(no subject)

[skygiants]

Recently I've been wanting to reread 20th Century Boys, and I still may, but first I decided it was probably time to read Billy Bat, which I thought of in my head as 'Naoki Urasawa's new manga.'

This, for the record, is absolutely not correct. Billy Bat started in 2008 and wrapped in 2016.

Anyway, in the course of attempting to read Billy Bat, I learned the following facts:

1. Billy Bat has never been licensed in the US so if I want to read it I will have to do it using Other Methods
2. However, Urasawa has another, actually new(ish) manga that I had never heard of in my life, called Asadora!, the first five volumes of which are not only licensed at the U.S. but available at my local library!

So now instead of rereading 20th Century Boys OR reading Billy Bat I have now read the first five volumes of Asadora!, which begins during the 1959 typhoon, when preteen Asa gets accidentally kidnapped by an out-of-work veteran who has mistaken her for the daughter of a wealthy family, which she emphatically isn't.

Once the typhoon hits, Asa and her kidnapper must work together to help out in the disaster! by stealing and flying an airplane and becoming heroes of the skies! which kindles in Asa an obsession with a.) piloting airplanes and b.) the BIG MONSTER that's hidden in the middle of the typhoon and forms the focus of the rest of the plot!

Ongoing B-plots introduced to keep Asa extra busy on top of this initial drama include:

- Asa's younger siblings keep getting into fights!
- Asa's best friends are having teen drama about wanting to become popstars!
- there's a distressed and discredited scientist scientist with his own messy mentor problems!
- almost everyone in Japan is still dealing in one way or another with the various generational traumas of WWII!
- THE OLYMPICS IS HAPPENING!

So far this is gearing up to be my favorite Urasawa series after 20th Century Boys; I love obsessive teen girl pilots, I love messy mentorships, and I love Urasawa's incredibly distinctive side character faces. And it is so pleasant to start out an Urasawa book and immediately multiple distinctive women side character faces, rather than having to wait twelve volumes for them to build up! Look at the face of this grumpy diner owner who loves Asa very much! I get to look at this face every chapter!

And now I probably need to wait a year or two to let some more volumes build up, which of course is the problem with picking up Urasawa's new manga.

Comments

[chestnut_pod]

Distressed AND discredited! The Olympics!

[passingbuzzards]

I found and read the first 8 chapters of this and they were DELIGHTFUL, what a leading duo, very rude of Viz not to carry digital volumes of this series!! The faces really are AMAZING.

[torachan]

I'm enjoying Asadora a lot but you should definitely read Billy Bat, too! It's perhaps the most crazy of all, with the clear Billy Bat = Mickey Mouse parallels and the whole Lee Harvey Oswald subplot. Honestly, I think there is no way this would get published in the US because of all that.

My recent exciting discovery about Urasawa (recent meaning like last year) is that he finally caved and allowed his stuff to be released digitally! Apparently Asadora has been published in a magazine that has a digital version from the start, but even then he was still against it or his older manga being released digitally because he felt that it compromised the two-page spreads. Which I understand, but I'm glad he came around because getting stuff in print outside of Japan is expensive. The digital versions come with a note at the beginning saying that it's recommended to read them as two-page spreads rather than each page individually, which I don't think I've ever seen on any other digital manga.

[sovay]

- there's a distressed and discredited scientist scientist with his own messy mentor problems!

Okay, fine.

[cyphomandra]

omg I did not know about Asadora! Will track down forthwith. I did know Billy Bat was not officially available, I grumpily bought the first volume in Italian but maybe I would get further via unofficial means.

[starlady]

I own like half of Billy Bat but I haven't read it. For that matter I never finished 20th Century Boys…and I know for a fact that half of it is in storage in New Jersey.

I meant to try to pick up some of Asadora! when I was in Japan but failed. I should add it to my list for my next Mandarake order.

[dimestore_romeo]

Have you seen Urasawa's interview series with iconic mangaka, Urasawa Naoki no Manben? It is SO much fun and fascinating to learn more about his own writing and drawing process: https://www.naokiurasawa.com/

[sholio]

Oh no I may have to read this.

[hokuton_punch]

Oh no, I think I need this series in my eyes IMMEDIATELY. (I don't think I finished Billy Bat but I did read an enormous chunk of it, and I feel like choosing Asadora instead was clearly a wise choice! I mean, I didn't dislike Billy Bat, but it is - very weird.)

[dhampyresa]

Billy Bat, which I thought of in my head as 'Naoki Urasawa's new manga.'
This, for the record, is absolutely not correct. Billy Bat started in 2008 and wrapped in 2016.

WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO ME