Battle Royale

It had to be a bit rubbish. That's what I always thought to myself when I saw Battle Royale mentioned. I assumed this because it doesn't have an anime adaptation. What I didn't know back then was the reason for this—I thought it was because the series wasn't that interesting. I never suspected it was because what's included in the story is so extreme that it would have to be butchered to make the jump from manga to anime. There's just no way a series that involves someone getting raped whilst dying by a psychotic girl, with flashbacks to her being abused by her stepfather as a child appearing during what was happening, could ever be faithfully adapted into an anime. Once I actually read a description of the story and saw its high ratings, I was sold—it sounded like something different, and it most certainly is different from anything else I've encountered.

Battle Royale was everything I expected it to be prior to buying it. Nothing was held back; everything was shown in graphic detail. There was lots of death, and the situation the characters found themselves in is the kind that no one would want to be in... but it's also a situation everyone is interested in from a voyeuristic perspective. A 1 in 42 chance of survival, where survival is only possible if you kill people you once thought of as friends... I wouldn't want to be in that situation, and I don't know how I'd handle it if I was. The story painted a bleak (and accurate) picture of how humans act when there are no laws and only fear and lust governing their actions. I read manga to see what's too extreme or not moe enough for anime, so in many ways, Battle Royale was perfect for me.

The story starts with 42 students, all aged 14-15, on a bus. The students think they're going on a school trip. They talk, laugh, and act like teenagers do. Then they all start falling asleep, only realizing when it was too late that the bus driver had put a gas mask on and gas was being pumped onto the bus. They then wake up in a classroom, sat at their desks, with some kind of ring around their necks. Once everyone starts to wake up, a person who introduces himself as their new teacher walks into the room, calling himself Mr. Kamon. After pausing to distress the confused students a little more, he reveals to them that their class has been chosen for The Program—an event that takes place every year (and has done since 1947 in the Battle Royale universe) where a random 9th grade class is selected for an 'educational' battle to the death at a deserted location (the story of Battle Royale takes place on a small island). Smiling, he tells them that if they don't kill, they'll be killed, either by their classmates or by the ring around their neck that will explode if there's more than one person left by the deadline.

Kamon is a truly great bad guy. He looks more evil than any other character I've seen. He's the sort of character that readers will want to see die as painfully as humanly possible. If I were to describe his looks, I'd say he looks inhuman, like he was modeled from clay, and that suits him perfectly. This guy enjoyed seeing the suffering caused by strangers being put in a truly hopeless situation, joking about how seeing the daughter of a famous person get raped on live television would increase the ratings and even going as far as to push the kids into attacking him during the first few chapters. With an evil grin and perverted tongue movement, he was happy to inform one of the kids that, after the woman in charge of the orphanage he was staying at argued against he and his friend being taken, he gave her "tough love" that she was only too happy to provide after "proper persuasion." He got kicks out of watching him get so angry he cried, and then blew his face off after, fueled by pure hate, he charged at him. It's too bad he appeared very little after the start of the story, only speaking when giving updates every six hours...

The first volume was fantastic just because of Kamon. He explained the rules of the game to the class of 42 with a smile and happy tone, showing a dead body of a teacher (he was on the bus with the students at the start) who was against them taking part in The Program and killing a female student who was speaking while he was explaining the rules as an example of how little he valued their lives. He then sent them off alone, one by one, onto the island to kill each other. They were sent out with the belongings they had with them on the bus and another bag, which contained a random weapon, map, watch, compass, water, and bread. He made it clear that there would be no escape because the ring around their necks would explode if they tried to take it off and, if they still tried to escape knowing their head would be blown off eventually for doing so, then the ships around the island would shoot them in the water. He gave them no time to think, throwing them out into the wilderness with the knowledge that they'd die in a few days if they weren't the last student alive on the island.

Trust is hard to come by once you're given the task of killing everyone else to ensure your own survival. If you were in a class with 41 other people, then you'd only be friends with a small percentage, and out of those few, how many would you truly be able to trust? Most likely only a few. In that sort of situation, the fear alone would cause many to kill—people would become too paranoid to trust even the friends they'd spoken to daily at school. When a person is presented with a choice between death and friendship, the real person, who had put on an act in the past in order to get on in the world, comes out. It's horrible to think what fear and paranoia can cause a person to do, isn't it?

