Battle Royale

This is the greatest B-Movie in manga. It's cliche and tries too hard to pull at your strings, it's story is nonsensical and inconsistent, and yet I couldn't stop reading. It's pretty gory and violent, has memorable characters and moments, and is just a lot of fun to read. If you're one of those people who needs to twirl their wine and raise their pinkies while they make a "detailed analysis" about themes or symbolism, or any of that sort of literary garnish, you shouldn't read this, you won't enjoy it.

Story: 6/10
The story itself is more or less just standard death game fare.
Art: 8/10
Characters: 5/10
Enjoyment: 8/10
Overall: 8/10

I found a manga median. Lots of violence, lots of sex, and a cliched theme. I recommend reading if you want something to pass the time.

A few years ago I saw a god-awful movie called Battle Royale, I discussed the movie with a friend and he said: Well if you hate the movie that much but liked the concept why don’t you read the original source material. This came as a shock to me at that time, I had no idea that the movie was based on a novel. I never got my hands on the novel so I decided to buy the manga.

I was astonished with the artwork in Volume 1, I kept staring at certain panels trying to figure out how much work they put into this. I was determined to add the complete series to my collection.

Volume 1 starts of with introducing the main characters and a little of their background. Unlike most series the main characters are not the only ones with a well thought out background. Every student in Battle Royale is a character so well developed that it could breath and walk right of the panels. I could even sympathize with the most evil of characters.

The artwork is extremely detailed, and not always for the faint of heart. One of the few flaws of Battle Royale in my opinion may be hidden within the beautiful artwork. Sometimes panels are so extremely detailed that it may be nauseating to stare at it too long.

If you like a little gore, some sexy antagonists, a flinch of love and an air of despair, then there is not another manga I could recommend as much as Battle Royale.

I will try not to spoil anything but if you really want to read this manga blindly please skip my rewiev

First of all first 60 chapters or so was just so great. Mimura, Kawada, Sugimura are all real mans. They were stars of this manga for me. Than Kiriyama happened. He was just stupidly annoying written character. He is literally Japanese Terminator thet does not dies lmao. That really ruined manga for me. After some time MC started to became annoying and did not get any character development after 60 chapters. He was just yelling kawada about what should he do and became a lame shounen protagonist. And that ending pisses me off every time I remember. This manga was just a shounen guro manga and nothing more. Last 30-40 chapters was painful to read actually. Whatever. Overall this manga is 6/10 for me. There is bunch of better mangas like Doubt or Jinrou Game or As The Gods Will. These three mangas are far more better than this and gets less love.

This is mostly intended as an in detail recommendation rather then a review. Battle Royale was amazing. I read the book a while ago, and now I just finished the manga, and I still felt just as into it and just as emotional and on edge reading the manga, as I did reading the book (As In, even though I knew what would happen).

Note: if you read the Battle Royale plot summary you will find it is VERY similar to that of hunger games, but Battle Royale came out a lot earlier (2008 hunger games and 1999 Battle Royale) Honestly I liked both the Hunger Games series and Battle Royale, but I found hunger games to be a massive rip off of it, which was much less intense emotionally, action wise, story wise, and romantically.

Anyway, Here are the main reason I loved Battle Royale:

~ ACTION: ~
Top notch realistic and intense in which you are on the edge of your seat, holding your breath, where all characters have an equal chance to die or live, the action, weapons, sturdiness of bodies and minds were very realistic and there was no overpowered moves, or weapons or abilities, only real life capabilities.

~ PLOT LINE: ~
It had an amazing plot, (can't spoil so I won't give specifics) where just like the hunger games, the setting takes place in a dictatorship where many people are treated horribly, and every year they host "The Program", which "randomly" selects a class of students in a "random" school and without any pre-empt, Bam, you are on a stranded area, now having to fight to the last one standing. The plot intensifies a lot and develops from simple survival into wanting to be free and get back at the program and the cruelty of it.

~ The CHARACTERS: ~
The characters, were all realistic, I mean in terms of mental stability, they acted as normal people, although many of the characters were constantly shifting in their struggle for sanity and while some went insane, others already were, and some just died like dogs. There were 3 main characters. The protagonist; Shuya Nanahara the hero type guy that believes in humanity, his friends, and can't even hold it against any of them to try to kill him, all around a good guy, too trusting though. Shuya develops slowly, but he surely develops into a strong consistent characters that knows his purpose. Noriko Nakagawa is not that major in terms of "Oh I really want to see what she will do next", but she does play an important role as the "anchor" of the the main character and the purpose for him to fight, to kill, and to survive. For a pretty girl, she has a strong, non whiny personality. Shogo Kawada was my favourite, he was the one who carried the manga, literally. Without him the main characters would have died fairly short into the game. Shogo is experienced, calm, and while he does have strong emotions or feelings, his overpowering sense of purpose and calm cold blooded analysis of everything makes him just about as amazing as a human can realistically get. His back story is heartbreaking and he is a truly well designed character.

