A Missing Manga Masterpiece Finally Makes It Stateside

Naoki Urasawa is one of the most popular and respected manga artists working today. In my piece on adaptations of Osamu Tezuka’s works, I mentioned his killer Astro Boy reimagining, Pluto. He’s done paranoid crime thrillers like Monster, and surreal sci-fi sagas like 20^th Century Boys, all to critical acclaim, and each has been translated into English and released stateside.

And yet, one of Urasawa’s most celebrated works has never made it to the United States, until now. Billy Bat – a manga serialized from 2008 to 2016, which Urasawa drew and co-wrote with Takashi Nagasaki – is finally making its way to the English-speaking world a decade after its conclusion via Abrams ComicArts’ manga imprint Kana, with a translation by Kristi Iwashiro. A manga classic previously “lost” to English-speaking audiences has now been found, and is already attracting attention from the Harvey Awards.

Billy Bat is a tense thriller, not unlike Urasawa’s other works. The story starts in 1949 and follows Kevin Yamagata, a Japanese-American comic book artist whose star is on the rise thanks to his hit character, Billy Bat. However, after learning that another character that looks just like Billy Bat has been appearing in Japan for years, Kevin returns to post-War Japan, where he previously served as a translator for the United States armed forces stationed there, to learn whether he subconsciously stole Billy Bat from a Japanese artist.

What Was the Hold-up? An Abundance of Caution.

So why has it taken so long for this series to appear in English? There’s never been an official reason given, but most speculate that it has to do with Billy Bat’s design and the nature of the story being told. The character of Billy Bat bears some resemblance to Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse, and some elements of the Billy Bat story appear to have been inspired by events from Disney’s life. There’s even a character later on in the series that could arguably be seen as an analog for Disney himself.