Battle Royale
Battle Royale, a high-octane thriller about senseless youth violence, is one of Japan’s best-selling - and most controversial - novels. As part of a ruthless program by the totalitarian government, ninth-grade students are taken to a small isolated island with a map, food, and various weapons. Forced to wear special collars that explode when they break a rule, they must fight each other for three days until only one “winner” remains. The elimination contest becomes the ultimate in must-see reality television. A Japanese pulp classic available in English for the first time, Battle Royale is a potent allegory of what it means to be young and survive in today’s dog-eat-dog world. The first novel by small-town journalist Koushun Takami, it went on to become an even more notorious film by 70-year-old gangster director Kinji Fukusaku.
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Battle Royale
This book was simply amazing. It gave amazing details of scenes, and captured me the very first time i picked it up.
5 Stars Violent, disturbing, intelligent and unmissable.
On its original publication in Japan in 1999, Battle Royale was a surprise hit. Its author, journalist Koushun Takami, had written it for a literary competition but it had been rejected due to its controversial content and violent storyline. Of course, these very things combined with its searing commentary on Japanese society and reviews drawing comparisons with William Golding’s Lord of the Flies made it immensely attractive to a younger audience.
The setting of Battle Royale is a little confusing, but it is eventually revealed that the book takes place in an alternate-reality timeline where Japan remained a police state after WWII and still controls much of Asia. Japan’s schoolchildren and students are becoming more and more unruly as American culture and notions of freedom seep into the country, most notably via illegal musical imports (Bruce Springsteen’s lyrics from ‘Born to Run’ are an influence on the main protagonist). To keep them under control, the Japanese government has instituted the Battle Royale programme. Every year, fifty classes of schoolchildren are dumped on various islands, equipped with weapons and told to slaughter one another. The last survivor is allowed to go free. The idea is that this horrifying threat will enforce peace and tranquillity on Japan’s schools, but of course this doesn’t quite work, with instead the programme being seen as a game to be followed and the winners become celebrities.
The novel follows one such class of schoolchildren as they are shipped to an abandoned island, given weapons and have failsafe bombs attached to necklaces placed around their heads. Any attempt to swim off the island or remove the necklace will result in it exploding. If at least one student isn’t killed every 24 hours, all the bombs will be detonated simultaneously. The situation appears hopeless, apart from something the organisers didn’t plan for. One of the students has played the game before…
Battle Royale is a scintillating novel. The premise is pretty shocking, but works brilliantly. By taking a bunch of schoolkids and ramping all of their petty animosities and arguments to the max and then giving them high-powered weaponry, Takami creates a situation which is both horrifying and, insanely, is also convincing. The characters are all pretty standard archetypes, with the class bully, the stuck-up rich girl, the innocents, the nerds, the peacemakers and so on, with Takami exploring the hierarchy of classroom power and how it is affected, or more accurately how it isn’t particularly affected, but the disturbing situation these teenagers are placed in. The novel’s length (over 600 pages) allows him to paint all 42 of the kids in reasonable detail, adding backstories and motivations to each character, usually engendering the reader’s sympathy for each one just before they get violently offed.
Battle Royale works as a searing condemnation of humanity and how easy it is to slip into barbarism (much like Lord of the Flies, though with less spears and more petrol bombs and samurai swords), the inability for any repressive regime to maintain control over the imagination of the young and also that overconfidence always leads to a downfall (the ending of the novel, although possibly predictable, is deeply satisfying).
Battle Royale (*****) is the first novel I’ve ever reviewed which I feel compelled to add an advisory warning to: this book features a bunch of 14 and 15-year-olds killing one another (and some adults as well) in various inventive and disturbing ways. The book is pretty full-on in its depiction of violence and cruelty. That said, the violence is not gratuitous. There is a story, character or thematic reason for everything that happens, and the cumulative effect of the narrative is exceptionally powerful. The book is published in the UK by Gollancz and in the USA by VIZ Media.
5 Stars The big picture is now complete.
I had originally seen the movie “Battle Royale,” and heard that it was an adaptation of a novel. After a quick internet search, I came across “Battle Royale” by Koushun Takami. The movie was very interesting, so I felt that reading the novel might help me get more out of the overall experience. So after buying the book and finishing it, I’d say its definitely a buy.
