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Battle Royale Slam Book
The cult phenomenon Battle Royale has been lauded as a masterpiece and decried as exploitative gore, but it's always remained in the public consciousness. This collection of essays by some of the best science fiction, horror, and thriller writers working today explore the depth, details, and controversies surrounding Battle Royale in an intelligent, accessible fashion.
192 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2014
20 people are currently reading
186 people want to read
About the author
Nick Mamatas
186 books248 followersNick Mamatas is the author of the Lovecraftian Beat road novel Move Under Ground, which was nominated for both the Bram Stoker and International Horror Guild awards, the Civil War ghost story Northern Gothic, also a Stoker nominee, the suburban nighmare novel Under My Roof, and over thirty short stories and hundreds of articles (some of which were collected in 3000 Miles Per Hour in Every Direction at Once). His work has appeared in Razor, Village Voice, Spex, Clamor, In These Times, Polyphony, several Disinformation and Ben Bella Books anthologies, and the books Corpse Blossoms, Poe's Lighthouse, Before & After: Stories from New York, and Short and Sweet.
Nick's forthcoming works include the collection You Might Sleep... (November 2008) and Haunted Legends, an anthology with Ellen Datlow (Tor Books 2009).
A native New Yorker, Nick now lives in the California Bay Area.
Nick's forthcoming works include the collection You Might Sleep... (November 2008) and Haunted Legends, an anthology with Ellen Datlow (Tor Books 2009).
A native New Yorker, Nick now lives in the California Bay Area.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
June 14, 2017
It's been over a decade since I read Battle Royale. It was a book that amazed me with its emotional resonance. It was the first book that ever made me tear up with the lighthouse scene. The author did such a great job building up both the stakes and the relationships, that it was devastating to read. I have enjoyed many a book since then, but few in number are the books who have affected me so much.
The deepest proof for the artistic quality of the story is the fact that these essays represent a bunch of different (and also a few similar) interpretations of what we can gain from the story. There are both obvious lessons and ones that make you think, "Oh yeah!". There are even a few that deal with my original rejection of The Hunger Games as an anglo ripoff and being upset that it was more well-known than BR. Within a context of remakes of Japanese horror rather than just bringing out subtitled or dubbed versions, I think it's understandable, even if it's misguided.
Well, as is the case for anthologies, magazines, and essay collections - here are the thoughts I had as I read each one; a collection of my status updates.
"Death for Kids" - A guy who lived through an evil police state in Argentina sees death at 8 years old and realizes how the world is. Sees BR as a lesson kids need to experience."
"Blood in the Classroom" - Intro essay to the book. Discusses how the subversive books of yesteryear are today's boring books that kids are forced to read in the classroom. Mentions that Battle Royale probably won't suffer this fate.
"The Fight the Night Before" - About deliberations on Battle Royale winning a horror prize and why, perhaps, it did not win.
"Happiest Days..." - Showing ways that reality is like BR and comparing other novels, including Hunger Games and Lord of the Flies. Also a great section of how school shootings are nothing new."
"Innocence Lost and Regained" - Touches on similar themes to the essay before it - innocence of children is a construct, relatively recent, & a false one. A bit more of a scholarly style of writing & so a bit harder to read than the previous essays in that it it has more complex sentence structure that my brain isn't quite awake enough to parse right now. Also neat exploration of how Bradbury tackled similar topics."
"From Dangerous to Desirable" - A look at where BR fits in with gender norms in Japan via various media that is its spiritual ancestor. There's a lot I missed as an American reading the story and applying my ideas of gender to the story. My takeaway after reading this essay is that the author was a bit more adventerous with the male characters."
"Girl Power" - A great example that with art, each person takes something different out of it. While many have criticized BR as mysoginistic, this author sees strong women in some of the female characters.
"Over the Top" - An exploration of how wrestling in the USA and Japan inspired the author to write Battle Royale."
"Generational Warfare" - The author of the essay takes a look at the societal issues that drove the zeitgeist as the author of BR composed his book. Also inadvertently taught me the origin of the motorcycle gangs in Akira."
