battleroyale

Welcome!

Welcome to my fan-blog! The following "pages" are dedicated to one of the best books in the world: Battle Royale. This blog will explain why this novel is so fantastic and why you must read it. At the end of the site i will also introduce the rest of the fan-club to you.

Good bloging!

NB: I read this book in french and the english version will only come out in may 2007. Therefore, the quotes will be in french. Sorry!

Presentation.

Battle royale was written in 1998 by Koushun Takami. Though he might not be well-known to you, Mr Takami is very famous in japan, his native country. He was born near Osaka in 1969. After studying litterature, the author was a journalist from 1991 to 1996. Since then he has made a living out of writing novels.

The best-selling book was first published on the 22nd of april 1999, in the country where the sun rises. The book was such a success that it was adapted on the big screen with Battle Royale (kinji Fukasaku, 2000) and Battle Royale 2: Requiem (Kenta & Kinji Fukasaku, 2003) ; it also inspired a manga Blitz Royale (Soleil manga, 2006).

Battle royale is what one can call a thriller. It is a very complete novel ( contains action, feelings,etc) but the dominant mood is action and suspense.

Setting and athmosphere.

The plot.

As the new millenium started, the republic of greater east asia crumbled. The unemployment rate got to 15%. More than 800,000 students refused to go to school. The grown-ups started fearing the young and adopted a law that revolutionized the educative system called "battle royale".

What is "battle royale"?

litterally, a battle royale is a special kind of catch match. a dozen of fighting champions fight simultaneously on the ring. they're allowed to make teams, to be stronger, but the match finishes when all the champions are K.O except one.

In the book, the government of the fictive japan used the idea of the battleroyale in order to stop the crisis (see beggining of article). Each year, a class of 3e of the republic of greater east asia would be chosen.

The students are taken to a desert island where Battle royale will take place.

Each pupil wears an electronic necklace. This necklace may be used by the Organizators to spy the players with an intern microphone, obtain information on the players thanks to captors on the necklace, and make the necklace explode if the player did not follow the rules (please note that the necklaces are indestructible and water-proof).

At the beginning of the Battle royale, each player receives a back pack containing food and water, a map of the playing area ( in this case it’s an island ), a compass, a flash light and a random weapon to fight.

The island is divided in zones. Each 2 hours, a zone becomes forbidden (if any player goes in it, his necklace explodes). Every six hours, the head teacher tells the remaining players through huge speakers in the island which zone becomes forbidden and who died since the last announce.

If there are no death for 24 hours or if there is no winner after three days of game, the Battle royale stops and all the necklaces explode in the same time.

This is the situation in which the 3eB of the Shiwoa College gets involved in. Battle royale is about the survival of those adolescents during “the program” as the head teacher likes to call it. But anybody could guess that this Battle royale is going to be a little special. Read the book if you want to know about it!

the battle royale's laws:

Law N°1: Purpose of Battle royale.

Battle royale was created in order to create an organized and healthy state.

Law N°2: Participants to Battle royale.

Battle royale happens once a year to a class of 3e chosen within all the classes of 3e of the country. This rule applies to all the population without any distinction of gender, religion or social condition.

Law N°3: General orientation of Battle royale.

All participants must fight happily and must enjoy the game.

Law N°4: Obligation imposed to the participants.

It is forbidden to refuse playing or to try slowing it down.

Law N°5: Special judiciary measures for the participants.

The participants are allowed to kill other players, to start fires on the “playing” area, and to use any kind of weapons, even if they are not the ones given at the beginning of the game.

Law N°6: Winner of Battle royale.

Battle royale finishes with the victory of one unique participant. No modification to this rule is possible.

Law N°7: Life of the winner.

The winner will have the honour of receiving a signature of our grand leader. His life will be entirely paid by the state. He will receive the status of model citizen and will an example to follow to create an organized and healthy state.

Law N°8: The head teacher.

The organizators of Battle royale are placed under the control of the head teacher. He is allowed to modify some rules of the game in order to make Battle royale improve. The state and the organization comity are not responsible of his life.

Law N°9: Compensation to the losers’ families.

The families will receive compensation.

Law N°10: Supplementary laws.

