50books_poc | #1: Battle Royale by Koushun Takami (Reply)

Last year I completed the

50books_poc challenge, but I reviewed only a fraction of the books I read. So this year I'm going to make an effort to keep up, in order not to become overwhelmed by how far behind I am.

#1: Battle Royale by Koushun Takami (translated by Yuji Oniki)

It's decidedly embarrassing that my first book for

50books_poc this year is a reread. But, this is a new edition, with revised text, so maybe that's almost like reading a new book.

Let's be frank, Battle Royale is trashy. It relies a lot on shock, and the prose is stilted and clunky, with a lot of awkward info dumping. (This is a revised edition, with what is apparently a better translation, so my suspicion is that the poor writing is inherent to the text.) Despite that, I love this book. This is the third (possibly fourth) time that I've read it. The plot is irresistible, and once the action starts, it never lets up.

What really makes Battle Royale work for me are the characters. Takami works to make the reader care for the students who are about to die messily. Obviously with forty-two students, not every character can get the same level of development, but most of them get at least a few lines explaining their motivations. Occasionally this doesn't work so well. Mitsuko's horrific backstory is explained in a rush and not handled nearly as well as it should have been. Also, I was frequently left wanting more of characters who seemed incredibly interesting, but only got a few pages. (Takako and Hiroki, I'm looking at you two.)

There's sadly a lot that doesn't get explored in the book. What differences in history brought about the Republic of Greater East Asia? It's mentioned that the Program first started in 1947, so one assumes that WWII happened and went very differently. I really wanted to know more about how people were living and resisting, but I had to accept that it was out of the scope of the novel.

This new edition includes a forward by Max Allan Collins, a republished interview with Kinji Fukasaku (who directed the movie version), and an afterword by Takami. The forward is forgettable. I'm not sure why Collins was chosen. He talks a lot about movie novelizations and how books are worth reading even if you've seen the movies. I found the whole thing odd. Battle Royale is not a novelization. The novel is the original. And the assumption that I'd need to be convinced to pick up a book, and that I'd only know the movie is completely off base. The books seems like it's being marketed as a movie tie-in. The cover says Battle Royale: the Novel, plus the forward and the interview with Fukasaku. I can't figure out why they decided to go that way, since as far as I know, the release of this edition didn't coincide with anything regarding the movie.

All that being said, the interview with Fukasaku is interesting. However, Takami's afterword is what I found truly valuable.

Battle Royale may not be the best written novel out there, but it still has what I consider to one of the best closing lines out of everything I've read. (Spoilers, highlight to read.)

Now, once again, "2 students remaining." But of course they're part of you now.