Tag: social commentary

Battle Royale: Remastered, by Koushun Takami. Translated by Nathan Collins. VIZ Media, 2014 (originally published 1999). 647 pages. ISBN-13: 978-1-4215-6598-9.

Here it is, the instant classic that has informed so much of Japanese pop culture in the twenty-first century. If you like anime and manga, you sooner or later run into allusions to Battle Royale. Indeed, if you’ve followed this blog, the anime version of Magical Girl Raising Project, which I discussed at length, is basically Battle Royale with magical girls.

This novel by Koushun Takami appeared in 1999 and was an instant sensation probably in part because it resulted in some pearl-clutching. As an exercise in ultraviolence, it received some condemnations, and its notoriety was secured in the following year when the movie adaptation received criticism from members of the Japanese parliament. I noticed a DVD of the film at the store one day and saw that the blurb on the back proudly boasts that it is banned in several countries.

The effect of Battle Royale on pop culture reaches outside Japan: it is arguably the source of the slew of teen dystopias that have populated YA fiction of late, as it is a likely inspiration for The Hunger Games, though author Suzanne Collins may have come up with the concept independently. Whether or not Battle Royale is responsible for this trend in YA fiction, however, it is certainly responsible for at least one successful video game: the much vaunted Fortnite: Battle Royale is transparently inspired by the novel. Wikipedia even names “battle royale” as its own genre and give several examples of works that follow the general premise of the novel, including a lot of manga and anime. Continue reading “Book Review: ‘Battle Royale’”