Manga / Billy Bat

"Do you want to be this country's hero?"

Billy Bat is a seinen thriller manga written by Naoki Urasawa and Takashi Nagasaki, with the former providing the artwork. It was serialized in Morning from 2008 to 2016.

Kevin Yamagata was born to Japanese immigrants in California in the 1920s, and during World War II he worked with allied forces in Japan as an interpreter. After the war he became a comic book writer, and by 1949 his series Billy Bat, about a private detective in a world populated by animals, is a huge hit whose popularity rivals the biggest titles of DC Comics. His comfortable life comes crashing down when the police use his apartment for a stakeout, and one of them notes that his work is very similar to a Japanese manga. Kevin is horrified that he may have subconsciously plagiarized a work he saw while in Japan, and promptly stops work on the comic to go back and investigate.

Post-war Japan isn't the easiest place to conduct his search, with soldiers everywhere and many locals forced into poverty. To get anywhere he has to sign back up with the American forces and wear a uniform, which naturally makes people less likely to talk to him. However, these are the least of his problems when he tracks down the source of the Billy Bat image, and learns that it's the calling card of an Ancient Conspiracy who aren't very happy that he's been poking around about them.

After that, the story really takes off as it careens around time to show how the Billy Bat image has influenced events throughout history. There's clearly far more going on here than just the conspiracy, but in Urasawa's typical style whatever it all may mean remains incredibly murky.

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Tropes used in Billy Bat:

• Adaptation Decay: In-universe. Some of the people in the conspiracy express that Chuck Culkin's Billy Bat is nowhere near quality-wise to Kevin's. If the conspirators searching for the original Bat's scroll succeed no one will remember Kevin's version at all.
• The Aloner:
  • Kanbei.
  • And now Kevin.
• Alternate Universe: As if time manipulation by a cartoon bat wasn't enough! There used to be many, but now there's just one.
• Ambiguously Jewish: Fake Chuck Culkin. Chapter 100 confirms he's at least partially Jewish, by Hitler himself!.
• Anachronic Order: It jumps back and forth between different eras and locations, including the US in the 40's, 50's and 60's, Feudal Japan, Modern Day Japan, and Judea in biblical times.
• An Arm and a Leg: Kevin Yamagata survived his shooting in 1964, but later lost both arms.
• Ancient Conspiracy: Around the Bat.
• Anti-Hero: Lee Harvey Oswald
• Anyone Can Die: Kevin Yamagata in Chapter 93. Or so we are led to believe.
  • It's very likely the only named people left alive by the end are the three introduced in the last two chapters.
• Art Shift: From Kevin's Funny Animal comic to the "real" manga.
• Ascended Extra: Diane and Tony Goodman, the black bride and the white groom, get not only fleshed out later on, but become important characters later in the series, and specially their son Kevin.
  • Fake!Chuck Culkin's illegitimate son, Timmy, can see The Bat as well. Or at least that's what he wanted to project, as Billy himself called Timmy a liar as a message to Kevin.
• Back from the Dead: Devivie.
• Bad Ass Decay
  • Billy Bat goes from a tough noir detective to an expy of Mickey Mouse within 10 years, and to top it off no one remembers the original artist.
  • No one remembers the original art work either. When someone starts publishing new BB comics in the original style the boss at Billy Bat World hates how sinister Billy looks.
• Bad Future: By 2032, the world has become a dystopian wasteland, partly run by Billyland.
  • Crapsack World:
    Radio Announcer (paraphrased): The US president has enacted the Neo-Monroe Doctrine and recalled all US troops abroad to create a defensive wall between the US and Mexico, Japan and China are at war over a tiny island, China is also at war with Uygurs in Tibet, [wherever Timmy is, apparently southern California] is going to have a severe sandstorm, and The European Union has collapsed due to overwhelming numbers of refugees. And now for some happy news: Billyland Somalia has opened to great acclaim!"
  • By 2063, the world is an even worse wasteland.
