I heavily enjoyed the majority of Battle Royale. When entering the series, I wanted a violent story about kids pitted against each other in a game to the death with no easy answers and a desire for an unhappy ending.
Battle Royale mostly lived up to that bar.
First off this is a VERY violent manga, Battle Royale whether it be novel/movie/manga or anything is about kids killing kids, and the manga may be the most graphic. This isn't necessarily a horror manga but a number of images will stick with readers long after they finish.
This also isn't a "happy ... time", this is intended to be a warzone, and while some characters have moments that are a little too normalized, sitting around cooking a meal, or hiding out in a location for entirely too long, this is a game of life and death, and almost any encounter between players will be either violent, or a tentative level of trust.
Finally, there's no easy answers. With out spoiling it, while the game they're playing is resolved, there's no "And the evil people stopped being evil and everyone woke up." This is very much focused on the game, or as it's called int he world "The Program" where there is only one winner. While the brutal government puts them into the program, this isn't a hero's story or a battle against the great evil empire. It's a question of survival in a horrible situation, and the question of both who will win and that's where it's strongest.
But not everything is good here.
Let's start with the small points. I'll call out that this has a number of HEAVILY sexual scenes, like there's points where I almost think this manga could just be hentai for a couple of chapters. It's well told, and while a bit graphic, it also really develops a couple characters, and that does a great job really helping people understand why those characters are the way they are. Probably farther than it needs to be, but if this makes people stop reading, ask yourself why watching kids forced to murder each other in graphic ways for 100 chapters bothers you more than a couple characters having sex for 10 chapters? That's a weird line we draw as a society.
That's not necessarily a negative, but something I felt needed to be said.
So There are two major negatives.
Almost every character is... somewhat boring. Characters are either "playing the game" or "not playing the game". AKA "Killers" or "To be killed". There's a question of which is which when each character is introduced, but after that point it's a binary choice.
There's very few in the later camp who ever kill, and almost no one in the former camp that lets anyone get away. The problem is it makes so many characters boring because with out seeing them break the line especially in this situation, we're not seeing characters really evolve or change. We're just saying almost a morality play on display, and while Killers do die, I get bored of the "pacifist" characters as the main characters or heroes of these stories especially when put in the absolute worst environment possible.
It's just forms of black and white sadly, and very few ever even take on any shade of grey, and when it is done, it's always the lightest (or darkest) variants.
The bigger issue, and probably what ruins what could have been a near perfect story is the main villain. In the final 20 or so chapters, there's a final showdown that begins, but for a manga that has spent 100 chapters in almost all ultra realistic environments, rules and characters, characters you feel like you could meet in a school, one character just has almost super human abilities to continue to be a thorn. I don't want to spoil it, it's something ever reader needs to experience on it's own, but while this is a manga, I still call him an "anime villain" as a negative, because the majority of this manga isn't that type of over powered or ludicrous idea.
Trust me, when you read, it you'll understand why I think it detracts from the series.
With that being said... man the rest of the chapters, books and experience here is worth it. There's a definite question of what will happen, and who will survive in a world and game where... that's a very real problem, and like I said, this is a satisfying ending as long as you aren't hoping for a fairy tale or unrealistic ending for the world that is set up.
I'd definitely recommend this, strongly recommend if I'm honest.
Alternative TitlesJapanese: バトル・ロワイアル InformationType: Manga Volumes: 15 Chapters: 119 Status: Finished Published: 2000 to 2005 Demographic: Seinen Serialization: Young Champion StatisticsScore: 7.881 (scored by 31,994 users) 1 indicates a . Ranked: #11032 2 based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded. Popularity: #212 Members: 72,398 Favorites: 2,941 Resources |
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