Battle Royale

First heard about this work on the recommendations from Gantz and I decided to give it a try. The plot seemed great, 42 students will fight until only one remains, all of it being recorded for a TV show. And it was great, the story has high marks because it was what kept me from dropping it, however almost everything else was mediocre or bad and I'm going to list them:

- First of all, the dialog. Now I'm not sure if that's how it was intended to be or the translator for scanlations wrote it like this but there are WAY too many figures of speech in there. It makes characters sound like some american boomer that tries to act cool, especially when Mimura or Shogo speaks.

- Secondly, the artwork. This is probably a personal issue but the way characters are drawn is just not for me, even more so when they show powerful emotions and their face is distorted so much they don't even look like humans anymore.

These 2 were the main reasons why I didn't like this manga as much as I wanted to when I started reading it, but let's keep going with smaller details that were also not good:

- Kiriyama has too many bullets. Seriously, did they gave him a truckload of ammo for that Mac10? Its a submachine gun that eats 1000 rounds per minute, that means he would've needed like 10 bags of magazines for how much he shot.

- We know too little about Noriko. Did the author forgot to insert more details about her? We know more about random students from those little flashbacks when they are presented (which was a repetitive processby the way; meet new character > his/her story > dead) than about her. Apart from the fact that she has a little brother and her parents own a food store, there's nothing. Would've been nice if the method of removing the collars had something to do with her and her background instead of the Shogo hackerman asspull.

- Bad guy was dealt with too fast and easy.

And that's pretty much it, overall 6/10. Next I want to check the live adaptation and see how it is.

''From now on it's kill or be killed, play or not play.''

Battle Royale is one of those mangas you'll either love or hate. A manga that relies heavily on a combination psychological horror, gore and eroticism with an encompassive theme of man's diverse nature. Is it possible to pull a worthwhile experience out of this? Well, certainly.

Story 8/10:

The setup of BR's story isn't very complex, nor too original. In a totalitarian version of Japan, a random 9th grade class is picked each year to kill each other in a remote location. Winner takes all, only one survives. The whole ''Program'', as it is called, is broadcasted in the country as a means of ultimate entertainment. Various precautions have been installed to ensure the students will actually feel forced to murder each other.

As simple and perhaps unoriginal as this sounds, this simple structure works perfectly for a tale that thrives on character development and the transcription of various personalities from their basic setting into one of great tension and peril, accompanied by the occasional gore and eroticism. While very explicit, such scenes add to the characters and the merciless atmosphere outlines in the manga as a whole.

As a minor complaint, pacing tends to come and go from time to time, with some chapters displaying an adrenaline rush of suspense and action, while other chapters revert to an elaborate setting and matching text walls.

Art 9/10:

You either love or hate it. BR exudes a unique style, displaying disgusting gore, pornographic displays and the suspense of a bullet in highly stylized panels. Having run from 2000-2006, the art undergoes slight evolution throughout the chapters, with characters assuming slightly more realistic appearance and overal less messy art.

One of the major merits of this style is that it succeeds exactly in what it intends to do; capture the horror, madness that pervades the manga, as well as the character's non verbal responses to the various predicaments they find themselves in. Whether it's the sheer madness in the face of a girl who's lost her mind to fear or the expression of shock, sorrow or even happiness in the eyes of the recently deceased. The art allows the characters to live and die according to their mindsets, enhancing the impact their struggles and imminent deaths have on the reader.

Another excellent compliment should be made for the way the mangaka drew action sequences. Whether it's bullets captured in slow-motion, driving through someone's face or a car in mid-air, the stylish drawing style of the mangaka captures it beautifully. The results often resemble Matrix-esque action, giving depth to otherwise fairly fast-paced and mostly short-lasting fights.

The art is also primarily a reason why those with a feeble mind or of young age are not recommended to read this manga. Death, mutiliation as well as adult themes such as sex/rape are incredibly graphic and a constant reminder of that what happens in the manga is serious business.