• Bastard Bastard: What Timmy Sanada has become.
• Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: Those confirmed to have been influenced and guided by the Bat are: Judas, Lee Harvey Oswald, Francisco Xavier, Albert Einstein and Adolf Hitler.
• Biblical Motifs: An entire arc's worth.
• Big Bad: So far, Agent Finney and Kurusu from EAI (East Asian Industries) seem to fill the role; also it is implied that General Walker, Fake! Chuck Culkin and Henry Charles Devivie are part of the same circle. Should be noted, due to his ambivalent nature, that there are times when the same could be said of the Bat himself. By the year 2017, most of them have died to old age or other circumstances, and the current human Big Bad is Timmy Sanada, Kevin Goodman's old protege, who has taken over Culkin Enterprises and is the illegitimate son of Fake!Chuck Culkin. In fact, Timmy did such a bad job that it's the main reason the world is a wasteland in the Bad Future.
• Big Damn Hero: Lee Harvey Oswald saves Kevin from a thug sent to kill him.
• Big Fancy House: The Goodmans seem to be doing all right.
• Bittersweet Ending: The world is a mess, but Kevin Goodman's comics ended up indirectly saving the kid who might just save the world.
• Book Ends: The series begins and ends with the fictional billy bat comic
• Brick Joke / The Call Knows Where You Live: The Momochi clan seems to be intrinsically tied to the Bat all the way from Momochi Sandayu, from Iga, to the taxi driver, Randy Momochi, back in 1959, to his daughter, Jackie Momochi, in 1963.
  • The encrypted scroll has been decoded. It ends with a warning about 9/11. The Bat had already hinted at it waaaaay early in the series.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Adult Kevin Goodman. Never goes to class. Relies on classmates' notes. Yet he's good at memorizing and passes all his classes. And he's good at writing college papers too. Turns out he spends most of his time painting murals at the guidance of Billy Bat.
• But Not Too Foreign: Kevin is a Nisei (second-generation) Japanese-American, as are the Momochis; Timmy is half-Japanese, half-German.
• Captain Ersatz:
  • Billy Bat is one to Mickey Mouse.
  • Chuck Culkin is one to Walt Disney.
  • And the real Chuck Culkin is one to Ub Iwerks.
  • Zofuu-sensei could be one, with beret and all, to Osamu Tezuka, who however is mentioned in-story as being a huge influence in manga.
    • Kurusu also becomes an expy of Osamu Tezuka, although it seems it was only in a dream or an alternate universe.
  • Mitsuru Yamazaki for Minoru Yamasaki, the man responsible for designing the WTC Towers.
  • Henry Charles Devivie might be one to Esmond Cardon Walker, the man behind Tokyo Disneyland.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Remember the alleged Soviet spy living across Kevin's room who got mentioned in chapter 1 and never appeared again? No? It's fake!Chuck Culkin! Did I mention this guy has never, ever again been mentioned until chapter 110?!
• Companion Cube: The taxi driver (Mr. Momochi) 's Billy Bat toy, who's his "navigator". Subverted when Billy talks back, and also knows the future - er, present.
• The Conspiracy: Everywhere. With a heavy dose of Mind Screws and Historical In Jokes.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: What the Bat seems to be saying when he lists all the wars and man-made disasters that will happen if Kanbei doesn't deliver the scroll.
• Cowardly Lion: Kanbei.
• Dark Is Not Evil/Light Is Not Good: It's vaguely implied that the white (unfilled) drawing of The Bat is evil while the black (filled-in) one is good. Or is it the other way around?. Zofuu-sensei says the white one is sort of a Mad Oracle, and the black one manipulates people into doing bad things.
  • Turns out the white bat wants to save the world using humans while the black bat wants to destroy humanity to save the world. The third bat (whose "color" isn't mentioned) has been observing them from the moon for millennia.
• Dark Messiah: From a certain point of view, Fake!Chuck and his bastard son, Timmy, to Kevin Yamagata and Kevin Goodman.
