Battle Royale - Review, Overview, and History

History

Battle Royale started as a novel by author Koushun Takami. What was to be an entrance into a mystery writing competition was passed over due to its controversial content. The book was later published in 1999 and became a smash hit in Japan, despite people in the Japanese government calling for censorship. The book has since been translated into English.

The book was later redone as both a manga series and movie that came out with one month of each other. The manga was written by Koushun Takami and Masayuki Taguchi and stayed close to the novel. The film was directed by Kinji Fukasaku and quickly became a hit in Japan. Although the film has not been released in theaters in America, it quickly established a cult following through its DVD releases. It can be rented and bought at many different locations. A sequel to Battle Royale was released in 2003 under the title Battle Royale 2. Many fans consider this movie not as good as the first. Novelist Koushun Takami had no involvement with the film.

The American manga version, translated by Keith Giffen, started with the release of volume one in May of 2003. The last volume, fifteen, is slated for a February 2006 release. The manga is being published by Tokyopop.

Review

The idea of this story completely intrigued me. A whole 9th grade class taken to an abandoned island and forced to kill each other? Sounds very sadistic. I’ve read a few volumes of the manga, watched the movie, and plan on getting the novel soon. Guess I’m hooked.

One appeal to this is that it is so over the top. Like movies, books, and comics before that have used violence to help make a point, Battle Royale appears to fit into that mold. The movie was very bloody and gruesome, with the manga being more so. In the first volume there are full splash pages dedicated to showing close ups of students with their faces shot off. Very disturbing indeed.

At times, Battle Royale felt like a guilty pleasure, like I was doing something wrong just by reading it. The manga and movie have stuck with me and I find myself thinking about why this or that happened. About the point of the whole thing. About what my reaction to a situation like that would be. Would I give up and kill myself either in fear or protest, band with others to find a way out, or revel in the chance to go utterly psycho and let forth every dark inhibition that my mind can conceive? Kind of a sobering thought.

I think these are the things that make Battle Royale an interesting journey. Be warned, the manga and movie are very graphically violent, more so because of who is doing the killing, namely children. There is also a lot of foul language and the manga was at many times sexually explicit. All of it was so over the top as to force you to think about the point of it all.

Conclusion

If these kinds of things put you off, by all means, pass this one up. But if you like to struggle with your own inner demons to arrive at perhaps a better place, then you might want to give Battle Royale a try. In any event, it will stick with you for awhile, and that is one mark of a very good piece of work. In the end it is up to you.