Battle Royale (the novel) Posted May 30, 2005 at 12:00 am

Vance’s recommendation to read Battle Royale turned out to be an excellent suggestion. He was also kind enough to loan me his personal copy, which will serve as the basis for my review.

Battle Royale is an intense thriller written by author Koushun Takami and originally released amid controversy in Japan in 1999. It was ultimately popular and successful enough to be later adapted into both the manga and film mediums. VIZ Media handled the localization for the State-side release. With the exception of a few typos, I felt like they did an excellent job with the translation and writing.

Battle Royale is staged in an eerie alternate Japan gripped by a strong-arm dictatorship known as the Republic of Greater East Asia. The Republic has developed the "Program," a twisted battle simulation in which entire classes of high school students are inserted into a controlled environment where they are forced to kill each other to survive.

Takami leads us through a gritty trail of terror, betrayal, and death as the students of Shiroiwa Third-Year Class B come to grips with their situation. Some follow the familiar "kill or be killed" paradigm while others unite under uncertain bonds of trust. Like any good Japanese fiction, no characters are one dimensional, although the impassive Kazuo Kiriyama comes close. Every character is developed in some form either before or shortly after their unfortunate demise.

While reading, I couldn’t help but feel like Takami is taking a long, hard look at the political and social climate that lead Japan into World War II. Battle Royale is clearly a work of fiction, but it is deeply rooted in some very real fears of oppression that I think many of us carry around every day.