Battle Royale (novel)

This article is about the novel. For other uses, see Battle Royale (novel) (disambiguation).

Battle Royale

Battle Royale English translation cover, first edition
Author	Koushun Takami
Translator	Yuji Oniki
Language	Japanese
Genre	Dystopian novel
Publisher	Ohta Publishing
Publication date	April 1999
Publication place	Japan
Published in English	February 26, 2003 November 17, 2009 (expanded edition)
Media type	Print (Paperback)
Pages	616
ISBN	9784872334523
OCLC	42776171

File:Battle Royale 2009 ediiton.jpg

Cover of the 2009 expanded edition, ISBN 978-1-4215-2772-7

Battle Royale (バトル・ロワイアル, Batoru Rowaiaru) is a 1999 Japanese novel written by Koushun Takami. The story tells of schoolchildren who are forced to fight each other to the death.

The novel has been adapted into a 2000 film and a manga series, and translated into Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Russian, Norwegian, and Hungarian.

Plot

Okishima Island map seen inside the cover of the novel

Battle Royale takes place in an alternate timeline—Japan is a member region of a totalitarian state known as the Republic of Greater East Asia (大東亜共和国 Dai Tōa Kyōwakoku). Under the guise of a "study trip", a group of students from Shiroiwa Junior High School (城岩中学校 Shiroiwa Chūgakkō) in the fictional town of Shiroiwa (Kagawa Prefecture) are gassed on a bus. They awaken in the Okishima Island School on Okishima, an isolated, evacuated island southwest of Shodoshima, also in Kagawa Prefecture (modeled after the island of Ogijima). They learn that they have been placed in an event called the Program. Officially a military research project, it is a means of terrorizing the population, of creating such paranoia as to make organized insurgency impossible.

The Program began in 1947. According to the rules fifty third-year high school classes are selected (prior to 1950, forty-seven classes were selected) annually to participate in the Program for research purposes. The students from a single class are isolated and are required to fight the other members from their class to the death. The Program ends when only one student remains, with that student being declared the winner. Their movements are tracked by metal collars, later identified as Model Guadalcanal No. 22, which contain tracking and listening devices; if any student should attempt to escape the Program, or enter declared forbidden zones, a bomb will be detonated in the collar, killing the wearer. If no one dies in a 24 hour time period, there will be no winner and all collars will be detonated simultaneously.

After being briefed about the Program, the students are issued survival packs that include a map, compass, flashlight, food and water, and a random weapon or other item, which may be anything from a gun to a paper fan. During the briefing, two students (Fumiyo Fujiyoshi and Yoshitoki Kuninobu) anger the supervisor, Kinpatsu Sakamochi, who kills both. As the students are released onto the island, they each react differently to their predicament; beautiful delinquent Mitsuko Souma murders those who stand in her way using deception, Hiroki Sugimura attempts to find his best friend and his secret love, Kazuo Kiriyama attempts to "win" the game by any means necessary (the reader is informed about Kiriyama's motives, which stem from his lack of ability to feel human emotion due to a brain injury sustained in a car crash) and Shinji Mimura makes an attempt to escape with his best friend Yutaka Seto.

In the end, four students remain: protagonist Shuya Nanahara, Noriko Nakagawa, Shogo Kawada—a survivor of a previous instance of the Program—and antagonist Kazuo Kiriyama. Following a car chase and shoot-out between Kazuo and the main characters, Noriko kills Kazuo by shooting him, but to absolve the quiet and naturally good-natured Noriko of any guilt, Shogo then shoots Kazuo, claims he is in fact responsible for Kazuo's death, and then takes his two partners to a hill. After telling Shuya and Noriko that he will kill them, Shogo shoots in the air twice, faking their deaths for the microphones planted on the collars. He then dismantles the collars using information he had previously hacked into the government servers to obtain. Shogo boards the winner's ship, as do Shuya and Noriko, covertly, a short while later. On the ship, Shogo kills Sakamochi and a soldier, while Shuya kills the other soldiers on board. Shogo tells Shuya how to escape, succumbs to his wound from the battle with Kiriyama and dies. The two remaining students return to the mainland and attempt to travel to find a clinic belonging to a friend of Shogo's father. From there, they make plans to escape to the U.S., facing an uncertain future as they run from the authorities who have spotted them as they try to board a train.

Characters

Main article: List of Battle Royale characters

Background

Takami describes the characters as possibly being "kind of all alike", being "all the same" despite differing appearances and hobbies, and being static characters. Takami used the descriptions in contrast to the manga version, co-written by himself and Masayuki Taguchi, which he believes has a more diverse and developing cast.

Publication

Battle Royale was first published in April 1999 (Ohta Publishing: ISBN 4872334523). In August 2002, it was released in a revised, two-part pocket edition (Gentosha: ISBN 4344402707 and ISBN 4344402715).

Supporting materials

Kōji Ōnuma (大沼 孝次, Ōnuma Kōji) wrote Battle Royale: Kyokugenshinri Kaisekisho (バトル・ロワイヤル 極限心理解析書, Batoru Rowaiyaru Kyokugenshinri Kaisekisho, roughly Battle Royale: Analysis of Extreme Psychology), a dissertation which explores the themes of the book.

Adaptations

Feature films

Main articles: Battle Royale (film) and Battle Royale II: Requiem

Battle Royale was adapted into a 2000 feature film of the same name, written by Kenta Fukasaku and directed by Kinji Fukasaku. It was followed in 2003 by Battle Royale II: Requiem

Manga

Main articles: Battle Royale (manga) and Battle Royale II: Blitz Royale

A manga adaptation, written by Takami and illustrated by Masayuki Taguchi, was serialized in Akita Shoten's Young Champion Magazine from November 2002 to January 2006.

A second manga, Battle Royale II: Blitz Royale, first appeared on Young Champion Magazine on July 2003. Written and illustrated by Hiroshi Tomizawa, the new series ties-in with Fukasaku's second Battle Royale film, having no continuity with the original novel nor the original manga adaptation.

In 2011, a two chapter spin-off manga titled Battle Royale: Angels' Border was drawn by Mioko Ohnishi and Youhei Oguma (each drawing one chapter). They were published in Young Champion Magazine and later combined into one volume on January 20, 2012.

Theatre

In 2012, a theatre company in Philippines adapted the novel and some elements from the manga version into a live theatre presentation called "Battalia Royale", having the debut performances at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. Performances where also held at an abandoned high school in Quezon City.

Cultural references

Bruce Springsteen's 1975 song "Born to Run" is quoted numerous times throughout the novel, being amongst the first words the reader reads in the introduction. Shuya is known to be a Springsteen fanatic and even substitutes Noriko's name in for the "Wendy" of the song in the closing lines of the book.

The Battle Royale novel was highly acclaimed. The writer Stephen King included the book in his 2005 summer reading list, describing it as "an insanely entertaining pulp riff."

See also

• The Hunger Games

References

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