Comments on: Battle Royale (the manga) – Gruesome, graphic, flawed, manipulative and yet so brilliant

By: Geronimo

Geronimo — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 06:04:25 +0000

Great review, you hit on a lot of the things that I loved/hated about the series. Two things really bugged me: the Dragonball Z-esque fight between Sugi and Kiriyama (cool at first, but it went on and on…) and of course Shuuya’s moment of indecision. There must haver been like three chapters devoted to Shuuya standing with the gun in his hand contemplatively. Enough to make you scream.

Still, I loved it overall, especially Shogo’s flashbacks and the lighthouse incident. Great manga.

By: Willuknight

Willuknight — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 22:36:26 +0000

Great review Matrim.

I’ve been put off reading battle royal for years, because of the theme of the story and how violent it is. You review doesn’t really change my mind, but it does let me have a glimse into the world without having to actually go through, read and probably traumatize myself with it. This is an excellent review, and i can tell you’ve put hours and hours into it,

Thanks!

By: Gigas

Gigas — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 09:42:00 +0000

yeah, I agree with most of the points in the review, especially about both the artwork and Kirayama. I recently watched the BR movie and Kirayama in the movie fits Kirayama in the review perfectly. they say he’s taking part in the thing “for fun!” and he’s really just a plot device used to either cull the students that have no story or nip quasi-main characters in the bud in order to prevent them from developing a story.

I liked this review, summed up my feelings on Battle Royale. I hope Blitz Royale turns out just as good and I can’t wait for your review of that as well.

By: Matrim

Matrim — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 15:41:04 +0000

I think you overestimate what geniuses are capable of. As far as I know there are no genuises who are good at virtually everything like Kiriyama. Hell, I doubt there is anyone capable of learning a sophisticated martial art movements after just seeing them used against him if he has no prior knowlege of this particular martial art. Pure logic is great and stuff but it cannot make you instantly great at [insert random skill].

By: Morten

Morten — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 11:15:36 +0000

Well, first of all, in the original manga, the program wasn’t a TV-show. Second of all, I think you underestimate what genius + no emotions is actually capable of. I mean, usually it would be easy for a genius to figure out that if something blew up, you’d have to go into something that would shield you from the explosion. However, in the situation you would be hampered by shock and fear. None of that works against Kiriyama. He is like a machine, moving and calculating things with pure logic. That’s why no one can seemingly put a scratch on him.They fear, they hesitate. Kiriyama kills. Besides, your gripe about people being so good at their own areas is….well… usually everyone has something they are really good at. I go to high school, and just among my class, I can count one good basketball player, one martial artist, two hackers, at least two that are really good at shooting, one with obscene religious beliefs, and two geniuses who can more or less outthink anyone at anything. Heck, I once saw one of them mentally calculate an angle while playing a game of table-soccer. That was pure craziness. (he was moving the ball a bit around, and then he shot, it hit the side, the wall at the end, and then another of his own players received it.)

And for shuuya’s lack of composure, his lack of ability to just kill Kiriyama, it probably stems from the fact that he, while he is really good at some things, isn’t really the sharpest tool in the shed. Other than that, he isn’t able to just take a life.

By: Ethos

Ethos — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 21:11:21 +0000

“Are there any mangas out there that are even more brutal?”

Um, yeah, actually. In my opinion, the manga called “Koroshiya 1″ may take the cake. Also up there: Berserk, Gantz occasionally, few others that I forget the names of.

However, for brutal mind-bashing terror, I recommend Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien. As Conrad’s Kurtz once said, “The horror! The horror!”

>_>

… Well, maybe it just wasn’t my cup of tea…

By: Matrim

Matrim — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 17:17:44 +0000

Acquired taste – yes, but I would imagine it might also appeal to those who are looking only for gore and sex. Though, I guess most of those readers would get very bored by the tons of character development.

” Are there any mangas out there that are even more brutal?”

Nothing I have read comes to mind apart from Berserk but I think this has more to do with what I have heard about it than what I have seen from it because I stopped reading it in the very beginning, it just didn’t seem to be my kind of manga. Furthermore, I am not sure I would read something more brutal than BR. Yes, I do seem to have soft spot for “a group of character suddenly thrown into a terrible situation” type of scenario – Mai-HiME, Red Garden, BR, Gantz (addicting until it got boring very quickly etc, but enough is enough, if it’s more brutal than BR, I think it will be too brutal and depressing.

By: Impzie

Impzie — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 14:48:27 +0000

hmmm, I remember attempting to read the manga and was too shocked at the violence in it, so i gave up the first time. After forcing myself to skip through the way too violent parts (i mean those 1-2 pages with really O_O graphical violence), I really loved it. However, the live action was slightly milder for me, so i watched that as well, even if it is not as good.

BR is definitely a very brutally honest manga, and a very acquired taste.

By: Kurisu

Kurisu — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 13:33:09 +0000

Yeah, BR is absolutely shocking and disturbing. Are there any mangas out there that are even more brutal?

By: tj han

tj han — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 05:56:21 +0000

There are huge differences between the novel, manga and live action versions. The manga is probably the best but some scenes are just way over the top, like that stupid KI attack stuff. Each character is a lot more developed in the manga too. I like BR really.