 First edition cover, as published by Ohta Publishing | |
| Author | Koushun Takami |
|---|---|
| Translator | Yuji Oniki(2003 edition) Nathan Collins(2014 edition) |
| Language | Japanese |
| Genre | Dystopian Horror |
| Publisher | Ohta Publishing |
Publication date | April 1999 |
| Publication place | Japan |
Published in English | February 26, 2003 byViz Media |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 666 |
| ISBN | 4-87233-452-3 |
Battle Royale (Japanese:バトル・ロワイアル,Hepburn:Batoru Rowaiaru) is a Japanesedystopianhorror novel by journalistKoushun Takami.Battle Royale is thefirst novel from Takami and was originally completed in 1996 but was not published until 1999. The book tells the story of junior high school students who are forced to fight each other to the death in a program run by a fictionalfascist,totalitarian Japanese government known as the Republic of Greater East Asia.
The dystopian novel was previously entered into the 1997 Japan Horror Fiction Awards but was eventually rejected in the final round due to concerns over its depictions of students killing each other. Upon publication in 1999, the novel became a surprise bestseller.
In 2000, one year after publication,Battle Royale was adapted intoa manga series, written by Takami himself, anda feature film. The film was both controversial and successful, becoming one of the year's highest-grossing films as well as prompting condemnation by Japan'sNational Diet. The film spawneda sequel, and two more brief manga adaptations were also created.
Battle Royale takes place in a fictional fascistJapan in the year 1997. The state, known as the Republic of Greater East Asia (大東亜共和国,Dai Tōa Kyōwakoku), arose after analternate World War II where Japan emerged victorious, and a rebellion was put down by the combined military and police forces. The government controls everything, alongside an unnamed dictator with a strong cult of personality, able to bend the whims of the populace; anything "immoral" – such as rock music – is banned, unless it beautifies the government.
The government has established a military program, the Battle Experiment No. 68 Program (戦闘実験第六十八番プログラム,Sentō Jikken Dai Rokujū Hachi Ban Puroguramu), wherein fifty randomly selected classes of third-year junior high school students are kidnapped, dropped into a remote location, and forced to kill one another until only one student of each class remains. Ostensibly, it is to help the government and its military research survival skills and battle readiness – in actuality, it is meant to instill terror and distrust in all of Japan's citizens to curb any attempts at rebellion by showcasing the government's power and ability to target citizens' families and preying on the fear of being killed by a friend.
A group of students from Shiroiwa Junior High School (城岩中学校,Shiroiwa Chūgakkō), a junior high school in the fictionalKagawa Prefecture town of Shiroiwa, prepare for a field trip. Among them are wannabe rock star Shuya Nanahara, whose father was killed by the regime; Noriko Nakagawa, the demure crush of Shuya's best friend; Shogo Kawada, a quiet, tough young transfer student; and sociopathic prodigy Kazuo Kiriyama and the beautiful Mitsuko Souma. En route, they are gassed – the "field trip" was a ruse for the Program.
They awake in a classroom on a small, vacated island, surrounded by troops, and wearing metal collars around their necks. A teacher, psychopathic sadistKinpatsu Sakamochi, briefs the students: the class has been chosen to participate in the Program. The students are also given a time limit. If twenty-four hours pass without someone being killed, then all of the collars will be detonated simultaneously, and there will be no winner. It is mentioned that only 0.5% of Programs end in this fashion. The students are issued survival packs and a random weapon/tool and sent out onto the island individually. While most students receive guns and knives, some acquire relatively useless items like boomerangs, dartboard darts, or a fork. Hiroki Sugimura finds a radar device that tracks nearby students, and Toshinori Oda receives abulletproof vest.
To make sure the students obey the rules and kill each other, the metal collars around their necks track their positions. They will explode if they attempt to remove the collars or linger in "Forbidden Zones": randomly chosen areas of the map that increase in number over time, re-sculpting and shrinking the battlefield and forcing the students to move around. The collars secretly transmit sound back to the game organizers, allowing them to hear the students' conversations, root out escape plans, and log their activities.
