What I believe about Billy is that while he's motivated by the desire to tell a good story, he mainly acts out of self-preservation. Billy gains power from his notoriety, and feeds on being seen and written about. He's like a God in that he cannot communicate with humanity directly, instead relying on prophets, such as Shishou, Zofuu, Yamagata, and Goodman. When Billy manifests to people like the Momochis he primarily does it through drawings made by the real scribes, hence why only the "real" Billy is able to cause these visions. There are several of these scribes across the world who are being spoken to by Billy, and they've all been killed by Davivie, hence Billy's insistence that the world would end if Kevin died. I don't think that's true, Billy just needs someone who can be his scribe to exist, and without Kevin or his successor nobody could channel him into our world and only the false Billy would remain, essentially leaving the earth without its God. We see this happen in the modern day, when Timmy has abandoned the true Bat and chosen his father's fake one, and with neither Kevin actively drawing Billy he's running low on power, only able to faintly reach the Momochi clan due to them being the first scribes. The Billy Kevin meets in the cave is small and weak, and due to their lack of power the bats fuse with their self from the moon, giving up their omniscience in exchange for a final chance at life, where they tell Kevin to keep drawing. In Timmy's nightmare hellscape nobody is drawing the real Billy. I believe that what the boy at the end may mean when he says he will "Save the world" is that he will start writing his own Billy stories, and that even with Billy in hibernation, he will live on.
@@SeaGee Thanks a lot! I loved your Monster vids and I knew after reading BB I'd have to see what people were saying about it, and I was surprised to see you were one of the only ones! I really hope you can get more people into this awesome story and get other people talking. I love the idea of Billy as an unreliable narrator, because he's all we get, yet is inherently pretty deceptive in the story.
This sounds incredibly plausible and most importantly, it brings the importance of drawn stories to the forefront, which is a very important theme many people forget when they talk about billy bat. This is a story about stories after all
Naoki urasawa's manga always have this cosmic horror concept of where the villain is some kind of powerful unknown entity while the main characters are just hopeless normal beings that stumbled upon them.
@@uglyskully5928 he's not a monster we saw how the monster in the story eat everything until it's alone when johan remember that he start screaming and collapse (the library scene) and at the end of the story after was saved the second time he escapes the hospital that is not the behavior of someone who wants to die
This is it, this game was to the “challenge" God. The human species is unbelievable when they seek the light to further their endeavors through the light which is from God
for most of the manga I thought billy is in control of everyone and he's writing this story but towards after kevin talks with billly I believe it's the opposite way, humanity is writing it's own story and billy is watching it, nudging people on the "right path" but what happens eventually is out of his control
I don't know for sure if Billy actually exists, or if time travel is possible in universe. I think regardless of your literal interpretation Billy Bat is a story about the power of storytelling. A story may not be able to change the past itself, but it certainly can change our perception of the past, and while fiction may not hold direct power over the future, it influences people in profound ways. I don't think it matters whether Billy interacted with people in the past, and Shishou very well could've created him. Whether he was a supernatural being or not he affected "history" or our interpretation of the past, and eventually gave hope to a dying world, affecting the future. Just like a god's power over society is given by people worshipping them, Billy gained power through people loving his stories.
After reading the manga one of my personal theories besides anything metaphorical, was that Billy is a god. He manipulates people thoughout history for no other reason than to keep on existing. The only way to kill a god after all is to forget about him. That's why ultimately it doesn't matter who sees the Black Billy or White Billy, because they're both the same. As long as people know of his existence than he'll keep on living and continuing his twisted shenanigans. So buddy, you wanna be a hero?
i see it this way as well, its an all powerful being with a bit of mischief added to its personality, which causes infamous world events which shape world history in a somewhat negative way
There are actually a lot of Old Testament theological references in this story. Though Naoki Urasawa's representation of God in this story is very unorthodox and full of conspiracy theories, the narrative is a really powerful one, and ironically much more encouraging than certain brands of "orthodox" Christian theology.
That's such an interesting take and I agree. Even looking at Goodman becoming a prophet for seeing the future parallels with the prophets of the OT, those who were known for communicating with God. I've got to imagine a lot of it was intentional considering Urasawa put Jesus in the early chapters of this series.
@@SeaGee Not just that, but if we take a closer look at the entire life story of Kevin Goodman, then it's clear he is the Jesus figure in Billy Bat. Also, the ones who truly see/hear Billy vs. the ones who pretend to do so in order to capitalized on Billy. Basically true prophets vs. false prophets in the OT.
