MyAnimeList.net

Battle Royale
Edit

What would you like to edit?

Add to My List

Add to Favorites

Alternative Titles

Japanese: バトル・ロワイアル

Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 15

Chapters: 119

Status: Finished

Published: 2000 to 2005

Genres: Action, Suspense

Themes: Gore, Psychological, Survival

Demographic: Seinen

Serialization: Young Champion

Authors: Taguchi, Masayuki (Art), Takami, Koushun (Story)

Statistics

Score: 7.85¹ (scored by 32,723 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #1151²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #225

Members: 74,437

Favorites: 2,919

Resources

Write a Review
Reviews

Filtered Results: 38 / 40

Sort

Suggested
Most voted
Newest
Oldest

Filter Preliminary Spoiler

Oct 23, 2007

Master10K

Recommended

A Psychological, Action, Thriller that will take you on the most extreme thrill ride you can imagine. But be warned, you must be 18.

Battle Royale is basically about survival of the fittest, where kids have to duke it out with each other in a sort of "last man standing game". This interesting plot brings forth a great deal intensity and emotional turmoil, of which you have never seen. It’s also surprising how long and in-depth the story is, even though it only covers a short time-frame. The problem with this set-up is that it almost completely removes the thought of getting attached to any characters ...

May 10, 2008

Noir

Recommended

A few years ago I saw a god-awful movie called Battle Royale, I discussed the movie with a friend and he said: Well if you hate the movie that much but liked the concept why don’t you read the original source material. This came as a shock to me at that time, I had no idea that the movie was based on a novel. I never got my hands on the novel so I decided to buy the manga.

I was astonished with the artwork in Volume 1, I kept staring at certain panels trying to figure out how much work they put into this. I ...

Aug 27, 2014

StellarAbyss

Recommended

'Kill or be killed. This is how this fucking game works'.

It's more violent than your Tokyo Ghoul and much more emotional than Attack on Titan. This, ladies and gentlemen is 'Battle Royale' - an original story featuring a very gruesome gladiator fight imposed by the government act, between innocent teenagers on a deserted island. One thing is for sure - Battle Royale encapsulates trust, betrayal, love, insanity, gore, fear, anxiety, despair for survival and most importantly, hope into this incredible 15 volume manga that is just incomparable with the movie.

For most of you out there, who've seen the Battle Royale movie and are ...

Sep 3, 2011

LordSoth

Not Recommended

I have to say that I started this series with a recommendation. I was talking with a friend that how I loved "Berserk" and "Gantz" (manga of course). Then he said that there is manga called "battle royale" that I should check it out. After reading the summary of it I was very enthusiastic. However nothing goes as smooth as it begins.

Story starts very promising but then it lose its pace. It always interrupted by pathetic flash backs. There is always a struggle between naive goodness and realistic evil. They tried to create an athmosphere ...

Feb 21, 2009

AironicallyHuman

Recommended

It had to be a bit rubbish. That's what I always thought to myself when I saw Battle Royale mentioned. I assumed this because it doesn't have an anime adaptation. What I didn't know back then was the reason for this -- I thought it was because the series wasn't that interesting. I never suspected it was because what's included in the story is so extreme that it would have to be butchered to make the jump from manga to anime. There's just no way a series that involves someone getting raped whilst dying by a psychotic girl, with flashbacks to her being abused by ...

Mar 19, 2010

--Zora--

Recommended

Dismiss every knowledge of human rights and watch what happens to a world where the most deadly game is played. And it is only played because there are people who are willing to watch, either to bet on it or to amuse themselves.

This manga shows a possible future and explores every terrible part of it while developing the characters as they are pulled into a game where no one is really a winner.

Story carries this concept well. Firstly, the characters are introduced as they are going about their high school life only to suddenly be, while going on a trip, put to sleep and ... brought to a classroom where everything starts. Harsh reality is thrown at a bunch of sixteen year olds and the reality of being in a kill or be killed situation dawns upon them as they are thrown in a hell where every available choice is a wrong one and where friends hunt and kill eachother simply because they are in a frightening game. A game that must be played and this sense of inevitability and helplessness is what the story is basically constructed of.

Characters fill the blanks in the construction of the story. They are each introduced shortly at the beginning and throughout the story they each get a further development. In a sense, there are no real “main characters” since every character has their story and their view of the situation they are in which is thoroughly explained and even repeated on several occasions.

Since this is a death game naturally there are also death matches. Some characters have lived long enough to create fairly long fights, some of which have a fantasy and religious elements.

Art here is quite detailed and clean. Characters emotions are drawn well and they express what is appropriate in whatever situation. Since this is a horror and an ecchi manga it is important to note that the gore and sex scenes are extremely graphic and detailed.

Enjoyment here is, well, there should be no enjoyment here. This manga is all about a death game being played for the sake of amusing sadistic, bored or some such people. This manga basically is this game. What enjoyment can one find in a manga about a class full of teenagers killing eachother? There might be some who are interested in observing how certain people would react in such a dangerous sitation. You might find interesting the repeated retrospective each character has about their past actions or lives. Some philosphic conversations were also made. All we have left now are action and sex scenes. Since they are both explicit maybe some can enjoy the large amount of blood and organs flying around or maybe just sex. And maybe, just maybe, this can be enjoyable if someone out there has an awful grudge against teenagers. And, I almost forgot, yes, there is romance in this as well.

I was sceptic about this manga. I thought it would focus mostly just on gore action scenes. I was somewhat mistaken. There is action and gore, fo course, but all in all this is a big heap of every genre put together. Some scenes made me laugh, some scenes actually made me cry, some made me feel symphatetic, some just made me feel sick.
I think maybe it just has too much of everything which is the reason why I couldn’t really like it so to say, and constant repetition of some sentences at times made me feel annoyed. Although there is something awesome about this manga and that is the ending.
It usually bothers me if the ending is all wrong but this one here was, in my opinion, perfect. (It captures the whole story in just two words, amazing really.)

(Read if you feel you should, must, or have nothing better to do, hope this humble review helped you with your decision.)

Jun 16, 2014

ZeroPhaze

Recommended

This is mostly intended as an in detail recommendation rather then a review. Battle Royale was amazing. I read the book a while ago, and now I just finished the manga, and I still felt just as into it and just as emotional and on edge reading the manga, as I did reading the book (As In, even though I knew what would happen).

Note: if you read the Battle Royale plot summary you will find it is VERY similar to that of hunger games, but Battle Royale came out a lot earlier (2008 hunger games and 1999 Battle Royale) Honestly I liked both the ... Hunger Games series and Battle Royale, but I found hunger games to be a massive rip off of it, which was much less intense emotionally, action wise, story wise, and romantically.

Anyway, Here are the main reason I loved Battle Royale:

~ ACTION: ~
Top notch realistic and intense in which you are on the edge of your seat, holding your breath, where all characters have an equal chance to die or live, the action, weapons, sturdiness of bodies and minds were very realistic and there was no overpowered moves, or weapons or abilities, only real life capabilities.

~ PLOT LINE: ~
It had an amazing plot, (can't spoil so I won't give specifics) where just like the hunger games, the setting takes place in a dictatorship where many people are treated horribly, and every year they host "The Program", which "randomly" selects a class of students in a "random" school and without any pre-empt, Bam, you are on a stranded area, now having to fight to the last one standing. The plot intensifies a lot and develops from simple survival into wanting to be free and get back at the program and the cruelty of it.

~ The CHARACTERS: ~
The characters, were all realistic, I mean in terms of mental stability, they acted as normal people, although many of the characters were constantly shifting in their struggle for sanity and while some went insane, others already were, and some just died like dogs. There were 3 main characters. The protagonist; Shuya Nanahara the hero type guy that believes in humanity, his friends, and can't even hold it against any of them to try to kill him, all around a good guy, too trusting though. Shuya develops slowly, but he surely develops into a strong consistent characters that knows his purpose. Noriko Nakagawa is not that major in terms of "Oh I really want to see what she will do next", but she does play an important role as the "anchor" of the the main character and the purpose for him to fight, to kill, and to survive. For a pretty girl, she has a strong, non whiny personality. Shogo Kawada was my favourite, he was the one who carried the manga, literally. Without him the main characters would have died fairly short into the game. Shogo is experienced, calm, and while he does have strong emotions or feelings, his overpowering sense of purpose and calm cold blooded analysis of everything makes him just about as amazing as a human can realistically get. His back story is heartbreaking and he is a truly well designed character.