If there's one thing Battle Royale is, it's over the top. When people go crazy in this, they have saliva coming from their mouths, their eyes are as wide as possible, they do the 'zombie walk,' with their feet twisted inwards and their knees bent, and they act more like animals than humans. The ability the artist has at depicting extreme emotions is a huge plus in a series like this, where the situation is hopeless and death seems all but inevitable, but he goes too far at times, often showing brains, guts, breasts, dicks, and everything else needed to make it near impossible to adapt into an anime. Personally, I would've liked to see a more realistic and less exploitive art. But, on the plus side, the art is very clear and nearly all of the action sequences were easy for me to follow, which isn't something I can say about a lot of the series I've read to date—I usually have to go over panels numerous times in order to understand how one panel flows from the next.

The over-the-top comment also goes for the story at times. At this point, I can't say if it was anywhere near as silly in the novel because I haven't read up to that point yet, though the novel has come across as somewhat less insane so far, but there's a part of the story in the manga that was impossible for me to take seriously. I'm referring to a scene where a guy runs away from another guy (a sociopath/terminator wannabe called Kazuo) after being shot, with his stomach hanging out, running into a warehouse. In the warehouse, he has time to set the bomb he was building before Kazuo enters, as well as the time to wrap duct tape around his stomach, and he then manages to kick the bomb at Kazuo AND jump out of the window as he entered the warehouse, without getting shot. A truck then flies out of the warehouse as a result of the bomb blast, over the head of the guy who escaped through the window, and that's followed by Kazuo appearing out of the truck, unharmed. Kazuo then unloaded his machine gun on the guy who jumped through the window. And, as if to make it all a little more silly, the guy who had just had many bullets inserted into him still had the strength to pick up his handgun in one last attempt, after playing dead, at killing Kazuo. After all that, I wasn't sure whether to praise Battle Royale for being a bit too much or attack it for its distance from reality!

There are some other issues I have. Shuuya, the main character of Battle Royale, is the main problem. The manga artist had the annoying habit of turning Battle Royale into something of a soap opera at times, showing needless flashbacks involving Naruto 2...err, Shuuya being a goodie-goodie, acting on his feelings instead of his brain, and helping his friends back when he was at school (he got to know just about every important character at school after helping them in some way). The artist was determined to highlight the fact that near enough the entire cast liked Shuuya for acting brainless, just like in shounen stories where the main character does stupid things and gets loved for it. The flashbacks involving Shuuya saving the day did stop once all the characters had been introduced... however, they were replaced with (often chapter-long) dream sequences that showed Shuuya getting support from his deceased friends. I hate it in anime when the plot advances through dreams/visualizations, and I hate it even more when characters are shown speaking to people long dead in an attempt to add character development... Would it have been so hard to just have Shuuya think for a few panels instead? There was no need for a large amount of chapters, many reusing the same art, to be used for repetitive conversations with the dead. I disliked Shuuya's character because, as well as being an idiot, the very existence of his character resulted in the story lasting 10+ chapters longer than it needed to.

Continuing on from what I said in the above paragraph, the pacing wasn't perfect. The story of Battle Royale takes place over the course of a few days, and it lasts for 15 volumes. If you do the math, then you'll see the problem already—a lot of chapters were created but not a lot of time passed. It's understandable when you consider how many characters are in the series, but I must confess to often feeling that the story was dragged out and could've ended sooner. I didn't mind most of the flashbacks, which every main character had in order for them to be fleshed out before their deaths, but it became tiresome when dialogue was repeated time and again for no real reason. Kawada, an experienced character who joins up with and helps Shuuya and his female friend, Noriko, seemed to be pointing out in every conversation that Shuuya needed to kill to survive, no matter if he wanted to play the game or not. If Shuuya didn't get it, then I certainly did, and I quickly became bored of seeing it being said. And, sadly, lots of the dialogue was like that, and it wasn't unusual to see panels used to repeat what another character had said in the past. But don't get me wrong: the pacing wasn't awful; it's just that I feel the story could've progressed quicker and, in my opinion, it would've been far more enjoyable if it had. If the pacing had been truly bad, then I would've struggled to read 15 volumes in 3 days.