What is written on the scroll is simply all possible ends who can happen, just like probabilities calculated by Clifford DeVoe on the Flash series. If one end foresaw by Billy is avoided, he continues the story until the next possible end.
I think there's a lot of Vonnegut in Billy Bat, or if not, they were both touching on the same thing. Cat's Cradle with the way ideas influence reality, Slaughterhouse Five with the whole theme of acceptance of inevitability and taking your place in history. I think the biggest shared theme, though, is that one quote about the custard pie and the stepladder. The fact that, as an artist, you know art and stories to have incredible effects on people, but you also know that there are bigger forces guiding the world than your art, and the frustration at that fact. It's the deconstruction, then the reconstruction, of art as a duty of mankind. Sure, you can't stop JFK from being shot, but you can save a single person's life. You can write the best damned Billy Bat stories out there, and inspire future artists to do the same. A lot of it is, I think, him reckoning with art's place in the world, and accepting that, while it might be the most powerful force we have, it still can't stop 9/11. If Mark Wahlberg was on that plane it would not have, in fact, gone differently.
My personal theory is that Billy is one of the 4th-dimensional beings that the Chucks were discussing at one point. He obviously has access to some higher level of information (eg. prophecy), conciousness (eg. telepathic communication, appearing in dreams and hallucinations), and physical form (eg. appearing in various drawings). What if it was this higher dimension that allowed him to gain access to these things? It honestly reminded me of Carl Sagan's explanation of the 4th dimension, using the analogy of a 3D being invading and interfering with the affairs of a 2D world: ruclips.net/video/UnURElCzGc0/видео.html
That makes such a clean tie in. I would agree with you there. Definitely Billy is something acting outside of our understanding or comprehension. Perhaps the moon crashing to earth back in the earth's history was a dimensional thing too?
So this is what Anime characters would see Western Cartoon characters as. Just this Higher Dimensional cosmic horror. While the later is just doing it for the gags.
So I never comment but I thought I'd leave you with this Kind of in line with your theory I think Billy is simply like a 4th dimensional being or maybey even 5th playing with a 3 dimensional toy box or you could even say drawing a 3rd/4th dimensional story and he is the author simply nudgeding people along And concerning things he dosent know its because he hasn't come up with everything yet Pretty weak theory I know
When Goodman meets with the Billies the "White" one mentions how if "that scientist (Einstein) had discovered the truth behind the universe and Billy was in the center of it he'd be disappointed. I think that's implying that Billy is God, the God of this universe, cause it really does seem that with all Einstein discovered about time travel, alternate time lines and with Billy in the center of it the answer of him being "God" seems like it'd be so anticlimactic to him. Additionally Billy mentions how humans are always asking "what should I do?" Since they came to existence, Billy doesn't present the answers he'll lead people to them, but the person themself has to put in the effort to accomplish such things, and that's something a lot of religions believe when it comes to whatever version of God they believe in. Glad I found your channel though! Just finished Billy Bat today and was curious as to Billy and the ending to this series.
Thanks Hxro, great thoughts! Reminds me of early on with the Judas flashback that Jesus draws Billy as the shape of the lord. So perhaps Billy really is the God of that world. Glad you enjoyed Billy Bat, I'd definitely recommend other series Urasawa has done. I'm re-reading Monster currently and it's definitely worth a read if you haven't checked it out before!
@@SeaGee Thank you for taking the time to reply! Yeah really enjoyed BB, I actually read 20th century boys right before BB. And Monster is one of my most favorite series! Just got Urasawas other works to read now.
@Hxro No worries, thanks for sharing your thoughts! Another Urasawa fan I see. 20th Century Boys is quite the ride! I reckon you'll love Pluto. It's the series he ran with the creator of Astro Boy and it's really quite good. I hope you enjoy his other works!
@@SeaGee I always see people say they ran the series together but like Tekuza died back in 1989?? The series started in 2003. like i think he is just credited as a co-writer cause its a reimagening of his series right???
@Sundreas yeah that's correct! It's bad shorthand that I need to stop using. To be more accurate: Pluto is an adaptation based on the character and world established by Tezuka in Astro Boy. Honestly I'm just very quick to forget that with his name put on every cover
Wait why is billy drawn differently whenever there are different authors ? Also what happened in basque ? Like did kevin go there and found out something else ? And also can't you just wish all the other earths back ? Also I think probably kurusu killed the other earths if there are any and it reset the timeline or pulled consciousness in another earth. Something like that.
