, or a few people are having the same dream. :P
Next chapter is killer, literally, though Naoki may take us back to prehistoric times as a twist.
I really hope he'll take it to 9/11 as well. Could be awesome.
I also get the feeling that Billy and Kevin are one and the same. Chapter 58 strenghtened this belief a lot, when the manga switched between Billy and Kevin doing the exact same thing.
And 2012, Billy said something about it when he appeared to Kevin once. But the Kennedy assassination is key, if that happens things will continue to happen as written in history, if not things will change. Possibly leading to the 3rd world war that was also mentioned. If Kennedy remains alive which will not be historically accurate with real life history the war will happen. I believe, something that might have happened during the cold war.
Billy said to the Japanese American girl, I forgot her name that something has to happen in order for events to go the way they are. If it does not happen it will be bad, and the war will break out. And Kevin is probably the "good" Billy as opposed to the other which may be Oswald.
Well that only leaves us questioning on what happened to Oswald in the building, it is obvious to say the guy with the hat and glasses shot JFK, but what can you do, Oswald must be pretty quick to hide the gun from the time the girl went from the window to him.
For a second there I though that Oswald was admitting to the assassination of Kennedy, though it was for that other guy, really nice connection in the story, now the only role left unknown is the Japanese girl, what does she have to do with it?
Jackie is another "chosen" person. She and Kevin need to go to Japan to find Kanbe's scroll where it's buried now. Then something else happens I guess.
No scans still? Really want to know what is going on, some interesting new events occur, and Chuck is imagining Einstein or something? lol
And the ending ...
Wow, it will be a nice batch of five chapters I guess, looking at the raws I must say though:
Not really sure where this arc is headed, I do not like it as much as the previous, which was really great since the whole thing dates back to Oswalds introduction and it was a nice wrap up with Kevin and him saving the little boy. Now this arc would be good if it indeed focuses more on Kevin or Jackie, but I really think this is just the exposition to it all, so the good stuff is later. The previous arc was good form the start though.
---------- Post added November 19, 2011 at 11:07 AM ---------- Previous post was November 17, 2011 at 03:33 PM ----------
Ah well the scan is out for chapter 65! Well I surely am glad I can make heads and tails out of the pictures now, well the main thing is that Urasawa wants to shift the same story over to Japan, clearly to make us think that Devivie is the one that killed the mayor. And the chapter had some funny moments with the mayor liking pro wrestling.
Could be similar to Urasawa's other manga, something like that, 20 volumes for the whole series seems about right. In my opinion we are still far from the core story, a bit here and there but the big picture is yet to be shown to us, Urasawa can be misleading, Billy Bat is a bit different from his other works, he has to follow stuff like being historically accurate in certain things.
---------- Post added November 27, 2011 at 07:50 AM ---------- Previous post was November 19, 2011 at 02:45 PM ----------
---------- Post added at 12:20 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:50 AM ----------
And chapter 66 is scanned now. Really cool developments I really wanted to fit the story in after I found the raws but could not make sense of what was going on, the outsider guy certainly will go to ridiculous measures to get Billy Land on that property, well this reminds me of some colonial inspirations for that land, certainly ties in well. And I love the interaction between Kevin and Jackie, they are perfect for each other, the chosen ones.
---------- Post added December 25, 2011 at 06:57 PM ---------- Previous post was November 27, 2011 at 12:20 PM ----------
Raws are up to chapter 70 now for a while. And rather interesting events took place, above all:
Well, surprise, surprise, we get to see Einstein, more historical figures into this it seems? Well Urasawa might just get the nuclear bombings into this as well, of course no doubt that my thoughts that Billy Bat is a conspiracy theory based manga will be true, it may not end up as such, but certainly as I read more into it, the more obvious it kind of is to me.
---------- Post added January 13, 2012 at 04:10 PM ---------- Previous post was December 25, 2011 at 06:57 PM ----------
Raws have reached the 72nd chapter~ And scans are catching up and are already at 70. Raws here.
Personally not a fan of this arc but I really want to see the Einstein story more than anything now. Again with two timelines, chapter 71 might get us into the universality of the whole thing that was foreshadowed.