Another issue I had, which also had something to do with the pacing, was the ending. Near enough every story ends in disappointing fashion. No matter how talented the writer, it seems they all struggle to finish their stories in style. Battle Royale was no different. The ending wasn't what I consider bad, and it had a few twists that kept it interesting, but it could've been better. The final battle was rather anti-climatic, with the most prominent bad guy in the series getting shot in the head (after a car chase) and still not dying, like some sort of monster, which took away from what was supposed to be a battle to the death between high school students. He'd shown himself to be near impossible to kill before that, but still fighting after taking a bullet to the head took it a tad too far. And, as if to finish the fight in the most boring way possible, Shuuya spent something like 1.5 chapters getting pep talks from his dead friends (in his head, obviously) because he found it too difficult to finish off a guy who'd mercilessly killed most of his classmates. Things did improve for the last stretch once the battle ended and the final twists started hitting, but I wasn't best pleased with what was a rather upbeat and forced ending to a mostly very, very, very depressing story. Going on the start, I was expecting everyone to die, and I feel the story would've been better if not for the final twist.

One final flaw I need to mention isn't anything to do with the actual story—it's the English translation. There were many occasions throughout where the translator missed a word out of sentences, making what was said not come out right, and there were also a few times where sentences quite simply didn't make sense. The 'F' word was also thrown around a bit too much, as if it was done just to make sure it got an 18+ rating. Seeing a friendly and polite character randomly say "F*** a duck" didn't sit right with me. And, although this is a plus or minus depending on how you look at it, some of the characters speak in an informal manner—like any public school kid would in all fairness—and what they say can be a little difficult to follow. The translation isn't a major problem that ruins the experience; it's just an annoyance, but I still expected better.

But, anyway, enough of the negative. There's far more good than there is bad on show. It's true that Battle Royale is over the top, and it's also true that the pacing isn't great and the story is often overly dramatic because of the Shuuya flashbacks/dream sequences that slow down the story. However, Battle Royale is impossible to put down because of the realistic way many of the characters cope with being put in a hopeless situation. There are many different personalities in the series, and most offer something the others don't, meaning there's at least one character the reader can connect with and feel for. Like the story itself, there are a few characters that are too far-fetched, but there are also those with believable backgrounds. I've always said that a story that's able to get the reader watery-eyed has great characters, and one of the early death scenes, where a female character died in the arms of her childhood friend, made me a little watery-eyed because of how beautifully it was handled. You'd have to be a pretty cold person not to feel anything as you watch her die after only just having seen her fight bravely against a guy trying to rape her AND seeing a flashback of her and her childhood friend together away from the island, back when they were normal high school students.

There are a number of other parts of the plot that will prove hard to forget, two of which I'll mention now as examples. The first is a scene at a lighthouse that involves 6 girls having a complete breakdown of trust and going from working together as a team to suspecting each other of having poisoned someone—it captured what paranoia can cause in the type of situation the characters found themselves in amazingly well. The other is a showdown between Sugimara, the kindhearted martial artist who doesn't want to kill anyone, and Kazuo, the sociopath who feels nothing and would give the terminator a run for its money. The fight itself was great, and the build-up, which involved around 3 chapters of Sugimaru and his girlfriend talking, showing what Sugimaru had to protect, was even better. Because Battle Royale has a huge amount of characters, there were many short stories like those I just mentioned, some one-shot and some lasting for a few chapters, so there wasn't any shortage of tragedy on show, and we all know that what gets the most emotional reactions out people is death. It's a great series to read if you, like me, enjoy seeing short stories that have a chance of pulling on the heartstrings.