"Killer Kids in Jeopardy" - the essay explores how we have been OK with kids being in trouble in novels, but not movies. Or rather that it's been a reluctant march towards acceptance in movies of that which has been happening in novels for hundreds of years."
"Seeing the Sequel First" - The writer had a bad childhood in school and talks about how BR2 was a spark of inspiration for him."
"Dead Sexy" - The author essentially posits the same theory that eventually came to guide how I understand sex and violence in art. There is a difference between the gratuitous and the story-rooted acts. Take, for example, The Handmaid's Tale. It's key to the story that the sex scenes both in the book and TV are depicted the way they are. That is not gratuitous."
"The Postwar Child's Guide to Survival" - An analysis of BR as a criticism of what the post-WWII generation did with the country. I'm not sure it resonates as well as the author posits, but it certainly has merit."
"Children Playing with Guns" - uses BR as a reason to talk about gun violence in schools in America (with a few world examples). Best case I've heard yet as to why all the gun laws we can come up with won't do a darn thing to stop it from happening again."
"List, Combination, Recursion" - a strange, stream of consciousness essay I did not enjoy. Perhaps something was lost in translation."
"Buelller" - The author starts off with the same criticism I had when Hunger Games first got popular - It's a rip off of Battle Royale. Then used this to go back through the history of teen movies since they're all riffs off each other. Then ends with an absurdist version of Battle Royale containing characters from nearly every movie he mentioned."
"Whatever you encounter" - How BR demonstrates Zen teachings.
The deepest proof for the artistic quality of the story is the fact that these essays represent a bunch of different (and also a few similar) interpretations of what we can gain from the story. There are both obvious lessons and ones that make you think, "Oh yeah!". There are even a few that deal with my original rejection of The Hunger Games as an anglo ripoff and being upset that it was more well-known than BR. Within a context of remakes of Japanese horror rather than just bringing out subtitled or dubbed versions, I think it's understandable, even if it's misguided.
Well, as is the case for anthologies, magazines, and essay collections - here are the thoughts I had as I read each one; a collection of my status updates.
"Death for Kids" - A guy who lived through an evil police state in Argentina sees death at 8 years old and realizes how the world is. Sees BR as a lesson kids need to experience."
"Blood in the Classroom" - Intro essay to the book. Discusses how the subversive books of yesteryear are today's boring books that kids are forced to read in the classroom. Mentions that Battle Royale probably won't suffer this fate.
"The Fight the Night Before" - About deliberations on Battle Royale winning a horror prize and why, perhaps, it did not win.
"Happiest Days..." - Showing ways that reality is like BR and comparing other novels, including Hunger Games and Lord of the Flies. Also a great section of how school shootings are nothing new."
"Innocence Lost and Regained" - Touches on similar themes to the essay before it - innocence of children is a construct, relatively recent, & a false one. A bit more of a scholarly style of writing & so a bit harder to read than the previous essays in that it it has more complex sentence structure that my brain isn't quite awake enough to parse right now. Also neat exploration of how Bradbury tackled similar topics."
"From Dangerous to Desirable" - A look at where BR fits in with gender norms in Japan via various media that is its spiritual ancestor. There's a lot I missed as an American reading the story and applying my ideas of gender to the story. My takeaway after reading this essay is that the author was a bit more adventerous with the male characters."
"Girl Power" - A great example that with art, each person takes something different out of it. While many have criticized BR as mysoginistic, this author sees strong women in some of the female characters.
"Over the Top" - An exploration of how wrestling in the USA and Japan inspired the author to write Battle Royale."
"Generational Warfare" - The author of the essay takes a look at the societal issues that drove the zeitgeist as the author of BR composed his book. Also inadvertently taught me the origin of the motorcycle gangs in Akira."
"Killer Kids in Jeopardy" - the essay explores how we have been OK with kids being in trouble in novels, but not movies. Or rather that it's been a reluctant march towards acceptance in movies of that which has been happening in novels for hundreds of years."
"Seeing the Sequel First" - The writer had a bad childhood in school and talks about how BR2 was a spark of inspiration for him."
"Dead Sexy" - The author essentially posits the same theory that eventually came to guide how I understand sex and violence in art. There is a difference between the gratuitous and the story-rooted acts. Take, for example, The Handmaid's Tale. It's key to the story that the sex scenes both in the book and TV are depicted the way they are. That is not gratuitous."
"The Postwar Child's Guide to Survival" - An analysis of BR as a criticism of what the post-WWII generation did with the country. I'm not sure it resonates as well as the author posits, but it certainly has merit."
"Children Playing with Guns" - uses BR as a reason to talk about gun violence in schools in America (with a few world examples). Best case I've heard yet as to why all the gun laws we can come up with won't do a darn thing to stop it from happening again."
"List, Combination, Recursion" - a strange, stream of consciousness essay I did not enjoy. Perhaps something was lost in translation."
"Buelller" - The author starts off with the same criticism I had when Hunger Games first got popular - It's a rip off of Battle Royale. Then used this to go back through the history of teen movies since they're all riffs off each other. Then ends with an absurdist version of Battle Royale containing characters from nearly every movie he mentioned."
"Whatever you encounter" - How BR demonstrates Zen teachings.
January 18, 2022
I finished this book for only two reasons. The first is that I’ve been a huge Battle Royale fan for a decade, and the second is that I’m not a quitter. But had I not owned a physical copy of this book, and had the constant reminder of its existence sitting on my shelf, I would likely have dropped it early on.
The truth is that the overwhelming majority of essays in this novel are a total drag at best, and unrelated to the novel at worst. Most of the discussions seem to be related to the film adaptation instead of the novel, which could very well be considered a different story altogether with all of the changes, which was something I just found personally disappointing.
There were some interesting essays, primarily the one by Masao Higashi, which gives some insight on the birth of Battle Royale and the initial controversies when it was first released. I was also intrigued by the essay that spoke of the Japanese youth culture at the time that the novel was written, which may have influenced the story as well as public opinion about it. Other essays, however, were either a life story or a topic that was so divorced from Battle Royale that I had to stop reading several times and wonder if the writer had forgotten their main point or simply couldn’t remember a thing about the source material and instead stalled for time.
I’ll reiterate that many of the essays seem to be written by people who have unfortunately only seen the film, or perhaps have read the novel but haven’t touched it in some years. One essay in particular even gets a characters name completely wrong despite google existing in 2013-2014 at the time when these essays were written. Even the essays that attempt to be thought-provoking about ‘girlbosses’ in Battle Royale, or claim that the sexualization of underage characters in the manga is actually okay because Horror is like that (truly don’t have the time to go into how bad that one was), come across as half-baked ideas that the author didn’t particularly care to write about.
All in all, this book doesn’t feel like a collection of essays written by fans of Battle Royale, but rather gives the impression that it was written last minute by a class of apathetic students that hadn’t read the novel in full and were stalling for time in hopes that the teacher wouldn’t notice how departed from the source material they were.
The truth is that the overwhelming majority of essays in this novel are a total drag at best, and unrelated to the novel at worst. Most of the discussions seem to be related to the film adaptation instead of the novel, which could very well be considered a different story altogether with all of the changes, which was something I just found personally disappointing.
There were some interesting essays, primarily the one by Masao Higashi, which gives some insight on the birth of Battle Royale and the initial controversies when it was first released. I was also intrigued by the essay that spoke of the Japanese youth culture at the time that the novel was written, which may have influenced the story as well as public opinion about it. Other essays, however, were either a life story or a topic that was so divorced from Battle Royale that I had to stop reading several times and wonder if the writer had forgotten their main point or simply couldn’t remember a thing about the source material and instead stalled for time.
I’ll reiterate that many of the essays seem to be written by people who have unfortunately only seen the film, or perhaps have read the novel but haven’t touched it in some years. One essay in particular even gets a characters name completely wrong despite google existing in 2013-2014 at the time when these essays were written. Even the essays that attempt to be thought-provoking about ‘girlbosses’ in Battle Royale, or claim that the sexualization of underage characters in the manga is actually okay because Horror is like that (truly don’t have the time to go into how bad that one was), come across as half-baked ideas that the author didn’t particularly care to write about.
All in all, this book doesn’t feel like a collection of essays written by fans of Battle Royale, but rather gives the impression that it was written last minute by a class of apathetic students that hadn’t read the novel in full and were stalling for time in hopes that the teacher wouldn’t notice how departed from the source material they were.