Characters 9/10:

Perhaps the most important aspect of BR is the elaborate cast and their individual involvement in the story. As soon as the story kicks off, you are introduced to a whole class of 42 students as well as a few side characters. This may be a bit much to swallow all at once, though the story handles this excellently by introducing the characters often individually during the Program.

The majority of these characters have at least some of their background and personal motives revealed over time, with the main characters obviously undergoing more character development. A small problem may present itself with the sometimes long and prompt way flashbacks and character backgrounds are revealed. On the other hand, however, these sidestories tend to contain deep, psychological, moral or philosophical messages that are both thought provoking in general and provide you with an explanation for why these characters became the people they are and why they handle situations the way they do.

Everyone can die in BR is what the story wishes to portray and it does an excellent job at doing so. Character development is by no means a ticket to safety and as a result, you will find yourself rooting for well-developed characters to survive, only to find out that some of them meet with a tragic fate. It certainly makes for impactful deaths.

The only problem that arises with this is that such a variation in character types typically has every reader pick their favourites. As such, going through some of the flashbacks/backgrounds/developments of the characters you may not like all that much, can be tedious.

Enjoyment 9/10:

The manga provides an enjoyable read for those who can latch on to the tense atmosphere sketched. The realistic way in which characters and their trials and tribulations, all according to their personalities, are portrayed throughout the course of the manga forces you into picking favourites. As characters either grow on you or earn your antipathy, you'll find yourself rooting for your favourites to survive a crazed killer attempting to gun them down and for those horrible backstabbers to get what they deserve. Suspense and tension keeps you reading and if you're into psychology/philosophy, you may pick up a number of life lessons and some understanding of human nature up along the way.

Overal l 9/10:

Despite minor complications, an excellent psychological thriller/horror manga, making no effort in obscuring the severity of its content. A must read for fans of survival horror and psychology/philosophy. As a rather graphic manga, with adult themes, it is recommended that the reader is of age and/or resistant to graphic horror/eroticism.

It had to be a bit rubbish. That's what I always thought to myself when I saw Battle Royale mentioned. I assumed this because it doesn't have an anime adaptation. What I didn't know back then was the reason for this -- I thought it was because the series wasn't that interesting. I never suspected it was because what's included in the story is so extreme that it would have to be butchered to make the jump from manga to anime. There's just no way a series that involves someone getting raped whilst dying by a psychotic girl, with flashbacks to her being abused by her stepfather as a child appearing during what was happening, could ever be faithfully adapted into an anime. Once I actually read a description of the story and saw its high ratings I was sold -- it sounded like something different, and it most certainly is different from anything else I've encountered.

Battle Royale was everything I expected it be prior to buying it. Nothing was held back, everything was shown in graphic detail, there was lots of death and the situation the characters found themselves in is the kind that no-one would want to be in... but it's also a situation everyone is interested in from a voyeuristic perspective. A 1 in 42 chance of survival, where survival is only possible if you kill people you once thought of as friends... I wouldn't want to be in that situation, and I don't know how I'd handle it if I was. The story painted a bleak (and accurate) picture of how humans act when there are no laws and only fear and lust governing their actions. I read manga to see what's too extreme or not moe enough for anime, so in many ways Battle Royale was perfect for me.

The story starts with 42 students, all aged 14-15, on a bus. The students think they're going on a school trip. They talk, laugh and act like teenagers do. Then they all start falling asleep, only realizing when it was too late that the bus driver had put a gas mask on and gas was being pumped onto the bus. They then wake up in a classroom, sat at their desks, with some kind of ring around their necks. Once everyone starts to wake up, a person who introduces himself as their new teacher walks into the room, calling himself Mr. Kamon. After pausing to distress the confused students a little more, he reveals to them that their class has been chosen for The Program -- an event that takes place every year (and has done since 1947 in the Battle Royale universe) where a random 9th grade class is selected for an 'educational' battle to the death at a deserted location (the story of Battle Royale takes place on a small island). Smiling, he tells them that if they don't kill they'll be killed, either by their classmates or by the ring around their neck that will explode if there's more than one person left by the deadline.

