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.
Let the game continue! This volume very much focuses on the growing bonds between Shuya, Noriko and Shogo, without t he key knowledge we as readers have. There's the continued ham-fisted use of backstory for each additional character introduction and/or revisit that's a tad trite. Oversell it is the dystopian reality that is responsible for this franchise mass appeal, although I will likely pick up the novel one day. A Three Star, 6 out of 12 jam. 2026 read
Another flashback to the formation of another friendship... I don't know why there are so many flashbacks, I honestly don't. They were all in the same class, the reader will automatically assume that they've all met each other, we don't need to see every single first meeting. At least, I don't.
Six volumes in, you'd think the pace would be picking up as we got nearer to the midpoint, but Volume Six is really just a plod. More speeches about doing the right thing, more speeches about the power of friendships, but there were no child prostitutes or flashbacks to gratuitous rape scenes, so I'll consider it an improvement, even though there are only so many emotional outbursts by the hero I can tolerate.
At this point, I'm honestly hoping that Shogo manages to win again; the rest of them could die for all I care. They're some really annoying "children" in this series, including the standard "no emotions" psychopath Yakuza child.
This volume of the awesome and terrible series focused on some of my favourite characters. The delightful Shinji Mimura, who struggled to accept love and put up an act of bravado to cover it; Shogo Kawada, the seemingly tough warrior with a heart of gold; and Kiriyama, the guy you can't say you like without sounding like a sociopath too but who is oddly intriguing - you feel the need to discover what it is that has made him such a cold, calculating killer.
Kiriyama is an important character in many ways, but he is most important for exploring how a person can become someone who kills without thought, without regret and without remorse. Are some people just born with it in them or did something so bad happen that it messed Kiriyama up for life? That is the question that this book provides and you find yourself desperately needing to read on further to discover the answer.
Another solid installment. 4 is probably still my favorite, but this one was more interesting than 5. Honestly, it's really interesting how much has slipped my mind since reading the original novel. Anyway, no time to elaborate right now, but 8.5/10 (4/5)
Spoiler text is here for me to remember how the story is split up between volumes
Well, that was fast!? Action-packed and fast-paced this number 6 was all the business! A lil' disappointed at the amount of killing in this volume being zero but the reading experience was over so fast I didn't have enough time to think about it. Atleast they're coming up with some kinds of solutions by this time, that's good.
The premise is doing some serious heavylifting in this one. The dialogue is straight up garbage (could be the translation, but I don't think translation alone could mess it up this badly if it were any good). The villains are shallow. The protagonist has literally nothing going for him except the power of friendship. And half of these kids half no sense of self-preservation.
This manga is not that different from the original Battle Royale novel except for a few minor differences.
It's not perfect but it was awesome.
My feelings for this manga are about the same as the original novel except there is more drama and the characters are fleshed out a bit more.
The story is about a class of 42 junior high students that are transported onto an island where they are placed in this program where the students have to fight to the death and there can only be one winner. Similar to the book, the program has no time limit, however a student has to die within a 24-hour time zone, or the collars explode on all the students and there are no winners. In both scenarios, it forces the students to kill each other and try to survive. The tension from that is still there and you can feel it.
The dystopian theme is strong in the manga as well as the book, but it's slightly overshadowed by the drama of the characters and their own self conflicts.
Now, unlike the novel where some characters don't have much of a backstory, the manga takes it's time to explore the characteristics and backstories of all the students. Granted, some more than others. And it gives a new perspective.
However, this manga is definitely for adults. You have sexual themes and more brutality of the gore and violence the students participate in. If you want a more visual storytelling of the original book and don't mind extra violence, the manga is not bad.
seeing all of the fight scenes actually drawn out makes me realize how fucking goofy and unrealistic these books are. like the scene of kiriyama and shuya fighting might be one of the most unintentionally funny things I've seen in a while (kiriyama leaping in the air in front of the moon like batman!?!). also, you can't tell me it's not hilarious to have shuya try to reason with and emotionally dissect a guy who literally decided to mass murder people because of a coin toss. there's nothing funnier than that. it makes shuya look so stupid and I always love that
Aunque veo que en general bajaron las puntuaciones de las reseñas en este tomo, yo creo que logró ser entretenido y cumplir con lo que uno esperaría que ocurriera. El enfrentamiento entre Shuuya y Kazuo fue un poco fantasioso, pero nada que moleste a esta altura.
Sigo creyendo que hay apariciones demasiado convenientes de algunos personajes, pero bueno, se entiende que son necesarias para que la trama continúe y nuestros protagonistas puedan ser salvados.
En general me está gustando, pero repito, de seguir así seguro voy a estar cansado para el tomo 10.
I'm loving this manga adaptation of Battle Royale... This volume had some pretty cool moments... particularly the fight between Kazuo and Shuya, where he gets split up from Noriko and Shogo. Then when Shuya gets shot up by Kazuo and Sugimura comes in and saves him with his dope-ass kung-fu moves! Lol... Some great action and some beautiful full-page and full-spread artwork. Digging this series a lot.
Me gusta mucho Sugimura pero no puedo evitar tener la inquietud de que va a tener una muerte repentina, espero que encuentre a la chica y que pueda salir vivo de ahí con Shuuya y sus aliados. Mimura También tiene su punto, aunque no he conseguido conectar con él, y Noryko no sé muy bien qué pensar de ella todavía, así que veremos qué más nos puede ofrecer.
La historia se corta justo en la parte más interesante, lo cual me hace interesarme por saber que pasará después.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Intense and exciting this time around. We get a long fight sequence between the protagonist and the chilling sociopath of the bunch. Considering the brutality and depth of the deaths that came before, the tension was strong and plausible throughout the whole conflict. The long shootout battle and the much needed growth of the protagonist were the highlights of this volume.
Miruma và Sugimura gánh còng lưng phe chính diện (thêm Shogo nữa), mỗi tội không hợp tác cùng nhau nên bị Kazuo hạ lần lượt từng đứa một, chả hiểu sao.