Battle Royale

by Koushun Takami

Book Overview

In a dystopian future Japan, forty-two junior high school students are outfitted with weapons and bid to kill one another until there is only one left standing. Koushun Takami's notorious high-octane... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 156931778X
• ISBN13: 9781569317785
• Release Date: February 2003
• Publisher: Viz Media
• Length: 504 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.0" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

One Bloody Page-Turner.

In his violent, controversial first novel, Koushun Takami takes us to the Republic of Greater East Asia, a contemporary, fictional, essentially fascist empire that includes Japan and China, but not Korea. Among the stranger forms of abuse under this oppressive regime is the Program, a compulsory game that pits a group of teenagers against one another until there is only one survivor. Ostensibly begun as a sort of tactical experiment, every year the Program destroys 50 junior high school classes of 15-year-olds for no clear purpose. This is the story of one of those classes. 42 students, 21 male, 21 female, are given weapons and confined to an island. There, they must kill each other until there is one winner, or all perish should they refuse."Battle Royale" is often compared to William Golding's 1954 novel "Lord of the Flies". The two books are superficially very similar: They both concern a group of youths on a island fighting for their lives. They are both allegories, but of different things. "Lord of the Flies" illustrates the baser instincts that are normally hidden beneath a thin veneer of civilization. It is to some degree a mockery of British society as the author saw it at the time. "Battle Royale" is explicitly anti-fascist, but since it is doesn't have an audience living under fascism, that's not meaningful in itself. The book's fascism seems to be an allegory for the more rigid aspects of Japanese culture and its educational system. It's possible to interpret the book as anti-capitalist, but I've no idea if that was intended. I do think it implicitly criticizes expectations that modern families often have for their children, and I suspect that bourgeois American youth will empathize more with this facet of the book than with those themes which apply more specifically to Japan. I understand why young people like "Battle Royale". But it wasn't exclusively young people who made the book a bestseller in Japan. It's an entertaining novel with an interesting premise for older folks too. Truthfully, its themes are not as well-executed as "Lord of the Flies", but "Battle Royale"'s characters, interpersonal relationships, and motivations are more intricately drawn. And this is what makes it a page-turner. The bloodbath isn't so shocking as the idea that gruesome violence is inevitable. We get to know these characters. We witness well-intentioned people do horrible things. After a while the reader comes to see the hopelessness of the situation and realizes that people really would murder their classmates, even if they had not set out to do so. When I started reading "Battle Royale", I doubted my ability to keep track of 42 plus characters, all with unfamiliar Japanese names. But I didn't have any trouble at all remembering who was who. Author Koushun Takami deserves a lot of credit for focusing our attention on unique attributes of each character and organizing the book to overcome confusion. The number of students left remaining is announced a

"...And we wont stop till we win."

This book is awsome. I will not bother with a summary, there are plenty on this page, however this book blew my mind.I picked up this book in the back of a Borders book store and read the cover which said that Battle Royal was a "Lord of the Flies for the 21 century". Having just completed Lord of the flies for the 4th time ... this time for my tenth grade humanities class ... I decided to buy it. I have heard from a lot of people, including my teacher, that Lord of the Flies was a chilling psychological tale, yet I felt that even though it was a great allusion to the world situation at the time, the Lord of the Flies did little in the respects of exploring the individual psyche.... Battle Royal does just that.One of the reasons for the book being so long (616 pages) is that it splits itself into many different perspectives and what is going through their heads during the "game", the most prominant beng that of the antagonist, Shuya Nanahara. Battle Royal brilliantly sums up the basic human steriotypes and their perspectives on life. Even though some situations may be a little unbelievable (like how Kazuo ends up the way he is) Battle Royal is a great concept and presented (even through it was translated) beautifly.One of the best things about this book is the way nothing is held back, nothing is censored. Battle Royal is not for the faint of heart, or the altruistic, because if you have that attitude twords life you woudn't last an hour on that island in "The Program" and would also find it hard to believe some of the choices made in the novel. If you can stand a little discriptive gore and know that the real world isn't all fun and fair, then this is a must read. Being a 16 year old myself, i can say that nothing in Battle Royal is beyond each and every one of us.