The students desperately fight amongst each other for survival, with mentally ill bullies Mitsuko Souma and Kiriyama killing many. Shuya takes Noriko under his wing after his best friend is killed, believing that he has a duty to honor his fallen friend by protecting his crush. Shogo – who is revealed to be the winner of a previous Battle Royale and hopes to put an end to the Program – avoids the fighting, joining with Shuya. Shuya's friend, athlete Shinji Mimura, attempts to hack the system running the Program and bomb the building where Sakamochi and the other personnel overseeing the Program are stationed, but is killed by Kiriyama.
Eventually, halfway through the third day, only Shogo, Shuya, Noriko, Kiriyama and Mitsuko remain, with Kiriyama and Mitsuko dead set on hunting down the trio. Kiriyama kills Mitsuko. After a frantic car chase, Kiriyama is finally gunned down. Shuya and Noriko are held at gunpoint by Shogo, who taunts them over being so naive as to trust anyone in the Program; the collars record gunshots and Shuya and Noriko flatlining.
Declared the winner by Sakamochi, Shogo is escorted to his transport off the island, surrounded by soldiers. Sakamochi, however, reveals that he knows Shuya and Noriko are alive and that his supposed execution of Noriko and Shuya was a ruse after he found a way to disable their collars and attempts to kill Shogo. Shogo kills him as a hidden Shuya and Noriko hijack the ship and kill the soldiers on board. As the boat sails towards the mainland, Shogo succumbs to his wounds sustained during the fight with Kiriyama and dies, but not before thanking Shuya and Noriko for being his friends.
On the advice of Shogo, Shuya and Noriko escape to the mainland and plan to flee to a democratic America, pursued by the government.
In the 1990s,Koushun Takami came up with the original story concept forBattle Royale after having adream.[1] Takami stated in 2009:
I was lying in myfuton, half asleep, half awake, and I got the mental image of a teacher from a school drama I saw on TV long ago. He said, “All right class, listen up.” [...] “Now today, I’m going to have you kill each other!” The image of him grinning as he spoke was so vivid, I laughed, but was also terrified. [...] And with just that, I knew I had something to write about.
— Koushun Takami (2009)[1]
He came up with the titleBattle Royale after discussing his story concept with his friends, who said it sounded like a reimaginedpro-wrestlingbattle royal match. Takami then took an interest in the social aspect of a battle royal match, such as how former enemies work together in order to defeat a stronger foe and particularly how former allies betray each other for their own glory. For theworldbuilding, he was inspired by his upbringing in 1960s Japan, whenlarge groups of revolutionaries fought back against police brutality. His depiction of atotalitarianfascist government was also influenced by his favouriteStephen King novel,The Long Walk (1979), which is about awalking contest organized by a totalitarian government.[1]
Takami completedBattle Royale when he stopped working as a journalist in 1996.[2] The story was rejected in the final round of the 1997Japan Horror Fiction Awards [ja] (ja:日本ホラー小説大賞), which took place in March 1998, because of its controversial content.[3][4] Masao Higashi, who took part in the award's preliminary selection committee, later suspected this was due to its backdrop of students killing each other being too reminiscent of theKobe child murders committed the previous year.[5]Battle Royale was first published in April 1999 byOhta Publishing.[6] In August 2002, it was released in a revised, two-partbunkobon byGentosha.[7][8]
Takami describes the characters as possibly all being "kind of alike", being "all the same" despite differing appearances and hobbies, and beingstatic characters. Takami used these descriptions in contrast to the manga adaptation he wrote, with Masayuki Taguchi illustrating, which he believes has a more diverse and well-developed cast.[9]
Battle Royale was translated intoEnglish by Yuji Oniki and released in North America byViz Media on February 26, 2003. An expanded edition with a revision of Oniki's translation and anafterword by Takami was published on November 17, 2009, by Haikasoru, a division of Viz Media. This version also included an interview with the director of the book's film adaptation,Kinji Fukasaku. Viz released a new translation by Nathan Collins on April 1, 2014, under the titleBattle Royale: Remastered.[10] They also publishedThe Battle Royale Slam Book: Essays on the Cult Classic by Koushun Takami on the same day, which includes essays on the details of the novel and the controversies surrounding it as well as its adaptations written by science-fiction, horror, and thriller authors such asBrian Keene,John Skipp, andCatherynne M. Valente.[10]
Amanga adaptation, written by Takami and illustrated by Masayuki Taguchi, was serialized inAkita Shoten'sYoung Champion from 2000 to 2005.[9] It was collected into fifteentankōbon volumes,[11][12] and published in North America byTokyopop from 2003 to 2006.[13][14]
A second manga,Battle Royale II: Blitz Royale, ran inYoung Champion from 2003 to 2004.[15][16] Written and illustrated by Hiroshi Tomizawa, it was collected into twotankōbon volumes.