• Declaration of Protection: Lee Harvey Oswald to Jackie Momochi, as he decides to buy her time to escape.
• Decoy Protagonist: Where is Kevin, anyway? This is taken to its extreme after Kevin gets killed by a sniper in Chapter 93, and the new protagonist is Kevin Goodman.
  • Billy Bat himself could arguably be seen as this. He's the star of the first chapter. Then, the second one reveals that it's just a story within a story.
• Defector from Decadence: Fake!Chuck Culkin, a lieutenant stationed at a POW camp, tried to desert but was captured, possibly in part because he's also part jewish.
• Dirty Communists: The series starts at the beginning of the Red Scare, and several conspirators are supposedly commies in Japan.
  • Lee Harvey Oswald is a costumed employee in a Billy Bat theme park.
• Dodge the Bullet: Appears to be one of the Bat's powers that he loans out, although it says it was just "Kanbei's heart" all along. On the one hand, Kanbei is a ninja; on the other, by that point he's literally running on fumes.
• Doomed by Canon: JFK, and Lee Harvey Oswald.
  • The Twin Towers.
• Drowning My Sorrows: Kevin, who has become an Alcoholic to stop seeing the Bat.
• Expy:
  • Zofuu-sensei looks like the assassin from 20th Century Boys.
  • The dog-wife from Chapter 1 has similar eyes and facial expressions to Eva Heinemann. So does Diane, the black bride.
  • Billy himself becomes one of Mickey Mouse.
  • Kevin is a dead-ringer for Sahad, Agent Smith for Gesicht, and the real Chuck Culkin for Professor Hoffman, all from Pluto.
  • Jackie Momochi is a less ditzy Kyoko Koizumi. They even end up having to do their class reports through similar misunderstandings.
  • In a meta-example, Chuck Culkin's relationship with the man who portrays him in public is very similar to Ub Iwerks's relationship with Walt Disney.
  • The two detectives from the first chapter look a bit like Laurel and Hardy.
  • Akechi, the Japanese effects director hired by the US government to fake the moon landings seems to be a combination of Akira Kurosawa and Stanley Kubrick — all three are obsessive over the tiniest details including the texture of moondust and the proper color of the earth, despite having only one black and white photo to work with. He also directed a "Gazura" movie.
  • Kevin Goodman resembles a young Michael Jackson, a lot; he also tries to get his classmates to create the first music video (which might involve walking on the moon seeing as they meet Akechi) after hearing their unusual tune (I think it was "Billie Jean" — they dismiss him, of course).
    • Old Kevin in 2032 VS Ebony magazine's 1985 mock-up of how Michael Jackson would look like in the year 2000 VS Michael's father Joe Jackson in 2010◊
  • In another meta-example, the relationship between Kevin and what became of Billy Bat bears some resemblance to the situation between Jack Kirby and Marvel Comics/Stan Lee. Kirby created many characters and aspects within the Marvel Universe, but Lee through business-savvy tactics like self-promotion took practically all credit from Kirby to the point where characters like Captain America which only Kirby created were attributed to Lee. And much like Kevin's Billy Bat, only the hardcore older fans know that he is the true creator and not Chuck.
• Facial Profiling: Invoked when two American agents walk around in Tokyo and wonder where all the yellow-skinned, buck-toothed, geta-wearing, bespectacled people have gone.
• Fallen Princess: After Audrey leaves Culkin Enterprises with only the rights to the Billy Bat books she tries to make a go at managing up-and-coming artists. She's got a good eye for talent but her artists keep killing themselves (at least four in a row) and she's reduced to using men to pay for her meals. When that runs out she tries convincing an old friend to republish the Billy Bat books but he refuses because even though Audrey owns the rights he's terrified of what Culkin Enterprises would do to him and his already struggling publishing company.
• Faux Affably Evil: Henry Charles Devivie, an agent sent to acquire the land where Billy Bat Land will be built in Japan, a fake front whose real purpose is to find the scroll, and who will kill anyone that stands in the way.