Kamon is a truly great bad guy. He looks more evil than any other character I've seen. He's the sort of character that readers will want to see die as painfully as humanly possible. If I was to describe his looks, I'd say he looks inhuman, like he was modeled from clay, and that suits him perfectly. This guy enjoyed seeing the suffering caused by strangers being put in a truly hopeless situation, joking about how seeing the daughter of a famous person get raped on live television would increase the ratings and even going as far as to push the kids into attacking him during the first few chapters. With an evil grin and perverted tongue movement, he was happy to inform one of the kids that, after the woman in charge of the orphanage he was staying at argued against he and his friend being taken, he gave her "tough love" that she was only too happy to provide after "proper persuasion." He got kicks out of watching him get so angry he cried, and then blew his face off after, fueled by pure hate, he charged at him. It's too bad he appeared very little after the start of the story, only speaking when giving updates every six hours...

The first volume was fantastic just because of Kamon. He explained the rules of the game to the class of 42 with a smile and happy tone, showing a dead body of a teacher (he was on the bus with the students at the start) who was against them taking part in The Program and killing a female student who was speaking while he was explaining the rules as an example of how little he valued their lives. He then sent them off alone, one by one, onto the island to kill each other. They were sent out with the belongings they had with them on the bus and another bag, which contained a random weapon, map, watch, compass, water and bread. He made it clear that there would be no escape because the ring around their necks would explode if they tried to take it off and, if they still tried to escape knowing their head would be blown off eventually for doing so, then the ships around the island would shoot them in the water. He gave them no time to think, throwing them out into the wilderness with the knowledge that they'd die in a few days if they weren't the last student alive on the island.

Trust is hard to come by once you're given the task of killing everyone else to ensure your own survival. If you were in a class with 41 other people then you'd only be friends with a small percentage, and out of those few how many would you truly be able to trust? Most likely only a few. In that sort of situation the fear alone would cause many to kill -- people would become too paranoid to trust even the friends they'd spoke to daily at school. When a person is presented with a choice between death and friendship, the real person, who had put on an act in the past in order to get on in the world, comes out. It's horrible to think what fear and paranoia can cause a person to do, isn't it?

If there's one thing Battle Royale is then it's over the top. When people go crazy in this they have saliva coming from their mouths, their eyes are as wide as possible, they do the 'zombie walk', with their feet twisted inwards and their knees bent, and they act more like animals than humans. The ability the artist has at depicting extreme emotions is a huge plus in a series like this, where the situation is hopeless and death seems all but inevitable, but he goes too far at times, often showing brains, guts, breasts, dicks and everything else needed to make it near impossible to adapt into an anime. Personally, I would've liked to see a more realistic and less exploitive art. But, on the plus side, the art is very clear and nearly all of the action sequences were easy for me to follow, which isn't something I can say about a lot of the series I've read to date -- I usually have to go over panels numerous times in order to understand how one panel flows from the next.

The over the top comment also goes for the story at times. At this point I can't say if it was anywhere near as silly in the novel because I haven't read up to that point yet, though the novel has come across as somewhat less insane so far, but there's a part of the story in the manga that was impossible for me to take seriously. I'm referring to a scene where a guy runs away from another guy (a sociopath/terminator wannabe called Kazuo) after being shot, with his stomach hanging out, running into a warehouse. In the warehouse he has time to set the bomb he was building before Kazuo enters, as well as the time to wrap duct tape around his stomach, and he then manages to kick the bomb at Kazuo AND jump out of the window as he entered the warehouse, without getting shot. A truck then flies out of the warehouse as a result of the bomb blast, over the head of the guy who escaped through the window, and that's followed by Kazuo appearing out of the truck, unharmed. Kazuo then unloaded his machine gun on the guy who jumped through the window. And, as if to make it all a little more silly, the guy who had just had many bullets inserted into him still had the strength to pick up his handgun in one last attempt, after playing dead, at killing Kazuo. After all that, I wasn't sure whether to praise Battle Royale for being a bit too much or attack it for its distance from reality!

