Battle Royale

I found the Battle Royale film back in 2006 on the internet due to the controvery surrounding it, giving it a legendary status akin to Miike's Audition, and adored it. Criticized as violent exploitation when first published in Japan, where it then proceeded to become a runaway bestseller and a MASSIVE and poignant culturally relevant success. Lots of vividly described gore and carnage throughout. Some detailed explanations include eyeballs popping, decapitations, holes shot in bodies, exposed brains or guts, and more. This book is not for the faint of heart.One of the most amazing things about Battle Royale is how the author manages to give his characters fairly fleshed-out lives, despite how many students there are. Most middle school students in real life have cliques and crushes, and these are no exception. (See the circled labels and dotted lines in the chart.) Despite the danger, they find their friends and their beloved. Readers know middle school love hardly survives, but the characters want to die without regrets. They feel compelled to confess their feelings, lose their virginity, or apologize to their friend before they become the next target.The dialogue is natural and hardly ever preachy. Some of the kids involved in politics wax poetic about the country and its failings. Most of them, though, are content to gossip about their crushes or other students. They talk about their families, hobbies, and pasts. They make plans for a future they may never see.Battle Royale is much more than “the first Hunger Games" or the book it ripped off. Its beautiful characterization of a huge cast is phenomenal. The teens are complex human beings, and both their lives and deaths reflect this. While the book is exceptionally gruesome, those deaths tell a story and give dignity to the young lives that just ended. Its pacing keeps readers on their toes, but never drags out too long and I think Battle Royale is a great "step up" for someone who enjoyed the premise of Hunger Games but wants something heavier and more grounded in reality for adults.Whether it be lessons on working together to forge off seemingly impossible situation, the dangers of being a political ideolog and sycophant or conveying the generational gap between adults and teenagers and how adults treat teenagers like idiot rebels without a cause, I was both surprised and pleased to walk away with a different point of view than I had upon beginning this eye opening work of fiction.

I picked up this book to read as a recommendation from a friend. I mentioned that I like the idea of “Hunger Games”, but found the movie to be boring and lost interest of it half way through. “Battle Royal” to me is a combination of “Hunger Games”, “Lord of the Flies”, “Surviving the Game”, and the “Running Man” blended into one epic story.“Battle Royale” starts off with 40-9th grade students who are captured by the government and are taken away to a secluded island. They are instructed to play a game, and are sent out into the island and have to hunt each other down until there is only one survivor left. The winner gets to live a rewarding life.As a fan of horror/thriller books, this book surprisingly satisfied my interest in those genres. Violence is definitely what you get, and a lot of it. Some battles are grotesque and some are simple. It really brings to light what kind of personality changes can happen to someone when they are facing death when given options of survival. At first I was intimidated by the size of this book. It’s a little over 600 pages and double the size of a standard paperback book. The author did a great job of not being overly descriptive in each scene keeping the story a fast paced read. To me, a good chunk of the story could have been shortened. Times when characters reminisce of the past prior to the game did not apply much to the story, and conversations between characters got a little too repetitive. Moments like that could be pace read through in a page or two and you didn’t feel stuck with nonsense rambling-on as senseless filler.Starting the book was a little difficult. As an American, I had difficulties being able to instantly recognize characters by their names, not knowing which names were of male or female context. Sometimes characters are referred to by their last name through the story, and the chart in the first few pages made a great referral. The students drop so fast through the book, that you really don’t have to keep track of whos’ who through the whole story with the exception of a handful of characters.A lot of the book is predictable. I got through 1/4th of the book and was able to foresee the ending. Even the actions/ideas/situations that some of the students carried out were obvious to happen. There weren’t very many twists to the book, but this did not deter me from continuing on reading. The adventure as a whole story kept me enthralled. Action, violence, humor, betrayal, conniving, compassion, strategy and intelligence are riddled throughout the whole book.I absolutely would recommend this book to people who enjoy the horror/thriller genre. I am happy that I have another great book to add to my collection.