So, essentially... Billy Bat is like Aero The Acrobat from Hell... duly noted. Jeez... it seems that he’s REALLY bitter how his video games didn’t really pan out! I mean seriously, Aero was going to have his own cartoon show, but Power Rangers overtook that in 1995. Regardless, it does beg the question. Aero The Acrobat? Billy The Bat? Are they the same??? Someone PLEASE show this manga to Aero’s creator David Siller. I want to know of his reaction to it.
People like you are not at all "short-sighted". I suppose you have the same vision for William Delos a.k.a the Man in Black in WestWorld. People like this are the most "long-sighted" who can be found in the entitre omniverse.
That's deeply annoying to hear people like Kurusu "short-sighted", because they doesn't give a shit about what happens to Earth and other humans. He perfectly understood what he made in reality, and in fact, he understood "much better" than any other human in Earth what he made and why what he made didn't deserve to be considered as "bad".
What I believe about Billy is that while he's motivated by the desire to tell a good story, he mainly acts out of self-preservation. Billy gains power from his notoriety, and feeds on being seen and written about. He's like a God in that he cannot communicate with humanity directly, instead relying on prophets, such as Shishou, Zofuu, Yamagata, and Goodman. When Billy manifests to people like the Momochis he primarily does it through drawings made by the real scribes, hence why only the "real" Billy is able to cause these visions. There are several of these scribes across the world who are being spoken to by Billy, and they've all been killed by Davivie, hence Billy's insistence that the world would end if Kevin died.
I don't think that's true, Billy just needs someone who can be his scribe to exist, and without Kevin or his successor nobody could channel him into our world and only the false Billy would remain, essentially leaving the earth without its God. We see this happen in the modern day, when Timmy has abandoned the true Bat and chosen his father's fake one, and with neither Kevin actively drawing Billy he's running low on power, only able to faintly reach the Momochi clan due to them being the first scribes. The Billy Kevin meets in the cave is small and weak, and due to their lack of power the bats fuse with their self from the moon, giving up their omniscience in exchange for a final chance at life, where they tell Kevin to keep drawing. In Timmy's nightmare hellscape nobody is drawing the real Billy. I believe that what the boy at the end may mean when he says he will "Save the world" is that he will start writing his own Billy stories, and that even with Billy in hibernation, he will live on.
Holy Moly Ganmorg, that is a fantastic interpretation. I've got nothing to add here, just going to pin this comment
@@SeaGee Thanks a lot! I loved your Monster vids and I knew after reading BB I'd have to see what people were saying about it, and I was surprised to see you were one of the only ones! I really hope you can get more people into this awesome story and get other people talking. I love the idea of Billy as an unreliable narrator, because he's all we get, yet is inherently pretty deceptive in the story.
Like Christianity today dead relegeon
This sounds incredibly plausible and most importantly, it brings the importance of drawn stories to the forefront, which is a very important theme many people forget when they talk about billy bat. This is a story about stories after all
Naoki urasawa's manga always have this cosmic horror concept of where the villain is some kind of powerful unknown entity while the main characters are just hopeless normal beings that stumbled upon them.
Usually by the end it's a facade. Friend and Johan are just people in the end.
@@DP-jt6xx I disagree with the Johan part.
@@yamatonoryuujin4871 i believe johan really was a true monster
@@uglyskully5928 he's not a monster we saw how the monster in the story eat everything until it's alone when johan remember that he start screaming and collapse (the library scene)
and at the end of the story after was saved the second time he escapes the hospital that is not the behavior of someone who wants to die
When Francois Xavier asked Billy if he was God, Billy said he no longer knew who came first between him and God. I found it amusing
This is it, this game was to the “challenge" God. The human species is unbelievable when they seek the light to further their endeavors through the light which is from God
for most of the manga I thought billy is in control of everyone and he's writing this story but towards after kevin talks with billly I believe it's the opposite way, humanity is writing it's own story and billy is watching it, nudging people on the "right path" but what happens eventually is out of his control
I don't know for sure if Billy actually exists, or if time travel is possible in universe. I think regardless of your literal interpretation Billy Bat is a story about the power of storytelling. A story may not be able to change the past itself, but it certainly can change our perception of the past, and while fiction may not hold direct power over the future, it influences people in profound ways. I don't think it matters whether Billy interacted with people in the past, and Shishou very well could've created him. Whether he was a supernatural being or not he affected "history" or our interpretation of the past, and eventually gave hope to a dying world, affecting the future. Just like a god's power over society is given by people worshipping them, Billy gained power through people loving his stories.