There are some other issues I have. Shuuya, the main character of Battle Royale, is the main problem. The manga artist had the annoying habit of turning Battle Royale into something of a soap opera at times, showing needless flashbacks involving Naruto 2...err, Shuuya being a goodie-goodie, acting on his feelings instead of his brain, and helping his friends back when he was at school (he got to know just about every important character at school after helping them in some way). The artist was determined to highlight the fact that near enough the entire cast liked Shuuya for acting brainless, just like in shounen stories where the main character does stupid things and gets loved for it. The flashbacks involving Shuuya saving the day did stop once all the characters had been introduced... however, they were replaced with (often chapter long) dream sequences that showed Shuuya getting support from his deceased friends. I hate it in anime when the plot advances through dreams/visualizations, and I hate it even more when characters are shown speaking to people long dead in an attempt to add character development... Would it have been so hard to just have Shuuya think for a few panels instead? There was no need for a large amount of chapters, many reusing the same art, to be used for repetitive conversations with the dead. I disliked Shuuya's character because, as well as being an idiot, the very existence of his character resulted in the story lasting 10+ chapters longer than it needed to.

Continuing on from what I said in the above paragraph, the pacing wasn't perfect. The story of Battle Royale takes place over the course of a few days, and it lasts for 15 volumes. If you do the math then you'll see the problem already -- a lot of chapters were created but not a lot of time passed. It's understandable when you consider how many characters are in the series but I must confess to often feeling that the story was dragged out and could've ended sooner. I didn't mind most of the flashbacks, which every main character had in order for them to be fleshed out before their deaths, but it became tiresome when dialogue was repeated time and again for no real reason. Kawada, an experienced character who joins up with and helps Shuuya and his female friend, Noriko, seemed to be pointing out in every conversation that Shuuya needed to kill to survive, no matter if he wanted to play the game or not. If Shuuya didn't get it then I certainly did, and I quickly became bored of seeing it being said. And, sadly, lots of the dialogue was like that, and it wasn't unusual to see panels used to repeat what another character had said in the past. But don't get me wrong: the pacing wasn't awful, it's just that I feel the story could've progressed quicker and, in my opinion, it would've been far more enjoyable if it had. If the pacing had been truly bad then I would've struggled to read 15 volumes in 3 days.

Another issue I had, which also had something to do with the pacing, was the ending. Near enough every story ends in disappointing fashion. No matter how talented the writer, it seems they all struggle to finish their stories in style. Battle Royale was no different. The ending wasn't what I consider bad, and it had a few twists that kept it interesting, but it could've been better. The final battle was rather anti-climatic, with the most prominent bad guy in the series getting shot in the head (after a car chase) and still not dying, like some sort of monster, which took away from what was supposed to be a battle to the death between high school students. He'd shown himself to be near impossible to kill before that but still fighting after taking a bullet to the head took it a tad too far. And, as if to finish the fight in the most boring way possible, Shuuya spent something like 1.5 chapters getting pep talks from his dead friends (in his head, obviously) because he found it too difficult to finish off a guy who'd mercilessly killed most of his classmates. Things did improve for the last stretch once the battle ended and the final the twists started hitting, but I wasn't best pleased with what was a rather upbeat and forced ending to a mostly very, very, very depressing story. Going on the start I was expecting everyone to die, and I feel the story would've been better if not for the final twist.

One final flaw I need to mention isn't anything to do with the actual story -- it's the English translation. There were many occasions throughout where the translator missed a word out of sentences, making what was said not come out right, and there were also a few times where sentences quite simply didn't make sense. The 'F' word was also thrown around a bit too much, as if it was done just to make sure it got an 18+ rating. Seeing a friendly and polite character randomly say "F*** a duck" didn't sit right with me. And, although this is a plus or minus depending on how you look at it, some of the characters speak in an informal manner - like any public school kid would in all fairness - and what they say can be a little difficult to follow. The translation isn't a major problem that ruins the experience; it's just an annoyance, but I still expected better.