April 22, 2024
A collection of critical essays and appreciations regarding the BR franchise, it's kind of a mixed bag. Some of the pieces contradict each other, some overreach, one or two aren't all that great. Still, the overall quality is solid, most of the perspectives have merit, and a few even give useful context to the original works. It may not be a must for fans, but it is a worthy companion.
April 3, 2014
I would say that there are three main categories for the essays in The Battle Royale Slam Book: critical, historical, and personal. Not all of the essays fall into one of these categories, and some cross categories, but I believe these are the main three. All of the essays are well written and thought provoking. I'm not going to talk about every essay; just a few that made a real impression. The essays cover the original novel, the movie and it's sequel, as well as the manga.
My favorite are the personal essays. The book starts with John Skipp, and while I don't want to give anything away, it is an emotional gut-punch. Brian Keene talks about growing up with guns. Isamu Fukui writes an interesting piece about how seeing the sequel first can change how critically one views that sequel.
Next, we have the essays that take battle Royale, and it's author, and places it in an historical context.A few essays talk about post World War II Japan and how it informed Japanese literature, and Battle Royale in particular. Jason S. Ridler discusses professional wrestling in Japan, and it's influence on Koushan Takami (the author of the original novel). Kostas Paradias talks about the rise of youth gangs in Japan. Of course, all of this is tied in to Battle Royale.
The critical essays are my least favorite. Anyone who has read or seen any of my other reviews knows that I don't delve too deeply into the underlying themes in fiction. I don't mind a story that makes me think, but I read and watch movies to be entertained. (Non-fiction excepted, of course.) These essays are as well written and informative as the rest, they just aren't my favorite.
A few of those that don't quite fit into these three categories include Gregory Lamberson's essay about killer kids in movies, Steven R. Stewart's defense of sexuality in the BR manga, and, my personal favorite, and by far the most entertaining Sam Hamm's essay, comparing BR to the "American Teen Film." Without giving too much away, Hamm's essay ends with his own version of the Battle Royale, featuring many iconic characters from teen films (from Halloween and A Nightmare on Elm Street, to Pretty In Pink and Home Alone).
Overall, The Battle Royale Slam Book is thought provoking, informative, and entertaining. Whether you are a fan of the novel/movie/manga or someone who likes analysis of books and movies, this is a great book, that provides a deeper look at the Battle Royale phenomenon.
My favorite are the personal essays. The book starts with John Skipp, and while I don't want to give anything away, it is an emotional gut-punch. Brian Keene talks about growing up with guns. Isamu Fukui writes an interesting piece about how seeing the sequel first can change how critically one views that sequel.
Next, we have the essays that take battle Royale, and it's author, and places it in an historical context.A few essays talk about post World War II Japan and how it informed Japanese literature, and Battle Royale in particular. Jason S. Ridler discusses professional wrestling in Japan, and it's influence on Koushan Takami (the author of the original novel). Kostas Paradias talks about the rise of youth gangs in Japan. Of course, all of this is tied in to Battle Royale.
The critical essays are my least favorite. Anyone who has read or seen any of my other reviews knows that I don't delve too deeply into the underlying themes in fiction. I don't mind a story that makes me think, but I read and watch movies to be entertained. (Non-fiction excepted, of course.) These essays are as well written and informative as the rest, they just aren't my favorite.
A few of those that don't quite fit into these three categories include Gregory Lamberson's essay about killer kids in movies, Steven R. Stewart's defense of sexuality in the BR manga, and, my personal favorite, and by far the most entertaining Sam Hamm's essay, comparing BR to the "American Teen Film." Without giving too much away, Hamm's essay ends with his own version of the Battle Royale, featuring many iconic characters from teen films (from Halloween and A Nightmare on Elm Street, to Pretty In Pink and Home Alone).
Overall, The Battle Royale Slam Book is thought provoking, informative, and entertaining. Whether you are a fan of the novel/movie/manga or someone who likes analysis of books and movies, this is a great book, that provides a deeper look at the Battle Royale phenomenon.