~ The ART: ~
The art was very good, nothing out of the ordinary, just good quality, consistent, and realistic. The only 1 tiny tiny problem I had in all of the art was the announcer/directors face in the manga, I mean you only see him minutely after the first 20 or less chapters, but his face looks muscle intensive and disfigured. But besides that, the art was well done and there was no faults for the rest of the manga.

~ The ROMANCE: ~
The Romance was a major drive in this story, between Shuya Nanahara and Noriko Nakagawa, they had an intensive love, they are quite literally said to be "star crossed lovers", that is a quote. They love each other deeply, and their love and need to survive for each other and too keep the other alive helps them survive and develop into better characters. There is also quite a bit of other love in this manga, but the main love is between these 2 main characters, and quite the love it is.

Overall this manga was extremely intense, well thought out, relentless and passionate. It didn't stop getting more emotional and exciting, but rather continued to get better and better, upping the ante continually. I strongly guarantee that it if you can handle a mature, realistic and slightly gruesome manga this is something you most likely would enjoy.

The 42 students in Class B of the 1st year of high school at the Shiroiwa school are drawn to "THE PROGRAM" - a battle to the death between students, financed and transmitted by the dictatorship of the Republic of Greater East Asia.

Isolated on an island, armed, and restrained by an explosive necklace, classmates suddenly become enemies where only 1 must survive. Even if it means abandoning your friendships, humanity and hope.

In this unhealthy scenario, BATTLE ROYALE's narrative explores traumas, enmities, bullying and unrequited love in the past of his characters, justifying his actions in the present.

The fat man who was mocked by his colleagues for his sensitivity, now has a loaded beast. The girl with acne on her face has a revolver. The virgin has a pistol and so on ... What these young people become in the face of the horror they live in, is BR's main triumph.

In the 119 chapters, the book makes a point of even briefly telling the past of all its students, whether they were corrupted by the game or not, creating empathy or apathy, giving gravity to the moment of their deaths.

Deaths that insist on brutalizing and shocking; an arrow through the pupil, machine gun bullets penetrating the neck in an unexpected way, give the BR pages the tone of his work.

Silly students are drawn with more humorous strokes, the stronger ones resemble superheroes, the more "dramatic" ones have realistic strokes. When they inhabit the same scene, this mixture causes visual confusion.

There are intense clashes at all times, with sickening bouts at times that Shuuya (protagonist) needs to affirm how unfair the game is.

But the presence of Kazuo Kiryama - Nemesis of Resident Evil 3 in the form of a teenager -, Shougou Kawada - a mysterious 16-year-old with the face of a 30-year-old soldier -, Hiroki Sugimura - Bruce Lee -, Shinji Mimura - good at everything he does - and Mitsuko Souma - daddy's doll - praise the narrative.

Fortnite, CoD Warfare and The Hunger Games are students in kindergarten compared to Takami Goushun's impetuous BATTLE ROYALE.

I started because i heard it was like Dangan Ronpa and i LOVE that game/anime. Plus I like the name. I was severely disappointed, the drawings, they are old so you cant expect much. But I dislike the manga because it was not like Dangan Ronpa. If I have to compare it, it was more like The Hunger Games (second quarter meets third quarter annual hunger games) mixed with hentai. Hentai, why the heck is there hentai in the freaking manga, it is useless and just subtracts from the battle, yes there was a seductive lady but the hentai is not necessary. Also not a fan of eyeballs coming out of their sockets. So the manga would be good if it werent so disturbing, but who knows maybe other ppl like hentai and eyeballs.

Ever since this manga first came out, I struggled to get through it. It's only now that I was finally able to complete it. I couldn't get past the artwork, which is both sickening and cringe-inducing. It's a bizarre mixture of different styles that don't click. Some characters are drawn in a very gritty, hyper-realistic style. Some look Disney-esque (Kawada's girlfriend=Belle from Beauty and the Beast). Some characters look like something out of the Sunday comics (Yutaka Sato). Some look straight up bishoujo. And some characters look very "Mad Magazine" (look up: Basil Wolverton, Mort Drucker and Sam Viviano).

On top of the mixture of cartooning styles is the bizarre mixture of cuteness and gore. Goofy characters in their death scenes will be drawn in extreme close-up and in gory detail. Imagine a "gory" closeup of a dead Donald Duck with pieces of his face missing, an eyeball popping out and exposed teeth and skull and you'll get a picture of how ridiculous some of the artwork looks at times.

Another problem with the artwork is that some of the character designs are so grotesque or ridiculous that I couldn't click with them. I was just too put off. The girl with bad acne, "Frog Boy" and the gay character were so ugly, almost troll-like. Other characters were so cartoony, I couldn't take them seriously. (The very first girl who is killed looks very "Family Guy").

One last problem with the artwork is that it seemed as if the artist forgot that the characters are supposed to be young teens. That is the whole point behind why Battle Royale is horrifying, that young, sweet innocent children are being forced to kill each other. If most of the kids look like hardened 25 year old Yakuza, juvenile delinquents or sleazy porn star veterans, where is the horror? It's the same as watching adults kill each other, so the horror is gone.

