Tonight we will continue the Urasawathon with my personal favorite work of his - Billy Bat. Strap-in boys and girls, cause this one is a doozy
Been meaning to read this since I finished 20th century boys a few years ago, I guess I'll stick around for this
>>289472175It's been a decade since I last read 20th century boys, I hardly remember it except for a few memorable scenes.
>>289471945yay! hooray!
>>289471945This is the manga where he realised he can just do meaningless mystery box garbage with litteraly zero payoff and still find success. Complete substanceless past the first half, it spends so long in all these mauffins that ultimately mean nothing
>>289472615>>289472636Never read this.A bit disappointed it wasn't cute kemono all along
Done!I've decided to just do 2 chapters a day. Thoughts so far? Do you think your neighbor could be a Russian spy?
>>289472921Same, it's all standard noir stuff but I was getting invested.
>>289472185what a bitch
The Bat sequence is very like Blacksad
>>289472039>Kevin Yamagatalol
>>289473099This is the reason why I got drawn inThanks OP!
>>289472828fucking JAPS
>>289473058heh
>>289472966Thanks.
>>289472338Why is everyone in this comic a dog except the protagonist?
>>289473971it's a metaphor for racism
>>289472577Sounds like something a monster could do
>>289472508>I liked him because he was niceis it really truly sincerely this easy?
>>289474125oh sure, humanity solved ethics thousands of years agoBe kind to one anotherShare with the needfulDon't start wars out of greed or vaingloryBe honest in your dealingsDon't be cruelDon't exploit peopleDon't treat everything like a transactionRespect other people's agency and bodily autonomySo on and so forthPeople just don't want to hear it because they'd rather be con artists and warmongers and waste their life accruing wealth and power and material possessions at the expense of everyone else, and lash out without consequence whenever they don't get what they want
Full volume?
>>289474490>OP calls it a storytime>doesn't storytime itwhat's OP's major malfunction?
>>289474490No but seriously, I've been away from /a/ for some years, what happened that people started shying away from full volume dumps and instead went for 2-3 chapter ones? The Kengan dump is doing the same.
>>289472185Eva dog.
>>289473971 Because he is bat. There was a bear and a piranha, too
>>289472699 Is this story set during WWII?
>>289474925He's talking about the Red Scare, which you should have learned about during High School
>>289474958>He's talking about the Red Scare I am not really into superheroes.
>>289474975
>>289471945>Urasawathon2 decades of Kennedy Dynasty would surely make America Great the Manga.
>>289473058Carlos!
reading bump
>>289475051This manga is firmly on the side of Lee Harvey Oswald did nothing wrong, just for other reasons
So is Billy Bat meant to be based on Stan Sakai?>Japanese-American comic creator who made mature themed comics with anthro characters
>>289474751That’s a daily, just call it a daily
>>289471945>20th Century lostBummer, I already read Billy Bat. But I guess this will be a good chance to re-read the story.
>>289472010>>289472039I love the stylization of the in-universe Billy Bat comics.
>>289472185She belongs to the streets!
>>289472399>>289472412Black on black violence.
>>289472599Not a good spy if he is recognizable.
>>289472828Those darn japs and their mango.
>longer than MonsterOh man, I don't know if I want to get into this since Monster was kinda disappointing. Is this at least better?
>>289477048AHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAH
>>289477048I have talked to people who disliked Monster but loved Billy Bat.
>>289472111>the broad had legs for days and a tough outer shell>she was a 10 foot long milipede
>>289477048I liked the first half, the last half was pulling teethMaybe on a re-read I'll like it more
>>289478352heh
>>289472828Tezuka famously got so pissed that China was co-opting Atom that he literally made new art to send them so his work wouldn't be known for the bootlegs.
>>289472599How would you know he's a spy?
>>289474751If you don't paypiggy for a pass, dumping a volume sucks. I used to do it and I kept almost falling asleep half-way through. The only good cope is doubling the pages together.
>>289472070>pirahnaWhy aren't you posting the higher quality scans, anyways?
>>289471945>my personal favorite work of hisYAWARA? The only work that matters
>>289472111clearly a what??
>>289472299kennedy?
>>289472966Thank you, OP. Please consider changing scanlations. I was comparing with the licensed version, and the dialogue flowed much better. The scans were also higher res.
>>289476798With dailies becoming more popular in the last few years, more people are beginning to confuse them with regular storytimes.
