Results for Battle Royale
On this page:
 
Games:

Battle Royale

Review: Enjoyment

It's lost a lot over the years, but if you can get a multi-tap and a handful of friends, there's still fun to be had in Battle Royale! ~ Shawn Sackenheim, All Game Guide

Review: Overall

It's kind of surprising that this would be the only wrestling game for the TurboGrafx since other consoles have had quite a few. While Battle Royale isn't as deep as some of the other wrestling titles out there, what it lacks in depth it more than makes up for in action. Instead of just one-on-one bouts like most other games, Battle Royale pits you against four other punch drunk maniacs in one ring! Fortunately, they're not all aiming for you and they'll take each other on as the bout continues. Just remember, as soon as you're out of the ring it's all over.

Graphically, the game exhibits a decent amount of animation. It's fairly choppy compared to today's animation, but you'll still catch every punch, kick, and face rake. Also nice are the differences between the characters. Each, designed around a specific color, has little details like torn clothes, face paint, and various hairstyles.

As mentioned, the gameplay is not very deep. You've get a punch, a kick, and a special move by hitting both buttons, and you'll need quick moves to stand a chance against the four other wrestlers in the ring. Beat on them until they get tired (they'll start panting), then move them to the side of the ring and send 'em flying! The last man standing is the winner. It may have lost a lot over the years, but if you can get a multi-tap and a handful of friends, there's still fun to be had in Battle Royale. ~ Shawn Sackenheim, All Game Guide

Review: Graphics

Animation is acceptable and characters are easy to discern. ~ Shawn Sackenheim, All Game Guide

Review: Sound

Only a handful of pretty weak effects (grunts and groans) squeak out of the TG-16, but they get the job done. ~ Shawn Sackenheim, All Game Guide

Review: Replay Value

The simplistic controls and limited attacks will surely bore in a few weeks' time, but it's still a nice one to come back to later. ~ Shawn Sackenheim, All Game Guide

Review: Documentation

Gets you into the squared circle to start fighting! ~ Shawn Sackenheim, All Game Guide

 
 
Wikipedia: Battle Royale


Battle Royale
Battle Royale English translation cover
バトル・ロワイアル
(Batoru rowaiaru)
Genre Drama
Romance
Science Fiction
Novel
Author Koushun Takami
Publisher Flag of Japan Ohta Publishing
Flag of the United States VIZ Media
Flag of the United Kingdom Gollancz
Flag of France Calmann-Lévy
Flag of Germany Heyne
Flag of Hungary Ulpius Ház
Published Flag of Japan April 22 1999
Flag of the United States February 26 2003
Flag of the United Kingdom July 6 2006
Flag of France August 23 2006
Flag of Hungary 2006
Volumes 1

Battle Royale (バトル・ロワイアル Batoru Rowaiaru?) is a novel written by Japanese author Koushun Takami.

Battle Royale (ISBN 4-89392-958-5) was first published in Japan in April 1999, and it is one of Japan's best-selling and most controversial novels.[citation needed] It later formed the basis for a popular movie (which spawned a sequel), and has been adapted as a manga series (released in 15 volumes, which were later adapted into English by Keith Giffen and published by TOKYOPOP), which itself now has a sequel.

An English translation of the novel (ISBN 1-56931-778-X) was published in the United States by Viz in February 2003. The English language version is also available in the United Kingdom, published by Gollancz. A German translation exists, published by Heyne.

Plot

Okishima Island map seen inside the cover of the novel.
Enlarge
Okishima Island map seen inside the cover of the novel.