So, what are my overall thoughts? Well, I think the series was well worth the £30 I paid for it. You know you're dealing with something high quality when you spend time with *insert whatever here* and time seems to speed up. This happened when I read Battle Royale. I read 6 volumes on the day the books arrived, 4 on the following day, and 5 on the day after, never having any trouble reading for lengthy periods. I'm not going to say it was a perfect series because it wasn't, its pacing and the insanity of it all often taking away from the experience a little, but as dark, depressing, and involving reads go, there aren't many better stories in existence. If you think the premise sounds interesting, then give it a go—you'll enjoy it a lot if you can handle lots of death.

Rating: 8.5/10

I stumbled upon a manga that falls somewhere in the middle. It's packed with violent scenes and explicit sexual content, all wrapped around a rather clichéd theme. If you're looking for something to help pass the time, I'd say it's worth a read.

Probably one of my all-time favorite manga, Battle Royale grips you with its thrilling storyline. If you enjoy action, drama, romance, martial arts, horror, psycho killers, tragedy, high-school life, or ecchi, rest assured, Battle Royale delivers it all. The detailed characterization brings each protagonist vividly to life, making you truly care about them. How do you confront challenges when you don't know who's playing the game? Could you ever trust anyone when your very life is on the line? Experience Battle Royale at its finest!

A lengthy and brutal thriller, this manga was highly enjoyable but not for those sensitive to gore. The plot and characters create an intriguing story filled with great twists and fights. Each character has their own unique "thing" going on, which adds excitement to the narrative. I would recommend this manga to anyone seeking a good, violent story. However, some decisions made by the characters seemed foolish and nonsensical to me. Additionally, the main "villain" appears nearly immortal, surviving things that most characters cannot. As I neared the end, I found myself eager to finish it. There were definitely chapters that felt dragged out to extend the story's length, but overall, the ending was satisfying and kept me on edge 75% of the time.

I enjoy shojo manga. Most of the manga I read don't have blood or similar elements. My brother owns around 400 manga, one of which is Battle Royale. Initially, I didn't like the artwork at all, but eventually, I started reading it seriously and, what can I say? This thing is brilliant!!!

I love everything about it!

I love the blood, the drawings, the story..

Now:

Art: Amazing. It's so detailed that I can't comprehend how they do it.

For instance, if a bullet goes into someone's skull, you see it enter and blow the head apart, taking out the eyeballs and everything (I know, gross but awesome!).

Story: Great. Engaging and interesting, making you wonder why things are happening and what will occur next. You just can't stop without knowing what happens. Each student has their own story and personality.

Characters: I think I love Shuya the most. I don't know why, but I do.

Later, I began to hate Kiriyama so much, but by the end, 'sob, sob' I almost cried because of him!!!!

I feel so sorry for him!

Anyway, to wrap it up, I think if you love blood (because of this manga, I started to love blood....) and really good, interesting characters, you HAVE to read Battle Royale. Believe me—it's totally worth it.

This manga was quite enjoyable. The artwork was decent, and the characters were well-developed, with nearly all 42 of them receiving some form of character growth. The story was compelling too, but there are a few aspects I believe could have been handled differently. For instance, one character's death felt unnecessary. There were numerous ways they could have been saved, yet they still ended up dying, which seemed absurd.

One element I truly appreciated was the character development. Almost every character received at least some level of depth, unlike in "The Hunger Games," to which this series is often compared. In that story, many contestants don't even have names. Here, each chapter left me eager for more.

The art could have been better, though it was still respectable. The gore was extremely over-the-top, which might be a positive or negative depending on your personal taste. Overall, I found this manga to be highly enjoyable and would definitely recommend it.

A work that not only adapts the book's story remarkably well but also manages to add more depth to the narrative without losing its essence.

Until recently, I was unaware of the manga's existence. I had read the book and seen the film (which, due to a low budget, had to omit several scenes from the book). I was impressed by how detailed the manga was. Let's break it down:

Story:

The manga leverages its narrative to introduce characters with direct connections to the storyline, such as Shinji, who fights against an oppressive system that placed him in his predicament. Additionally, the manga provides backstories for all characters that were previously undeveloped in other adaptations. However, at times, the story seems heavily skewed towards favoring a particular character. For this reason, I rate it 8.