>>289480768Only the first volume of the licensed version is out, anon. And it only released last month, so it'll be a while until it's finished. OP just picked the wrong time to start a daily desu
I still would kill for a full billy bat comic bros...
>>289474490>>289474697>>289480783OP here. Yeah, guilty as charged. Didn't know there was a specific distinction between storytime and daily, even though the naming should've made it obvious.>>289480768>>289480840I did think the color pages in particular were of bad quality, but it was the one torrent with the complete volumes. As anon pointed out, the higher quality scans and translation is only just now being released.Although, if an anon knows of a better alternative currently available, we can switch to that.
>>289477048try read Pluto is his best work by far, the ending is bad though
>>289483085You would kill but you wouldn't make it yourselfGoes to show how shallow your will really is
>>289480493This, but also I think a story like Billy Bat ( and Monster and 20th Century boys) works better as daily. It's a mystery thriller afterall, you wanna give yourself some time to digest the story before the answers are revealed.
>>289483085read this >>289473099
>>289483660>read this >>289473099I can't read.
bump
>>289472854Japan?
>>289483425>answers are revealed>billy batc'mon now
>>289483425Monster wouldn't work as a daily
>>289491361I think most people had fun with it.
>>289472443She looks a lot like Eva.
>>289483425Personally I think dailies also help get more readers. I have time to keep up with a daily but a full volume is too much commitment.
>>289472966Thank you OP. I wasn't present in the previous story times and I get to make up with this
>>289483131I will do everything in my power to get someone else to make it
>>289492694I always end up quitting halfway through a daily because I just can't be assed to read ONLY ONE CHAPTER every morning
>>289472966Has my interest. Never read this, so I'll be around.
Anyone read Toradora?
I'm staring the dump a little earlier today. Chapter 3 - Bat Search
>>289496768ENTER
>>289496898Did Jump even exist when this manga takes place?
>>289497218Cool page
Not to be an ass or anything but you should probably call it Daily Billy Bat instead of storytime, makes it much easier to find.
Chapter 4 - The Bat and the Ancient Text
>>289497331I was thinking of doing that actually. Next thread will be a Daily. Just hope any anons who want to look this up in the future don't get too confused.
>>289497011Jump came out in 1968Noir was popular around the late 1940's early 1950's MacArthur left Japan in 1950, and died in 1964, 4 years before jump even came outBilly Bat seems kinda outdated by this point in the timeline, I don't know what the fuck's going on
>>289497102>nobody can read Ancient Japanese, but we need to burn them if they say anything weird in themwhy? for what purpose?
>>289497683>黒蝙蝠寓本>black bat fableI think this is what the book is called, can't read the 4th kanji very well
Done!
>>289497880>>289497915Finally, it's getting interesting
>>289497915Thanks for the dump
>>289497683Kind of an odd choice for a secret society logo
>>289497831>>289497864Oh no, he's going mad
>>289497915Thanks.
>>289472966>>289497915Thanks OP, glad to be able to read this! Seems pretty interesting so far.Maybe not in my neighbourhood, but there surely are some Russian spies going around since I live in Finland. Remember hearing stories how a car with two guys and a Russian license plate was monitoring what tanks were brought to Armoured Brigade I used to serve
>>289472010Some high quality engrish here.
>>289501133Forgot to add that this happened before 2022, so the "spies" are probably not roaming that freely around anymore
>>289497337>a certain man...Oda traced this.
>>289497915Holy shit. I can't believe The Magnificent Steiner killed that guy.
>>289472828I just noticed that the Billy Bat page "in universe" is flipped so it reads left to right as it would if it were actually being made in the US unlike the page here >>289472455. Now that's attention to detail.
>>289502137Oh coolI was thinking about how it was still right-to-left despite being an American comic
>>289492029I had fun but can't say I like the ending
>>289497915Good grief another Magnificent Steiner?Thanks OP
>>289497433Truman took all the credit for that, it's fine.
>>289472185This literal fucking bitch.
>>289472412>well I WAS going to drop the case>but now that you've beat my ass this means war
>>289472615>>289472636Damn, I was getting so into it the black and white pages hit like a flashbang.
>>289474125yesbut also you'll never know if you're really loved or you're just useful and comfortable and easy to replace
>>289472828based weeb coppo
>>289496898>>289496992This whole premise is just bizarre. If this isn't a flashback and is the current day, that would mean BB theoretically predates Astro Boy by more than three fucking years. Plus when it came to cartoon animals, Japanese artists around that time were just copying Disney and whatever cartoons got imported there wholesale. If Billy isn't meant to be an Astro stand in, he would just be a copy of a copy, and would've already had a Western counterpart. He would've immediately known if he was ripping someone off.https://youtu.be/D7o2WzHKIjY
>>289504820
>>289497102Wait what? Did that actually happen in post war Japan?