Battle Royale takes place in an alternate timeline - Japan is a police state, known as the Republic of Greater East Asia (大東亜共和国 Dai Tōa Kyōwakoku). Every year fifty 3rd year junior high (grade 9) classes are chosen to forcibly fight against one another until only one student remains alive. The "Program", as it is known, was supposedly created to aid military research and population control, but it is more likely that it is simply a betting opportunity for high ranking Japanese army officers, or as Sakamochi puts it, to rid the country of trust for one another. The outcome of each battle is later revealed on local television. In the novel, one person discovers that the program is not an experiment at all, but a means of terrorizing the population. In theory, after seeing such atrocities, the people will become paranoid and divided, preventing an organized rebellion. In the film, the "Program" was created to discipline teenagers, who had become out of control delinquents, angry at the adult world.

Okishima Island map seen in the first volume of the manga.
Enlarge
Okishima Island map seen in the first volume of the manga.

Under the guise of a 'study trip', a group of students from Shiroiwa Junior High School (城岩中学校 Shiroiwa Chūgakkō), a Junior High School in the fictional town of Shiroiwa (in Kagawa Prefecture), are gassed on a bus, only to awaken in a school on an isolated, evacuated island (southwest of Shodoshima, also in the Kagawa Prefecture), wearing metal collars around their necks. After being briefed about the program, the students are issued survival packs (along with a random weapon or a tool) and sent out the island one by one. While some of the students receive guns and knives, many students acquire useless items like boomerangs, some common dartboard darts, and forks. In some cases, instead of a weapon, the student receives a tool; Hiroki Sugimura finds a radar that tracks nearby students, and Toshinori Oda receives a bulletproof vest.

To make sure the students obey the rules and kill each other, the metal collars around their necks track their positions, will explode if they linger in a 'Danger Zone' or attempt to remove the collars, and listen in on their conversations. The Danger Zones are randomly chosen areas of the map that increase in number as time goes on, re-sculpting and shrinking the battlefield and forcing the students to move around, eventually meeting in one small area.

Okishima Island map seen throughout the film (the special edition film DVD case also contains a small card size map); the lists in Japanese are the students' names
Enlarge
Okishima Island map seen throughout the film (the special edition film DVD case also contains a small card size map); the lists in Japanese are the students' names

The students are also given a time limit. If twenty-four hours pass without someone being killed, then all of the collars will be detonated simultaneously and there will be no winner. It is mentioned that only 0.5% of Programs end in this fashion. (In the film version, this occurs after a total of 3 days have passed since the start of the Battle Royale, regardless of the timing with which people die.)

In the end, four students remain: Shuya Nanahara, Noriko Nakagawa, Shogo Kawada, and antagonist Kazuo Kiriyama. There is a car chase and shoot-out between the three main characters and Kazuo. Kazuo is killed after the chase ends. Shogo then takes his two partners to a hill where there are a lot of trees. After telling Shuya and Noriko that he will kill them, Shogo shoots in the air twice, faking their deaths for the microphones planted on the collars. He then dismantles the collars. When Shogo is on the winner's ship, Shuya and Noriko board it and kill the soldiers on board. Shogo tells Shuya how to escape, succumbs to his wounds and dies. The two remaining students go to the mainland, where they become fugitives.

Student list

The main cast of the film version of Battle Royale.
Enlarge
The main cast of the film version of Battle Royale.
Boys Girls
Number Name Number Name
1 Yoshio Akamatsu 1 Mizuho Inada
2 Keita Iijima 2 Yukie Utsumi
3 Tatsumichi Oki 3 Megumi Eto
4 Toshinori Oda 4 Sakura Ogawa
5 Shogo Kawada 5 Izumi Kanai
6 Kazuo Kiriyama 6 Yukiko Kitano
7 Yoshitoki Kuninobu 7 Yumiko Kusaka
8 Yoji Kuramoto 8 Kayoko Kotohiki
9 Hiroshi Kuronaga 9 Yuko Sakaki
10 Ryuhei Sasagawa 10 Hirono Shimizu
11 Hiroki Sugimura 11 Mitsuko Souma
12 Yutaka Seto 12 Haruka Tanizawa
13 Yuichiro Takiguchi 13 Takako Chigusa
14 Sho Tsukioka 14 Mayumi Tendo
15 Shuya Nanahara 15 Noriko Nakagawa
16 Kazushi Niida 16 Yuka Nakagawa
17 Mitsuru Numai 17 Satomi Noda
18 Tadakatsu Hatagami 18 Fumiyo Fujiyoshi
19 Shinji Mimura 19 Chisato Matsui
20 Kyoichi Motobuchi 20 Kaori Minami
21 Kazuhiko Yamamoto 21 Yoshimi Yahagi