But, anyway, enough of the negative. There's far more good than there is bad on show. It's true that Battle Royale is over the top and it's also true that the pacing isn't great and the story is often overly dramatic because of the Shuuya flashbacks/dream sequences that slow down the story. However, Battle Royale is impossible to put down because of the realistic way many of the characters cope with being put in a hopeless situation. There are many different personalities in the series and most offer something the others don't, meaning there's at least one character the reader can connect with and feel for. Like the story itself, there are a few characters that are too far-fetched, but there are also those with believable backgrounds. I've always said that a story that's able to get the reader watery-eyed has great characters, and one of the early death scenes, where a female character died in the arms of her childhood friend, made me a little watery-eyed because of how beautifully it was handled. You'd have to be a pretty cold person not to feel anything as you watch her die after only just having seen her fight bravely against a guy trying to rape her AND seeing a flashback of her and her childhood friend together away from the island, back when they were normal high school students.

There are a number of other parts of the plot that will prove hard to forget, two of which I'll mention now as examples. The first is a scene at a lighthouse that involves 6 girls having a complete breakdown of trust and going from working together as a team to suspecting each other of having poisoned someone -- it captured what paranoia can cause in the type of situation the characters found themselves in amazingly well. The other is a showdown between Sugimara, the kindhearted martial artist who doesn't want to kill anyone, and Kazuo, the sociopath who feels nothing and would give the terminator a run for its money. The fight itself was great and the build-up, which involved around 3 chapters of Sugimaru and his girlfriend talking, showing what Sugimaru had to protect, was even better. Because Battle Royale has a huge amount of characters, there were many short stories like those I just mentioned, some one-shot and some lasting for a few chapters, so there wasn't any shortage of tragedy on show, and we all know that what gets the most emotional reactions out people is death. It's a great series to read if you, like me, enjoy seeing short stories that have a chance of pulling on the heart strings.

So, what are my overall thoughts? Well, I think the series was well worth the £30 I paid for it. You know you're dealing with something high quality when you spend time with *insert whatever here* and time seems to speed up. This happened when I read Battle Royale. I read 6 volumes on the day the books arrived, 4 on the following day and 5 on the day after, never having any trouble reading for lengthy periods. I'm not going to say it was a perfect series because it wasn't, its pacing and the insanity of it all often taking away from the experience a little, but as dark, depressing and involving reads go there aren't many better stories in existence. If you think the premise sounds interesting then give it a go -- you'll enjoy it a lot if you can handle lots of death.

Rating: 8.5/10

A lengthy brutal thriller. This manga was very enjoyable but not for people sensitive to gore, the plot and characters make for a very interesting story with great twists and fights. Everyone has their own "thing" going on which makes it quite exciting. I'd recommend this manga to people looking for a good violent story. Though a few decisions made by the characters were stupid in my opinion and didn't make sense, then the main "villain" is just nearly immortal and survives things most characters don't. Nearing the end I found myself wanting to finish it and I felt there were definitely chapters that got dragged out to make the story longer but overall the ending was good and it kept me on edge 75% of the time.

In general, the manga is good, it reads in a sigh and entertains you until the end. I like the two unexpected turns that happen and how they are resolved and the ending seemed quite adequate. However, it was not what I expected. I thought they would leave me with their mouths open in the "I have read all volumes for nothing" plan, like many other manga, but no!

The drawing is quite ugly although it improves with the passage of the volumes. However, it is quite realistic and expressive.
There is too much blood and some scenes are very beasts. But I think in this manga, with this plot, it's perfect.

Perhaps the worst has been that they end up telling many lives of many students, that although it is interesting to know about them and understand them, sometimes that part becomes a bit heavy.

The Program. It's an event or "game" where a chosen class of 42 students is kidnapped, thrown into an isolated location, given a random weapon and told to kill each other until only one person remains.

What would you do if you found yourself in such a scenario, and how far would you be willing to go? Would you lie down and refuse to play? Would you accept everything you're told and kill your classmates before they do the same? Or would you choose to trust in your friends and hope to find a way to escape together? Well, the first option definitely gets you killed because you're an easy target for those who play. The second option will probably get you killed because the chance of survival is only one in forty-two. The third option is also likely to get you killed if your allies decide to stab you in the back. This is the terrible reality facing the characters in the riveting story of Battle Royale.

