Reviews with content warning for Physical abuse - Battle Royale

Wow. I have never read so fast in my life. This book consumed my life completely. I still don't know how the author managed to help me keep track of over 42 characters, but I loved reading about every. Single. One.

I was worried this book would just be violence for the sake of it, but the thought experiments and human relationships and friendships shown throughout gave it so much to digest.

It's got everything you could want and more! If you're not faint of heart and love a dystopia then I'd highly recommend it!

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excritos's review against another edition

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dark sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

0.75

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rightwhrleftme's review against another edition

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emotional sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

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seventhcr0w's review against another edition

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4.0

japierdole XDDDDDDDDDDD ryje psyche

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wispy_reviews's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

The most Punk Rock novel I’ve ever read.
Battle Royale is the next step after Lord of the Flies; after you examine the cruelty of humans in a vacuum, you must examine our cruelty in the systems we’ve created ourselves. It’s so incredibly difficult to fix a broken system when people insist on participating in it, and “play the game.”
It was difficult to keep up with so many names, but that can be attributed to me being a westerner not accustomed to Japanese names. Even so the author did a great job with context clues, so even if you didn’t remember a character immediately he helps you with what they did previously.
What really blew me away was how effortlessly the narrative voice changed; we got a perfect psychological imprint of each character as they became the focus.

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katndrsn's review against another edition

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dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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remembermenever's review

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dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

The last time I read Battle Royale, it was 2017. I gave it an instant five star rating when I completed it. I thought it was thought-provoking, if I remember right, and an engaging read. Well, it is now 2023. And it is clear that my tastes have changed entirely, as this will not rate higher than a three.

In this reread, something that immediately stuck out to me was that a lot of the characters that had POV scenes all felt very similar in voice, unless they were characters that had multiple scenes. Their voices got muddled together, in such a way that it made it confusing sometimes to remember who was who. And this could be because the author was juggling 43+ characters throughout the novel, from characters who only barely have appearances in the novel, to major characters that we follow for the entirety.

Shuya is a very bland main character, which makes for a very boring main character. He spends much of the novel basically following after Shogo, caring for Noriko, making promises to people that he can’t hope to complete, especially in a death game. He’s also very naive, believing in the good of everyone, even while seeing the results of what is happening all around him. Noriko also comes off as a very trope-heavy character, mostly there to play the part of “damsel”. Shogo is the only one of the unlikely trio who has some sort of plan, and that’s only because of his experiences.

Moving away from the characters, the pacing just made it hard sometimes. The author chooses to jump from character POV to character POV, leaving the reader to have to catch up with what that character has been doing for the last length of time since they have last been with them, if at all. Only then, do they move forward. Some characters get barely a mention, including one character who lasts until late into the game. The choice makes it so that the reader has to keep up with several storylines at once, and most of them are very separate, only tangentially together (the death game).

And maybe it’s just because it’s been six years, or maybe it’s because my tastes have changed a lot in that time, but this just didn’t do it for me anymore. I was never really a fan of gratuitous violence, but I was able to overlook it for the most part all that long ago. I was drawn to something else initially, though I can’t put my finger on what. And now? Whatever it is, it’s gone. Either I imagined it was there… Or I changed enough that I don’t see it anymore.

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miketilford's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I attempted to read Battle Royale earlier this year, but couldn't get past the first chapter. So here I am attempting it again, and I'm glad that I did.

The story opens up with a huge info dump regarding the world, and the 42 characters in the story. As if I am going to remember anything about any of those 42 different characters with Japanese names, not going to happen. After this, things do pick up, but the book is plagued with info dump chapters that just kill the momentum. I suppose these chapters are suppose to better fill out the world, and maybe give some philosophical view of society, but I wasn't interested in the world.

Don't get me wrong, the story is good, but the writing itself is terrible. I want to believe that most of this is due to translation, but I don't know. Edit: Okay, it turns out that there are multiple translations. I began reading this on Kindle with the original translation, and switched to the new Nathan Collins translation around the 50% mark. The newer translation is way better, but be forewarned that the character names slightly change if you switch translations as I did.

It almost feels like Takami wanted to write a Manga, but couldn't find a publisher, so he wrote a novel instead. Fun fact, after the success of the novel, he did make this into a Manga, so I may not be too far off.

The main villain of the story is comically evil. He's a straight up sociopath that can't experience feelings. Okay sure, this is straight out of Manga / Anime, but fine whatever. This part is a bit much, but I can deal with. The fact that this 15 year old is basically the Terminator is a bit of a joke. Also, I'm pretty sure bulletproof vests are a one time thing.

With all this criticism, you may think that I didn't like Battle Royale. You wouldn't be further from the truth. The story was great, and despite the few criticisms I had, I loved the rest of it. My favorite scene involved the Lighthouse. The entire scene from the setup to the payoff was absolutely great, and completely believable.

Overall, I found this a surprisingly good read.

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