>>289497149Oh shit, it just occurred to me; is Billy meant to be a reference to Golden Bat? Which is why he seems to be so ancient?
>>289496992>>289504820Different HistoryAnd there is actually reason why
>>289505136There was censorship and Americans made them get rid of pro-militarism/nationalism material like school textbooks but they probably weren't hunting down ancient texts to burn
>>289491289Some things are left to interpretation. But all important mysteries are explained.
>>289496768It's the MAN!
>>289496898Even if Jump existed at the time he wouldn't even know of it.
>>289497045Kek, dude looks like a caricature.
>>289505281>probably
>>289497218I forgot what significance this guy has.
>>289497683:3
>>289497728>Heh heh heh
>>289497915Thx buddy.
>>289497512Huh, he's actually tearing up a bit in the bottom panel.
>>289497536Oh shit, EVIL Billy Bat!
>>289505407He dont have anything except being killed 2 chapter later
>>289497683Usagi Yojimbo ass drawing.
>>289497790>If the Americans find out one of their belived comic book heroes was actually stolen from ancient Japanese text>It'll be bad news...Incredibly flimsy logic that falls apart immediately, but okay.
>>289497831What the fuck.
>>289497880So he went from giving up on drawing BB just because he MIGHT have ripped him off, to now being willing to kill for him?
>>289497915Now I'm curious as to how he even killed him. Nothing about that mess looks plausible without a knife or something, which he clearly doesn't have. Maybe the wooden skewers?
>>289505943Its like if American recognize that Simba is rip-of Kimba
>>289497831Now that transition to Billy walking on the panels is Kino.
>>289506191there is a lot of that going forward into the story.
>>289505235ROME NEVER FELLTHE MONGOLS CONQUERED JAPANHITLER WONLET'S FUCKING GOOOOO
>>289506123I can't believe Akira Toriyama creator of Naruto and inventor of Moonsand ripped off poor little Walt Disney's tumblr OC so shamelessly like that
>>289497556you can learn to read classical japanese you know
>>289497683secret organization of kawaii
>>289499059bats are evocative animals
>>289506123This has been debunked a bajillion times.
>>289506051Maybe someone else killed him.
>>289497880>>289497915BAT-MITE, YOU LITTLE SHIT
>>289497915Thanks OP
>>289504820Series like Norakuro were already popular and had derived from the Western model by that point. Including things like greater violence or different storytelling formats. Tezuka actually brought in *more* Disney influence than was common at the time.
>>289506898Was it actually not until that furfag YMS did his big video on it that it became sort of common knowledge that it was a load of shit or was it known before then?
>>289505388Urasawa makes the best racial caricatures.
>>289503912My favorite Truman quote:>I knew Uncle Samuel was holding out on me when your letter came not with Boxley's and Brelsford's. Two came this morning and I am of course very happy. We are all wondering what the Hun is going to do about Marshall Foch's proposition to him. We don't care what he does. He's licked either way he goes. For my part I'd as soon be provost marshal of Cologne or Metz or Munich or Berlin as have any other job I know of now. It's a shame we can't go in and devastate Germany and cut off a few of the Dutch kids' hands and feet and scalp a few of their old men but I guess it will be better to make them work for France and Belgium for fifty years.November 11, 1918
>>289497683Adorable
Bump
BILLY BAT BUMP
>>289497831>>289497864It's interesting how this Billy has a totally different personality from the one in the actual comic. Original Billy was a lot more grounded, while this Billy really plays up the "cartoon" aspect.
>>289509589Even Norakuro was straight up just Felix the Cat, though. Billy still would've had a Western counterpart he was inspired by.
>>289472384this is not 20CB
>>289496768the loser
>>289509649YMS used clips in his videos of people in the early 2000's explaining why they're not related, but most buzzfeed clickbait news websites thought the copying crap was more sensational so that's what they published.
Wait this isnt about baseball?