  • Same goes for Henry's father. Gary Devivie, a LAPD Detective, and serial murderer.
  • The Fake Chuck Culkin also qualifies to some degree.
• Femme Fatale: The mysterious art dealer, Audrey Culkin.
• Flashforward: And back again.
• Fling a Light into the Future: One of the main themes of the comic. And also how it ends. Kevin Goodman's comics inspire two enemy soldiers to have a truce and save a kid, and inspire the kid to save the world after reading the last Billy Bat comic ever that was written by Kevin Goodman, which is apparently what Billy wanted all along.
• Foreshadowing:
  • The Bat telling Kevin Yamagata that he was destined to die to save JFK. He was meant to save Kevin Goodman instead, he still gets killed eventually after his role has been completed and now the new protagonist is Kevin Goodman.
  • Looking back, it was probably a bad sign that Timmy Sanada was friends with a Neo Nazi gang. Then it turns out his father was working for the Nazis, and that he intends to fulfill his father's role of taking the bat and ultimately destroying the world.
• Frame-Up: Oswald is set up as JFK's assassin, thanks to three doubles.
• Freudian Excuse: Gary Devivie's reason for the series of Japanese murders: His real father ran off with a Japanese prostitute.
• Friend on the Force: Agent Smith for Kevin.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Timmy Sanada, the illegitimate son of Fake!Chuck Culkin, who was a poor kid, to becoming the leader of Culkin Enterprises and seemingly the current Big Bad in the series.
• Gainax Ending: Although more hopeful than most. In a Bad Future caused by Timmy Sanada, two enemy soldiers settle on a truce on the battlefield and save a little kid after discovering that they all love Kevin Goodman's Billy Bat. The kid is then inspired by Billy Bat's last comic to save the world, which is what Billy wanted all along.
• General Ripper: It is implied Retired General Walker is this.
• Gonk: "Shishou", Zofuu's predecessor.
• Go Out with a Smile: Lee Harvey Oswald is told that he must not allow Jackie to be captured and thus sacrifices himself to the police to buy her time to escape. After doing so, he smiles, feeling satisfied that he at least did something good at the end.
  Lee Harvey Oswald: Mission accomplished.
• Gotta Catch 'Em All: Devivie is destroying all traces of the "original" Billy Bat along with anyone who knows too much about the Bat and/or his mission.
• Government Conspiracy: While Marilyn Monroe really did kill herself, capitalist forces are conspiring to kill the Kennedy brothers, and succeed. They also succeed in framing Lee Harvey Oswald as the lone killer of JFK. Later the US government hires a Japanese director known for his obsession to detail and great special effects to fake the moon landing. The government claims the fake footage is a "training film" (and it may well have been) but when the astronauts go to the moon for real the fake film is spliced into the broadcast to cover up a familiar-looking doodle drawn in the moon's surface.
• Grandfather Paradox: Weaponized by Einstein. Zofuu-Sensei uses it against Devivie by revealing he knows his parents' names.
• Gratuitous Ninja: They are involved too.
• Harsher in Hindsight: invoked Intentional within the Billy Bat comics, since they're predicting the future: The boss at Billy Bat World and his friend wonder if "a sexy, Marilyn Monroe-ish-thing" in a comic that's clearly about John F. Kennedy is going to be killed by a Government Conspiracy.
• Heel–Face Turn: Lee Harvey Oswald used to work for Kurusu.
  • Devivie after Zofuu-sensei rescues him.
• He Knows Too Much: The reason why Jackie Momochi is in danger. Not only she saw Kurusu with one of the sniper teams, but also has bat-visions about the other sniper teams, including the one on the Grassy Knoll.
• Hereditary Curse: Everyone in the Momochi clan can hear at least "one" of the bats. With the latest one being Maggie, Jackie's daughter.
• The Hero Dies: Kevin, seemingly, in chapter 93. Confirmed in chapter 192 — at the age of 100, "drawing to the last". Kevin Goodman too, the final chapters take place when he should be over 100 years old.
