Living With Insanity

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137 - Liberation Part Five

DMH

on Oct. 11, 2009

When in doubt, whip it out.

So the arc is almost over. I didn't really do much debating, really all I've done is show a worst case scenario. Next time I'll try to actually get both sides of the story in on whatever issue gets picked. But that probably won't be for a few months.

So last Friday a friend of mine was sorting out his manga and gave me his Battle Royale books. I'd been curious about this series for a while, so I started reading right away when I got home.

This series is set in 2012 Japan (It was started in 2000) where the government has become tyrannical, so much that any attempt to speak freely is met with torture, rape and/or death. For three years, there has been a relaity show called 'The Program' where a class of 42 Year 9 students (As in, 14/15-year-olds) are forced to kill each other, until only one is left alive. The story focusses on the class of the fourth season, as they attempt to stay alive.

I've finished the series and have been mulling over my thoughts and feelings so I could give an accurate representation of my opinion. I think I've finally found the right words for it, so here's what I think of Battle Royale:

This series is fucked up. It has enough nudity and sex to be hentai; enough blood and guts to be gorn; enough friendship speeches to put Yu-Gi-Oh to shame and the climatic fight was so dragged out it was like I was reading Dragonball.

Having said that, I loved it.

I loved the way it was plotted out, I loved the way the characters were so well rounded and realistic (Except in one case, but I'll come back to him later), I loved the action, I loved how down-to-earth it stayed and how everything weird was explained so well, I loved the drama and I loved the insanity that seemed to grow out of it.

Here's a better idea of the story. Out of the students, most don't want to fight. They get together in pairs and groups, as a safety in numbers thing, while others who are alone go out to look for their friends and lovers. Unfortunately, the program managed to pick a class with a few crazies in it. Sadistic killers, fragile minds that break from the stress and even a couple of them were schizophrenic. This unfortunately means the kids who don't want to fight get killed quickly if they're too naive, but also some of the people actually trying to kill can mess themselves up.

Should probably look at the protagonists. The story focusses around Shuuya, an Elvis wannabe even though rock has been banned. He's trying to protect this girl, Noriko, and find others who don't want to fight as well. They soon come across Kawada, who was actually the winner of the last season and promises them a way off the island. There's also Mimura, a Basketball star who is trying to destroy the program from the iside out and lastly Sugimura, a martial arts expert looking for his childhood friend and a girl he likes.

Personally, Shuuya got a little annoying after a while. The constant friendship speeches, the way he kept yelling despite the fact they were trying to hide from killers and also that he had nothing really to offer to the plot. The other protagonists all had something of value (Knowledge of the program, hacking skills and knowledge of fighting) but he didn't really do much. I wish there were more Sugimura chapters, he was a lot more interesting. Also Mimura was an enjoyable character. He was actually actively doing what he intended, not sitting on his arse. It was a shame his help was a little incompetent, but that just made it all the more interesting.

As for the antagonists, well there were two main ones. Mitsuko and Kiriyama. These two are playing to win and get a thrill from killing. Unlike the other dangerous ones, they're in their right mind and know what they're doing. Worst of all, they enjoy it and are good at it. But out of the two of them, Kiriyama is the bigger threat. Everyone speaks about him in a hushed voice and he just acts so much more intimidating than Mitsuko. Having said that, I found him to be a boring villian. At first he was bad ass, this silent killer roaming the island, taking down whoever he came across.

Then came chapter 60, around the time when he got into a fight with Mimura. Warning, there'll be spoilers. Kiriyama kills Mimura's friend with an uzi and also opens up Mimura's insides so his guts spill out. Mimura manages to escape into a storage shed with a bomb he intended to use on the program organisers. He duct tapes his insides shut and, realising he has no hope of completing his mission, Mimura waits until Kiriyama's close to the bomb and then jumps out the window while shooting. The bomb goes off and the shed blows up, so Mimura decides to try and meet up with Shuuya to try another plan. Then, all of a sudden a tractor that was in the shed flies out, burnt to a crisp, and Kiriyama jumps out without a scratch on him. That's right, the fucker survived an explosion that destroyed his shelter and his clothes weren't even singed. After that moment, I just wanted to see him at least get a bullet wound, which didn't happen for another 40 chapters. Another part was how much friggin' ammo he had. Shuuya and Kawada used their bullets sparingly and yet were down to one when they finally took out Kiriyama, but he sprayed his load every which way and still managed to never run out. He did some really shitty stuff too, but I found all that to be rather believable. By the end of it, he was a soulless monster stuck on God Mode, so much that when we found out his tragic backstory, I found myself not really caring.

The other antagonist I really enjoyed though. Mitsuko was messed up too, but she was still somewhat sympathetic. At ten, she was raped by her step-father, who claimed he did it because he loved her, and would get beaten because she hadn't grown breasts yet. Through puberty, she pimped herself and her friends and hated all men because for her, sex always hurt. She had no real fighting talent, she would just sneak up on her victims and kill them, but if she couldn't sneak up on a guy she would use her two assets: Her tears and her tits. If he was a perv, show some boob until his mind goes blank and then cut him. For the innocent, play the weak, scared little girl that needs protecting.

What made me sympathise with her were two occasions. The first is when she comes across a pair of boys, one who mistrusts her because she tried to kill him, and another who is naive and has a thing for her. She starts talking to the naive one and he tells her about how she seems lovely, just a little misguided. It really showed she wasn't exactly heartless, because while she killed them both, it was only because of her trauma. The second was when she and Kiriyama met up. She tries all her tactics, but he's too emotionless to give a shit, so she rushes to her bag and finds a little toy ring her biological father gave her as a kid. She starts crying about how she misses him, and Kiriyama shoots off the ring, then kills her when she tries to pick it up again. This sort of nailed Kiriyama's coffin for me, but it really did make you start to feel bad about what happened.

Yeah, I'm going to shut up now and tell you guys to just check it out. It's a little slow starting, but once it gets going it's a brilliant read. You could probably find it on Manga Fox or one of those places, so take a look and see if you like it. It's really gotten me thinking about getting back into manga, so I'll try to find something else to recommend as well.

Seeya on Wednesday.

~ David