Art:

There's not much to say about the manga's art; it follows the classic style of older manga, which personally doesn't appeal to me as much. Since artistic preferences vary greatly among individuals, I give it a 7.

Characters:

One of the main strengths is that all characters have backstories, something lacking in both the book and the film. However, one aspect that bothered me was the extreme portrayal of the villain (that scene in the van made me very uncomfortable, and it seemed implausible for someone to survive such a large explosion). Furthermore, the protagonist sometimes came across as overly pious, almost forced into saving others. Because of these issues, I rate it 6.

Enjoyment:

I genuinely enjoyed reading the manga, even though some chapters felt a bit dull. I recommend giving the work a try, despite initial impressions that may not seem promising or faithful to the book or movie.

“'Kill or be killed. This is how this fucking game works.'

It's more violent than your Tokyo Ghoul and much more emotional than Attack on Titan. This, ladies and gentlemen, is 'Battle Royale' - an original story featuring a very gruesome gladiator fight imposed by the government act, between innocent teenagers on a deserted island. One thing is for sure - Battle Royale encapsulates trust, betrayal, love, insanity, gore, fear, anxiety, despair for survival, and most importantly, hope into this incredible 15-volume manga that is just incomparable with the movie.

For most of you out there who've seen the Battle Royale movie and are bitching how it's better than its 'successor' The Hunger Games… You haven't read the manga or the novel that was used to make what is in my eyes now, a poor excuse for a movie. Battle Royale is so surreal and down-to-earth gory and explicit, yet somehow it feels frighteningly real and close to our own universe.

A group of 9th-grade students is chosen to participate in The Programme called the Battle Royale. It is part of the law that each year, a 'randomly' chosen 9th-grade class will be participating in this battle-to-death game, broadcasted all over Japan. A similar story, isn't it? Yet this is the original 'Hunger Games,' and I'll go against my own opinion to say - 'Hunger Games' is nothing compared to Battle Royale in every single sense, be it books or the film (I'm being highly subjective here, but hey, this is my review and my own humble opinion).

STORY: 10/10

The story follows the original novel written by Koushun Takami but expands greatly into a backstory of each single character. The story in this manga is very high-paced, yet it doesn't feel too rushed at all, neither is it complicated to comprehend what's going on. It feels very natural and easy to read, and the flow is never interrupted with unnecessary scenes. 'Battle Royale' has quality that most present-day mainstream 'kawaii' manga lack. It is as if the majority of today's mangakas are aiming at readers who would prefer something 'light' and 'fluffy,' but nothing that would seriously shake their already soft brains and challenge them to think deeply about the world they're living in.

'Battle Royale' makes you open your eyes to the reality that we are living in but do not bear to admit - the brutality of everyday life, be it abused or neglected children, homeless and damaged people, prostitution, and mental insanity. It questions the stability and the government's ability to control a nation. It's constantly in motion to question, break, and push the limits of morals, such as the value of human life, the value of your own life, and the value of friendship and love. One thing you'll be taught after reading 'Battle Royale' is how fragile and easily altered human nature is. How one can crack quickly under pressure when told 'Kill or Be Killed,' and what was once a 'friend' is your ticket out of this hell. It makes you realize that there are more things one should treasure and more things one should be willing to sacrifice. It also explores how to show compassion and love towards those that would least expect to receive it, how to forgive those damaged by life people (ref. to Kiriyama).

Every single character in this story gets a chance to shine, and I'm serious - every fucking 42 students get an opportunity to expose their inner personalities and backstories, making it seem like they're real people. It gives us, the readers, a chance to explore the reasons behind their actions, the reasons behind who they are. It is so down-to-earth in terms of honesty and in terms of portraying the mentality of the majority of teenagers out there, that I doubt any other manga can do that.

ART: 10/10

'Battle Royale' aims at a very realistic approach towards manga illustrations. The eyes are all aiming towards natural shape, the faces of most children are oddly shaped, which brings a great sense of reality. There are no sparkles, neither there are any neglected characters - each and every one of them has features that reflect their own personality. There is NO fan service, and this is what I love about it.