~ The ART: ~
The art was very good, nothing out of the ordinary, just good quality, consistent, and realistic. The only 1 tiny tiny problem I had in all of the art was the announcer/directors face in the manga, I mean you only see him minutely after the first 20 or less chapters, but his face looks muscle intensive and disfigured. But besides that, the art was well done and there was no faults for the rest of the manga.

~ The ROMANCE: ~
The Romance was a major drive in this story, between Shuya Nanahara and Noriko Nakagawa, they had an intensive love, they are quite literally said to be "star crossed lovers", that is a quote. They love each other deeply, and their love and need to survive for each other and too keep the other alive helps them survive and develop into better characters. There is also quite a bit of other love in this manga, but the main love is between these 2 main characters, and quite the love it is.

Overall this manga was extremely intense, well thought out, relentless and passionate. It didn't stop getting more emotional and exciting, but rather continued to get better and better, upping the ante continually. I strongly guarantee that it if you can handle a mature, realistic and slightly gruesome manga this is something you most likely would enjoy.

Oct 15, 2009

abdar

Recommended

Frightening, gruesome, startling and at the same time passonate, heart-felt and generally thoght provoking. A story about growing up in a harsh environment, while still hanging on to one's beliefs. Rarely does a manga contain such power as to make the reader feel so many emotions in a single volume. Battle Royale is one of those rare manga.

Apr 1, 2008

Mokichi

Recommended

Preliminary (47/119 chp)

I've not completely read Battle Royale yet because I love saving my money up. From what I have read so far though, it's a very impressive manga.

I've seen the film and that is partly the reason I'm reading the manga. The manga unlike the film shows you every death of each character and also goes far further into details about all the characters and their back stories.

The story you should know from the synopsis and what a great idea for a story. Such a nice difference from the average stories out there, boy likes girl, love triangle, you know the drill.

The art is fantastic ...

Jul 15, 2008

Wolf92

Recommended

Battle Royale is the manga adaption of the Japanese novel. Writhe by Koushun Takami and Masayuki Taguchi the story follows a class in a alternative future that are forced to a Battle Royale.

Story.
The Stroy takes place in an alternate timeline - Japan is a police state, known as the Republic of Greater East Asia . Under the guise of a "study trip," a group of students from Shiroiwa Junior High Schoo in the fictional town of Shiroiwa are gassed on a bus. They awaken in a school on an isolated, evacuated island southwest of Shodoshima, in also Kagawa Prefecture. They learn that they ...

Jun 13, 2017

IAintAllBad

Recommended

How will I be able to read any other manga after this masterpiece?
You ever eat something so good that any food you put in your mouth starts being tasteless? This is Battle Royale for you.
This is a classic. It should go down in history books.
You think I'm exaggerating? You think I'm biased?
Read it, dive in it, explore it for yourself.
I'm still in awe of how complex this work of art is, how well made it is, how ruthless and fearless.
This is a story about a Program, where 42 students are kidnapped in an island and it doesn't end until only one of ...

Feb 6, 2013

KissMyAnthia

Recommended

Battle Royale is set in an alternate universe, in which Japan is an authoritarian state which hosts an event each year known as 'The Program', also named 'The Battle Royale Act'. Each year, a random class of students are selected to fight to the death in a merciless battle for survival. Only one will survive.

The story revolves around the students struggles in the game, mostly Shuya Nanahara, a very likeable, popular and innocent student, who struggles to come to terms with the game, believing that there is a way out and that he can save everyone. Unfortunately, he soon discovers the emotional trauma which the ...

Apr 13, 2012

gidoran

Recommended

With all the recent hubbaloo about the Hunger Games and it's similarities to Battle Royale, I felt my need to re-read the manga growing. It's been an interesting experience going back and re-discovering the series and I'm surprised about my feelings towards it now.

Battle Royale takes place in a totalitarian Japan, where the government's #1 tv show is the Program. The Program consists of kidnapping a random class of high school students, dropping them in a secure location, arming them, and then encouraging them to kill one another. Last man standing is the winner!
This year, we've got a varied and diverse class, but our main ... man and eyes into the series is Shuuya Nanahara, a rock-and-roll rebel without a clue. The series then follows Shu on his quest to not only protect his crush Noriko, but to also NOT kill his classmates, as well as survive the game. Tall order.

