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Rating: Summary: Lord of the Flies on Amphetamines Review: Battle Royale raises disturbing questions. There are inevitable comparisons to 'Lord of the Flies', except that BR is that on amphetamines, plus hormones. Terrifying, and heart-breaking, this is a tale of friendship, love and betrayal, that should not be missed. This is the second volume of the manga, which is based on the book of the same name, which resulted in a movie.Japan. The not-so-distant future. It is a nation run by a military dictatorship, which has control over the media and the country. This most popular of television shows makes 'Survivor' look like 'Sesame Street'. It's simply called the Program, and it's the highest rated show of all time. In Japan, 9th grade is the last year of required schooling, the last year of junior high. And it is the year that 9th grade students are subjected to a state run lottery. But no one wants to win this lottery. You've just woken up after passing out on your class trip. The 42 students in your class, including you, have just found out that they've lost the lottery: the class has been selected to be on the Program. It's a chance to be a star...if you live. 21 boys. 21 girls. The winner? The sole survivor. The Program has been on for years, and no one has ever escaped. You're trapped on an island, with an explosive collar around your neck. If everyone refuses to play, and if no one is killed in a 24 hour period, all the collars detonate, and everyone dies. Try to swim off the island? You'll be shot by the patrol boats; the collars are tracking devices, and transmit the health of the player. Hide, and hope to last things out? Well, the place is divided into grids on the map you've been given with randomly rotating danger zones. When an area is announced as a danger zone, you've 5 minutes to get out, or your collar explodes. Band together, try to take out the sadists who've done this to you and your friends? Ah, but they're located inside a permanent danger zone. You've all been given an assortment of weapons, ranging from knives, sickles, crossbows, shotguns, pistols, and semi-automatic machine pistols. So, you're in the game. What do you do? What will happen to the class cute couple? Will she turn on him? Will he, high on fear and adrenaline, kill her? Will idealists keep to their ideals? Will the person that helped you one day, be driven to kill 2 days later? What will happen when fear, desperation, and hysteria strike? Could you, would you kill your friends? Could you, would you, kill the girl you had a crush on, the guy who you've dated, the friend you grew up with? And if you can't kill them...will they kill you? Thought-provoking, this series is not for kids. This story uses graphic violence to drive home the horror of what has been done to these kids. There is gore, graphic gore, sex and rape. And it all is necessary; the rawness drives home the horror, shows the waste of lives. We often have flashbacks, showing the kids in prior times. Some of these are rotten kids, some of them are merely the products of a terrible background. Others are so sweet, so nice that you'll agonize should they die. And die they do. By the end of the first two books, 15 are dead. There deaths serve to illustrate how no one deserves to die because of the actions of outside authorities, whether it is at the orders of mad government, or from the bullets of a moron shooting up a workplace or school. The morons who did Columbine would no doubt have gotten the wrong message about this book. But the violence serves not to glorify violence, but to excoriate it. It serves not to praise murder, but to condemn murder and those who kill. This manga is about how incredibly precious life is. The only encouragement from the government? Try to die where there are at least two cameras, all the better for the DVD sales.
Rating: Summary: Brilliantly Expanded Version of the Novel Review: Battle Royale raises disturbing questions. There are inevitable comparisons to �Lord of the Flies�, except that BR is that on amphetamines, plus hormones. Terrifying, and heart-breaking, this is a tale of friendship, love and betrayal, that should not be missed. This is the second volume of the manga, which is based on the book of the same name, which resulted in a movie. Japan. The not-so-distant future. It is a nation run by a military dictatorship, which has control over the media and the country. This most popular of television shows makes �Survivor� look like �Sesame Street�. It�s simply called the Program, and it�s the highest rated show of all time. In Japan, 9th grade is the last year of required schooling, the last year of junior high. And it is the year that 9th grade students are subjected to a state run lottery. But no one wants to win this lottery. You�ve just woken up after passing out on your class trip. The 42 students in your class, including you, have just found out that they�ve lost the lottery: the class has been selected to be on the Program. It�s a chance to be a star...if you live. 21 boys. 21 girls. The winner? The sole survivor. The Program has been on for years, and no one has ever escaped. You�re trapped on an island, with an explosive collar around your neck. If everyone refuses to play, and if no one is killed in a 24 hour period, all the collars detonate, and everyone dies. Try to swim off the island? You�ll be shot by the patrol boats; the collars are tracking devices, and transmit the health of the player. Hide, and hope to last things out? Well, the place is divided into grids on the map you�ve been given with randomly rotating danger