February 23, 2018
Mixed bag
I enjoyed the Battle Royale novel immensely and found the essays interesting for the most part. Particularly the essays about gender roles and feminism! I did find the ones discussing the movie adaptation a bit confusing. Maybe I will finally watch the film.
I enjoyed the Battle Royale novel immensely and found the essays interesting for the most part. Particularly the essays about gender roles and feminism! I did find the ones discussing the movie adaptation a bit confusing. Maybe I will finally watch the film.
September 6, 2025
The books introduction comments on the nature of how controversial books eventually become school reading - how the type of book your grandparents kept under the bed for going against the status quo becomes the book your kids use CliffNotes to pretend they read it for their English teacher's homework.
The books contents then proceed to show you essays from people claiming to be the grandparents but in fact are actually mostly CliffNotes kids. There's a few good points in here, but overall it's a complete waste of time and money.
You would have a more engaging and informative conversation with a Japanese person who read the book over the content in here - especially since you're probably reading this since it was the book that got you interested in the franchise.
I also enjoy the film, but for media on the film I would watch a review on YouTube. For novel analysis I tend to go to print.
The books contents then proceed to show you essays from people claiming to be the grandparents but in fact are actually mostly CliffNotes kids. There's a few good points in here, but overall it's a complete waste of time and money.
You would have a more engaging and informative conversation with a Japanese person who read the book over the content in here - especially since you're probably reading this since it was the book that got you interested in the franchise.
I also enjoy the film, but for media on the film I would watch a review on YouTube. For novel analysis I tend to go to print.
July 25, 2023
Interesting!
A collection of essays based on Battle Royale. Primarily it's about the novel by Koushun Takami, but some of the essayists only talk about the film (or the sequel), and there's a handful of essays that discuss the manga.
There are a few essays that are only tangentially related to Battle Royale. The first essay, for instance, is about the author's experience migrating to Argentina when he was a boy and witnessing the violence of children. But even so, this serves to remind us that for some children around the world, violence is part of their life. It's how they're raised.
Some of the essays are more comical (such as the one pondering how Hughesian characters would respond to being thrown into Battle Royale), some more philosophical (is the book zen?), but all of them unite over the impact this novel has had on the pop collective consciousness.
A collection of essays based on Battle Royale. Primarily it's about the novel by Koushun Takami, but some of the essayists only talk about the film (or the sequel), and there's a handful of essays that discuss the manga.
There are a few essays that are only tangentially related to Battle Royale. The first essay, for instance, is about the author's experience migrating to Argentina when he was a boy and witnessing the violence of children. But even so, this serves to remind us that for some children around the world, violence is part of their life. It's how they're raised.
Some of the essays are more comical (such as the one pondering how Hughesian characters would respond to being thrown into Battle Royale), some more philosophical (is the book zen?), but all of them unite over the impact this novel has had on the pop collective consciousness.
June 24, 2020
OK. Some essays better than others. Think I will dig out my copy of BR now
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 17, 2023
Good but some of the essays were unfocused/ didn’t really have a point. Still good tho ❤️❤️❤️
December 24, 2024
An interesting if slightly uneven collection of essays on the transgressive novel as well the manga and movie adaptations of it.
July 27, 2025
Chyba trochę nie tego oczekiwałam. Większość była powtarzalna i w zasadzie o niczym (poza trzema)
July 25, 2016
The Battle Royale Slam Book is a book of essays on the book, movie, and manga versions of Battle Royale.
Honestly, I'm not really sure why it needs a special book of essays. I mean, I love the book, but it's not the deepest work in the world. I wouldn't have read this at all, except that it happened to be part of a bundle of ebooks I bought, and I happened to already be rereading Battle Royale. So, I figured I'd keep an ereader open on my computer and read an essay now and then when I had some free time, maybe learn some additional context that I'd missed in the original.
And there is certainly some of that, information on certain trends in Japanese society when the book was written, about certain in-jokes that would go over a reader's head without knowledge of the local pop culture, and about how the book was first received by the judges in the competition which "discovered" it. These tidbits are mildly interesting, although all in all, they're the sort of thing that could all fit into a short preface of a new edition of the book or something.
