So I just finished monster and have started reading Another Monster. I thought monster was going to take forever but WOW! I have no regrets and I'm interested in reading more of Naoki Urasawa's works. I want to read the manga for 20th century Boys. I don't mind any dark themes, violence, gore, etc. but I am really uncomfortable with nudity, (even the few flashes in monster made me uncomfortable) I want to avoid that. know there is no set apparently, but there are a few pages with nudity. Can anyone please tell me where they are exactly? What chapters and what pages? Thank you so much <3

After both watching the anime and reading the manga, I still have some questions regarding the plot. Some are specific, some are more general and up to interpretation. I'll start with the former:

1. How did Wassily happen to guess Bora's name?
2. Who did Gesicht hate so much in his final moments? Given that Atom went ahead and wrote the equations that could yield planetal destruction when applied, I figure it was a big deal.
3. How did Atom (and Arnold of Thracia's weather forecast center, for that matter. Actually, that's the more interesting part, now that I think about it) know that an anti-proton bomb was planted (?) in Bora? What exactly neutralized it? Was it just frozen?
4. What was Thracia's (I guess "Dr. Roosevelt's" would be more precise) plan after all? Their first idea was to frame Persia in order to... Do what, destroy their advanced robots? How was everything that came after pre-meditated? Did Dr. Roosevelt know the entire story behind Abullah and Pluto? I get that Thracia's best interest involves hegemony in robotics but it feels weird how they landed a bingo by basically provoking one dude to build a serial killer robot.
5. What was the deal with that legend about a Native Thracian tribe? There's an obvious parallel between it's ending and Abullah's ultimate plan but does anything else about it bear any more significance?
6. How did Brau escape from prison? Is the police in Pluto's world so pathetic that they let a dangerous criminal escape Germany's airspace and cross the Atlantic? Could Brau always just get up and crawl anywhere he wanted?
7. How did Bora get from Persia to Thracia undetected? How has Bora managed to get away from Tenma later on? He knew that it was equipped with what's functionally a super nuke yet he didn't do anything about this fact besides telling Ochanomizu way after Bora had reached faux Yellowstone.
8. Why was Atom going through a personality simulation process similar to Goji's? Did Dr. Tenma apply his previous methods to comatose Atom?

And here's the latter:

9. The entire reasoning behind Tenma's "perfect AI" is odd to say the least. Alright, let's say that he really did have sufficient data on 9 (6 in manga) billion people's personalities. What exactly was the robot's program doing with this information? What could the criteria be? If there were criteria in place, wouldn't Tenma have a good idea of what a perfect human being's personality would be like?

10. Does the fact that introducing strong emotions led to Goji's (and Atom's) awakening imply that the "perfect AI" is imperfect, it's personality strongly biased towards acting by said emotions?

I'm sorry if this is too much, I'd just love to hear what other people think. Even a partial answer would be cool to see :)

No mention of it but I gave it a chance and it's great.

I am not that invested in the two other school girls but considering Urasawa, I might end up loving their character arcs as they haven't even practically started properly.

The scientist dude is awesome and I love the lovecraftian monster esque lore!

I don't mean to diss on Monster or I dont hate on Monster but for once, everyone in anime (And even manga) community seemingly mentions about Monster only. Like...No one mentions about Asadora which is ongoing and a fucking godly banger of a story. Billy Bat which is fucking dope.

It's like Monster got famous but not Urasawa.

I don't know if I was able to see it but on the walls of my school there is a bat drawn, it really surprised me.

Volume comes out on the 28th in Japan

I still want an original Billy Bat drawing so bad but yikes. I think 800 was my limit. I really want Naoki to come state side and do a convention.

before i move on to 20th century boys, i just want to process everything i have read.

tl;dr: wow. what a journey.

i'm not gonna spoiler-tag since i'm already marking this as a spoiler. there will also be some spoilers on grant morrison.

