Battle Royale: Remastered (Battle Royale (Novel))

After being a big fan of the film for around 15 years I was extremely apprehensive about buying the book. Not that I hadn't heard good things because I've heard nothing but praise. I was worried after being such a big fan of the film that I wouldn't enjoy the differences between the film and the book. I was worried I wouldn't enjoy the story and especially the characters as much, or that in the end I would end up no longer enjoying the film so much. I had nothing to worry about. I was hooked from the first page and blew through the final 400 pages in two days. Beautifully written in an easy to read and uncomplicated and littered with dark humour that appears to break the forth wall on numerous occasions this book made me feel afraid, physically sick and utterly heartbroken. The character development and the insight into their lives in their final hours makes this book deeply tragic and truly heartbreaking and I found I connected with these characters on a deep level that I doubt will ever leave me. Takami weaves a fantastically tragic tale about loyalty, love, survival and murder that centers around the breakdown of relationships during times of war. Of course there is the social and political commentary but at it's heart Battle Royale is about friendships torn apart by violence. Yes, the violence is graphic but that only adds to the tragedy of the tale. This is an outstanding and riveting read that's as compelling and in its own way beautiful as it is tragic and vulgar.

'Battle Royale' is an excellent Japanese novel that is both gripping and original. I won't describe the storyline as the amazon page has a pretty good synopsis. I will say that from the first page you will be hooked and you will find yourself returning to this book at every free moment to see how the story develops. It is a simple premise, superbly executed (excuse the pun!) and you will become completely immersed in the mindsets of the various characters and how they behave. This book, like the film, is deemed controversial and yet I can't see any real reason why. It is a violent novel, but no more so than others out there, and it has a great many redeeming qualities compared to those other pulp fiction horror books. The translation is very good, so much so that you barely realise you are reading a translation at all, the ultimate goal I would have thought. This book is so easy to read that the 613 pages will fly by in no time at all. The ending, considering the subject matter, manages to leave you satisfied and with an adrenaline rush as well. One of the better modern fiction books i've read in a while and well worth a read. Feel free to check out my blog which can be found on my profile page.

For the price excellent value

Whether or not Battle Royale was the inspiration for The Hunger Games is a debate that continues to rage. For what it's worth I believe Suzanne Collins when she says she had never heard of the book or film, after all it was "banned" in the states until AFTER the first Hunger Games book had been written.... so, it is believable enough. The films are where I jump in. I watched them repeatedly - despite this I didn't realise they had been based on a book. I then tried to find copies of it to no real avail, trying every now and again over the years. It turned out this was a blessing in disguise as the better version of the book (it says Remastered on it) came out later - and this is the version I read. I highly recommend that this is the version you seek out. I have been told on a couple of occasions (and read online) that the original English version of the book is a more difficult read due to bad translation and formatting - probably because it was a rush job after the movie had been so successful internationally. Anyway, Battle Royale is like The Hunger Games in some respects except the violence is ramped ALL THE WAY TO 11! There are several differences throughout between the book and the film but nothing too out of the ordinary. The premise remains the same. The book is set in an alternate Japan of 1997. In this world Japan won World War Two. The country is strongly controlled by the government and anything "immoral" is banned (immoral things include rock music, and mostly anything American). 50 classes of students around Japan are selected to battle their classmates with only one survivor emerging from each group. To be clear, they are not battling students from other places, they only fight the other kids they have been going to school with. That's right - they get to kill their friends, boyfriends, girlfriends and..... enemies. All in the name of battle preparedness. Reading it, it is easy to see why it took three years to go from completion to publication. It is overly violent, and highly critical of certain government ideals. I guess that is why I thoroughly enjoyed it. I highly recommend you check it out.

I randomly came across this on a list of top 100 spooky books everyone should read list. And I gotta say this book is very good. I can't recommend it enough. It's somewhere like 600 or 800 pages and when I first got it I was like I will never get through this book. Lol and 3 days later I was on the last page. It's such an interesting and well-paced story. Not being a native Japanese speaker, I thought all of the Japanese characters would be hard to keep track of, but author does a really great job of writing in a way where that's not a problem. The only thing that was weird was one of the last to die seemed to come out of nowhere. She just seemed to have survived somehow by magic until it was her chapter where she was then um made not alive. It most definitely seemed to be very random and sudden. Other than that, I love this book and will be rereading it again several times I'm sure.

El libro llegó en excelente estado. Es súper bonito y grueso, es de esos libros que son muy flexibles y fácil de pasar página. Cuando lo termine de leer regreso a editar mi opinión sobre la historia.

Looks good

The novel is okay, but the translation is not very good. If you're looking for an entertaining story without literary pretenses, this is it.