In terms of story, BR is impressive just in the sheer size of it's cast. Each and every character - both the good and the bad - get some kind of moment to shine and some kind of focus. Sometimes this is to evoke sympathy, sometimes this is to explain their behavior, and sometimes it's to set us up for the fall. The author of the manga, Takaguchi, makes sure to take his time with each student and I love that. It's INCREDIBLY hard to create an interesting character (and to be fair, a large portion of credit must go to the original author, Koushun Takami), much less a whole CLASS of them. Props there.

However, on that note, I have to admit how much I didn't like Shu or Nori the second time around. Both of the characters are so extremely one-note that any scene with them ends up being the same conversation OVER and OVER. I ended up hoping that maybe this time, someone would pop out of a bush and shoot them both just to save me the speeches. When you've got such well-built characters like Hardcore Souma, or Shogo, or Mimura, or Sugimura - all of whom have diverse, interesting backgrounds and intriguing ongoing plotlines - characters like Shu and Nori end up being just boring. I get that they're a stand-in for the audience, but they just lack everything.

Takaguchi's artwork is incredible, but also not without flaws.

Amazingly to me, Takaguchi is capable of drawing EVERYTHING. Urban landscapes, natural landscapes, soldiers, various types of guns, elaborate karate scenes, body gore, car chases, and character moments. There is no one note that Takaguchi excels at, EVERYTHING looks good. His page layouts are generally simple, but they explode when they need to. As an artist who's still growing himself, I find myself amazed by the time and skill that Takaguchi puts into each page. Simply amazing.
However, as I said, it's not all good. Takaguchi's male characters are all so well built it's stupid. I get that this is a comic, and hell, I read American comics, where everyone is built, but there's a difference between a teen with super-powers and a teen without. There's also a difference in the type of story being told. We're supposed to believer that the Program could exist - and that WE could be a part of it. It's hard to imagine that when every male character's chest and arms are ripped like Jesus. Shogo looks like a body-builder for Heaven's sake! I can understand Sugimura (a martial artist) or Mimura (an athlete) to some degree, but Shuuya has no physical talent. He's a good looking guy, no doubt, but he has no reason to be THAT ripped. I'm not saying we needed more fat characters (there were fat characters), just that I think a bit of a control wouldn't have hurt.
My other artistic gripe is head sizes. There are several shots in the comic were someone's head is a large as their chest - which just isn't the way the body is built. This isn't terribly overwhelming, but it does happen. It's just odd enough to notice, but not enough to mar my enjoyment of the book.

Overall, Battle Royale is something amazing and it MUST be read. The characters are diverse and interesting, the book looks great to the eye, and it reads so well. Even having read it before, I still found myself wondering what was going to happen or how the series would play out. THAT is a good sign. This series isn't perfect by any means - and good luck finding Tokyopop's out-of-print editions - but Battle Royale is a must read book.

Aug 29, 2009

schimdth

Recommended

Probably this is one of my most favorite manga I ever read. Battle Royale will take you to the edge of your seat with its breath taking storyline. If you like action, drama, romance, martial arts, horror,pscyho killer, tragedy, high-school life, ecchi, name it for sure Battle royale will give you what you want. With detail characterization of every protagonist you will surely love how they bring them into life. How can you face adversary if you dont know who play the game? Will you ever trust anyone specially if your life is at stake? Battle Royale at is best!

May 8, 2009

wierdo5000

Recommended

One thing that can be noticed in battle royale is the relatively lifelike characters. the anatomy of each figure (with exception to the eyes) is relatively close and detailed to that of the human figure. However it retains its manga-like style in keeping with the simple lines. heavy inking and shading gives the manga a sense of suspense and accuity.

As far as the storyline goes. It is quite abnormal. It begins with the main battle and throughout the battle you learn of everyone's past lives which catches the reader by surprise. It is quite psychotic too.

The characters themselves have great depth. While not going ...

Nov 29, 2012

MurasakiNoTsuki

Recommended

''From now on it's kill or be killed, play or not play.''

Battle Royale is one of those mangas you'll either love or hate. A manga that relies heavily on a combination psychological horror, gore and eroticism with an encompassive theme of man's diverse nature. Is it possible to pull a worthwhile experience out of this? Well, certainly.

Story 8/10:

The setup of BR's story isn't very complex, nor too original. In a totalitarian version of Japan, a random 9th grade class is picked each year to kill each other in a remote location. Winner takes all, only one survives. The whole ''Program'', as it is called, is ...

