Battle Royale (the manga) Posted June 1, 2005 at 12:00 am

I picked up the first US release of the Battle Royale manga under the impression that I would be treated to the many of the same quality literary elements found in the original novel. Unfortunately, I found the manga lacking in comparison to the novel.

As I mentioned in my last post covering the novel, Koushun Takami’s Battle Royale novel spawned a feature film and a manga series in Japan. While the movie doesn’t seem to have made it to the US, Tokyopop picked up the distribution for the manga series. A quick glance at their Battle Royale lineup shows that the series is still ongoing and it looks like new releases could continue into early 2006. Tokyopop hired experienced comic book artist and writer Keith Giffen to handle their English adaptation. More on his contribution later.

The first thing to really catch my attention when leafing through the first volume was the artwork. Illustrator Masayuki Taguchi’s applies an odd caricature-like style to most of his character designs that I found jarringly at odds with my own perceptions drawn from the novel. I found the cartoonish style impressing a derisive slant on the entire first volume that seems out of character coming from the novel.

English writer Keith Giffen lends his dialogue to Taguchi’s imagery. Battle Royale is clearly intended for an adults, but Giffen inexplicably seems to be writing below his audience. Volume 1 is full of hackneyed lines that range from merely annoying to downright grating. There’s also some question as to the extent to which Giffen altered the dialogue. An Amazon reviewer provides an example were a student says, "It was you or me," which becomes, "Red isn’t your color," in Giffen’s alteration. The scene comes easily to mind and it’s an excellent example of how the writing gives the manga an unfortunate "dumbed-down" feeling.

Tokyopop’s first release of the Battle Royale manga series comes as a great disappointment for me following the excellent novel. I imagine that Keith Giffen was probably first exposed to the series through the manga. He might have had the novel as a reference, but it was likely as an afterthought. I would further surmise that Giffen would probably have handled the writing for Battle Royale differently if his initially impressions were grounded in the novel. If I hadn’t read the book first, I would probably find more sense in his interpretations. As it is, I am hesitant to continue any further with the series.