Great story one of the best!

This is a dark book. I mention that in advance because I don't usually read fiction this dark. But this was a referral from someone I knew and liked, so I bought a copy. This English translation, by the way, is excellent.The basic setup of this book is that a 9th grade class has been selected to go to an island and fight until only student is alive. They are given collars that track their every move, and the people in charge can hear everything they're saying. Sections of the island are off limits at different times, and if they happen to be in an off-limit area, the collar will explode, thereby killing them. So they have to constantly be on the move.Three main characters emerge in the story, though we are given pretty much the point of view and background of every character in it. This can slow down some of the reading, even though I will admit it made for some heart wrenching moments and really brought home some of the horror of an entire class being told they must kill each other. This is a violent book. The author goes into detail over the way everyone dies.But that being said, there is a spark of hope in the middle of all the horror that takes place. This emerges best in the three main characters, two boys and a girl, who are desperately trying to find a way to stay alive and escape the island. I won't give the ending away, but it was one of the best endings I've ever read in a book. There was a great twist, and though I can't say this book gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling, it did satisfy me. I'd recommend this to people who are okay with reading darker fiction. I wouldn't recommend it to those who prefer light reading.

Good condition and quick delivery

So my son and all his friends are into Fortnite right now. Some of the parents have been saying 'it's all about the Hunger Games!'. I thought, hold on, no it's not, it's about Battle Royale, a Japanese film I watched some years ago. Thought I would give the book a go given I'd read Hunger Games. This is a very well written and translated book. I read lots of books, as you do. This is a big book (think Moby Dick size). Awesome. Page turner. Yes, it's nasty. Yes, it's gruesome. It's also very philosophical. Yes, it's very real and relative to the modern day 21st Century. Cracking read highly recommended.It is a modern day Lord of The Flies with older children, weapons and a 1984 'big brother mentality'. It is William Golding, George Orwell and Koushun Takami rolled into one. The Hunger Games is just a copy. This is the real thing.

Whether or not Battle Royale was the inspiration for The Hunger Games is a debate that continues to rage. For what it's worth I believe Suzanne Collins when she says she had never heard of the book or film, after all it was "banned" in the states until AFTER the first Hunger Games book had been written.... so, it is believable enough.The films are where I jump in. I watched them repeatedly - despite this I didn't realise they had been based on a book. I then tried to find copies of it to no real avail, trying every now and again over the years. It turned out this was a blessing in disguise as the better version of the book (it says Remastered on it) came out later - and this is the version I read. I highly recommend that this is the version you seek out. I have been told on a couple of occasions (and read online) that the original English version of the book is a more difficult read due to bad translation and formatting - probably because it was a rush job after the movie had been so successful internationally.Anyway, Battle Royale is like The Hunger Games in some respects except the violence is ramped ALL THE WAY TO 11! There are several differences throughout between the book and the film but nothing too out of the ordinary. The premise remains the same. The book is set in an alternate Japan of 1997. In this world Japan won World War Two. The country is strongly controlled by the government and anything "immoral" is banned (immoral things include rock music, and mostly anything American). 50 classes of students around Japan are selected to battle their classmates with only one survivor emerging from each group. To be clear, they are not battling students from other places, they only fight the other kids they have been going to school with. That's right - they get to kill their friends, boyfriends, girlfriends and..... enemies. All in the name of battle preparedness.Reading it, it is easy to see why it took three years to go from completion to publication. It is overly violent, and highly critical of certain government ideals. I guess that is why I thoroughly enjoyed it. I highly recommend you check it out.

This was a recommendation from someone who knew I'd read and enjoyed the Hunger games.It's quite telling that this seems to be a popular title so many years past publication in the current climate. It's written in a style which somehow hasn't aged and although this is the translation I believe it hasn't lost any of its potency.The story is simple but effective and the way it's written means you'll kept guessing. More of a caution retail than near future sci-fi I would love to see more from this alternative universe.I read this over a weekend so it's perfectly doable for busy professionals.