• Heroic BSoD: Kevin was in one, until Agent Smith pulled him out of it.
• Historical Fiction: Sort of.
• Historical Hero Upgrade: Lee Harvey Oswald.
• Historical In-Joke: This may as well be called Historical In-Joke - The Series. So far, the Bat has either had influence on, or predicted Jesus, Judas, and the foundation of Christianity, the fall of Iga and the rise of the Tokugawa Shogunate, and the civil rights movement, MLK, the Lunar Landing, the JFK Assassination, the Warren Commission, the RFK Assassination, and Marilyn Monroe's relationship to both men. At one point, it predicted Obama's Presidency as well.
  • Don't forget when talking to Kanbei the Bat starts talking about Napoleon, the Sarajevo Incident, Hitler, Stalin, the World Wars in general, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, the Shimoyama Incident, and 9/11. The Bat sure gets around.
  • Kevin does some sightseeing by the Grassy Knoll, and other suspected sniper spots on the eve of the JFK Assasination.
  • And Zofuu-sensei basically describing what a Meme basically is (In-Universe) and how it pertains Human Evolution, many years before Richard Dawkins even coined the phrase.
• Historical Villain Upgrade: Henry Charles Devivie, who might be based on Esmond Cardon Walker.
• Homage: Chapter 32 is based on Bad Day At Black Rock minus Smith's gimpy arm, the burned house, and dead Japanese-American. The locals act mean to protect Kevin, who gave their little town a cameo as the setting for one of his non-Billy Bat comics.
• Hitler Ate Sugar: Hitler hosting Fake!Chuck Culkin, a German soldier of jewish descent, to his private house and showing him to his private art gallery.
• Hitler's Time Travel Exemption Act: Played with it. Chapter 100 reveals that Hitler ordered Fake!Chuck Culkin to find the Bat, take control of it and start an empire based on it, and if possible to get hold of the scroll with the intention of changing Hitler's history so that he is accepted at the Art Academy in Vienna.
• Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Unfortunately also a Disposable Love Interest
• Humanity Is Young: From the bat's perspective. He appeared in caveman times and from his POV we're still cavemen.
  • Humans Need Aliens / Puny Earthlings: Seeing as the bat's origin was a meteor that crashed to Earth: "Ever since that time... You all [humanity/those who can see the bat] has never stopped asking me (puts on pouty/whiny face) 'What should I do?'"
  • Reiterated at the end of chapter 163: Two enemy soldiers, seemingly the only living people for miles around, are more concerned with killing each other than the fact that they don't know what killed the inhabitants of the town they're in and they aren't wearing gas masks and the one we've been following just realized he's triggered a mine that could kill both of them if the other doesn't move.
  The Bat: Whether you're right, wrong, white, black, or smack in the middle... nobody even knows anymore. After all, you humans are filthy, indecent beings to begin with.
• Identical Grandson: Momochi Sandayu looks exactly like his descendant, Randy Momochi.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Hitler, in chapter 100 - he just wants to join the art academy and resurrect his beloved girlfriend/cousin (Einstein tells him that's impossible).
• I Just Want to Be Special: Lee Harvey Oswald.
• Insistent Terminology
  Lee Harvey Oswald: I'm not a communist! I'm just a Marxist!
• It Will Never Catch On: "Who's gonna read a comic that isn't for kids?"
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Audrey. She denies it of course.
• Jesus Taboo: Averted. Jesus is (or could be) an actual character in one of the flashbacks, along with Judas.
• Jigsaw Puzzle Plot: After spending some time with Kevin, the story suddenly starts wildly moving through many different time periods to show all the people the bat image has influenced.
• Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: Kevin works for Marble Comics and by The '50s Billy has his own theme park in Florida.
• Longest Prologue Ever: 93 chapters! Chapter 94 starts with the tag "And so our story meets its true protagonist"
• MacGuffin: The Ninja Scroll (no, not that one).
