Battle Royale
by Koushun Takami
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Book Reviews of Battle Royale
Book Review: Irresistable
Summary: 4 Stars
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.
Book Review: Simply wonderful
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm an avid reader and a shopaholic(of books) at Amazon(and I'm from the Philippines even) but I've never written a single review for a book no matter how I deemed it wonderful.
Battle Royale is different though; it compelled me to start typing here. This books is simply wonderful and I want my testimony to add to the ever growing list.
Granted, the text was a bit poor; whether or not the Japanese version was originally like that or was corrupted by translation, I don't know. The emotions, reactions and details weren't that specific and seemed rush. There were times that the descriptions would simply bore and I would skip all these.
What's then is so great about Battle Royale? Frankly, I don't know. I just feel lightheaded and satisfied whenever I'm reading it.(I even threw aside the growing pile of homeworks just to be able to finish it.)
One is probably the characters. The class is brimming with different personalities, from a perfect robot, to a porn-star to a queer. There are characters you would feel attached with that reading them die would feel so sad.
Another is the logic in the novel. I probably wasn't that critical, but I deemed there were barely any flaws in the entire system. Ideas came in and went, almost none being far-fetched. The connection from one event and location to another would simply bring you to say "Ah!"
The third one is human relations present in this film. Especially the last chapter, but I'll not get into detail :)
The last one is that there are instanced when I expected something which I thought was "sneaky" and expected very few to notice it. This event happens, and then another thing turns out!
There are probably more reasons, but I couldn't articulate them quite well. One thing though: the story isn't that deep.
But then, I don't really care ^^. So to you reading this review, but this book immediately. It'll truly be worth it.
Book Review: To kill, or not to kill? That is the question
Summary: 4 Stars
Battle Royale is the story of Shiroiwa Junior High School's class B third year students and their internal and external struggle to survive. Having been both a fan of the movie and manga (comic book) of the same name, I stepped into this book with high expectations - after all, this is the ONE that started it all.
Overall, the book is a facinating, truthfully gory, strikingly innocent tale about students who are in that stage of life where you are not an adult, nor a child.
Because several reviews point out the good qualities, I will touch up on the bad points -
One of my (very few) gripes lies within the writing style. The book begins in a narrative, dips into third person limited point of view, and bounces back into narrative, all within the same page.
The book also doesn't begin to get interesting until about page 100 or so, when the actual Battle Royale begins.
The manga and movie outshine the novel here - the manga begins with a bang, and the movie has the advantage of actors to portray their fear and anger. While the book is simple and understated in its descriptions, the movie and manga have the visual element - you see a jr. high school student kill his best friend out of paranoia and fear - you see the class 'fat kid' slowly crumble to insanity before meeting his doom. The book simply states the facts, without any descriptions, and simply relies on stereotypes and later characters' words to give life to the departed.
Of course, this is a minor complaint out of the whole - if Takami-sensei took the time to talk about all 42 students, this book would be about a billion pages long!
However, the pacing and suspense is gripping. You wonder who will survive in the end, who will betray who, and deceptions run as wild as a soap opera without the blatent cheesiness and predictability.
Battle Royale is a blood-soaked diamond in the rough. But -Oh! - how it shines!
Book Review: All I can say is ..."wow!"....
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased this novel because I wanted to see the movie. The movie is unavailable in the United States (not banned, as we are led to believe) and I wanted to see what the controversy was all about.
We all know the premise of the story, so I won't go over it here. I will say that I could not put this book down. It almost immediately dives into the action and almost never lets up. It is bloody, brutal, and merciless as it hacks away one 9th grader after another. This is where the American controversy lies: Do we really want to see kids this young butchering each other? College kids, yes. Older teenagers, sure. But Junior High kids? The first school shooting after the movie is released in America, and the lucky production company will have a lawsuit on their hands faster than you can say Columbine.
After I read the book, I did make it a point to obtain a copy of the movie. You can spend about 30$ on a region 0, NTSC format DVD, that will play on most standard US DVD players. It was awsome but the backstory varied greatly from the novel.
In reference to a review where the dialogue between students is characterized as elementary, the thoughts and actions of 15 year olds in a sheltered society should be elementary. Up until they were forced to fight and die, the most important thing in their world was probably who had a crush on who. It's part of their youthful innocence or immature view of the world.
And maybe the ending was a bit predictable, I mean you know who the main characters are from Chapter 1. But the book is so good, that in my mind, I'm thinking "who cares?"! Nothing is perfect, and opinions are like (you know whats) - everybody has one.
Just get the book. Chances are if you were interested enough to look up Battle Royale on Amazon, you will probably love it.
Book Review: A Painful Read
Summary: 2 Stars
I bought this book because of the interesting premise: in a dystopian Japanese society, the totalitarian, repressive government forces classes of middle-school students into a bloody, brutal winner-take-all tournament where losing means death, and society accepts this violent ritual as a twisted rite of teenage passage. Originally written in Japanese by Koushun Takami, this book has elements of other well-known books such as The Most Dangerous Game and The Lord of the Flies, but weaves those elements in a unique way, resulting in a bloody, violent, but entertaining work of fiction.
So why the two stars? If you are a fan of writing, particularly good writing, the English translation of this edition is marginally better than a babelfish-translated technical manual (if you've never had to rely on a machine-translated version of foreign material, consider yourself lucky). The writing is formulaic and prosaic; in short, the book seems to have been translated by someone without a firm grasp of the English language, with colloquialisms and subtlety seemingly given a literal translation -- those elements (and others) made the book extremely (and painfully) difficult to read.
While the style of writing may work and be acceptable in the original Japanese language form, or in manga format (and Battle Royale does have a multi-volume manga version), it is extremely disappointing that the publisher did not see how poorly such a style of writing translated into English. Thus, while I give credit to the originality and creativity of the story, I found the poor execution of the novel to be unforgivable. If you can put up with the writing (and I think most well-read readers will have a difficult time doing so), then you are in for an moderately enjoyable, bloody read -- if not, get ready for a painful ride.