In 2011, a two chapter spin-off manga titledBattle Royale: Angels' Border was drawn by Mioko Ohnishi and Youhei Oguma (each drawing one chapter). It focuses on the six girls who holed up in the lighthouse, was published inYoung Champion and later combined into onetankōbon volume on January 20, 2012.[17] The single volume was published in North America byViz Media on June 17, 2014.[18]
Battle Royale was adapted into a 2000 feature film ofthe same name, directed byKinji Fukasaku and written by his sonKenta Fukasaku. The film was also controversial and successful, with it being condemned by members of Japan'sNational Diet on grounds of it being harmful to the youth,[19] yet becoming one of the year's highest-grossing films.[20] It was followed in 2003 byBattle Royale II: Requiem.
In June 2006,Variety reported thatNew Line Cinema, with producersNeal Moritz andRoy Lee, intended to produce a new American film adaptation ofBattle Royale.[21] However, New Line never secured remake rights and, following theVirginia Tech shooting in April 2007, Lee stated that prospects for the project had been "seriously shaken."[22] In 2012, Lee stated aremake would no longer be possible due to the release of thefilm adaptation ofThe Hunger Games, which has been criticized for its similarities toBattle Royale, stating, "Audiences would see it as just a copy ofGames — most of them wouldn't know thatBattle Royale came first. It's unfair, but that's reality." However, he stated that he might return to the film in ten years to "develop aBattle Royale movie for the next generation."[23]
In 2012, the Sipat Lawin Ensemble and two other college theater groups in thePhilippines, made an unofficial loose adaptation of the novel into a live-action performance calledBattalia Royale, which had its debut at theCultural Center of the Philippines. Performances were also held at an abandoned high school inQuezon City.[24]
On July 26, 2012, theLos Angeles Times reported thatThe CW Television Network had been in discussions with Hollywood representatives about the possibility of turningBattle Royale into an American television show. According to a spokesperson, the talks were only preliminary, but if a deal could be reached, the network would acquire rights to Koushun Takami's novel, then expand on it for an hourlong dramatic series. Joyce Jun, a Hollywood attorney representing U.S. rights to the title, states that "there is no deal in place." A CW spokesman only confirmed there had been some discussion, declining to comment further.[25]
At theTelevision Critics Association winter press tour on January 13, 2013, CW presidentMark Pedowitz stated "At this time, we're not planning to do anything withBattle Royale."[26] He clarified that the reports stemmed from one phone call he made to see if the rights to the book were available and also noted that his interest in the novel predated the2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting and theSandy Hook Elementary School shooting.[27]
Upon publication in 1999,Battle Royale became a best-seller in Japan.[28] The original Japanese novel sold more than 1 million copies, before being translated into nearly a dozen languages.[29]
The novel was entered into the 1997 Japan Horror Fiction Awards, but was eventually rejected in the final round with no winner that year.[3] All three members of the final round's selection committee that year admittedBattle Royale was the best work, but declined to award it due to its controversial content.Hiroshi Aramata said that while it was the best nominee in terms of "story, structure, and subject matter," he felt it was too much of aKinpachi-sensei parody and suspected its content would cause problems.Katsuhiko Takahashi felt that although it was the superior work as far as its construction as a novel, giving the award to a story about students killing each other at "this time" would hurt the reputation of the competition. Mariko Hayashi said that while she believed it was the best of the four novels, it was like reading an "unpleasant near-future manga" and "No matter how squarely it might behorror or how interesting it might be, I'm not so sure we should be writing stories like this."[3] In 2001, Kōji Ōnuma wroteBattle Royale: Kyokugenshinri Kaisekisho (バトル・ロワイアル 極限心理解析書,Batoru Rowaiaru Kyokugenshinri Kaisekisho; roughly "Battle Royale: Analysis of Extreme Psychology"), a dissertation that explores the themes of the book.[30]