Multi-leveled socio-political powerhouse

"Battle Royale" is a gripping, intense socio-political novel in the tradition of "Brave New World" and "1984." When first hearing the subject matter, a government-sponsored game where a Jr. High School class must kill each other until only one remains, it seems sensationalistic and more action-thriller than thought-provoker. However, there is far more hear than ultra-violence and simplistic teenage slaughter.First, the writing is brilliant, combing the subtlety of classical Japanese literature with the aggression and confrontation of European/American political literature. Each of the 40 students are individuals, with unique motivations and personalities. There are no throw-away scenes or off-screen deaths, and each student's demise is made to feel intimate and important. Each life matters.Second, the issues dealt with are legion, from the conformity of Japanese schools to the insane bureaucracy and immobility of the Japanese political system. Along with this are more personal issues of loyalty, pain and loss. "Battle Royale" is a thick book, with a lot packed inside. I would imagine that those more fluent in modern Japanese politics and social issues would grasp some of the subtler messages, but there is still something here for everyone. A minor complaint is that the students act nothing like Jr. High School students, especially not Japanese ones. Maybe this is how they would like to be, but there are a few too many "super-heroes" amongst them, a a few too few crybabies. However, as this is an alternate-reality setting, perhaps in the "Battle Royale" world kids grow up a little faster.

'Could you kill your best friend?'

'Could you kill your best friend?'This was the theme for the first BR. When I say FIRST BR, that is because, for those who enjoyed the first and don't know, there is a second BR coming out. The theme for BR2 is: 'This time its war!'Now moving to the book. I am the kind of person that naturally likes the novel better than the movie and this book was just that. The movie was good but the book was MUCH MUCH better. I learned about BR through a friend. We are both in 8th grade and we came attracted to this story because it involved students around our age group. My friend and I fell in love with BR but she loved it by watching the movie, not reading the novel. After the movie, she read the book and realize how much better the novel was. I had the privilege of reading the novel first and expected alot from the movie. It IS very gorey, scary, maybe even too much for students around our age. But it also had a delicious thrill. I love novels that can scare me, pain my mind with sorrow, and make me cry with bittersweet romance. This novel had all that and more. It's not a mystery that all around the country, people of different age groups all come to respect this one novel. My friends and I think it is worthy of some recognition, thus, we have many sites about BR to share it with the world. I recommend this book to anyone who delights in a good book and anyone who likes to be swept over by waves of fear, sorrow, relief and love. Many people, including me, have read and enjoyed it. So enjoy it too! ^_^

A Wonderful novel that will never get the credit it deserves

I've been a fan of Battle Royale since I first saw the movie over a year ago. In it's native Japan, the book was immediately labeled by many critics as sheer, gross violence with no real story; as was the movie, directed by the late Kinji Fukasaku. Despite this, the book sold millions of copies, and the movie became a hit, being nominated for best picture in the Japan Academy Awards.Battle Royale is the story of 42 Japanese junior high school students who, forced by their government, are sent to an island and must kill one another till one is left. Nothing's against the rules. The students are unsure in the beginning; kill a classmate? But the game gets the best of them and some students begin to play. Some form alliances, wishing to find a peaceful way off the island while others want to get back at the government that put them there. Some seek revenge from their fellow classmates, while others just go insane, blindly striking down anybody who gets in their way to victory. Do you need to be smart to win the game? Do you need to be strong? Or maybe a little of both?The novel illustrates how a group of 9th graders would probably react to this situation. It is not just random bloodhsed and violence, either. The novel shows how simple human values can be reduced to nothing if there's enough pressure against them. It tells the stories of the 42 students, their own personal opinions and reactions towards the game.This book is not for the lighthearted. It has an amazing surprise effect, and will truly get you thinking. Morals are pushed aside so this story can take it's true effect. Koushun Takami wants you to think, "What would I do in this situation?". What would you do? Could you kill your friends just so you could survive? It's an awful question to hear but that's what the students in Battle Royale must ask themselves if they want to survive.