Battle Royale by Koushun Takami

I, as I’m sure many of you have as well, have heard the constant comparisons of Battle Royale to the recent big hit The Hunger Games. This interested me I am very much a person who is interested in ‘originals’, as in I’m very determined to read a book before I watch the film adaption, I just like to see how the two measure up.  So when I hear people say that The Hunger Games is almost exactly the same as Battle Royale my interest in both heightened.

Battle Royale is translated from Japanese and focuses on a class of 15 year old Japanese students whose class is randomly selected for ‘The Program’. Japan, in this timeline, is ruled by the Republic of Greater East Asia. A lot of emphasis is put on the tyrant rule over Japan and the mistreatment of the people throughout the book.

The book starts with the class on a bus going on a school trip, with brief introductions to most of the members of the class with various cliques and friendship groups being established as well as individual student’s talents being described. The bus is the gasses making all the students unconscious.

The students reawaken in a classroom which is described as very similar to their own. They wake up to be introduced to ‘The Program’ by the organiser Sakamochi who informs them that their class has been selected to take part in the ‘The Program’ and that they must kill each other until one is left. Two students interrupt Sakamochi’s briefing and are mercilessly killed.

The students are systematically sent out with a day pack, containing a weapon, a map, list of students, a compass and food and water. There are various rules which are in place throughout ‘The Program’, someone must be killed within twenty four hours or the collars which were places around their necks will detonate and kill them all, every six hours Sakamochi will make an announcement informing the remaining students on which students have died. During these announcements Sakamochi will also declare certain areas of the island they’re on as forbidden zones which are not allowed to be entered or the student’s collar will detonate.

That’s pretty much the plot and the majority of the story shows the various killings of the forty two students. We mainly follow our main character, Shuya Nanahara throughout ‘The Program’, engaging with his thoughts and feelings on the situation he and his classmates have found themselves in.

Shuya is a very likeable character; he has been described as very talented at sports and is somewhat of a rebel by listening to rock music and playing the electric guitar. He believes that his classmates will refuse to play the game and stick together; it becomes obvious that he is wrong. Some of the students begin to play the game and kill their classmates. This makes it all the more upsetting when he does kill someone.

A lot of the students also stick together in their various friendship groups, however many of them end up on their own, paranoia and suspicions rising as time goes on. As the book continues, it becomes clear that there are a few students who are dominant in the game, emotionless Kazuo, deceptively beautiful Mitsuko, technology genius Shinji, mysterious Shogo and of course our protagonist Shuya. These characters are followed closely throughout the novel.

There is a heavy emphasis on talent within the characters. Along with the rest of Japanese culture, there is a greater respect for the children who are talented at sport or music. There is also a lot of talk amongst the students on relationships and that just fancying a person is a massive issue and consumes a lot of the student’s thoughts, very much true to a 15 year old’s thoughts. These two aspects bring in some background for the characters and make us feel more attached to them, making the situation they’re in painful and upsetting for the reader.

The style of writing in this novel is very interesting, as it doesn’t follow one character the entire way through. A majority of the chapters do follow Shuya however some other chapters do focus on lesser known characters who may just get killed off in that chapter alone. I think that this makes the reader realise how much danger Shuya and the others are in as sometimes the killings of these other characters take place very close to Shuya’s current location. Also, even though the thoughts and feelings of the characters are told, the majority of the story telling is told as though it’s fact which brings in a sense of realism to the story.

The book helpfully comes with a map and list of students and their respective numbers. I often used this to reference which zones were forbidden when they were announced or to see where the characters said they were heading, just as the characters themselves were doing.  Also at the end of each chapter, in bold, it states how many students are remaining. This makes it easier for the reader to see how many people have died and in what sort of time frame.

The map on the inside cover of the novel

Overall, this book was fantastic. It has been described as a cult classic and I must agree, it may not be to everyone’s taste, but then what is? I’d say definitely give it a go and see what you think, it may be a bit tricky to get into at first due to the style of writing and minor translation issues but once you’re a few chapters or so in, it really is an addictive story.  As for it's similarities with The Hunger Games I'm not too sure if it's the same as everyone keeps saying, I'll have to let you know once I've read it (which will be soon, hopefully).