Battle Royale - Koushun Takami

I am a big fan of pretty much everything that comes out of Japan. Battle Royale is one of my favourite films. This book was pretty much a nessecisity to have in my collection. However when it came to reading it, i found it a plesent and easy read and was overly impressed. For those who have not seen or read this, its the story of an oppressive nation, who has a programe called Battle Royale. This is where each year a randomly selected class of 15 year olds are taken to a remote island where they have to fight to the death or die. As far as stories go it sounds like its a pretty rough one. However i believe it is a well made book and insight into ...  Read the complete review

Battle Royale is set in an alternate modern Japan, where the youth rebelled and so the government brought in the BR Act; every year fifty classes of third year junior high school students are knocked out and isolated, the students then required to fight to the death until only one remains. They are each given a bag containing some food, water, a map and a random item which could be a saucepan lid or a machine gun. They all have a neck collar placed on them that will explode if they try to escape or if they are caught in a danger zone. If nobody has died within three days, all he collars will explode. We follow Shuya Nanahara as he tries to survive and to save his ...  Read the complete review

I'd first heard of Battle Royale (as i think most people have) through the brilliant film that was released in 2000. I first watched the movie a few years ago and I thought it was really good, but I was surprised to find out recently that it was based on a book. Knowing this I immediately got on the internet and ordered a copy for myself, hoping it would be as good as the movie. Not only is it as good as the movie, it is so much better. This is the product description on Amazon - Koushun Takami's notorious high-octane thriller is based on an irresistible premise: a class of 42 junior high school students are taken to a ...  Read the complete review

A corrupt regime. A class full of teenagers. A game that orders them to kill each other... As the time runs out, and their classmates are being murdered by those that they once considered to be their friends, the young heroes and heroines of the book are driven to ever more desperate measures to remain alive. As you progress through the book, you really do become quite attached the characters: the sportstar and genius Shinji Mimura, the beautiful yet deadly Mitsuko Souma, even the heartless Kazuo Kiryama. You don't want any of them to be harmed, you want Shinji to succeed, you want Mitsuko to keep going, and you want Kazuo to continue his murderous ...  Read the complete review

Koshun Takami's Battle Royale is depicted as a modern day Lord of the Flies in which school children are forced onto an abandoned and remote island, and ordered to kill each other off until only one student remains. This book highlights the underlying shallowness of friendships and social structures, as while some friends attempt to band together to defy the system, many students are prepared to kill off their fellow classmates and friends for the sake of their own survival; some pupils will kill off their classmates purely for their own sadistic enjoyment. Amongst the bleak scenario, there are often instances of macabre humour which break up the otherwise fairly graphic ...  Read the complete review