Unfortunately, a lot of the other essays seem, to me, to fall in the category of 'trying too hard', searching for deep meaning in the text of a cult movie/book/manga, or trying to use it to make some grand point about humanity, or comparing and contrasting with other movies... the kind of stuff that you had to do for school even while you were pretty sure the author never actually intended the symbolism the teacher insisted was there. In this case you sometimes get writers talking about how, say, since a certain character got killed than it was an indictment on that type of person, a theory which might have held more water if it wasn't a book who's premise required most of the characters to die.
Moreover, as I said, Battle Royale may have started as a book, but it's been adapted into a movie and a manga, and all three are talked about in the book. Oddly enough, there isn't really an essay that takes a look at the differences between the media and what drove those choices and what they wind up changing about the story, which might have been interesting to me, but instead, you get a few which draw from all three, and a bunch of essays that are clearly only discussing the movie (and considering I thought most of the changes from the book made it inferior, the fact that I noticed which one they were talking about meant they were usually talking about bad decisions as though they were elements worthy of deep analysis).
So I guess this is a book for superfans, but for a particular kind of superfans that not only may like the movie version more than the book, but also really likes literary analysis. That is not me on two fronts.
About the most interesting part of the book was, at the end of one essay which compared Battle Royale to various 80s Hollywood teen movies, the author went on tangent discussing how the stars of those movies would fare if they were put into Battle Royale together. Although the tale was too flippant and rushed to really enjoy, at least it was trying something a little bit fun.
That section also reminded me of what I'd hoped this book would be. When I first heard the title, and realized it was from multiple authors, but before I read the description, I had an instant of hope that this would be a book full of short tales, by a variety of authors, set in other instances of The Program. Either they could choose a single Program that happened on another year and each writer choose one story to tell within that, or each writer could tell their own take on it, with maybe some telling individual short tales of winners or losers, some exploring life outside the game, others transposing the setting to another part of the world, and maybe a few where they take a gimmick like putting (probably thinly disguised versions of) the teen cast of Archie comics or Hogwarts students or something in a Battle Royale situation.
Now, maybe Battle Royale's author wouldn't want to invite others into their world like that, or maybe simply nobody thought of that idea, but, far more than a book of essays, that's a book I'd not only want to read, but I'd pay money for.
This one? I'm glad I got it for free (or rather as part of a bundle which already contained other books that were worth the full price I paid for said bundle), since I wouldn't have bought it alone, but I didn't hate it, I just mostly found it unnecessary. I guess two stars seems appropriate.
Honestly, I'm not really sure why it needs a special book of essays. I mean, I love the book, but it's not the deepest work in the world. I wouldn't have read this at all, except that it happened to be part of a bundle of ebooks I bought, and I happened to already be rereading Battle Royale. So, I figured I'd keep an ereader open on my computer and read an essay now and then when I had some free time, maybe learn some additional context that I'd missed in the original.
And there is certainly some of that, information on certain trends in Japanese society when the book was written, about certain in-jokes that would go over a reader's head without knowledge of the local pop culture, and about how the book was first received by the judges in the competition which "discovered" it. These tidbits are mildly interesting, although all in all, they're the sort of thing that could all fit into a short preface of a new edition of the book or something.
Unfortunately, a lot of the other essays seem, to me, to fall in the category of 'trying too hard', searching for deep meaning in the text of a cult movie/book/manga, or trying to use it to make some grand point about humanity, or comparing and contrasting with other movies... the kind of stuff that you had to do for school even while you were pretty sure the author never actually intended the symbolism the teacher insisted was there. In this case you sometimes get writers talking about how, say, since a certain character got killed than it was an indictment on that type of person, a theory which might have held more water if it wasn't a book who's premise required most of the characters to die.
Moreover, as I said, Battle Royale may have started as a book, but it's been adapted into a movie and a manga, and all three are talked about in the book. Oddly enough, there isn't really an essay that takes a look at the differences between the media and what drove those choices and what they wind up changing about the story, which might have been interesting to me, but instead, you get a few which draw from all three, and a bunch of essays that are clearly only discussing the movie (and considering I thought most of the changes from the book made it inferior, the fact that I noticed which one they were talking about meant they were usually talking about bad decisions as though they were elements worthy of deep analysis).
