Battle Royal

Title: Battle Royal

Author: Koushun Takami

ISBN: 978-1569317785

Publisher: Viz Media

Copyright: 2003

Genre: Horror/Action

Age Range: 16+

Reader’s Annotation: Lured by a study trip, a class from Shiroiwa Junior High School has been gassed, awoken in a classroom, given weapons, and told that only one student can survive to get off the island.

Plot Summary: Japan has become a police state known as the Republic of Greater East Asia. Infrequently, the government selects fifty classes of high school students to be sequestered on an island. While on the island, they are forced to kill one another. Only one student may leave each island. Originally created as military research, it gains popularity on television turning victors into pop stars. While the country watches brutal violence, the government uses the battles as a way to terrorize the population into submission.

            Shuya Nanahara is one of the Shiroiwa Junior High School students that were on a bus to a study trip. He and his classmates were awoken in a school on an evacuated island with mental collars around their necks. A short briefing reveals that they are one of the classes selected to kill each other. The students are expected to leave the class out into the island one by one with a pack that has a tool or weapon. The metal collar acts as both a tracking device and an explosive device if students linger in a “Forbidden Zone” for too long. As students kill one another, the inhabitable grid of the island shrinks forcing more deaths. Shaky alliances are formed as Shuya and his fellow classmates find out who does and does not have the killer instinct.

Critical Evaluation: With the popularity of the Hunger Games, it is important to include alternate and predating materials. This book warns about the dangers of a totalitarian government form a Japanese point of view. Many of the concepts of the book explore the idea of man versus man conflicts. It also explores the choices that some people make when forced with extreme circumstances much like Lord of the Flies. It has plenty of action, suspense, and relatable teenaged dialog that will motivate boys back into reading.

Author Information: Koushun Takami (高見 広春 Takami Kōshun, born 1969) is best known as the author of the novel Battle Royale, originally published in Japanese, and later translated into English by Yuji Oniki and published by 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. Source  - http://battleroyale.wikia.com/wiki/Koushun_Takami

Curriculum Ties: History, Psychology

Challenge Issues: Violence; Language

Booktalk Ideas: This book could be pitched as an alternative to the Hunger Games to older teens. Put the class or group of teens in alphabetical order and divide them by sex. Next, walk them through the beginning scenario of the book and explain the premise.