Mar 15, 2010

miniature-waffle

Recommended

i like shojo mangas. most of the mangas that i read are without blood and these kind of staff. my brother has something like 400 mangas and one of is battle royale. at first, i didnt like the drawing at all, but later on i started to read it for real and, what can i say? this thing is brilliant!!!
i love everything in it!
i love the blood the drawing, the story..
now:
art: amazing. its so detailed that i dont understand how the hell do they do it.
lets say, that if a bullet goes into someone's skall- you can see it comes in and blows the ...

Jun 13, 2012

tazillo

Recommended

The Program. It's an event or "game" where a chosen class of 42 students is kidnapped, thrown into an isolated location, given a random weapon and told to kill each other until only one person remains.

What would you do if you found yourself in such a scenario, and how far would you be willing to go? Would you lie down and refuse to play? Would you accept everything you're told and kill your classmates before they do the same? Or would you choose to trust in your friends and hope to find a way to escape together? Well, the first option definitely gets you killed ...

Oct 6, 2012

Knives339

Recommended

I read the novel first which may be the reason that the manga version disappointed me so much in the art. The novel was gruel-some and let you see inside people who thought they were going to die at any second but the manga was to light and had a sense of hope which ruined it for me. I didnt get the sense of pain and horror i got when reading the novel plus they didnt release the second manga in english which makes me hate my incomplete set

Sep 29, 2021

snappytomdory

Not Recommended

If you're aware of the premise of this manga and you're hoping that it's at least a semi-realistic, it isn't. You will find martial arts so powerful in this manga that they can tear down tree trunks. This scene was ridiculous. Out of no where, some characters have KI now and literally reference DBZ when preparing some charged KI attack. Later on you will encounter a guy that literally got shot in the face but is still able to do backflips everywhere. It's just dumb. There is an endless amount of examples of how ludicrous this manga gets. It is plot holes and discrepancies' galore. ... Be prepared to turn plenty of blind eyes to the author just lazily letting people do very convenient things in fights. Hidden weapons coming out of nowhere, last minute recuses, an insane level of endurance. I lost count of how many times someone got shot in the leg and casually kept running for hours on end. Ammo. We need to talk about ammo. It is RARELY addressed, RARELY an issue. The people with Uzis come across as if they have unlimited ammo which just gives them an insane advantage over everyone else. Which leads me into how they set the game up. Every person gets a bag with essential items and a random weapon. These can range from forks to machine guns. While comical at first, it's just blatantly one sided very fast.

This manga is filled to the brim with flash backs. 9 times out of 10 they are boring as shit and go on for way too long. On top of this the author has the audacity to reuse old panels to 'remind' the reader about things that happened previously, even if it was only 5 chapters ago. Blatant filler. The characters are absolute ass and I loathed the MC. All he ever did was preach really lame shounen "believe it" nonsense. What makes him worse than a generic shounen character is that his words are hollow. He hardly does anything of significance in the entire story. It's bizarre, so many of the characters in this manga talk so highly about the MC but there's absolutely no reason why they should. He's a weird Elvis larper who just repeats his utterly dumb arguments again, and again, and again. Then There's Noriko. Noriko was so boring, we hardly know her. There was nothing even remotely interesting about her at all, we were just expected to care about her because the MC did. I swear, a quarter to half of the story is just the MC with two other people in the forest having the same dumb arguments time after time while other events around the island unfold. So many side plots just lead to nothing and just feel like an utter waste of time.

There's so many series I love that are clearly influenced by Battle Royale (Gantz, I am a Hero, Hunger Games, Danganronpa) but the execution here is absolute ass. The morbid premise is fun in itself, it doesn't need over the top martial arts and matrix bullet dodging to improve it. As it doesn't, in my opinion it weakens it. If you want to read something similar involving kids being stuck in a dog eat dog scenario then I would recommend The Drifting Classroom over this. It's not perfect and has some really bizarre sci-fi elements to it. But the way the kids conduct themselves in that scenario seems a lot more believable than what was displayed in Battle Royale. I would argue that Battle Royale draws some inspiration from The Drifting Classroom. Even if you think my suggestion is a crappy one, that's fine, I would still not recommend wasting your time with this series. It can't be taken serious and your time would be better spent elsewhere.