Battle Royale

Rating:
Summary: "A student is not a tangerine..."
Review: Takami Koushun is, simply put, a freakin' genius. Battle Royale is a twisted, frightening and totally honest look at the result of "successful facism" and a metaphor for modern life. The characters are all incredibly realistic and disturbingly familiar. It's a thought provoking and brutally violent story that begs the question: "Would I [destroy] my friends to survive?"

Although the characters are young, this book really isn't for Junior High students. The incredible level of violence plus some disturbing character histories (if you've seen the movie, you know who I'm talking about...) are almost certainly more many young people can handle. Blowing someone up in Quake is one thing but reading a graphic account of a teenaged boy being blown up for trying to protect the girl he loves is quite another thing.

It's a shame too, though, because young people would benefit most from reading this. In a way, it voices the thoughts of the current generation: Can I trust my friends? Can I trust anyone? Why are adults always trying to [foul things up]?

All in all, Battle Royale is an excellent book. If you can handle extreme violence then, by all means, look into it.

Rating:
Summary: Irresistable
Review: In an alternate Japan, a fascist government rules. Ever since 1947, it has annually run "The Program", a brutal exercise where a class of 9th graders are selected to be taken to an isolated location and forced to kill each other until only one survivor remains. From the first time I heard of Battle Royale's concept, I was intrigued and wary - while the concept holds a strong potential for psychological terror it could also turn out to be little more than a novel premise for a standard gore fest. Thankfully writer Koushun Takami manages an addictive, fast-paced thriller that meets its potential.

Clocking in at over 600 pages, Takami delivers a character driven thrill ride that succeeds by virtue of the personalities that drive the story. Takami fills Battle Royale with the high school archetypes we've become accustomed to seeing. They would be clichés in any other setting but their familiarity brings the reader closer to empathizing with the students. We may have seen these characters a million times before, but never in a setting like this, giving the audience a glimpse into the uncertainly they doomed classmates feel for each other.

There's more to the novel than a well-plotted thrill ride. The story is set in the present of an alternate history. Presumably, the Japan of this universe did not lose in World War II because its militaristic government is reminiscent of the Japan that invaded China in the early twentieth century. This government implements Coming out a few years after novels like Haruiki Murakami's The Wind Up Bird Chronicle, which confronted Japan's attempts to ignore its brutal past, Takami creates a world where nationalistic cruelty turns inwards for lack of other easy victims.

Best known for the gory DVD import that it inspired, Viz tries to give Battle Royale a literary sheen by calling it a "Lord of the Flies for the 21st century". Thankfully, that doesn't turn out to be empty marketing-speak, as an engaging, thought-provoking story lies within Battle Royale's covers.

Rating:
Summary: A Book That is Deservedly Popular, but Highly Misunderstood
Review: Let me make this clear: Despite the myth propogated by various webpages and reviews (as well as the absurd movie adaption) Battle Royale is NOT a commentary on youth violence. Yes, it's rather violent, but the truth is Battle Royale is political commentary.

For this reason, Battle Royale is worth reading, for the situation it presents is entirely relevant, and is eerily similar to many large-scale situations going on in the world today. It represents a world where the government has complete power to do anything they want to their population, even kill them, and they don't even need justification. The novel is NOT about teen violence, but is rather about the dangers of letting the people in power become too powerful. It shouldn't be compared to Lord of the Flies, but rather to George Orwell's Animal Farm and 1984.

Rating:
Summary: "...And we wont stop till we win."
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: A modern literary classic that is a must-read.
Review: I have just received my copy yesterday and I couldn't place the book down. It was that good! I'm already on page 277 and the book is pure genius.

At first I thought the translations were going to be boring and lame. I was dead wrong. Instead of being boring like Homer's the Odyssey or Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Battle Royale was amazing! It is written with many descriptions of emotions that are in a frenzy! You actually feel what it's like to be stuck on a deserted island killing fellow classmates! Gruesome, I know.

This book is violent... But I think that factor is what makes the book what it is. The kids are my age (I'm 16. But I think they might be 15...) and the emotions are raw and constantly changing! One moment a character is crying; the next moment the character kills a fellow classmate! But that's how the game goes.

I was inspired to buy this novel after watching the movie. I thought the movie was great; but the novel is better! I'm grateful I watched the movie first because the novel takes the story a step higher. (I think I'd be let down if I read the novel first and then watched the movie. Happens in other movies I've seen before.)

I read the back of the book and it said Battle Royale was like a modern "Lord of the Flies". That's so true. I read that book last year for English class, and, man, did I enjoy it!

You won't be let down by this book. Koushun Takami is a brilliant author and Yuji Oniki is an awesome translator! If you purchase this book you'll be mighty happy.

Rating:
Summary: Fun read.
Review: I am not going to get into it to much but this is not as brilliant as "Lord of the Flies" and "lite" compared to modern-storytelling of let's say King. But it kept me up several nights so it must have grabbed my attention. And it did! The character development is well thought and the situations (in a unbelievable but in an attention-grabbing scenario) are mostly believable, but the book is somewhat flawed and feels like it was hastily written. It could be because this is Takami's first novel. I don't know, but I will be looking forward to any Takami's coming novels. But comparing this to "Lord of the Flies" is just incorrect. However, don't this does not keep me from saying this is a bad book; tt was fun.

Also...
The book looks huge, but the print is not small and spaced out like a young-adult novel and readable at the same level, which is good. So please don't let the 600+ pages keep you from reading it.