zones. When an area is announced as a danger zone, you�ve 5 minutes to get out, or your collar explodes. Band together, try to take out the sadists who�ve done this to you and your friends? Ah, but they�re located inside a permanent danger zone. You�ve all been given an assortment of weapons, ranging from knives, sickles, crossbows, shotguns, pistols, and semi-automatic machine pistols. So, you�re in the game. What do you do? What will happen to the class cute couple? Will she turn on him? Will he, high on fear and adrenaline, kill her? Will idealists keep to their ideals? Will the person that helped you one day, be driven to kill 2 days later? What will happen when fear, desperation, and hysteria strike? Could you, would you kill your friends? Could you, would you, kill the girl you had a crush on, the guy who you�ve dated, the friend you grew up with? And if you can�t kill them...will they kill you? Thought-provoking, this series is not for kids. This story uses graphic violence to drive home the horror of what has been done to these kids. There is gore, graphic gore, sex and rape. And it all is necessary; the rawness drives home the horror, shows the waste of lives. We often have flashbacks, showing the kids in prior times. Some of these are rotten kids, some of them are merely the products of a terrible background. Others are so sweet, so nice that you�ll agonize should they die. And die they do. By the end of the first two books, 15 are dead. There deaths serve to illustrate how no one deserves to die because of the actions of outside authorities, whether it is at the orders of mad government, or from the bullets of a moron shooting up a workplace or school. The morons who did Columbine would no doubt have gotten the wrong message about this book. But the violence serves not to glorify violence, but to excoriate it. It serves not to praise murder, but to condemn murder and those who kill. This manga is about how incredibly precious life is. The only encouragement from the government? Try to die where there are at least two cameras, all the better for the DVD sales.
Rating: Summary: Brilliantly Expanded Version of the Novel Review: Having read the book and seen the movie, I think this may be the definitive version of the story. I loved the book, and highly recomend it, but I really like the way Takami has expanded on the characters and the backstory for this Manga version. Unlike the movie where they had to cram a 600 page book into two hours, with this eight vollume manga they have the oportunity to expand that 600 pages into 1600 pages. Sure, you can't fit as much information on a comic page as you can a page in a novel, but almost tripling the length really gives Takami the chance to flesh some things out that were only hinted at or briefly mentioned in the book. Again, don't get me wrong, I loved the book, but based on the first two Manga (the first 400 hundred pages of the comic story,) I think almost every character and situation has been improved, expanded, and refined. Shuya becomes even more noble and likable (and you get to see more about why all the other students seem to like and trust him,) and almost every confrontation he has becomes even more tragic because Takami gives him the chance to be more vocal about not wanting to hurt anyone. Also, in relation to that, Takami spends more time explaining on why the people who force Shuya into fighting act the way they do as well. Another scene that I think benifits greatly from the new telling is the scene where the two lovers commit suicide to avoid having to fight and to avoid losing each other. It's a great scene in the book, but even better in the manga -- the artistic flashback as they jump is heartwrending. An anime magazine in their revue of the Manga tried to say the scene was done better in both the book AND the movie, which I found rediculous. The book is arguable, but in the movie the scene lasts maybe a minute, you get no background information, and you care very little. How that can be compared to the comic, I don't know, but I really think the whole revue in that particular magizine was way off base. As for Giffen's dialogue -- I know some people have complained that he Americanized it -- well, to them I say "that's what he was supposed to do." It's a translation, and part of translating a book is getting the idea across -- not just the literal words. Japanese translated straight into english often seems vague, mystical, unclear, or just plain impossible to understand, and I'm sure English translated straight to Japanese is the same. When I read a translation, I accept that I'm not going to be reading the writers exact words, but that I will be reading his or her ideas instead. Giffen does a tremendous job in my mind of translating Takami's ideas into words the American reader can relate to, and I can't imagine a translation going any better. As for the art -- it's very well done. Some of it is gruesome -- but hey, that's part of the story -- but at the same time, some of it is beautiful. The characters are nicely done and easily distinquishable, and the action plays out in ways easy to understand visualy. I really can't think of a single complaint, artisticaly speaking. Then again, I'm not sure I can think of a single complaint about this manga at all. I even made my wife read it, and she loved it as well. In short, I loved the book, think the movie was pretty good (despite making some needless and overall plot weakening changes,) but feel that the Manga is the one that really tells the whole story and lets you know the characters the best.
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