In order to maintain the order of Battle royale, supplementary rules may be added by the head teacher.

here is the program

http://www.dailymotion.com/blog/video/881575?

The characters

The main characters are a 3e class of 42 japanese students and their teacher. But the most important are:

-Shûya Nanahara. Shuya is deeply emotional and somewhat sentimental; he is impulsive and quick to trust people (this particular aspect often proves to be a liability during the course of The Program, nearly resulting in his death several times). He is also very caring, honorable, easy going and likable. It is more than once said it is hard to be sad around him even in sad times. He is a dreamer and an idealist, and never remains silent when he feels anyone around him is being mistreated, regardless of the consequences.

-Noriko Nakagawa Noriko is very timid but during the program( see plot) she prooves herself to be able to act courageously. She is in love with shuya. Even though she is a main character she stays quite mysterious.

-Shôgo Kawada Prior to the events of the film, manga and novel, Shogo Kawada was not the combat-hardened survivalist that he is in the present game. he is quite proficient in first aid, as his father is a doctor, appears to be quite intelligent although slightly unsympathetic.

-Kinpatsu Sakamochi Sakamochi is a vile and sadistic man who likes watching the class die and makes the announcements of dead students. He likes to say things like "I'm proud of you all!" He also seems to be involved in bets over who will win the game (his money is on Kazuo Kiriyama). In the end, Shogo Kawada fatally stabs Sakamochi in the neck with a pencil. Kinpatsu Sakamochi's name is a pun on Kinpachi Sakamoto, the name of the dedicated teacher in the drama series Kinpachi-sensei.

The narrator and the point of view.

Main theme.

Battle royale's main theme is friendship.

Friendship

In battle royale friendship is very important. The students are pushed to kill their friends. Some decide to cheat them; others unite with them despite the fact that there can be only one survivalist.

In this book, the reader can see where friendship starts and where it stops.

In this kind of situation, Should a real friend give his life for another? Or should he forget who his friends are and kill everybody in order to protect his own life?

Koushun Takami puts this relationship into question: who are our real friends? Would they risk their life for us? Would we risk our lives for them? The author tries to remind us that friendship is some kind of alliance, of mutual understanding and that even if something gets into the way (in this case the program) the pact shouldn’t be broken.

The messages.

Battle royale denounces explicitly the crudeness of the Axis (the republic of greater east Asia’s government is supposed to be as if the Axis had won the 2^nd World war). The state which the author made up is aggressive and totalitarian. It started the program which in fact is a way to frighten the young and to prevent any kind of mutiny; and “experimented” in a way, a new cruel way to keep a temporary peace.

But the author’s disapproval with the Nazis methods might as well be a criticism of today’s governments. In other words, Mr Takami, by scolding the past regimes, could implicitly find fault with the actual leaderships! The author condemns the ways that the leaders use to keep their population calm (fear, unkept promises, etc). Even if the republic of greater east asia is exaggerated, some aspects resemble the real governments.

One could even go to say that Koushun Takami is trying to tell us that today’s society will loose us. He may mean that our world will soon turn into Battle Royale’s world, with a few big and independent empires ruling with no democracy.

All those potential disparagements owed the book some very controversial reviews.

But apparently, Stephen King agrees that this is a very good book:

« Battle Royale évoque un riff de guitare follement divertissant, mélange improbable du jeu Survivor et d’un match de catch. A moins que Battle Royale ne soit juste complètement fou. »

The style and tone.

Battle royale contains lots of dialogue, which gives the reader a distorted view of the events. But this allows to to be closer to the characters. Despite the situation in which the students are in, the conversations can be very humorous, or tense:

« Nanahara lui a bel et bien échappé. C’est sûr…

- Mais alors, pourquoi Shûya ne…

- Parce qu’il se cache peut-être quelque part… Ou alors il s’est perdu.

- Il est peut-être blessé ! Ou pire… »

« C’est bizarre… », dit-il.

« Est-ce que je suis à l’hôtel avec la déléguée de classe ? »

« Ha, ha, c’est bien toi ! Je suis rassurée. Tu as dormi longtemps, tu sais!”

Bonus: the trailer.

http://www.dailymotion.com/blog/video/2618335?key=mj8og8cmcm1l27n2y0fruc20nucu21zy9zpatkp0