Battle Royale: Enforcers, Vol. 2

by Koushun Takami, Yukai Asada (illustrator)

As night falls, the fight for survival has already begun. Shocked by their extreme situation, the students of Daitoa Academy resign themselves to what they’ll have to do to get off the island. Some students want to cooperate, but others fall back on their own merciless killer instincts. The squad leaders begin to show their leadership in different ways, looking for a way to survive. But the twisted leader of squad 2 may be the biggest threat to his own squad!

Genres: Manga, Horror, Dystopia

200 pages, Paperback

Published November 19, 2024

About the author

Koushun Takami (高見 広春 Takami Kōshun) is the author of the novel Battle Royale, originally published in Japanese, and later translated into English by Yuji Oniki and published by Viz Media and, later, in an expanded edition by Haika Soru, a division of Viz Media.

Takami was born in Amagasaki, Hyōgo Prefecture near Osaka and grew up in the Kagawa Prefecture of Shikoku. After graduating from Osaka University with a degree in literature, he dropped out of Nihon University's liberal arts correspondence course program. From 1991 to 1996, he worked for the news company Shikoku Shimbun, reporting on various fields including politics, police reports, and economics.

The novel Battle Royale was completed after Takami left the news company. It was rejected in the final round of the literary competition for which it was intended, owing to its controversial content. It went on to become a bestseller when finally released in 1999 and, a year later, was made into a manga and a feature film.

He is currently working on a second novel.

Reviews

[Marquise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Still interested to see where this is going, but I wasn't a fan of the storyline in this volume, especially not the ramping up of the evilness factor with seemingly no explanation (for now).

Continuing with the unavoidable comparisons with the main story, I'm getting Shogo vibes from Mikabe that won't surprise anyone (will we get a kind of pseudo-backstory for how it was for Shogo and his girl with Mikabe and this girl? I hope so) and Mitsuko-like traumatised psycho vibes from Hosoya that took me by surprise. Sakamoto is definitely a Shuya type, and Kogure is kind of like that gay boy who obsessively followed Kiriyama (who doesn't have an equivalent, at least not up to this point). Aoi is kind of a Noriko type, and I'm yet to define who's the Shinji in this sequel. Oh, and Hiroki, who is going to be his type, if there's going to be one at all?

And I'm also beginning to suspect this game is an unauthorised unilateral initiative by the Daitoa bosses that isn't going to end well for them if and when the higher-ups in the government find out. At least, that's what I'm guessing from the conversations inside the academy's control quarters. If Takami-sensei wants a resolution to the "Battle Royale" franchise, he should make sure this is the game that brings down the government, or at least sparks the rebellion that will ultimately topple the military dictatorship. Otherwise, it wouldn't make sense to have bothered with a prequel if there's going to be no dealing with the fat elephant in the room; it would make this prequel merely an updated/modernised "Battle Royale" 2.0 where the point is the killing that leads nowhere (yes, I know the last game caused these games to be permanently banned, but still . . . the military tyrants stayed in power. That's kind of as if all Katniss & Peeta's victory sparked was a ban of the Hunger Games but Snow and his ilk stayed and the system didn't change.)

Another thing that makes me hope this sequel's ultimate goal is to give us closure and a resolution to the dictatorial statu quo is the team format of the game. In the last one, it was everyone against everyone, and whilst some of them (RIP lighthouse girls) tried to form teams, it didn't work and it ultimately caused everyone to die. Notice that the ones that survived that game were a team? If the last team standing in this iteration can use the advantages of teamwork in their favour, they can cause more damage to the establishment, a much-needed damage if we are to have an uprising to follow.

One disadvantage of the current narrative format that focuses on teams and less on individuals is that there's less emotional investment in them. The leaders of each team are still the stars, and this works as if they were individual players. But there's no pervert narrator gloating on the airwaves about the students' misery, and that is both good and bad. Sister is an AI, she can't gloat (shows you this was written before AI start making fun of humans...), so her interventions are dry, robotic instructions instead of the pervy enjoyment of the TV presenter from last game. Weird as it sounds, that pervert added to the story by bringing in emotional investment. I mean, who didn't want to have him cooked and thrown to the pigs for their meal?

On the bright side, he was also irritating, so there's no pervy presenter you want cooked and thrown to the pigs for their meal.

But I'm worried, worried that the ramping up of the violence is a bad sign of plot to come. Of course, it's still early, merely the second volume, and for all we know there could be explanations and backstories for the sudden evilness of certain characters. Takami-sensei is fond of giving us backstory snippets to explain why each player is/behaves like they do. We even got an explanation for frightening Kiriyama, after all, even if later in the story than we'd like. So there's hope.

So, whilst I wasn't a fan of the story in this installation, I'm holding on and will continue with next volumes as they come out.

[Bobby Stringini · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is more of a 3.5. For a series that has a massive amount of characters I am surprised at how well I am able to keep everyone straight. Not much really happens in this volume, as most of the detail is set up, but it still managed to be entertaining. It also introduced a few interesting concepts, as well as establishing the moral compass that several of the characters live by.

There is still a lot that is unknown with this game, and I'm interested to see how it unfolds. I am waiting for the cast to start to trim down a bit more, as the amount of characters to track is still a bit overwhelming, but what development we get is pretty enjoyable. It is interesting because these kids are all considered delinquents. Some are considered this way because of the rigid standards of the government in the book, while others are truly disturbed. It makes for an interesting mix.

Going to continue with this one.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

It didn't take long for Battle Royale to up the violence and horror and Vol 2 is definitely a ramp up. I like that the series has a primary focus squad and slowly builds in additional squads and the big brother like student government.. I'm hooked on the mystery behind the return of Battle Royale, the motives of the student government, and the will they/or won't they challenge given to the students - kill or be killed.

[Theresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received an ARC from Viz Media via NetGalley. This volume 2 didn’t go in the direction I was expecting. Many unredeemable characters were introduced and I was hoping for a plot that would make me more invested.

[Sir Nicho · Rating 3 out of 5]

For some reason I still don't find it as engaging as the first series. I like it enough that I'll keep reading them though.

[Dominic Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really like this series...not at all related to the movies characters which is good as Battle Royale Requiem was terrible lol...

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Im already eager to read not just vol 3 but vol 4 as well

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An improvement in the series.

I didn’t care much for the first volume, but the introduction of this batch of characters grabbed my attention. The first volume felt too similar to Blitz Royale but it’s gradually becoming a distinct entry in the BR world.

This volume has some material that definitely shows koushun takami’s age with the way it’s written lol. He has interesting motifs in his work that revolve around sexuality, identity, and sexual violence. It’s never really clear how he views any of them.

What made Battle Royale significant when it first released was the depth of relatability the reader was able to have with the characters, and that is mainly because of his age when he first wrote the novel and manga. He was still sort of connected with the youth, but now that he’s older, there’s a large disconnect that causes his writing to suffer because he’s trying to do the same thing he did with his novel. Some of his attempts are successful but most just don’t work at all and take me out of the story. I truly think he should have written more novels before returning to battle royale.