By Koushun Takami, Translated by Yuki Oniki
Viz/Haikasoru, 624 pp.
Rating: Not Rated

Another time, another place. Japan is part of The Republic of Greater East Asia, a totalitarian government run by the unnamed Great Dictator. Despite this, reeducation camps, and bans on dangerous material and dangerous thoughts, life continues in a fairly normal and typical way. With a major exception. When you send your children to school, there’s an offhand chance that they won’t be coming back. Ever. Several times a year a random middle school class is selected to participate in something known only as The Program. With no notice the students are taken to an isolated location, fitted with explosive collars, supplied with weapons and some food, and set loose in a small area with the order to be the last man standing.

While the book features a cast of forty-two, for the most part it sticks with the trio of Shuya Nanahara, a slightly rebellious yet popular teen with a love for banned American rock, Noriko Nakagawa, a long time friend of Shuya’s and fairly average Japanese schoolgirl, and Shogo Kawada, an older and mysterious transfer student who’s only been part of their class for a year. While it’s Shogo who quickly takes the lead within the trio, readers will spend most of their time with Shuya.

Background info, histories of the various characters, the world and more are heavily dolled out to us through Shuya’s memory and conversations. And while Shuya is clearly the main character, Takami takes ample opportunity to shine the spotlight on others with chapters dedicated to events that occur outside of the main trio’s story. He uses these opportunities to get inside the heads of other characters, showing their individual hopes, fears, and more, all of which add to the emotional impact of the horrors the kids endure.

Perhaps one of the more surprising aspects of the story is the heavy social criticism and commentary it contains. Within Japan it’s viewed as having a critical eye towards their education system and the pressure placed upon the students to excel during this formative time of their life. While I’m not that intimately familiar with the rigors that they endure, aside from what I’ve read in various articles online and offline, I can say that it wasn’t very difficult to view certain parts of the book as a rather nasty critique on society in general. Takami attacks things that many societies undoubtedly face, ranging from xenophobia, unquestioning nationalism, and hesitance to rock the boat for various reasons. While some of these may be more noticeable in certain countries than others, several of the themes brought to mind certain trends that have dominated American politics in the past decade.

I have to admit that I’m a bit surprised with this edition. I had read the original English release of Battle Royale ages ago and came away very engaged and entertained, but at the same time I had a very negative opinion about the translation. I remember it being fairly clunky with a few name switches here and there and I was under the impression that the newer edition was to have a touched-up translation. I flipped through my older edition at random to compare the translations, only to discover that the two are nearly identical; the most immediately noticeable change is the choice to italicize all of the internal dialogue; the rest seem to be minor grammatical alterations and some changes in punctuation.

In addition to the minor alterations to the text and the new cover, there are three additional “extras” tossed into the bundle. The first is an introduction by Max Allan Collins, a writer of both novels and comics and the creator of Road to Perdition. Following the story itself is a reprinted and translated interview with Kinji Fukasaku, the director of the live-action movie, and a fifteen-page Afterward from Koushun Takami himself. Personally, I felt that the Afterward was the highlight of the new material in this edition. It’s a lengthy Q&A with Koushun responding to various questions ranging from favorite authors to questions about the world within which the story is placed. It’s pretty engaging and interesting, especially in light of the fact that this is his only professional novel to date.

Even after ten years, Battle Royale is still a solid and enjoyable read with an incredibly entertaining premise, engaging characters, and themes and social criticisms that are surprisingly relevant despite its age and the cultural differences between the US and Japan.

Battle Royale is available now.

Review copy provided by the publisher.