So I guess this is a book for superfans, but for a particular kind of superfans that not only may like the movie version more than the book, but also really likes literary analysis. That is not me on two fronts.
About the most interesting part of the book was, at the end of one essay which compared Battle Royale to various 80s Hollywood teen movies, the author went on tangent discussing how the stars of those movies would fare if they were put into Battle Royale together. Although the tale was too flippant and rushed to really enjoy, at least it was trying something a little bit fun.
That section also reminded me of what I'd hoped this book would be. When I first heard the title, and realized it was from multiple authors, but before I read the description, I had an instant of hope that this would be a book full of short tales, by a variety of authors, set in other instances of The Program. Either they could choose a single Program that happened on another year and each writer choose one story to tell within that, or each writer could tell their own take on it, with maybe some telling individual short tales of winners or losers, some exploring life outside the game, others transposing the setting to another part of the world, and maybe a few where they take a gimmick like putting (probably thinly disguised versions of) the teen cast of Archie comics or Hogwarts students or something in a Battle Royale situation.
Now, maybe Battle Royale's author wouldn't want to invite others into their world like that, or maybe simply nobody thought of that idea, but, far more than a book of essays, that's a book I'd not only want to read, but I'd pay money for.
This one? I'm glad I got it for free (or rather as part of a bundle which already contained other books that were worth the full price I paid for said bundle), since I wouldn't have bought it alone, but I didn't hate it, I just mostly found it unnecessary. I guess two stars seems appropriate.
May 14, 2015
This was... a really interesting read.
So, it's a collection of essays about Battle Royale - all versions, but mostly the movie - by a collection of people that I've never heard of. And it was really entertaining! I mean, obviously some of them were better than others - there was one about how sexualized the manga is and why that doesn't automatically make it trash, which I really enjoyed - I mean, it was funny, and it made its point, so that one was probably my favorite. There was one that pitted movie characters from the 70's-80's against each other in a Battle Royale, and that was actually hilarious.
Overall, though, I feel like you wouldn't get much out of this unless you really really like Battle Royale and are looking for something more because you've already been through like everything . There is some interesting look at Japanese culture, and why the movie didn't quite work in America , and a ton of comparison to THG. Which is, uh, to be expected, because, uh, yeah. Also, Long Walk mention! Something gets automatically better once The Long Walk is mentioned, and it was mentioned in at least one essay.
But I did like this. It was a fun time. A quick read. Some of the essays were actually hilarious, and I really enjoyed them.
So, it's a collection of essays about Battle Royale - all versions, but mostly the movie - by a collection of people that I've never heard of. And it was really entertaining! I mean, obviously some of them were better than others - there was one about how sexualized the manga is and why that doesn't automatically make it trash, which I really enjoyed - I mean, it was funny, and it made its point, so that one was probably my favorite. There was one that pitted movie characters from the 70's-80's against each other in a Battle Royale, and that was actually hilarious.
Overall, though, I feel like you wouldn't get much out of this unless you really really like Battle Royale and are looking for something more because you've already been through like everything . There is some interesting look at Japanese culture, and why the movie didn't quite work in America , and a ton of comparison to THG. Which is, uh, to be expected, because, uh, yeah. Also, Long Walk mention! Something gets automatically better once The Long Walk is mentioned, and it was mentioned in at least one essay.
But I did like this. It was a fun time. A quick read. Some of the essays were actually hilarious, and I really enjoyed them.
May 20, 2014
Battle Royale is one of my favorite novels and one of my favorite films. this collection of essays made connections I had not thought of and examined many themes of culture, Battle Royale, and how they connect. I enjoyed the work presented here and the thinking it forced me to do.
December 28, 2015
I brought this along with Battle Royale for my honors thesis that I wrote for college this year. This book came in very handy and I got to pick essays from this book to complement my thesis paper.
October 27, 2015
As a Battle Royale fan and a pop culture junkie this was a must read. Lots of great essays from some very prominent writers addressing a wide variety of themes in the book, manga, and both movies.
October 21, 2016
A little repetitive in one or two places (I'd guess that 70% of the pieces mentioned the opening scene of the film), but worth it for some outstanding highlights.
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