• Man Behind the Man: Or in front of the man: Chuck Culkin, Kevin's Woody Allen-looking assistant who took over Billy Bat after Kev went to Japan, is "played" in public and in business by a Walt Disney-lookalike.
• Manipulative Bastard: The Bat and whoever is/tries to control it.
• Metaphorically True: The Bat will employ this at times.
• Mind Screw: It's Urasawa, what do you expect? Examples include:
  • "What's this [doodle] on the moon?!"
    • Is it even the real moon?
    • It is! And there really was a doodle on the moon! The american public were shown the fake landing to prevent them to find out about the doodle.
  • "Welcome home, Judas."
  • The Three Lee Harvey Oswalds.
  • Einstein to Zofuu: "If you tell anyone about the Bat I'll go back in time and kill your parents". And "There used to be uncountable Earths in alternate universes but now there's only this one."
  • 20010911.
  • There's three bats who used to be one, and it/they are from outer space.
• Mocky Mouse: Billy Bat, as is evident with his name and the fact that he is a loved cartoon character featured in comic books, television shows, and his own theme park.
• Mr. Alt Disney: Chuck Culkin and the real Chuck Culkin! who took over Billy Bat when Kevin left.
• Mushroom Samba: Kevin is sent on one thanks to some drugged sake, where he imagines Billy Bat and some of his other characters talking to him. Now, he doesn't need to drugs to have the bat talk to him.
• Named After Somebody Famous: In-universe. Tony Goodman explains he named his kid Kevin after Kevin Yamagata.
• Never Found the Body: Agent Smith.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Kevin Goodman passing the artist/writer duties of the Billy Bat comic to Timmy Sanada, who went on to became the current Big Bad.
  • Let's not forget that Kevin Goodman also accidentally set up the chain of events that would lead to 9/11 because his comic changed Kurusu's fate too much.
• No Kill like Overkill: The lengths Chuck Culkin Enterprises would go to protect its interests, from killing bootleggers and "fan artists" of Kevin Yamagata's bat to obliterating a "cult of bat-worshipers" in Tibet (they're just hiding) to plowing into a crowded newsstand just to kill one snooping lawyer (they're stopped by Audrey who happens to need an exceptionally brave lawyer to find a certain Japanese-American artist hiding in Texas).
• No Name Given: Fake!Chuck Culkin's real name has yet to be revealed, even though the latest arc depicts his backstory as a WWII German soldier.
  • Mysterious Parent: Audrey Culkin tried to investigate her father's past and found absolutely nothing.
• Non-Indicative First Chapter
• Passing the Torch: The Bat tells Lee Harvey Oswald that he must protect Kevin at all costs until he can pass his powers to his new successor, which according to The Bat, has already appeared. It was assumed it was Jackie Momochi, the daughter of the Taxi driver from the mixed-race wedding mini-arc and descendant of the ninjas. It is actually Kevin Goodman, the son of Tony and Diane Goodman, the interracial couple!.
  • Zofuu-sensei handing the last parts of the his manga to Yamashita, a somewhat dim-witted fan of his work, so he can then hand them over to Kevin.
  • Kevin Goodman, passing the Billy Bat torch to Timmy Sanada.
• Pet the Dog: For Lee Harvey Oswald
• Powers That Be: The Bat refers to itself as "The Administrator of the Human Race". It's also actively working for humanity, trying to prevent the apocalypse from happening early.
• Private Detective: Billy Bat is one of these.
• Private Eye Monologue: In the first chapter.
• Reality Warper: The bat allows people to either predict the future or change it (apparently). It used to have the power to "fix" reality but they've run out of "lives" and this one's all we've got.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Surprisingly, the racist sheriff turns out to be an honest cop, and instantly helps Tony when he discovers his cousin was responsible for the murder of a black man.
• Red Herring:
  • Anyone would think the sheriff was at The Klan meeting where they burned a black man. It was his cousin.
  • Jackie Momochi being the successor; turns out it's Kevin Goodman, a 3 year old kid. Also, it was the boy that Kevin Yamagata was meant to save, not JFK.
