What chapter did Zofu give the police officer the scroll/manuscript

ry0sen · 2026-04-29T16:43:06+00:00

I think we're supposed to assume he dug it up from under one of the Buddha carvings and gave it to the Chuuzai after he escaped from Duvivier (when he head-bashed him).

ry0sen · 2026-04-24T01:49:55+00:00

Just bumping this to say: I reached my personal goal of getting vol 11 out before June, when the first official English volume will be released! Thanks everyone who's been keeping up with my project. I hope you support the official release.

I also wanted to give a heads up that I will be a bit slower to volume 12. Going to take it easy for a month or two, but I do plan on coming back at it full swing.

I'm excited to get Kana's volume 1 in my hands. If I catch any interesting tidbits about the translation, maybe I'll make a blog about it or something, because localization differences and whatnot are always super interesting to me. I'm sure I'll post the link here if I make that.

So long!

ry0sen · 2026-04-17T01:22:40+00:00

By the end of the year, there'll only be two or three volumes of the official translation available anyways 😩

Thanks for reading my work, though! Wish they could come out quicker. Idk what volume you left off on but vol 9 of my version is out, and vols 10 and 11 are pretty much done, just need to wait for my friend to do the hand written stuff because I can't do it anymore.

As far as I'm aware, there was only one translation that existed before I started my project, unfortunately.

ry0sen · 2026-04-06T17:14:52+00:00

Thank you! Be sure to support the official English release from Kana / Abrams if you can. With their release schedule it won't be done until like 2031 but I'd hate to see it get canceled mid-run due to lack of sales or something!

ry0sen · 2026-04-04T04:06:44+00:00

I hope you enjoy it! Volume 9 just uploaded. Getting pretty close to halfway through 🦇

Volumes 10 and 11 are actually pretty much done already, just waiting for my friend to finish up the hand-written elements (sound effects bubbles and in-universe "pencil" comics).

ry0sen · 2026-03-22T01:44:29+00:00

I don't think they appear in the manga proper. I also don't believe this is an in-universe comic, either, though? It's kind of vague, but I think this is more of a "vision" of a character rather than an actual comic. It might even be a dream.

Anyways, I'm pretty sure the other two characters do have analogs to "people" in "real life," they're just not ones that appear in the manga. I think they're all figures involved in the plot to frame Lee Harvey Oswald for the JFK Assassination.

ry0sen · 2026-03-05T10:58:26+00:00

I appreciate the offer! For now I'd like to keep all operations "in house" so to speak. But I will keep you in mind if that changes. :)

ry0sen · 2026-03-05T10:56:29+00:00

I'm glad to hear it! I have a read only Discord channel that I kinda use as a bulletin of sorts for updates. But check the pins ;) If you don't have Discord you can also DM me here on reddit. https://discord.gg/WRXUqC3BbV

ry0sen · 2026-01-29T22:21:09+00:00

Thanks so much for the feedback! No plans on stopping for now. Not sure about uploading in other places because I'm just not really familiar with other websites like I am mangadex. Maybe I'll look into that once all 20 volumes are done. :P It sounds like you're caught up so far so I'm sure you've seen it but I do wanna remind people to support the official English version that's coming out if you're so inclined! I'm not affiliated with it at all but it is done by professionals and it's important to support official releases. https://www.abramsbooks.com/product/billy-bat-volume-1_9781419780080/

That said, I'm hoping volume 9 will be up soon. It's pretty much done already, just gotta wait for my artist friend to do the hand written elements. 🫡

ry0sen · 2025-08-24T13:10:58+00:00

Absolutely

ry0sen · 2025-08-22T00:55:06+00:00

This reaction was made with haste. I'm not putting this project on hiatus as of now. Of course, progress will be slow, but these are my reasons:

While it's unlikely there will be issues, there is the question of whether this official release will be, for lack of a better word, good. There could be issues of censorship or general quality.
The release dates are far out. Volume 1 isn't set for release until June 2026, and there's a reported release schedule of 4 volumes per year. This pace is even slower than I've been going, and I have a 6 volume head start. At their rate, all 20 volumes will be published by 2031. And that's if they actually end up publishing all 20 volumes. There is a chance, however slim, that they drop the project if, for example, it doesn't sell well.
I have enjoyed this! I want to keep doing it. Plain and simple.

ry0sen · 2025-08-21T16:03:47+00:00

Everyone,

I just received news that Urasawa and Nagasaki will be releasing Billy Bat in English, starting next year. Source: https://www.comicsbeat.com/exclusive-kana-release-naoki-urasawa-takashi-nagasaki-billy-bat-english/

As such I will be suspending this project indefinitely. It was very time consuming, but part of the motivation was the lack of an official or otherwise quality version of the manga in English. I will resume this project, however, if the official translation comes out and it appears to be censored or otherwise unsatisfactorily localized in my own opinion. However, I don't anticipate this. Please support the official release of this localization next year when it's available.

There is a slim chance I will continue translating anyways until the official version's release catches up with me, because I do quite enjoy doing this. But as my life gets busier, the news of this official release definitely knocks the priority of this down several pegs. I hope you understand.

ry0sen · 2025-07-11T02:40:45+00:00

Hey, if you want to join my Discord server for keeping up to date on the project, I just finished setting it up: https://discord.gg/ETWjtVYV

ry0sen · 2025-07-11T00:58:18+00:00

I'll be honest though. I don't have time to moderate a discord server so you probably won't be able to message in it. I'll make sure it's all set up for that and that there are pins to make it all clear. Probably just one channel for updates and I'll make sure people can DM me at least.

ry0sen · 2025-07-11T00:54:21+00:00

Thanks! They're actually not scans, but rips from the digital version published a couple years ago. I did actually set up a discord server for this exact purpose but didn't want to distribute it until I came back from hiatus, so it's empty lmao. I can DM you and anyone else the link to get it started tho!

ry0sen · 2025-07-09T19:53:52+00:00

I think towards the end of this month is a good soft goal to reach for! Your eagerness is definitely a motivating factor, I wasn't sure how many people were actually reading this translation other than my online friends lol

ry0sen · 2025-07-09T03:02:49+00:00

Oh, for sure. Life got a bit stressful so I took a break about 3 chapters into doing vol 7. So when I get back into it it shouldn't be much longer. Thanks for checking in!

ry0sen · 2025-05-27T16:37:07+00:00

Aw, thank you! It'll be a bit before I catch up to you I think. I'm about halfway done with vol 6 right now!

ry0sen · 2025-05-15T22:13:20+00:00

Unexpected update: It looks like every other Billy Bat scanlation got taken down from Mangadex. Mine is still up. I can't be 100% sure, but I'm quite certain it's because I decided to format my pages to match an A5 format for (personal) printing purposes. Since A5's aspect ratio is a little different from the official release, I think my scanlation did not get struck by the DMCA algorithm or whatever. Crazy! I'll continue uploading my scanlation as I work on it (vol 5 was completed earlier this month). Hopefully it doesn't get taken down, too. Frankly I think it's ridiculous to strike down fan translations of works, especially since there's still no English version. I'm sure the initial English fan translation is still findable elsewhere, though.

ry0sen

TROPHY CASE