Other characters

All versions

  • Masao Hayashida (林田 昌朗 Hayashida Masao): The teacher of Class 3-B at Shiroiwa Junior High School. He is executed when he pleads for the lives of the 3-B students. He is nicknamed "Dragonfly" because of his glasses.
  • Keiko Onuki (大貫 慶子 Ōnuki Keiko) (Keiko Inoue in the English-language manga): Shogo Kawada's girlfriend from his previous school in Kobe; Keiko was in Shogo's class when the two were in a Battle Royale. His relationship with Keiko and the outcome of the previous Battle Royale hardens Shogo Kawada.

Novel and manga

  • Ryoko Anno (安野 良子 Anno Ryōko): The superintendent of the Charity House, a Roman Catholic orphanage. In the novel and manga, she is raped when she protests the conscription of Shuya and Yoshitoki into the program. Anno never makes an actual appearance in the film.

Novel

  • Kinpatsu Sakamochi: The teacher in the novel version. He enjoys watching the students die and bets on Kazuo winning. His name is a takeoff on Kinpachi Sakamoto, the protagonist of Kinpachi Sensei. He dies when Shogo impales him with a pencil.
  • Private Toshihiko Tahara (田原 俊彦 Tahara Toshihiko), Nomura (野村), and Kondo (近藤 Kondō): The soldiers in the novel version. Tahara, described as "the frivolous one," shoots Noriko in the leg. The soldiers are killed by Shuya and Shogo in the end. They are named after characters in Kinpachi Sensei.

Manga

  • Yonemi Kamon: The teacher in the manga version. He is very similar to Sakamochi and dies the same way.
  • Nakata: A student in Shogo's first class. He has a crush on Keiko and stalks her. He witnesses her argument with Shogo the day before the class is captured, and is enraged. During the Program he makes it to the final four students and, when Shogo approaches him, grabs Keiko and holds her hostage. He complains that Keiko always comes back to Shogo even though he treats her badly, and insists that he will take care of Keiko, saying that if need be he will shoot her since he thinks that she is better off dead than being with Shogo. Shogo calls him out on being a stalker, says that he is a rapist in training, and then recommends that he take the safety off of his gun. Nakata glances down to do this and Shogo shoots him, revealing afterwards that Nakata's revolver had no safety.

Film

  • Takeshi Kitano: The teacher in the film version. Unlike Sakamochi and Yonemi, Kitano is not overly sadistic. He has an unhealthy obsession with Noriko.
  • Lieutenant Anjo: A soldier in the film version.
  • "Big Sister": The announcer in the orientation video to Battle Royale students. Her cheery manner feels out of place with the situation. The lady announces the departures of students after the orientation is finished.


Game

B-R-U.net developed a free Internet game Battle Royale Ultimate with PHP and Perl in Japanese. This site distributed a game and it has been translated into both Simplified and Traditional Chinese by the community.

The English-language official Battle Royale site stated that it had a Flash mini-game in development.

Adaptations

There have been a number of adaptations into other media which themselves have spun off sequels. These include:

References

External links


 
 

Join the WikiAnswers Q&A community. Post a question or answer questions about "Battle Royale" at WikiAnswers.

 

Copyrights:

Games. Copyright © 2008 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Game Guide ® , a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Battle Royale" Read more

Search for answers directly from your browser with the FREE Answers.com Toolbar!  
Click here to download now. 

Get Answers your way! Check out all our free tools and products.

On this page:   E-mail   print Print  Link  

 

Keep Reading

Mentioned In: