{"id":148,"date":"2008-10-29T18:49:49","date_gmt":"2008-10-29T10:49:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/?p=148"},"modified":"2010-08-19T12:23:44","modified_gmt":"2010-08-19T04:23:44","slug":"distracted-by-urasawas-billy-bat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/2008\/10\/29\/distracted-by-urasawas-billy-bat\/","title":{"rendered":"Distracted by Urasawa’s Billy Bat"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I can’t get it out of my system. I’m compelled to spazz.<\/p>\n

Three weeks ago,\u00c2\u00a0 Morning announced that they’ll be bringing a set of new titles for magazine<\/a>, the first of which was a story named Billy Bat <\/strong>written by Naoki Urasawa<\/a>. The story, as they published in the presses, is a mix of Mickey Mouse, Superman, Spiderman, Batman, Dick Tracy, and slew of other American comic icons combined. Seeing the cover art made me think once or twice about what Urasawa was up to. They even showed a cover spiel at the Morning website. First, it looked like a superflat Batman. Second,\u00c2\u00a0 honestly, it didn’t feel like it was Urasawa’s line of work. I started to think, was Urasawa undergoing some mangaka mid-life crisis and wanted trying something very new to him? Either way, I patiently waited for my Morning issue the next week. Maybe I’ll get my answers there.<\/p>\n

True enough, Billy Bat<\/strong> was on the cover in last week’s issue and the first chapter was printed on a paper that reminded me of old American comics.\u00c2\u00a0 It was packaged in such a way that there were ads for Billy Bat<\/strong> and on it was a name that shook my senses over lunch: Kevin Yamagata. When I saw that name, I turned to my friend and told her, “I have a feeling that Billy Bat<\/strong> is not Urasawa’s work.” So I speculated to my friend a theory. That Billy Bat<\/strong> was a front and the real story revolves around the author, this Kevin Yamagata. I even imagined how in a chapter, the comic will pan out and it will show Mr. Yamagata working on Billy Bat<\/strong>. This was of course, my speculation. And really, a good part of me that week wanted to wait for the next few chapters before spazzing ((although at this time, I was already spazzing because I find his drawings cute)) because… it was a very different Urasawa and I found it difficult to see how the hell he will spin Billy Bat<\/strong>‘s world and art in the same way he has spun the lives of Johann, Miyuki, and Kenji. So my theory is, if he managed to shift people’s vision of Atom in Pluto, he can do the same for Billy Bat<\/strong>. And so this week came, and you know what… Urasawa and I mindmelded ((Insert my fangirling screams here)).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

See, I knew he was up to something. I JUST FRIGGING KNEW IT AND IT WAS WORTH THE WAIT. When my friend texted me about it over the weekend I was squeeing. By the time I was reading the spiel on Kevin Yamagata at the start of the chapter, I knew it’s bound to be greater. Not that I claim that I KNOW HIM by heart, but I had a gut feeling as a fan that he’s not going to settle for a regular story with Billy Bat<\/strong>. And now, I’m happy to spiel that there’s the usual Urasawa mystery involved with Billy Bat<\/strong>. I believe it will be amazing.<\/p>\n

So now, we have an entirely different story from what has been said in the presses.<\/p>\n

Billy Bat<\/strong> is an American comic written by a Kevin Nakazawa. You can say that Billy Bat<\/strong>‘s story is as mentioned above, a noir Batman\/Dick Tracy-esque tale about a private detective trying to clean up a dirty city. It’s quite popular although it suffers from editorials telling Kevin Nakazawa to keep on changing the story and keep it connected to Russian spies. So much so that it frustrates Kevin Nakazawa as the writer.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

With two chapters, I can barely tell you what it’s entirely about other than this. There is that little mystery that Kevin’s neighbor is a being investigated by some coppers as a Russian Spy (which didn’t impress Kevin at all). And there is that mystery wherein one of the coppers said about Nakazawa’s Billy Bat<\/strong> was something he had seen when he was in Japan. The last one struck a note in Kevin and I think that’s probably where Urasawa-sensei is heading.<\/p>\n