• Reused Character Design: Several characters in Billy Bat have an uncanny resemblance to characters in other Naoki Urasawa's works.
• Room Full of Crazy: Kevin's cabin at "Black Rock".
• Rule of Three: The Three Lee Harvey Oswalds (four if you count the original).
  • There's actually three bats. It used to be one being until it fell to Earth in prehistoric times. "Black" and "White" are on Earth manipulating humanity while the third one was observing things on the moon.
• Sacrificial Lamb: Shizu.
• Sacrificial Lion: Agent Smith's sacrifice is Subverted.
• Saving the World With Art: Literally. Mangaka who can see Billy Bat can create manga that actually influences the course of history. But this being Urasawa, it's most certainly played with. Kevin Goodman prevented Kiyoshi from resetting history and destroying the world, but he changed too much. It's heavily implied that his changes set the course for 9/11... and possibly something even worse.
  • The Bat to Kevin Goodman in 2017, after revealing they've run out of alternate earths and this one MUST be saved: "You can't go back, anymore. There's only one thing left for you to do. Now go on... and draw."
• Scary Shiny Glasses: Kurusu
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Kanbei attempts this. It doesn't work.
• Shout-Out: Everywhere, what did you expect in a Urasawa manga?
  • Billy Bat(son) is the alter-ego of DC's Captain Marvel
  • In the original comics, Billy Bat is a private eye, clearly evoking Sam Spade of the Maltese Falcon who eventually becomes an inspiration for Dick Tracy. The 'real' segments with Kevin start off with every indication that this is Urasawa's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, then the mind screw happens.
  • Sometimes Billy's manifestations look a lot like Batman's classic symbol.
  • "The rabbit's name is Oswald." (although he looks more like Bugs Bunny) He's being groomed to be JFK's assassin. There's actually three Oswalds.
  • Chapter 52 features a shout-out to "The Freewheeling Bob Dylan" album.
  • Chapter 60 has Seven Days in May, not to mention that the current mini-arc is the JFK assassination!
  • Timmy seems to reference previous Urasawa characters Johan and Epsilon: He always has a calm expression on his face that hides a very trouble past (and possibly present). His shoulder-length black hair also makes him look like a less-intense Android 17.
• Show Within a Show: The Billy Bat comic book inside the manga. When someone reads it you can see that it reads from left to right, like a comic book should.
• Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace: The black bride's white groom's family can't keep quiet. The groom decides not to go along with it.
• Species Surname: Billy Bat is, well, a bat.
• Spirit Advisor: The Bat, as those who would be "carriers" see him while others do not.
• Taking the Bullet: The Bat implies that Kevin must die to save JFK. On one hand, we know how that ended in real life, on the other hand, it's Naoki Urasawa. Except that the Bat died, and what Kevin was supposed to do was save Kevin, his successor.
• The Starscream: Timmy Sanada to Audrey Culkin and Kevin Goodman. Also, slightly prior to that... Audrey Culkin to Kevin Goodman, even though originally Audrey had placed Kevin in a position of power to handle Billy Bat.
• Stepford Smiler: Timmy as head of Culkin Enterprises: His Billy Bat is bad (worse than bad, his own agents think it's "boring") and his attempts to "save Billy's fans" by expanding into water and power so they can withstand climate change is poisoning them instead (though he denies it) but he always has a serene expression on his face — at least until he starts explaining his plan to save the world and gets increasingly unhinged-looking.
• The Tape Knew You Would Say That: While Kevin is reading a letter from Agent Smith by the window, the last line is "PS. Don't stand so close to the window."
• There Are Two Kinds of People in the World: Billy's opening monologue in the very first page of the (real and in-story) manga.
• Time Machine: Fake!Chuck Culkin is able to figure out that the scroll is this, sorta, thanks to the real Chuck Culkin explaining the basics of Einstein's Theory of Relativity and Time Travel.