Battle Royale has been critically acclaimed abroad. InEntertainment Weekly, writerStephen King included it as one of the seven books in his 2005 summer reading list, after it was recommended to him by novelist Kelly Braffet (writer ofJosie and Jack). King describedBattle Royale as "an insanely entertaining pulp riff that combinesSurvivor withWorld Wrestling Entertainment. Or maybeRoyale is just insane." He also notes that it has some similarities to his own novelThe Long Walk. He concludes the brief review with a "No prob," as "Takami'sSpringsteen-quoting teenagers are fond of saying."[31]
David N. Alderman, writing for the Red Room site, gaveBattle Royale a score of 4½ out of 5 stars, stating that the "story itself is brilliant. Touted as being extremely controversial, especially for the time it was released, the book opens up all sorts of doors to conversations and thoughts about psychology, murder, survival, love, loyalty, and moral ground." While noting that those who "cringe atslash and hack" should "steer away from this" since "it is a bit gory," he states that it is "definitely worth the read" and concludes that it has "touches of romance, and definitely some great moral themes to spark off in-depth conversations with others."[32]Complete Review gave the novel a B rating, describing it as "a perfectly finethriller, with a fun premise, quite well drawn-out."[33] InThe Journal of the Lincoln Heights Literary Society, Tom Good praises the novel, concluding that, as "a pulp-fiction horror tale,Battle Royale delivers plenty of thrills, action, suspense and fun."[34]
Since its release, the novel and its film adaptation have had an influence on later works. These include filmmakers such asQuentin Tarantino,[35][36] most notably hisKill Bill films;[37] the character Gogo Yubari, played byChiaki Kuriyama, is similar to the character she plays in theBattle Royale film,Takako Chigusa.[38] V.A. Musetto of theNew York Post also compared it toThe Condemned, which the critic called "a bad rip-off" ofBattle Royale as well asThe Most Dangerous Game.[39] Critics have also noted the influence ofBattle Royale on other later works, such as the 2008 filmKill Theory,[40] the 2009 filmThe Tournament,[41] and the 2016 filmThe Belko Experiment,[42] and have noted similarities with the novel and film franchiseThe Hunger Games.[23][43] Themanga,anime and film franchiseGantz and the 2007video gameThe World Ends with You have both been compared toBattle Royale.[44][45]
The 2008 American young adult novelThe Hunger Games bySuzanne Collins has been accused of being strikingly similar toBattle Royale in terms of the basic plot premise. While Collins maintains that she "had never heard of that book until her book was turned in", Susan Dominus ofThe New York Times reports that "the parallels are striking enough that Collins's work has been savaged on the blogosphere as a baldfaced ripoff," but argued that "there are enough possible sources for the plot line that the two authors might well have hit on the same basic setup independently."[46] The general consensus in the time since has been one of amicable controversy, especially since the release ofThe Hunger Games film adaptation.Battle Royale author Takami said he appreciated fans "standing up" for his book, but stated that he thinks "every novel has something to offer," and that if "readers find value in either book, that's all an author can ask for."[47]
The 2012 comicAvengers Arena has a similar plot toBattle Royale. Additionally, the cover of its first issue bears a homage to theBattle Royale film poster; featuring the main characters posed in the same manner and a similarly designed logo.[48]
The novel and especially its film adaptation have been influential in globalpopular culture, inspiring numerous works of fiction in a number of different media, particularly inEast Asia and theWestern world. Since the film's release, the term "battle royale" has been used to refer to a fictional narrative genre and/or mode of entertainment inspired by the film, where a select group of people are instructed to kill each off until there is a triumphant survivor. The "battle royale" phenomenon has become especially popular in the 2010s.[49] A video game genrewith the same name became popular in the 2010s, with games such asPlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds,Fortnite Battle Royale, andApex Legends setting player-count records. Other works focused on the doubt and mistrust among a group of people in a "murder game", such as theSaw film series,The Cube, and games in theDanganronpa series.[50][51]
In 2021,Squid Game creatorHwang Dong-hyuk citedBattle Royale, particularly the manga version, as an inspiration behind the hitNetflix show.[52]
Like Battle Royale crashed into Wings of Desire with courtesy breasts, Gantz throws everyday people into a life-or-death conflict, but focuses on their humdrum musings — what to wear, how to impress girls, who gets the rocket launcher.
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