As for the story, it was better than the movie adaptation. On the other hand, there was too much gratuitous sex and violence. The gore did absolutely nothing for the story; it just cheapened whatever emotion there was to be had or made you so sick that you were more horrified by what you were seeing than sad for the character. For example, there is one sweet little girl who falls to her death, and the artist drew her with all her innards splattered all over her and her body torn apart. How can you feel sad over her death when all you feel is shock or nausea?

As for the sex scenes, there are pornographic scenes in here straight out of a hentai, one which includes rape (sigh). Ironically, the sexual abuse victim is the one who keeps being put in these scenes. It's almost as if the writer/artists were turned on by her back story of being raped as a child that they sexualized her as a teenager, even in death. Going into the manga, you will think she is the most interesting character and villain, but no--she is reduced to nothing more than cheap sexual eye candy for perverted male readers into rape fantasies and lolicon. The artist and writers didn't even try to pretend what she was; as she's dying, they made sure that the perverts got one last look at her naked body and erect nipples before she is killed off for good.

People complain about the main protagonist, but it's the main villain for me who is the worst character. He's like something out of those Freddy/Jason/Friday the 13th movies. No matter how many times he's shot, he gets right back up again as if nothing happened. There's an explanation for why he survives, but still it's too unrealistic how he keeps surviving round after round without so much as a scratch. He's drawn in a bland style, too. He's actually the least interesting looking character out of anyone in the manga--so uninteresting, in fact, that you would not know he was the main bad guy just by looking at him. I think the artist was bored with him or had run out of character designs. In any event, you'll see exactly what I mean when you see him.

All in all, Battle Royale is so-so. If you can get past the gnarly artwork, you might get something out of it. However, I don't think it's the "masterpiece" everyone has made it out to be. As for the artwork, sorry to harp so much on that but it played a large part in why I didn't enjoy the manga as much as I could have.

it was good when shinji was the main character. but
SPOILERS:


he dies midway, and replaced by mr elvis wanna be cry baby. holy shit worst protagonist every seen. at one point it took him 10 chapters to shoot some one with the constant monologues.

and then there is kiriyama who is literally kid batman fucking invincible plot armor. written to be used as a whim to take down everyone who is a trouble for the protagonist. since the author doesn't want him to actually get to kill anyone lmao.
horrible story elements destroys suspension of belief in the middle somehow they start jumping like ninjas and flipping over flying cards etc. this is supposed to be science fiction or something wtf is with the KI bullshit introduced midway.
it started off very good though i liked the plan to construct a bomb. but after midway it was a painful read. the art was very good though so that kinda kepted me reading. if it wasn't because of that i would have given this a 5/10



JK THE REAL REASON WHY THIS IS 10/10

I SWORE TO MYSELF WHEN I FIRST READ THIS.
IF THE ASSHOLE FAT TEACHER DIED THEN I WOULD GIVE THIS A 10/10
WASN'T DISAPPOINTED IN THE END.

I have to say that I started this series with a recommendation. I was talking with a friend that how I loved "Berserk" and "Gantz" (manga of course). Then he said that there is manga called "battle royale" that I should check it out. After reading the summary of it I was very enthusiastic. However nothing goes as smooth as it begins.

Story starts very promising but then it lose its pace. It always interrupted by pathetic flash backs. There is always a struggle between naive goodness and realistic evil. They tried to create an athmosphere that our good and sweet students are killed by evil ones. There is always a flashback and then a murder. So they think we will be sad:S Its very cliche nothing new to genre.

Characters are so badly arranged. Main character is so naive and always shouting while talking like a hyperactive. Also crying to every dead person. So we have a Pollyanna as a main character. And main evil character is like a robot or you can say inhuman. I dont say that as meaning a stone cold crazy person. Its inhuman in every aspect; reflexes,talents, martial arts. That takes away all that gloomy and realistic athmosphere they tried to create. Other characters has no personality (only their flash back memories which are so typical like revenge issues or promises). No character has charisma to attach you to series. And think that there are 42 characters comprtessed in to 119 chapters.

Art work is not even near the work of gantz or berserk so if you expect sth like that; back off! Art is so discouraging . It does not attach you, ıt can not create a desperate or gloomy atmosphere. Its like they draw it just from necessity. But they draw the close-up's better.

Enjoyment?! Its depression. The depression from finishing the manga u started:S Feelings of hatred against characters because they are so weak or naive and dumb. Pathetic romance trials. Every one going crazy after shooting a cat or sth!!! but everything look so artifical.

One word. ARTIFICAL. This series starts so promising but right after losing everything. Which age group they aimed is still a question. Because if you take gore out there is nothing left for some one 18 and older. No deep thoughts no plot no realistic affairs. Only naiveness remains. Naive and irritating characters with the same cliche "HOPE". So I have to say that if you consider to read this manga after liking gantz or berserk; just pass this amnga and continue your search.