• Time Skip: From the late forties to the early fifties to Biblical times to the Warring States Era to the sixties, to JFK's assassination to 10 months later, to 1981, 2001 right before the World Trade Center attack, 2017, and now 2032.
• Timey-Wimey Ball: A bat doodle beats the astronauts to the moon(?), and it seems Jesus is affected too.
• Town with a Dark Secret: See Homage.
• The Trickster: The Bat, probably. Wasn't there two of them? Now there's at least three of 'em.
• True Companions: Ken-chan and pals. He ends up killing them all.
• Unwitting Pawn: Oswald, even after his Heel–Face Turn. And the Real Chuck Culkin working under the Fake one.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: We first meet Timmy as an innocent, adorable child who liked to draw. Currently, see Well-Intentioned Extremist.
• Vicious Cycle: The black bat thinks all of the white bat's plans to save humanity/use humans to save the world are like this because no matter what they do they keep winding up in such a bad spot they need to be bailed out by the bats.
• Villain Protagonist: Lee Harvey Oswald, although in-story, he is a would-be scapegoat for a government conspiracy.
• Villainous Breakdown: Timmy in chapter 162 when he impotently beats the Hollywood sign after realizing he'll never "get" Kevin Goodman with either threats or money and that for all his successes (93 Billylands and control of most of the world's water and power) he lost the one thing that brought him joy — drawing Billy Bat with Kevin. The final straw is when Kevin compliments Timmy on his drawing skills.
• We Can Rule Together: What the Bat seems to be selling ("Hey - want to rule the world, or become a superhero?")
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Timmy in 2017 has expanded Culkin Enterprises into water and power (and dismisses accusations by a lawyer who happens to be an ex-girlfriend of Kevin Goodman that his operations are polluting the land and poisoning the inhabitants) because he wants to save the world — specifically all of Billy Bat's current and future fans so Billy can live forever. Well, that's what he's claiming he's doing. He then orders his men to eliminate the lawyer (they fail and 15 years later it's revealed she and Kevin got married).
  • The Extremist Was Right: To a point: By 2032 the US needs a wall (well, a better one manned by every member of the armed forces) between them and Mexico, China is at war with Japan in the Pacific and Uygurs in Tibet, the EU just collapsed, climate change is wrecking havoc everywhere, but somehow Somalia became stable enough to build a major theme park — with celebrity guests!
  • The next chapter reveals there's 93 Billylands around the world that are oasis from the devastating effects of climate change (that Timmy's company exacerbated when they took control of much of the world's water supply)... If you can get to them.
• Wham Episode: Chapter 93. Kevin Yamagata gets killed and the story jumps to 1981, with Kevin Goodman as the new protagonist.
  • Chapter 118. Agent Smith has been hiding the fact that Kevin Yamagata was alive all this time.
  • Chapter 125. Timeskip to 2000, New York, Ground Zero.
  • Chapter 159-160. There's a third bat observing things on the moon, they used to be one being, and it came from outer space.
• Wham Shot: The bat doodle on the moon which is eventually revealed to be a sound stage on Earth.
  • Jackie Momochi in the World Trade Center plaza just after the reveal that the last number sequence includes 9.11.2001; unfortunately for the Bat crew it is 9/11 and they're too late.
  • Timmy Saneda attacking the Hollywood sign in a fit of rage in 2032, revealing that southern California has become a desert dustbowl.
• Yank the Dog's Chain -
  • To Lee Harvey Oswald, when he realizes that he was set up by a government conspiracy, and that he will go down in infamy in history.
  • Kevin Yamagata, after getting so close to understanding the truth behind the Bat is unceremoniously killed by a sniper.
• Your Days Are Numbered -
  • Kevin and Lee Harvey Oswald, according to the Bat. Apparently, he lied about Kevin, but was right about Oswald.
  • Zofuu-sensei.
• You Shall Not Pass!:
  • Lee Harvey Oswald against the police, buying time for Jackie Momochi to escape.
  • 'Shishou' getting in the way of Gary Devivie, so Gary's wife can escape.

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