There are several types of characters in Battle Royale and through their backstories you can see that they haven't all led decent lives. In fact many of them are deeply flawed mentally, and when coupled with the desperate situation they now face it's horrifying to see the lengths that some will go to in order to live. Even if the winner was formerly the nicest person anyone's ever met, such an experience would destroy them forever. As a reader it's dangerous to become attached to anyone in the story as none of them are safe from being killed off, but the manga is great because you can't help but find favourites among the students.

The level of detail in the art is incredible. It's also very graphic, due to the common sights of bloody entrails, spilled brains and nudity. Which makes this manga strictly for adults only, though I doubt there won't be any younger readers. The action and gunfights are well-drawn, with blood and bullets flying everywhere in quite a clear fashion. Character expressions are also really varied, despite the majority being ones of shock, madness or death.

I'm not going to pretend being absolutely fine with the material I read in Battle Royale, and I'll even admit to feeling uncomfortable on several occasions. It's also hindered by a slightly repetitive structure and seemingly invincible characters, but the authors did such a fine job at creating an engrossing story and setting that I finished the manga despite dropping it at one point. Fans of thrilling, non-stop action and graphic violence should definitely read this series.

I've not completely read Battle Royale yet because I love saving my money up. From what I have read so far though, it's a very impressive manga.

I've seen the film and that is partly the reason I'm reading the manga. The manga unlike the film shows you every death of each character and also goes far further into details about all the characters and their back stories.

The story you should know from the synopsis and what a great idea for a story. Such a nice difference from the average stories out there, boy likes girl, love triangle, you know the drill.

The art is fantastic and I feel that the nine I've given it is well justified. The backgrounds are wonderful and beautifully drawn. The characters all have a totally different look and the violence and gore between pages is clear and truly graphic.

I'm truly enjoying Battle Royale and rather excellently the movie and manga are worlds apart, so no part of the manga has been spoilt by the film. A manga well worth reading.

Battle Royale is an intense death game manga that was thrilling from start to finish. This genre has by my time of finishing the manga in 2015 , become very popular due to works like the Hunger Games, Gantz, BTOOM! , Deadman Wonderland , Danganronpa, and many others. Except I think Battle Royale is the most well executed of any of those works I've approached.

In Battle Royale we follow an entire class of high school students who live in a kind of alternate world Japan where Japan is ruled by an overbearing dystopian communist regime who chooses one class of middle schoolers each year to participate in a death game in their setting of choice. The manga does a very good job in introducing these characters well in the first few chapters and you are just along for the ride like they are in what seems like a run of the mill middle school graduation trip. Then suddenly they find themselves in a schoolroom after getting gassed on the bus, and the journey starts in such an absolutely jarring fashion that I thought really sets the tone for the rest of the manga. The characters are issued a good variety of weapons to start the game, although I personally thought the fact that there were a few too many guns made it a little more predictable. There is all sorts of violence, blood, and sexual material which I thought was great and really does well to add to the realism to the manga, but at the same time prevents it from having a shot at getting adapted into an anime sadly. The manga mainly follows a trio of main protagonists but it also spends a lot of time on other characters.

The best aspect of this manga in my opinion is how fleshed out almost all the students in the middle school class are. You get very detailed backgrounds on a lot of characters so you actually care about what happens to them during the manga. The author never lets you forget that this isn't just some cobbled together group of people who don't know each other like many other death game works; in Battle Royale we follow a close knit group of kids many of whom care about the other students in one way or another. And their past relations with each other are often times a factor in life or death situations. You have characters that range from a seedy girl who uses feminine wiles to trick her opponents to death, karate masters, mob boss, idealists, realists, crazy psychopaths, amazing intellectuals, idiots, conniving narcissists, weak willed gullible people, they are all here I promise you. There is such a wide variety of different character personalities in this manga that you will more than likely find some one to start rooting for. What I found most striking is that a number of the characters are so very intelligent and its really fun to see how they navigate through different situations where one tiny oversight can get them killed. Even characters you think are simple to begin with show different sides to their personalities in different situations which was cool.