Speaking of Old Manga, I remembered reading these really old late 1700's Edo-era proto-manga a couple years ago. One of them was called Playboy Grilled Edo Style by Santou Kyouden, who was a famous writer of the time. It's a parody of the playboy genre, where normally a pernicious young upstart would go about causing trouble and having fun in the red light district, fuck a bunch of courtesans, and then die a dramatic double suicide in a boat on Lake Biwa at midnight with his favorite girl before he gets lynched for causing trouble. So in the story a young boy reads all these Playboy genre books and wants to become a playboy himself, but he's awfully incompetent at it, gets himself into a bunch of hijinks, fails to hook up with anyone, and then fails to commit double suicide. I wanted to storytime it, but unfortunately every copy online is paywalled or in a textbook. Apparently if you're a college student (or have $200 for the textbooks) you can get copies of it. If anyone's got a college profile, or coincidentally has one of the textbooks already and can scan it, that would be the bee's knees.
Has anyone here read Master Keaton or Asadora? Never see them get brought up when talking about Urasawa.
>>289517441read the first volume of Toradora and thought it was really meh
>>289497915RIP.
>>289497683https://youtu.be/6rcA-yuo6-Q
>>289501897I still miss him
Evening anons. Staring daily dump. Chapter 5 - A Run Over Corpse
>>289497831>doesn't say "what a dreary night"Yep, this is an imposter.
Chapter 6 - Black Or White
>>289520989Thanks OP
>>289520535cult of Batman
>>289520989Thanks, OP!
>>289520535Interesting
Why isn't there many people reading? Thanks for the dump, OP
>>289520158Urasawa loves introducing these creepy mystery guys. That's the second one this story.
>>289520092Holy shit, I was just joking about the Magnificent Steiner thing.
>>289520535Spider-man could never
>>289520913The numbers, Mason. What do they mean?
>>289520836World's worst liar
>>289520342Dibs on the big one.
>>289520289For a second I forgot "we're cooked" isn't a zoomerism
>>289520989It's him!
>>289520183Shop owner guy is cool
>>289520222>hey buddy, can you explain how this guy got TWENTY EIGHT STAB WOUNDS in a car accident?
>>289520535This ugly son of a bitch is fucking super hot prostitutes, and basically, you're fucking stupid
>>289520764ey tone, fuggedabadit
>>289520989Is that... OSAMU TEZUKA?!THE MANTHE MYTHTHE LEGEND
>>289520959These 'paper plays' are called Kamishibai, by the way. Quite popular after WW2, usually intended for children, these guys would ride around on their bikes or wagons and tell fairy tales (otogibanashi) or moral stories to passerbys. You can still see some performances today, and they still have this format performed in schools for children
>>289525119No, that's Edogawa Ranpo, you dingbat
>>289525175They were also an early source of mangaka and animators too. Some of them, along with some kabuki guys as well, also ended up doing early tokusatsu stuff too.
>>289525208Looks like a Tezuka to me dog
>>289520158ENTER
>>289520476Tenma approves.
>>289520794Another ENTER!
>>289520817CIA?
>>289520989Thx fella.
>>289525514Oi don't give a fuck what ye dog thinks
>>289526042bagger awf moi8
>>289525514See >>289504820 this takes place long before Tezuka was the legendary figure he's known as. It would make no sense to have him as an old man in the 40s.
>>289526524This manga's got some weird timeline fuckery going on as it is, I'm reserving all judgement until we read further
>>289525030it was a knife truck
>>289520461I wonder if Urasawa ever killed a man
>>289520535:3
>>289472384entire story is about mystery bat and then we get revelation about the batwhat answer do you want more?
>>289474125lol no, women will ask for your money
I find it fascinating that Urasawa is really good at panelling and composition while mostly sticking to a square grid that wouldn't be out of place in a western comic.
>>289525175Fairly different thing but somehow reminds me of Punch & Judy puppet shows.
>>289527572only rich old men want your money
>>289520925I like that the investigator has no fucking idea what his partner is talking about
>>289526876I would assume no.
>>289520851>Too physically weak to whide the body by himself.>Too mentally weak to lie to the police This guy is the worst criminal ever. He should just stick to stealing intellectual properties.
>>289534136Yeah, I don't think Kevin could do even 10 push ups. Even Tenma could do it.
>>289520925This guy looks like a regular upstanding police officer who just can't resist bringing up his interest in ancient Japanese texts. Nothing shady at all.
>>289534516Could he at the start of Monster though?
>>289537568He moved around more as a surgeon than Kevin on his desk illustrating Billy Bat. But then, Kevin was in the army previously, he had to have had passed a physical exam. It's kinda weird that he's this soft when he probably saw a lot of fucked up shit being stationed in post-war Japan.
>>289526924"I didn't like what was in the box"
