Book Review: Battle Royale (Koushun Takami)

You may have heard of The Running Man and The Hunger Games - disturbing tales of the future in which human lives are put on the line in bloodsport entertainment.  From Japan, Battle Royale is another horrific vision of the future:  42 junior high school students rounded up on an island and forced to fight to the death under the eyes of an authoritarian government.

The harrowing premise is what initially hooked me into the BR films, and finally into this novel.  It has aspects that are familiar to the genre (which is not that big to begin with - just like The Running Man and Escape From New York, characters are coerced into action with explosive collars.  The survivalist struggle and the game-like nature of the whole affair will bring The Hunger Games to mind - I've seen many people accusing it of ripping off BR).  While the set-up and concepts used are neat, they are actually the low points of the book.  Some of the things that makes this perfectly readable are its agreeable pacing, its harrowing action scenes and violence, and the dynamic ways in which characters clash and band together.  The only bad thing is that this is a long book that chronicles every single student - it's not confusing, thankfully, but it can feel like a daunting read because of its sheer length and the level of detail Takami went into.

Fortunately, it is the characters that keeps this whole story glued together.  The three main characters are a likable bunch, whose struggles comprise the bulk of the novel and all its more thrilling parts.  What's really surprising is that the other 40+ characters receive a good amount of treatment too - even if they have short-lived parts, the author gives you just enough to understand them as people.  Thus, all the death in the book carries substantial weight.  Having to track all these characters, the plot moves around at a good rate, but it doesn't amount to much more than a struggle for survival (and possibly escape) on one island.  Background is given on the type of government that runs the BR program, and the characters often vow to tear the system down, but it's all left as a mere cliffhanger.

This novel is written with plenty of flair.  It does a great job of getting into each characters' thoughts and feelings.  There are some parts that come off as a little odd, such as in how specific it gets with certain details (like character height and weight) and general wording.  Dialogue appears realistic, but it can be rather melodramatic, especially when characters talk about their love lives and crushes (in this respect, it almost comes off as very anime-like).  Chances are that some of these aspects are just inherent cultural traits to Japanese literature that I might be ignorant of.

Battle Royale is a perfectly enjoyable and juicy read.  It's not always the best story or prose, but it is uncompromising in its vision, and compelling with its characters.

Comparatively, the novel is a grade better than the movie - the film does have good moments in its own right, but it always came off as rather stuff and drab to me.  However, I do prefer the Hunger Games a little more, thanks to its pacing and worldbuilding.

4/5 (Experience:  Good | Story:  Pretty Good | Book:  Pretty Good)