After reading the manga one of my personal theories besides anything metaphorical, was that Billy is a god. He manipulates people thoughout history for no other reason than to keep on existing. The only way to kill a god after all is to forget about him. That's why ultimately it doesn't matter who sees the Black Billy or White Billy, because they're both the same. As long as people know of his existence than he'll keep on living and continuing his twisted shenanigans.
So buddy, you wanna be a hero?
Wanna inherit the earth?
i see it this way as well, its an all powerful being with a bit of mischief added to its personality, which causes infamous world events which shape world history in a somewhat negative way
This is honestly my favourite Urasawa series. It really does something different
Thanks guys
@@Dragon-Slay3rare you urasawa or something?
Sorry wrong number, please try again
Welcome to voicemail 😂
😭
I think you really nailed it with the wishes destroying the Earth, it probably has a message of environmentalism, among others
like berserk, isn't it?
Billy bats the most mysterious character Ive ever seen
This is a masterpiece, but i have 1 tiny teeny problem about this manga, i swear that i had seen that exact bat somewhere and i couldn't remember
Billy bat
in a cave near some wet markets in Wuhan?
Felix the cat.
When Batman and Mickey Mouse made love....
It's just the Disney Artstyle
There are actually a lot of Old Testament theological references in this story. Though Naoki Urasawa's representation of God in this story is very unorthodox and full of conspiracy theories, the narrative is a really powerful one, and ironically much more encouraging than certain brands of "orthodox" Christian theology.
That's such an interesting take and I agree. Even looking at Goodman becoming a prophet for seeing the future parallels with the prophets of the OT, those who were known for communicating with God. I've got to imagine a lot of it was intentional considering Urasawa put Jesus in the early chapters of this series.
@@SeaGee Not just that, but if we take a closer look at the entire life story of Kevin Goodman, then it's clear he is the Jesus figure in Billy Bat. Also, the ones who truly see/hear Billy vs. the ones who pretend to do so in order to capitalized on Billy. Basically true prophets vs. false prophets in the OT.
Just finished the manga, slowly making my way through your videos so my Billy bat journey won't end.
I've got such a soft spot for this series. What did you think of it overall?
You deserve more likes and views
Thanks Lukman, I appreciate it!
*I have a hunching theory that the Oppenheimer movie referenced the Billy Bat manga with every scene with Albert Einstein*
Why?
What is written on the scroll is simply all possible ends who can happen, just like probabilities calculated by Clifford DeVoe on the Flash series.
If one end foresaw by Billy is avoided, he continues the story until the next possible end.
I think there's a lot of Vonnegut in Billy Bat, or if not, they were both touching on the same thing. Cat's Cradle with the way ideas influence reality, Slaughterhouse Five with the whole theme of acceptance of inevitability and taking your place in history.
I think the biggest shared theme, though, is that one quote about the custard pie and the stepladder. The fact that, as an artist, you know art and stories to have incredible effects on people, but you also know that there are bigger forces guiding the world than your art, and the frustration at that fact.
It's the deconstruction, then the reconstruction, of art as a duty of mankind. Sure, you can't stop JFK from being shot, but you can save a single person's life. You can write the best damned Billy Bat stories out there, and inspire future artists to do the same.
A lot of it is, I think, him reckoning with art's place in the world, and accepting that, while it might be the most powerful force we have, it still can't stop 9/11. If Mark Wahlberg was on that plane it would not have, in fact, gone differently.
My personal theory is that Billy is one of the 4th-dimensional beings that the Chucks were discussing at one point. He obviously has access to some higher level of information (eg. prophecy), conciousness (eg. telepathic communication, appearing in dreams and hallucinations), and physical form (eg. appearing in various drawings). What if it was this higher dimension that allowed him to gain access to these things? It honestly reminded me of Carl Sagan's explanation of the 4th dimension, using the analogy of a 3D being invading and interfering with the affairs of a 2D world: ruclips.net/video/UnURElCzGc0/видео.html
That makes such a clean tie in. I would agree with you there. Definitely Billy is something acting outside of our understanding or comprehension. Perhaps the moon crashing to earth back in the earth's history was a dimensional thing too?
So this is what Anime characters would see Western Cartoon characters as. Just this Higher Dimensional cosmic horror. While the later is just doing it for the gags.
Billy bats could be the author himself like Go Nagai is god in his own story
God Nakai
Such a shame that this Manga not released volumes in English.