My reasons for getting the book are not the same as other people’s reasons, though. Many people often feel that movie adaptations are often not as good as the book, but in this case the movie “Battle Royale” was almost exactly true to the story and really brought these interesting characters to life on the big screen. Saying this, I feel that the plot can be picked up just as easily from the movie than the book.
But the novel can explain a lot more than the movie can. One of the reasons why I’d recommend the novel is because it allows you to get into the character’s heads and see what they’re thinking. The movie only had so much time to tell the story, so many characters who actually had significant roles were often glanced over to keep the movie going. The book allows you to see these extra things. My other reason for buying the novel is because it does a better job of explaining events than the movie. Things such as how certain students came to find eachother, how they aquired certain weapons, and how they learned the skills they knew.
Now, I cannot think of any novel that doesn’t have its flaws, and “Battle Royale” is no exception. The worst thing about this novel is both a compliment and a complaint. And this flaw is the attention to detail. As much as I enjoyed the storylines of supporting characters getting fleshed out, there were many instances where a character would get multiple pages of back story that had no relevance to the plot, only to be killed after a few lines of dialogue between him and the killer. Where these unneccessary exchanges occur could be used to give MORE detail to the overall storyline of Japan as an isolationist nation along with China forming “Greater East Asia,” and their feelings towards the “American Imperialists” of the West. I feel that this concept itself deserves its own novel, yet we never see this plot take off from the ground, aside from remarks from the characters showing animosity towards the government.
All in all, “Battle Royale” is a must own for anyone’s book collection. It answers any questions one may have for those who have seen the movie, and creates its own new experience for those who haven’t. The book explains almost too much at some points, and not enough at others, but this doesn’t take away from the concept.
For its innovation; 5/5
4 Stars Fun and insightful
I’ve been eager to read this book for a while since I own both Battle Royale movies and I read the manga years ago. This book is as troubling as it is insightful– troubling because it shows you the truth depth of human desperation and troubling because it makes the reader enjoy it. This book isn’t full of thesaurus words or flowery, flowing descriptions. It’s simple and to the point, and every effective. The book shows us how people, normal people, can descend into madness. How many of us would be able to kill someone? I’m sure many people would say, “not I,” yet how do we know until we’re put in that position? Each character in the book experiences their own personal reaction to fear, violence and the threat of death, which could come at any moment. How each handles this situation is where the insight comes in. We come to see that fear is more complex than the word describes. Some justify killing with logic, however poor, some do it out of instinct, and some do it to protect others. This isn’t a book to pass over lightly because of its subject. I know that the thought of middle school students killing each other off on an island is sour, but Battle Royale is an excellent book about human nature and how humans exist in a world out of their control. There is hope, though! The main characters Shuya and Noriko fight a force far larger than themselves, which gives a glimmer of hope in the madness. Granted, there is no peaceful resolution at the end. The world as the characters know it does not crumble or end. It stays strong and in control, but the resistance of a few is only a minor shine to the possible resistance of many. Even in a world of chaos and death, there is loyalty and friendship.
4 Stars Captivating Read… The Pages Roll By.
I had “Battle Royale” on my “to read” list for quite sometime. I finally managed to get my hands on it, and it was worth the wait. “Battle Royale” is a captivating read, from start to finish. As the tile suggests, the pages fly by and after several hours, I could not believe that this tome was 600+ pages.
The storyline is intriguing, like a car wreck. That timeless saying about watching a car wreck is a perfect metaphor for the children in this book. I didn’t want to learn what these 15 year old students were capable of, but I could not stop reading. For the most part, the story lines were interesting and engaging - for the most part. Unfortunately, I did not especially appreciate the manner in which the background of each character was conveyed. The background of each character was told throughout the book, as each character became a more integral part of the story. As such, there were times when I was less interested in the past and more interested in the present. Of course, it would be nearly impossible to tell the motivations of 42 students all at once at the beginning of the story. That wouldn’t be any better.
Additionally, I did have some slight difficulty differentiating the characters at the beginning of the story. Nevertheless, despite these minor faults, the drive behind the story and the main characters is what is most memorable about this book. I will never forget it, and I doubt any reader will either, given the chance.
J.Stoner
Filed under: Comic Book News