Rating:
Summary: One of the greates books I've read
Review: Being one of the best books that i've read, even surpassing Lord Of The Flies, Battle Royale has changed my perspective on human nature. It used to be "la la la everything is happy and wonderful being a teenager la la la", but now it is "yes, i'm happy now, but if i'm given a gun and told to kill my classmates or have my head blown off, i'll shoot johny in the head in a heartbeat". This book took me only one weekend to read, i couldn't put it down! i've told all my friends about it and i have a 4 person queue of people wanting to borrow it from me. it is very intense, graphic, dramatic, depressing, enlightening, and i even dare say it is commical. i would recomend this book to anyone who likes to read about the grim truth (or in this case the hypothetical) or anyone who likes a good death, destruction, and violence novel. a must read!

Rating:
Summary: Dear lord...that's me!
Review: You're probably wondering who I'm talking about. I'm talking about Shogo. His mind is mine.
If you are a high school student who is not afraid of brutal honesty when it comes to death and human nature, you owe it to yourself to read this book. One of these poor, doomed kids is you. You will see your own death. It's a sobering experince, that really gets you thinking. Read it, now.
Now, like I said, you'd better be ready for some brutal honesty. This shows in the writing style, which is clinical at times, and very human at others. The most infamous example of this would undoubtedly be the 'X STUDENTS REMAINING' at each scene change. This chilling tally even undergoes a transformation. Oh, yeah, and be prepared for accurate descriptions of death. This is not 'Hollywood-style' death, this is 'real-world' death. In other words, messy, and very messy. The biggest example of this is probably the fight between the nunchuk-equipped boy and the icepick-armed girl. Read it and I assure you, you'll know what I mean. Another example of this brutal honesty. The 'instructor'. This man is a cold, heartless bastard who truly enjoys his work. You -will- want him dead within five-minutes of meeting him, tops, for a slow reader. The goverment is of the type that you know is wrong, but you can't do a dammed thing about.
But there is a flip side to this honesty. Because the game is also about trust. You never quite know what a person is thinking, outside of a few characters, unless they're to die soon. And die they will. You are likely to cry for a couple of characters, and just as likely to cheer as other characters meet their messy ends.
Now, the back cover of the english edition calls this "a Lord of the Flies for the 21st century". Close, but not quite. If I was to use a number of different things to sum this up they would be: Lord of the Flies, 1984, snuff films, and Survivor, with a bundle of weapons and a ton of sadism. But this doesn't even come close. If you just read the book and can't find a connection to the characters (older readers, I'm talking to you), you will find this book to be much like the Program itself: violent, twisted, and ultimately, to quote Shogo: "Pointless". But if you see yourself in even one of these characters, you will have one very important question answered for you: "What will I do to survive?" In Lord of the Flies, a power struggle, along with the absence of authority, doomed the island society to a catastrophic breakdown. In Battle Royale, however, there is no peaceful way out. Authority is forcing you to kill. And no matter how much you believe in the fundamental goodness of humanity, you can't stop the truth portrayed in this book.
Battle Royale is a wake-up call to the New Age, and a hard lesson that really needs to be learned.
Oh, and in case you're wondering what my answer to that charming little question is, it's kill. Me over you.

Rating:
Summary: The first one I read (by accident)
Review: I meant to buy the first one, but picked this one by mistake. All the better for me! As it has been said before, BR is a ground-braking seires, full of raw emotion and action. This book is probably the only book in the series where-guess what-nobody dies. Here, we lean more about Shogo Kawada, my numero uno favorite character. With each volume of this great manga, we learn more about these real-as-life characters, and you hope and hope they get out okay.
If you're unsure about the BR series, buy number 6 first. The intense story line will get you hooked, and the characters will become living, breathing people. I gave this book about a 4.94 on the scale, because I felt like it should have been longer. ^_~

Rating:
Summary: Okay, I Love It, Sue Me
Review: This book is high calorie, zero nutrition junk food.
And it's insanely, madly entertaining.

I was turned off at first by the fact that the protagonist and most of the 42 students do not want to kill each other. They spend most of the novel wandering around, hiding, forming alliances. And trying to figure out a way to escape.

I might have found it more satisfying if they all understood that there was no way out, and each of them ultimately gave their all to killing everyone else.

But on the other hand, I was enthralled by this because while most of the students don't want to play, there are just a handful who do. And all the game needs to be completed is one student willing to kill.

In that role are the only two characters I really like:
Mitsuko Souma, the gangsta bitch with the face of an angel.
And Kazuo Kiriyama, the very picture of apathy. He's a mass murderer who is completely at peace with himself.

These wicked, souless, brutal antagonists make the book worthwhile, as they roam around the island and slaughter everyone still holding onto his or her conscience.

The prose in this book is weak to be kind. I don't know if this is the fault of the translator or not, but it doesn't matter since the English version is the one I am reading. The dialogue is at times cringe-inducing, and there's a lot of addled prattle about 'fascism'. And, like, how bad it is. It's about time an author went out on a limb and denounced fascism.

Nevertheless, despite constant character introductions, the book moves along at a good pace after the initial set up. It is especially fascinating to find out the different weapons each student was randomly given to start with. Some get machine guns, some get kitchen forks. It's exciting seeing who bumps into who, and some of the death scenes that follow are excellent.

This is a 600 page book. And it's a translated book. It says something that I finished it in five days. I loathe pop fiction, but I ended up loving this one in spite of myself.