The quality. Oh, don't get me started on how detailed and impeccable Masayuki Taguchi's art in this manga is. I think if it wasn't for his art, this manga wouldn't be that meaningful or that popular. He breathes life into the characters and makes them all seem so ordinary, yet so unique in their own sense. If you think Attack on Titan had extreme expressions, you haven't seen what facial expressions Kazushi Niida did whilst trying to rape and murder his classmate Takako Chigusa. Taguchi makes the characters express a lot of pain, anger, desperation, sadness with a little grain of happiness and hope. Because of how extremely violent this manga is, those moments when characters are seen happy, like Nanahara's and Noriko's reunion, make you believe that even in the darkest moments, there's always hope.

And yes, this manga is most known for its brutal, violent, and highly sexual depiction. Now I must say, I've seen a lot of gore in manga such as Deadman Wonderland, yet not as EXPLICIT and OVERWHELMINGLY bloody as 'Battle Royale.' It makes Deadman Wonderland look like child's play. The shooting scenes and the way the bullets are portrayed protruding from the person's head with all the brains splashing might make some of you gag as it's so realistic, it seems like you can hear the blood trickle and smell that sickening metallic smell that it brings. The anatomy can be sometimes exaggerated, and the reason why I gave it a 9 is because most teens look like they'd be in their early 20s when they should be 14/15. Well, I guess no manga is flawless.

CHARACTER: 10/10

However, the shining coin is the way the manga is divided into small arcs that are each dedicated to a different character's storyline. The stories are all individual, meaning they're told from each character's perspective, making the plot very variable and not dragged on AT ALL (emphasis on this).

You have your protagonist, Shuuya Nanahara - a typical wannabe teenager who has big dreams to reach the top in the music industry and become the next 'Elvis.' He's way too loud (often scolded to 'keep it down' by Kawada) and too quick to trust, but he has a good heart. A heart wanting to save everyone from the hell they're in. The story does revolve around Nanahara's struggles to come to amends with the reality of the game and it can be sometimes annoying since he's usually turning on the waterworks, but he has a strong character.

Noriko and Kawada are two characters who keep Nanahara together. You could say they are his rock. Kawada must be my favorite. He is a previous winner of the game and his realistic approach usually throws Nanahara off balance, but at the end of the day, if it wasn't for Kawada's strong and sharp mentality, Nanahara wouldn't be Nanahara. Kawada made him question his own morals, to question his priorities, and most importantly, to value Noriko and protect her with his might.

Shinji Mimura was one of my favorite characters. A popular basketball prodigy, Mimura was a ladies' man, a heartthrob, but also an extremely intelligent and caring man. His plan to go against the game was my favorite scheme in the series, and I deeply miss him. Hiroki Sugimura was another major character, a friend of Mimura and Nanahara; he was the odd one out. Being socially awkward yet disciplined in the martial arts, Sugimura's caring nature was what made him so unique.

You have your main antagonist, Kazuo Kiriyama - a cold-blooded killer who's dead set on winning this game. Kiriyama never speaks in the manga, but his personality is shown through actions. In the movie, he was a 'transfer' student, but in the manga, he was a gang leader and a genius who could learn anything he set his eyes on. His past is revealed in the last chapters.

Mitsuko 'Hardcore' Souma is your another 'hot' antagonist, and my God, does she like to flash her body. Abused since childhood, Souma developed a complex character that made her very manipulative and aggressive. In the manga, the chapters about her are the most sexually explicit.

ENJOYMENT & OVERALL: 10/10

Nothing more to add. This was one hell of a manga that took me through a roller coaster of emotional turmoil. It holds a lot of virtues discussing and touching upon so many loopholes in today's society and social background. What it is to truly love? To truly trust? To truly believe in another human being? Is hope really the mother of idiots? Or is it a grain of victory in the middle of war? Are those who sacrifice themselves for the sake of others heroes or idiots?

If you want to find out the answer to these questions, 'Battle Royale' is the answer. After all, this is something that will change you as a person after you read it.