If I was a forth dimensional being, I probably just sit and watch the great humanity comedy show
Not gonna lie, 2020 felt like a big sit down watch of the human comedy show
Read this story a couple of years ago, just watched your video, thanks
Now this is Billy batastic
Dudes crime list surpasses eren☠️
He bought his fucking button, that fake old tough guy!
So I never comment but I thought I'd leave you with this
Kind of in line with your theory I think Billy is simply like a 4th dimensional being or maybey even 5th playing with a 3 dimensional toy box or you could even say drawing a 3rd/4th dimensional story and he is the author simply nudgeding people along
And concerning things he dosent know its because he hasn't come up with everything yet
Pretty weak theory I know
I likes the first theory
Billy Bat is Pure entropy .
he's literally me
Idc who billy bat is I wanna know where he is😭😭😭
When Goodman meets with the Billies the "White" one mentions how if "that scientist (Einstein) had discovered the truth behind the universe and Billy was in the center of it he'd be disappointed. I think that's implying that Billy is God, the God of this universe, cause it really does seem that with all Einstein discovered about time travel, alternate time lines and with Billy in the center of it the answer of him being "God" seems like it'd be so anticlimactic to him. Additionally Billy mentions how humans are always asking "what should I do?" Since they came to existence, Billy doesn't present the answers he'll lead people to them, but the person themself has to put in the effort to accomplish such things, and that's something a lot of religions believe when it comes to whatever version of God they believe in. Glad I found your channel though! Just finished Billy Bat today and was curious as to Billy and the ending to this series.
Thanks Hxro, great thoughts! Reminds me of early on with the Judas flashback that Jesus draws Billy as the shape of the lord. So perhaps Billy really is the God of that world.
Glad you enjoyed Billy Bat, I'd definitely recommend other series Urasawa has done. I'm re-reading Monster currently and it's definitely worth a read if you haven't checked it out before!
@@SeaGee Thank you for taking the time to reply! Yeah really enjoyed BB, I actually read 20th century boys right before BB. And Monster is one of my most favorite series! Just got Urasawas other works to read now.
@Hxro No worries, thanks for sharing your thoughts! Another Urasawa fan I see. 20th Century Boys is quite the ride! I reckon you'll love Pluto. It's the series he ran with the creator of Astro Boy and it's really quite good. I hope you enjoy his other works!
@@SeaGee I always see people say they ran the series together but like Tekuza died back in 1989?? The series started in 2003. like i think he is just credited as a co-writer cause its a reimagening of his series right???
@Sundreas yeah that's correct! It's bad shorthand that I need to stop using. To be more accurate: Pluto is an adaptation based on the character and world established by Tezuka in Astro Boy. Honestly I'm just very quick to forget that with his name put on every cover
Cool theory
I thought this was bat mite
Billy's biggest abilitys is such an unintentional tounge twister
Wait why is billy drawn differently whenever there are different authors ? Also what happened in basque ? Like did kevin go there and found out something else ? And also can't you just wish all the other earths back ? Also I think probably kurusu killed the other earths if there are any and it reset the timeline or pulled consciousness in another earth. Something like that.
Some authors are fake like chuck culkin
just read it dude
So, essentially... Billy Bat is like Aero The Acrobat from Hell... duly noted.
Jeez... it seems that he’s REALLY bitter how his video games didn’t really pan out!
I mean seriously, Aero was going to have his own cartoon show, but Power Rangers overtook that in 1995. Regardless, it does beg the question. Aero The Acrobat? Billy The Bat? Are they the same??? Someone PLEASE show this manga to Aero’s creator David Siller. I want to know of his reaction to it.
Billy bat is clearly mickey mouse...
hey, what as the music in the beggining?
I can’t seem to find an English version of Billy Bat
Why don't you do Billy's character analysis, the answers to these things are clear through the manga
😅❤😅
Who drew Billy on the moon though?
which abb i can find this manga
Mangazone
People like you are not at all "short-sighted". I suppose you have the same vision for William Delos a.k.a the Man in Black in WestWorld.
People like this are the most "long-sighted" who can be found in the entitre omniverse.
That's deeply annoying to hear people like Kurusu "short-sighted", because they doesn't give a shit about what happens to Earth and other humans.
He perfectly understood what he made in reality, and in fact, he understood "much better" than any other human in Earth what he made and why what he made didn't deserve to be considered as "bad".
Billy bat bottom hook
worst manga ever
Great bait jackass