Battle Royale - Koushun Takami - So You Haven't Read
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So you haven't read Battle Royale by Koushun Takami?! The book that inspired the Battle Royal Genre and media like Squid Game, Fortnite, and The Hunger Games? Then pull up a chair and don't get too cozy as we discuss how in this dystopian world the government is forcing children to fight to the death on an island and how one student's plan is to take the system down!
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Wold anvil is pretty nice. Good sponsor.
KZhead premium got the real emojis Still not enough
So, are gonna tackle Battle Royale and Squid Game's spiritual predecessor "The Most Dangerous Game" any time soon?
World Anvil as a sponsor is pretty nice. Plus i'm using it or a fantasy mythology inspired novel. Great video as always
I Like How You Made The School Outfits
This might be a cliche thing to say, but the original book is even better than its various adaptations. The English translation is excellent. It's a crying shame that Takami has never written anything else!
The Manga version is porn
IMO it's genuinely one of very few times when the film was far superior than the original book.
With the film you lose a lot of the nuance if the relationships between the characters. Between the main antagonist and his right hand man, the true psychotic nature of the main antagonist. The protagonist and his best friend. The deeply, deeply fucked up nature of mitsuko and all the personalities and side stories of the other kids in the class. The movie is fine in its own right but what made the book shine for me was that the tropes and arcs of the side characters were truly realistic.
@@y2ace what drags the book down for me was all the flashback stuff with the protagonist and his pal that gets shot/exploded in the classroom, it really wasn't needed IMO.
The book also inspired that formation of the stakes in Kamen Rider Ryuki and Fate/Stay Night.
I didn't know Battle Royale was originally a novel. The director of the film Kinji Fukasaku was a teenager worker in a munitions factory during World War II and had to take shelter under the corpses of his coworkers during American bombing raids. That feeling of being child abandoned and exploited by the adult world very clearly drew him to the material.
Damn that is PTSD
IIRC Suzanne Collins was referencing the tail of Theseus and the Minotaur with the Hunger games, hence why the releasing of vicious unnatural monsters into the arena to kill off kids that are getting too good at hiding from their competitors is such a recurring theme of the games.
In addition to the Roman gladiatorial games. While we're all familiar with gladiators fighting each other, gladiators against animals was also common, especially used to make the fighting more intense. Not to mention, in the Colosseum, they would change the layout or even flood the arena floor to have special battle events, much like how the arena of the Hunger Games changes every year with its locations and features.
Also her favorite book from childhood is Lord of the Flies. Like, it's pretty obvious it's just Lord of the Flies + Survivor + Gladiator
There was also a bit of christian/catholic undertones (the bread, dandelion and sacrifice) and stoic philosophy as well (Cato and Seneca). Hell she was at some point influenced by Shakespeare as well who wrote Julius Caesar when it came to the character Cinna which also had to deal with an overthrow of government. The more you analyze the book and find their symbology the more you’ll discover and look at the book in a different perspective.
I always thought the most disturbing thing about BR was the fact the students all knew each other so well. In the Hunger Games the contestants might know the other representative from their district, but the others were strangers. There are no strangers in BR (apart from the few recent transfer students), which makes being made to fight and kill them even more horrific.
Can you guys do an Extra History on the nationwide Japanese Student Protests that seem to heavily influence modern japanese media? I see it referenced in games like Battle Royale, Danganronpa, and anime where the adult population fearful about the youth rising up and preemptively pit them against each other to create a new adult generation built on distrust and paranoia towards their neighbors.
You mean the Anpo Protests?
If I recall correctly they only do extra history episodes on events that happened before 1920 as they don't have the resources to research more recent events unless they are sponsored to cover a specific event. And those protest were in the late 60s early 70s.
@@MarcelineRaven Not true. WWII was way after 1920. They also did the Cuban missile crisis and Billie Holiday, both way after 1920.
@@MarcelineRaven world war 2 was in the 40's
The beauty of this novel was how every character was introduced to you. You learn a level of detail about each that makes you understand who they are so they don't feel like plot NPC's but main characters of their own story. It makes each death have more of an impact and keeps you hooked on the story. The film, personally I didn't enjoy as much as it twisted a few very important aspects, such as Shogo being present and Kiriyama deciding to play, which add twists to your perceived motivations for them. I would recommend the Belko Project as a great movie version of this genre, if a little more light hearted (for a Battle Royale murder story!) as it keeps the whole "are they playing or not" and "Is there a way out" aspects that provide a lot of the back bone to Battle Royale.
The manga is a underrated masterpiece
"But in times of crisis, the wise build bridges while the foolish build barriers."
Now that a lot of countries are pushing fear of the other in order to gain power this is a timely book. I'm thinking of getting it.
sengoku jidai in a nutshell
Ah, The Long Walk. One of King’s underrated short stories.
The Running man seems to me way more similar but it was published a bit later.
@@anezkajandova76 I read both of them together with two other King short stories he had wrote under the name Richard Bachman.
There is some good stuff in the Bachman collection. He needed to write those to prove to himself that it wasn't JUST his name doing the selling, so he could get his mojo back. ... Did you know there's one book though that he refuses to sell anymore?
@@ICountFrom0 the first story in that collection. It’s about a kid bringing a gun to school and taking his classroom hostage.
@@ICountFrom0 Rage, I think?
