Media Log # 2 - Battle Royale

BATTLE ROYALE 

by Koushun Takami

SUMMARY:

Battle Royale is a story that takes place in 1997. It takes place in an alternate present, wherein Japan is part of an authoritarian state. A group of students from Shiroiwa Junior High School was told to have a school trip. In the town of Shiroiwa in Kagawa Prefecture, while the students were having fun on the bus, they were gassed. They awaken in Okishima which is an isolated and an evacuated island. They learn that they have been chosen to be part of an event called the Program. The Program was officially a military research project, it is a means of terrorizing the citizen, creating paranoia so that they could make organized insurgency impossible.

The 'leader' oriented them about the Program. Fifty third-year junior high school classes are selected annually to participate in the Program for research purposes. The students are isolated and are required to fight their classmates to death. The only way to escape from the island is to survive. The students will be given a collar that is on their neck. This has microphones, tracking devices as well as a bomb. If they try to escape in another way by entering declared forbidden zone, the metal collar with a bomb in their neck will be detonated and thus kill the wearer. The Program ends when only one student remains. That student will be declares as the winner and will receive a funded pension from the government. If no one dies within 24 hours, every collar will detonate simultaneously and there will be no winner.

During the briefing two students angered the supervisor, and thus were both killed violently. After the students were briefed, the students were given survival packs such as maps, compass, weapons, food, etc. As the students were released, people started to kill each other. There were some who refused to kill and was thus killed by their colleagues. There were also some who committed suicide.

In the end, only four students remained: Shuya Nanahara (protagonist), Noriko Nakagawa (love line of Shuya), Shogo Kawada (a survivor from the previous battle), and Kazuo Kiriyama (the main antagonist). During a car chase between Kazuo and the other main characters, Noriko kills Kazuo by shooting him; however, Shogo, not wanting to make Noriko feel guilty of killing shot Kazuo and claimed he was responsible for Kazuo's death. After telling Shuya and Noriko that he will kill them, Shogo shoots in the air twice, faking their deaths for the microphones planted on their collars. The supervisors believing that Shogo's the winner, becomes at ease and Shogo dismantles the collars using information that he previously got from hacking into government servers. Shogo boards the winner's ship, while Shuya and Noriko  covertly followed. On the ship, Kinpatsu (Supervisor) finds out Shogo's plan to help Shuya and Noriko escape. A shootout then occurs and Sakamochi is killed and Shogo dies in peace after telling Noriko and Shuya to keep moving forward on the ship. The two remaining survivors then return to the mainland and attempt to find a clinic belonging to a friend of Shogo's father. From there, they make plans to escape to the U.S., facing an uncertain future as they run from the authorities who have spotted them as they try to board a train. 

REFLECTION: 

Battle Royale is one of my favorite novels because of its exquisite story and interesting way of writing. Although the novel was quite gory and violent, it is very powerful and enjoyable to read. I, myself, have found it to be a very realistic and terrifying portrayal of what a person, in this case, 15 year old students, might feel and what they might do if put in a situation wherein they will have to kill their own friends and classmates to survive. This is an absolutely brilliant book that takes you into a rollercoaster ride. Making you feel happy, sad and angry a lot of times. The target audience of this book is probably more on people around the age of 16 and above. The novel was too violent and too deep for children to understand the concept of the book. It also has mature themes in language, and sexual references. This novel can be classified as a dystopian book, wherein the future is quite bleak and dangerous. It provided a grotesque glimpse of the dark side of humanity.

The main theme of this story is about TRUST. It shows different as well as realistic concepts about trust. Some students believed and trusted their classmates when they should have, while some didn't trust when they should have. This theme was shown all though out the book, and this 'trust' was the main reason why many of the characters ended up dying.

The personal stories of the students were also intriguing. As a person studying psychology, it was very interesting seeing how decisions were carried out all throughout the novel.

I remember reading the book and becoming extremely excited to the point that I could not sleep if I didn't finish a chapter. This book, although some might think is just pure violence, is something that subtly and sometimes obviously gives you life lessons, teaching you how to value your life, how everyone has some dark secrets and sides that would only be exposed in times of complete desperation, and how sometimes the people you ought to trust were those who ought to betray you.

This book is something that is pulse-pounding and makes your adrenaline rush. It's genius and brilliant! I cannot exclaim more how much I love and admire this book. It is something that I would definitely recommend others to read.