When you read Billy Bat, you're constantly wondering the meaning of this figure of "Billy Bat." Is it black or white? Is it evil or good? If Billy Bat speaks to you, are you following your own will or not? In the end, these questions are silly and don't matter. If you attempt to answer them, you'll be left wandering and wandering without truly living. You will see life with narrowed vision and die with regrets.

Really, what you should be doing living. Or draw. Or sing. Or play. Whatever it might be that gives your life meaning, do that.

The story of Billy Bat is about inheritance. Humanity comes from a long line of people passing on the torch to where we are today. Nothing we do is original or has not been felt by someone else. We're not unique. In the grand scheme of the universe, we are a terrible bunch that fight, steal and kill. But we also love, cherish and walk side by side. Black and white sits within us all, and so does everything in the middle.

In the pages of Billy Bat, we go through the beginning of our time to the distant future. Urasawa masterfully brings us back and forth, showing all sides of us in a line of mangaka that create stories beloved by all. They each inherit the path of creating art to capture the hope of humanity: that someday we can put aside our differences and get along. That's the real impact of art. The hope that we can change things within reality. If art imitates life, then artists strive for life to be changed by art.

Even more so when it comes to looking back at the history of humanity. Urasawa does something only he can do, and depicts each and every major mystery in humanity. JFK assassination, 9/11, Hilter, Judas's betrayal, and everything in between. But he humanizes these people because in art, we can see that human side and have us wish that things can be different for them.

I don't think I have to tell you why Urasawa is one of the greatest mangaka ever. If you have yet to read any of his works, it should speak for itself.

His art might not impressed you, but it's the ease of which is able to draw that is exceptional. He can pull you in within a single page from a small couple of panels. When you pick up a manga of his, you're sucked into the world and characters he has and you have to know what happens next. I could easily read 90 chapters of Billy Bat in a single setting because every single moment is compelling and interesting. Urasawa lives for his manga, just like his characters who live and breaht it.

But even so, my own words have been shaped and influenced by the art that I love, and after reading this, I find that to be okay. Reading Billy Bat has validated a lot of my own feelings about the recent state of humanity. Hell, the last few volumes feel like Urasawa being a prophet and writing out how the future will look. But I too want to believe in the power of art and that we can find something similar to stop all this evil that occurs in this world.

It is my one and only wish. Until then, I too will never give up and draw.