This manga goes to show you that this death game affects all the characters in very different ways. You get to see most of the kids who would be normally well functioning people in society , when they get thrown to the wolves they can become totally different people. The manga shows really well how huge of a factor fear and paranoia are, they can cause absolutely disastrous situations. It even shows you how the smallest misinterpretation in a pressure cooker of a situation can lead to death in a matter of seconds.

I thought that the main protagonist Shuuya Nanahara got on my nerves when I first started the manga. He's pretty much what you would call the ultimate idealist/ most optimistic guy in the whole manga which I found irritating as many of the other students actually adapted to the situation, Shuuya would continually make very boneheaded moves and could have died on many occasions thanks to his horribly stupid actions. He shows progress later in the manga but was still overall irritating to me.

I think what makes Shuuya much better is the second member of his three man team , the shotgun toting bad-ass Kawada Shougo. Shougo is a character that is probably the most well fleshed out and rational in the entire manga and almost any scene with him in it is a breath of fresh air , its great. And you are constantly guessing what his true motivations are for the whole damn manga which is another masterstroke by the author. He has great chemistry with Shuuya and the other member of their trio, Noriko. I think Shougo is one of the key characters that make this manga exceptional , some others being Mimura and Sugimura that you can't help but to root for once their backgrounds are fleshed out.

I thought the art was pretty good through the manga. The set pieces that are drawn are very enticing and suck you in to the moment. We get everything from some crazy ass gun fights, to martial arts matches, high speed car chases, bomb situations, battles of wits, wrestling, knife fights, I was surprised at how well these sequences were done.

I won't talk about the details of the plot considering much of the enjoyment you get from the manga will probably come from the unexpected events that occur.

The manga is not without its faults even though it does so many things well. Strangely enough my main grievance, besides my gripes with the mc Shuuya, with this manga only concerns one particular character. I won't elaborate that much in fear of spoilers, but damn did he practically almost single handedly ruin the ultra realistic elements of this manga , he has so many asspull moments that he infuriated me on multiple occasions. This is one great misstep by the author that if he handled this character better I think I raise my score of this manga a total 1 point. Don't let him discourage you from completing the manga, as I think the positives outway his negative element.

The good thing about this manga is it's only 119 chapters , so you can read in only a few days , well I'm a slow reader so it took me a couple weeks. I recommend this manga to anyone who is a fan of the death game genre .

This manga was recommended to me as a "master piece" so I was excited to read it, when I first got into it it seemed promising but just not what I expecting.

The story was not anything special but it did got my attention, the story got so formulaic and bland after a while. It was really cliche and I just start to got bored after a while then they did the same thing twice during the ending which made me put it at a 6/10

The art was good and all but the over the top gore made it (for lack of a better word) boring to see and stale later on. I do like my gore and eerie moments and atmosphere but this was so over the top that it was bland (yh i am gonna use bland alot) and kinda laughable even (just in my opinion)

The characters was the most disappointing thing about this manga, just saying I read/watch manga/anime for its characters and if its characters are bad then most likely i wont like the manga and this fall within that category . With so many characters I initially thought I would at leas get attached to one, i mean I did at first but just like the entire manga it was really disappointing. Showing a sad backstory and making them happy then killing them wont make someone sympathize with them imo. the main villain was interesting at first then just disappeared for the majority of the manga only showing up in about 30+ panels in and manga with 119 chapters... then the other two villains the girl and the boy was just uggghghghghg. The boy was like a inhuman robot with nothing interesting to im at all and because I dont wanna spoil anything I am not gonna go any further, and the girl was just lame nothing to add to her. Most of the characters has no personality and the author kills them trying to make you sympathize with character which is really flat. Not to mention the main character ugh, he was one the worst, annoying and the type of protagonist that I hate the most, he started to change in the middle of the manga but just reverts to the beginning self coming to the end which was so frustrating. I have much more to say but that would add a whole two paragraphs so imma just end here. last note the protagonist is shit.

