A brief introduction of Battle Royale :
“At the dawn of the millennium, the nation collapsed. At fifteen percent unemployment, ten million were out of work. 800,000 students boycotted school. The adults lost confidence, and fearing the youth, eventually passed the Millennium Educational Reform Act - AKA: The BR Act…”
Basically,it’s about this class of 42 17-year-olds who have been sent to a deserted island to kill each other till there’s only one left standing.Each of them is given a random weapon as an aid to help them complete the game’s objective.
I’ve been a Battle Royale fan since 2006(that’s late,considering the movie aired in 2000),even before I started on anime. I started off with the movie,and then watched the second movie,Battle Royale II : Requiem. I was very impressed with the first movie, and at one point of time absolutely obsessed with it. To date, I have watched the movie over 20 times already, with the number still increasing. The second movie wasn’t as good, but yet still satisfying for those who love blood, gore and violence.
Class 3B of Shiroiwa Junior High School
Then,I moved on to the manga and novel. Reading them further brought my Battle Royale obsession to a further level. The movie was good,the manga better,and the novel the best of all. After all,all originated from the novel. So one might ask,why read/watch all 3 of them? The answer is simple. The 3 of them are not absolutely the same. The movie and manga are both adapted from the novel,and there were some major differences in all of them( such as the maps of the island, sequence of the deaths,methods of killings etc.)
Below are the 3 maps used in the different versions.
The Map in the Movie
The map in the novel
The Map in the Manga
The maps for the manga and novel version are quite similar,unlike the movie’s one which is totally different.
The English Version of the Novel
For the novel,I only read the English translated version,sadly. I remember completing the novel the day after I bought it. If I remember correctly,there was about 600 pages for the novel.I’m hoping to be able to read the original Japanese text one day,so as to obtain the real intended atmosphere the author was trying to convey.
Cover of Volume 2:My favourite cover
The manga is really cool,with all the fight/killing scenes brought into drawings right before your very eyes. It’s so violent,yet the drawings are so real-like. I wished that I could read it in the original Japanese version though,since the translation for the Tokyopop version by Keith Giffen,the smart ass who decides to make adaptation instead of a translation.
Too bad the manga was given a M-18 rating by Tokyopop,and banned in Singapore,due to being too violent and containing too many gore and sex scenes.I would skip the sex scenes and go on to the other more interesting fight scenes when I read the manga. For those who hate sex scenes in manga,please skip book 8,with is almost filled with them. There will definitely not be an anime for it,due to this reason. I bet some perverts would watch the anime,if there was one, purely for the sex scenes.Oh,and I’m not posting any of the sex parts in the manga here.
The overall storyline for Battle Royale is very thought-invoking. You can see/read the emotions of the students spending the last moments of their lives with as little regret as possible. It makes you seriously treasure life much more, as something as unexpected as “The Program” could suddenly bring your life to an end. Of course,there will be no such thing as “The Program” in real life,but still life is unpredictable. Seeing the students doing their best to live the last moments of their lives makes me envy them(with the exception of the idiot who wanted to have sex before he died). Although their lives are ending soon,they are able to live their last moments to the fullest.
Mr Bruce Lee the Second
One thing however,unrealistic about Battle Royale would be the character.With characters such as Shinji Mimura(ace hacker who coincidentally knows how to build bombs), Hiroki Sugimura(Bruce Lee reincarnation) and Kazuo Kiriyama(THE TERMINATOR) ,who seem to be able to take on zombies,monsters and other crazy beings, at the age of 17. I don’t remember any 17-year-olds who could do such insane stuff. Shougo Kawada is more realistic as he had once taken part in the previous Program and emerged champion.
The bomb which Mimura Shinji made
Also,one question I often thought of was : “If I was ever thrown into The Program,what would I do?” Sure,this question sounds silly,but it’s still something to think about. Would I go on a killing spree? Or would I hide somewhere,awaiting imminent death? Or would I be self-sacrifical and save my friends? The answer is : I’m not sure. I suppose I would not start butchering my friends even if I had a decent weapon,and hide somewhere with a group of close friends,spending our last moments together. Also,I would definitely express my true feelings to those who I love.
What would you do? Will human instincts of survival take over,or will the heart rule over the brain?
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