Manga Review - Battle Royale - The OG Survival Game

Battle Royale can be regarded as the grandfather of the survival game genre. There has been a live-action adaptation of the manga, and its influence is prevalent in a lot of modern survival game genre. Battle Royale is a story about a survival game (only one can live) in which a class of students must participate if selected, and will be eliminated if they do not participate. The game pushes the psychological strength of the students to the limits, and we observe that some individuals become insane, and devoid of any reasoning. The game is a very cruel and gruesome way of entertainment for the Imperial Army of Japan.

Story (8/10):

The story starts off recounting what is supposedly the two main characters, and then it is revealed that the class these two are in, were selected to be part of the game. What caught me off guard was the elimination of one of these two starting characters (Yoshitoki, friend of Shuuya) when in the game. I didn't expect him to be killed, but then again, it was pretty smart of the author to kill off that character, because if both lived, it would have been a bit complicated in the end.

Throughout the story, it is heavily implied that one must play the game (if no deaths within 24 hours, everyone dies) and that only one can live. However, Shuuya is determined to not play the game, and he convinces several of them along the way that no one has to play the game. The manga flowed very well and there weren't that many filler chapters, and the amount of chapters dedicated to important and non-important characters are well done. This allowed readers to have a good idea of the final few survivors in the game. I also liked the use of flashbacks to develop backstory and progress the plot as it allows the reader to understand why some students do what they do, how they do it, and why they do it. What was good about the manga was that some characters were unpredictable and you never know who will turn on who (except for a few cases).

However, one flaw in the manga was how predictable the ending was. It was obvious that Noriko and Shuuya will live from the start of the manga, so suspense created by the author didn't have a big impact on readers. Therefore the revelation of Noriko and Shuuya living wasn't too surprising when the game end and only Shougo "lives". One plot twist was Shougo dying due to a stomach wound, which was understandable because of the crossfire from Kiriyama. Nevertheless, the story overall was fluid and each scene was meaningful.

Characters (10/10):

All the main characters were pretty interesting, notably all the other main characters other than Shuuya and Noriko, because they all have interesting backstories. The game was "more interesting and gave higher ratings" because of the emotional instability of these potential winners. I won't go into detail about each of the main character's backstory, but a lot of them are present in reality, and

Yomeni Kamon - The Instructor

these characters seem very real and possible to exist in reality.

I also liked how the author makes the instructor seem like a person who has a punchable face/person who you extremely despise. There are several reason why this is the case, but some are probably too explicit to be explained. At the end of manga, it felt so good for these antagonist to die. Good job on the author for creating such a hateable character.

Art (8/10):

The art is not the prettiest since it is an old manga, but holds its ground well. The attention to detail when it comes to the gore is superb and character expressions are well drawn. Some mangas don't rely on the art to sell, but rather the intensity of the drawing or the story, and this is definitely one of the cases. I commend Masayuki Taguchi (the illustrator) for the superb drawings.

All the main characters are distinguishable, so it was easy to identify who was who. There was even some distinguishable characteristics from side characters, which highlights the author's attention to detail.

Enjoyment (9/10):

I finished this 119 chapter manga in one day, and I always was so excited to get back to it after I done some work because it was so engaging. I really enjoyed reading this manga, and I usually finish enjoyable and interesting mangas quickly. Despite predictability in the storyline, I still enjoyed the scenes.

Overall (9/10):

If you want to go back to roots of survival game manga, Battle Royale will definitely be a good choice, both for originality and raw art. Battle Royal holds its ground despite its "old-style art" due to its delivery of gore and shock as we observe the game's impact on student's psychological strength and the student's transformation as they progress through the game. The characters are very realistic and there are no hateable characters (whom which are students) in the manga. This is a definitely must-read for survival game manga enthusiasts.