After seeing the second chapter, I’m completely excited by this venture. I honestly didn’t expect Urasawa to publish stories in both Shogakukan and Kodansha at the same time, in magazines that compete with each other ((Maybe Urasawa-sensei’s just cool that way. You have any insights on this, Boss?)). Nonetheless, Billy Bat<\/strong> is a great addition to the roster of comics lined up in Morning. It’d be strange\u00c2\u00a0 to see Urasawa in Morning, but hey, if Billy Bat can keep me happy while I am reading, I guess Urasawa fits right smack in Morning ((Just a note, the slogan of Morning magazine is \u00e8\u00aa\u00ad\u00e3\u201a\u20ac\u00e3\u0081\u00a8\u00e5\u2026\u0192\u00e6\u00b0\u2014\u00e3\u0081\u00ab\u00e3\u0081\u00aa\u00e3\u201a\u2039- Yomu to genki ni naru – You feel energetic after reading this)).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I can’t get it out of my system. I’m compelled to spazz. Three weeks ago,\u00c2\u00a0 Morning announced that they’ll be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[33],"tags":[120,47,185,159],"class_list":["post-148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","tag-kodansha","tag-naoki-urasawa","tag-featured","tag-morning"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p26e5y-2o","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":514,"url":"http:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/2011\/01\/31\/spotlight-naoki-urasawa\/","url_meta":{"origin":148,"position":0},"title":"Spotlight: Naoki Urasawa","author":"khursten","date":"January 31, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Having consumed manga for years, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve grown to like some authors a little more than the others. When this happens I go into a mad frenzy, reading as much as I could about the author and try to see \u00c2\u00a0if he has grown as an author, if he has stagnated,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Spotlight"","block_context":{"text":"Spotlight","link":"http:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/category\/features\/spotlight\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/urasawa.jpg?fit=567%2C851&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/urasawa.jpg?fit=567%2C851&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/urasawa.jpg?fit=567%2C851&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7,"url":"http:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/2006\/08\/22\/01-happy-by-naoki-urasawa\/","url_meta":{"origin":148,"position":1},"title":"#01 – Happy by Naoki Urasawa","author":"khursten","date":"August 22, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Happy by Naoki Urasawa Published by: Shougakukan Serialized in: Big Comic Spirits If there's something happy about Happy, it's the fact that it's not quite the happy tale that you expected. Miyuki Umino may look happy in this cover, however, the unfortunate turn of events in her life isn't really\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fujoshi Reads"","block_context":{"text":"Fujoshi Reads","link":"http:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/category\/reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/wp-content\/images\/scans\/_happy-01.gif?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":15,"url":"http:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/2006\/11\/12\/armageddon-and-utopia\/","url_meta":{"origin":148,"position":2},"title":"ARMAGEDDON AND UTOPIA IN NAOKI URASAWA’S 20TH CENTURY BOYS","author":"khursten","date":"November 12, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"This was a paper I submitted for my Japanese Literature class. I thought of sharing to people what I have learned about 20th Century boys using the fantastic theory in Japanese Literature. It was at the summer of 1969 that Kenji, Yoshitsune, Maruo, Otcho, Keroyon, and Donkey made a pact\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Features"","block_context":{"text":"Features","link":"http:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/category\/features\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/wp-content\/images\/scans\/20thcb\/_20th-Century-Boys-v21c01p00.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":498,"url":"http:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/2011\/01\/28\/vertical-does-it-right-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":148,"position":3},"title":"Vertical does it right again","author":"khursten","date":"January 28, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm stoked. This entry would have been written a lot early if I didn't have my tabletop game last night. Ed Chavez of Vertical really shook the American manga scene by storm by announcing Vertical's acquisitions by bringing in manga classic Princess Knight (\u00e3\u0192\u00aa\u00e3\u0192\u0153\u00e3\u0192\u00b3\u00e3\u0081\u00ae\u00e9\u00a8\u017d\u00e5\u00a3\u00ab), No Longer Human (\u00e4\u00ba\u00ba\u00e9\u2013\u201c\u00e5\u00a4\u00b1\u00e6\u00a0\u00bc), and the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fujoshi Life"","block_context":{"text":"Fujoshi Life","link":"http:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/category\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/kaminoshizuku1.jpg?fit=597%2C843&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/kaminoshizuku1.jpg?fit=597%2C843&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/kaminoshizuku1.jpg?fit=597%2C843&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":563,"url":"http:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/2011\/03\/14\/hoping-for-better-days\/","url_meta":{"origin":148,"position":4},"title":"Hoping for better days","author":"khursten","date":"March 14, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"It's my birthday today. And I was hoping to write down an awesome post about the exciting new wave in BL only to find it inappropriate after last weekend's disaster. While Japan is a good sea away from my country, the past few years have brought me closer and closer\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fujoshi Life"","block_context":{"text":"Fujoshi Life","link":"http:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/category\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/news_thumb_5_kamatani_org.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":58,"url":"http:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/2007\/08\/26\/08-ode-to-kirihito-by-osamu-tezuka\/","url_meta":{"origin":148,"position":5},"title":"#08 – Ode to Kirihito by Osamu Tezuka","author":"khursten","date":"August 26, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Ode to Kirihito by Osamu Tezuka Published by Shogakukan Translated by Vertical I knew that if I read this book, I would be swept in a heartbeat. But not in the same romantic tale that Tezuka presented to me in Ribon no Kishi. 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