Enjoyment, I really wanted to enjoy this but I really don't. I just feel bad that this is praised so much but i did not like it really. People said that this was a better hunger games, which i never watched, but if hunger games is anything like this then ... all in all I had very little enjoyment. the fights we good at least (besides the last two which was absolute bullshit) and the force shitty romance which got under my skin and a weak ass ending that was predictable for the most part.

Overall... 7/10 just because so many people praise this show, I guess this manga was just not for me . I wont recommend anyone read this because in my opinion it was almost shit. Other than the over the top gore this manga really isn't anything special, and the genres is listed as Action, Drama, Horror, Psychological, Seinen but I fail to see any or little at all Drama, Horror, Psychological or Seinen aspects... well that is all

So, I saw the (fantastic) movie first, then read the (entertaining) book, and now I've read the manga.

Everyone knows the story so no need for me to waste your time lol.

Now, I really like the story and concept of Battle Royale, but the manga was ... actually pretty gross lol. Mitsuko was such a bamf in the movie and the book, but somehow in the manga, she was just really gross and blergh. Too sensationalist and exhibitionist. I knew she had issues, but... I don't know, she was too much in the manga. On the other hand, Takako Chigusa was awesome. She was played by Chiaki Kuriyama in the movie (loved her), but the Chigusa in the manga was this absolute bombshell. Also the guys in the manga were pretty great and came off better than they did in either the book or movie. Especially Shinji.

I guess for completeness you could read the manga, but sticking with just the movie and book would be a perfectly good option too. Sorry, you guys. I really wanted to like the manga too.

Battle Royale is set in an alternate universe, in which Japan is an authoritarian state which hosts an event each year known as 'The Program', also named 'The Battle Royale Act'. Each year, a random class of students are selected to fight to the death in a merciless battle for survival. Only one will survive.

The story revolves around the students struggles in the game, mostly Shuya Nanahara, a very likeable, popular and innocent student, who struggles to come to terms with the game, believing that there is a way out and that he can save everyone. Unfortunately, he soon discovers the emotional trauma which the game inflicts on the contestants, as he sees his close friend selfishly tear each over apart, each united with the common fear of death.

The most powerful aspect of this manga in my opinion is the large variety of characters, who are all developed in great detail, each with very defined and deep personality's. The characters are also used to portray many different themes, such as desperation, anxiety, loneliness and love. With such a wide cast of unique characters, Battle Royale creates a very realistic feel to the story, portraying a powerful range of 'what if scenarios' which will make you wonder what you would do if you were in the same situation.

Overall, Battle Royale is, in my opinion, a true masterpiece. An exiting, engaging story, a varied cast of unique and interesting characters, all portrayed through amazingly drawn artwork. A definite must read for any fan of action, drama and psychological mangas.

I read the novel first which may be the reason that the manga version disappointed me so much in the art. The novel was gruel-some and let you see inside people who thought they were going to die at any second but the manga was to light and had a sense of hope which ruined it for me. I didnt get the sense of pain and horror i got when reading the novel plus they didnt release the second manga in english which makes me hate my incomplete set

i like shojo mangas. most of the mangas that i read are without blood and these kind of staff. my brother has something like 400 mangas and one of is battle royale. at first, i didnt like the drawing at all, but later on i started to read it for real and, what can i say? this thing is brilliant!!!
i love everything in it!
i love the blood the drawing, the story..
now:
art: amazing. its so detailed that i dont understand how the hell do they do it.
lets say, that if a bullet goes into someone's skall- you can see it comes in and blows the head out and takes out the eyeballs and everything(i know- gross but awasome!)

story: great. attractive and interesting, makes you wonder why is that show on and what will they do next. you just cant leave without knowing what will happen. and each student has its own story and personality.

characters: i think that i love shuya the most. i dont know why but i do.
later i startes to hate kiriyama so much but in the end. 'sob, sob' i allmost cried bebecause of him!!!!
i feel so sorry for him!

anyhow, to finish it, i think that if you love blood(because of that manga i started to love blood....) and really good and interesting characters, you HAVE to read battle royale. believe me- its so worth it.