anyway, billy bat reminds me a lot of grant morrison's work, particularly flex mentallo and final crisis, in its depiction of a world going to hell that can potentially be salvaged through art and storytelling. i have seen some readers put off by what they saw as a rather abstract ending, as well as the clear, almost manichean, delineation between good and evil that doesnt really leave room for tragic villanous backgrounds or moral greyness. there may be some merit in those observations, but as a fan of morrison, i just couldn't care less--kevin goodman being chided by the billy bat from the moon for not knowing what to do strikes me as a reminder to audiences that sometimes, knowing what is right and what is wrong is not as complex as we make it out to be, and that, ultimately, we must choose a side, something that a simpleton, or a child, can do, and can do through art. ultimately, i feel that there is no other way the series could have ended--is it inconclusive? sure, but that's because the world hasn't ended yet, and it's up to us to draw the continuation. billy bat letting kevin goodman make the choice for himself is akin to urusawa telling us that he is done telling the story of billy bat, and the rest is up to us. going back to morrison, i am reminded of the invisibles, with jack frost telling us: SEE! NOW! OUR SENTENCE IS UP!

it was a ride i was glad to take: from my initial wtf reactions at seeing billy bat on the moon for the first time, to the tearful reunion of the two kevins, to the bond developed between the two soldiers through their mutual love of billy bat, i enjoyed most parts of it (except when timmy sanada was on the page, that bastard!).

here are some of my favorite moments:

1. the reunion of the two kevins - literally gasped for joy when kevin yamagata reappeared, his crippled state not at all hindering his passion, and seeing him freed from the burden of the bat as he makes the choice to focus on fuji pon taro. but gdi, yamagata is such a manipulative character, appearing only to seemingly die, then coming back as a godlike figure. like, i already cried twice for you, man!

2. the fake chuck culkin's backstory - specifically when he asked hitler what he would do if he could turn back time, and hitler says he wanted to be accepted into art school. the silence that followed was very meaningful.

3. when the new smith met the old smith - "where is kevin yamagata?" i swear, every time kevin yamagata was hyped to reappear was such a play on my emotions. maybe it's because he was the first character we met aside from billy, that he had such a strong hold on me. i've always liked him better than goodman--he felt more complete, more realized. maybe because he was full of resolve, while goodman felt more aimless. but im sure they appeal differently to different people.

4. lee harvey oswald's arrest - "mission accomplished." that final smile. a lot of his smiles throughout the oswald arc felt empty, hollow, as he hears that he can be a hero. his smile to jackie felt real--he knew he had fulfilled something.

5. the decoding of the scroll - it was just an amazing reveal. finney kept talking about the ending numbers being the same, but we never got to see it until the very end, and when it appeared, it was just downright chilling: "20010911."

that's pretty much it. as i understand it, 20th century boys is the most famous of urusawa's works (unless it's monster), and i'm looking forward to seeing what it can offer me.

I love Naoki Urasawa. I think he is an incredible story-teller and artist. With that said I do not care for episodic stories. I like when the story line is longer and more developed where you can get really invested in the characters and story.

I am also a big Osamu Tezuka fan and love his adult work however something like Blackjack did not resonate for me at all for the aforementioned reason. The Blackjack stories were INCREDIBLY short so perhaps that is an extreme example but I am wondering if Master Keaton still maintains really engaging characters and story lines that Urasawa is best known for despite the manga being episodic.

Thank you!

Its just so good this might be genuinely my favourite manga

Keep in mind i read jojo part 7 and 8 onepunch man jjk and watchled alot of animes

And billy bat is the best

If kenji say that the real dead boy in school was fukubee instead of katsumata and the last one replaced fukubee, who was the first friend? wasnt fulubee already dead when they were kids?

Urusawa newbie here. I started reading Billy Bat a few days ago. Now at Ch. 118. I just posted to say, Chuck Culkin (>!the real one!<) is my favorite minor character thus far--such a pure soul. I cried when he saw >!Kevin Goodman's drawings, and he remembered his master!<

Hey yall. Just finished book 11 of 20th cb. Gonna read 21st cb once I’m home. My question is where exactly did the manga fall off? A lot of people I’ve spoken to all said that the ending was bad and that it fell off for them and genuinely curious. Personally I loved the whole story. I still have to read 21st but from where I’m at now I love it

By his big 3, I mean the obvious Monster, 20th cb annd Pluto. And add Billy Bat.

But how good are his other works besides these? And is the Master Keaton anime worth a shot?