This is still my favorite novel of all. I own both the original Red release, and the updated version for the translation fixes that came with it. The manga and film have noticeable differences that take away from some of the quality, and the audiobook available on Audible sadly has a very monotonic narration, but I've read the physical print version over a dozen times, and will always go back to it. But seriously, can we get an audiobook version that doesn't sound like the reader is sleeping through his lines? Please?
I find the Belko Experiment from 2016 to be one of the better underrated versions of this concept. "Ya'll work together in 1 office building, now do our tasks or kill enough of each other via each time limit and we won't randomly kill enough." Albeit annoyingly, the office setting had so many good possibilities of what normal objects can be used as weapons, they just implement a "oh well this office building has a gun storage locker" (Albeit the elevator and projector room kills are my favourites)
This was one of my favorite movies as a teen. This is the first of your series that I ACTUALLY read lol!
Yay!!! We got one of them!
I've seen the movie and it was powerful... Specially the lighthouse scene.
Lighthouses are the true killers in every book.
@@NemFX and real life! If a ship in a storm follows a lighthouse beacon too well, they're guaranteed to smash into the reef and sink
Bringing me back in time. When I saw that scene I was so shook (and I saw in high school).
The movie is alright The manga is insanely good. If you liked the movie I really recommend it. It does a deep dive into nearly every character's backstory so you have a way deeper emotional attachment
I thought the psycho massacring the two girls who were trying to bring people together was pretty powerful.
This is easily among my favorite stories of all time. It's the first one that taught me that no matter how bad things get, you have hope so long as you're alive, and that every life, no matter how twisted or cruel, is worth saving.
Me: "I wonder why that list of results starts with things like fortnite and not the Hunger games. I mean, it's clearly a copy/paste" **Suzanne Collins says she never read Battle Royale** Excuse me, my eyes rolled so hard I have to collect them from the floor!
She definitely introduced some other things to the story, but to anyone who believes she never heard of it, I have a bridge to sell them.
I’m going to call cow manure that Collins has never heard of Battle Royale.
I'm thinking she didn't "read it" but definitely watched it ;)
Considering there are hundred of books written every year in the US alone, let alone the world and this book is written in Japan, it is possible she never heard of it. My opinion is that the short story "The Most Dangerous Game" could have been her inspiration. There have been many stories similar to "The Most Dangerous Game" out there. There have been some TV shows that have episodes like "The Most Dangerous Game." I do recall one of "The Incredible Hulk" being one of them.
Appreciate you not spoiling the ending. There's a lot to be said for little things like that. I have read it and can confirm that it is fantastic. Definitely worth checking out.
A little mention of secondary villian Mitsuko would made it better. Anyway a good video, I like that all the adaptations has different charms. Books has detailed descriptions, movie has nice action and of course Takashi Kitano and manga has some gore and violence and additional characterisation. But in all three version Lighthouse is perfect. Another interesting thing is Kiriyama killed by different people in all iterations. In Movie Kawada, in Manga Shuya, in Book Noriko.
Mitsuko was always my favorite
Thank you EC, you inspired me to read the book and watch the movie too! I'll say I really liked the book, it's one of my favorites now, and was really disappointed in the movie. I see people saying how the book has a lot of flashbacks narrative and it is long, but that was part of why it worked for me. What makes BR distinct from Hunger Games is the fact that the characters all know each other and have that intimate relationship prior to the game, which is how the government exploits them to exert power, and makes it all the more heartbreaking when they have to kill each other. I didn't feel that theme at all in the film; it just felt like "man kids these days sure are terrible, let's kill them all for no real reason." I didn't know anything about the characters before the game started in the film, so I didn't care that they were now in the game. I didn't have the chance to get connected that the books first act gave me. I respect what the director was trying to do, and there were some good action scenes, but it leaned too far into the action for me. I liked how in the book there were long sequences of no killing, because it gave me time to focus on the characters and world and settle my heart rate, and the narration over the fights gave just the right amount of time for my tension to build. Movie felt like a constant series of shocks with no down time, so it didn't have the punch of the book for me. Also the epilogue was just so much weaker for me without the Springsteen motif and that ending with the teacher was just...so bizarre in the movie. I'll take Sakamochi from the book any day, thanks very much, haha. Overall thanks again for adding some new literary interest to my life!
I watched movie with my brother (mostly, because I like Takeshi Kitano, The Man), and it was veery scary! And then I've read the manga and I was in such shock... I'm usually not afraid of gore in media, but that! But I prefer manga version since it opened for me more interesting points that I missed in the movie. Especially I was fascinated by demontration of how fear of your friend or just fear for life changes and twists people in their own way, it's REAL scary and you just can't help but think, that these students before Battle Royale were just like us - ordinary people, but how we could be twisted in our own way. (Also, while I read the manga, I've immideately understood, where Danganronpa series of games takes inspiration for their story) Thanks EC for showing this story to everyone! It's amazing effort, tyring to push for learning some really interesting and on-the-time topics with such talent and fun!
The biggest problem I had with it was keeping the characters straight since it kept switching between first name, last name and nicknames. Also it had two characters with the same first name which I kept getting mixed up which one was which.
I really liked this book and have read it multiple times. It is nice to think of it being shown to more people
I love the movie.... but goddammit the book is a Dystopian fiction masterwork and i am so glad the movie lead me to it!! Also, it is kinda hilarious you used the character designs from the movie
0:23-0:40 I like the way Matt delivers those lines as if he were part of the story in this intro.
SHIROIWA（城岩）→CASTLE ROCK in Japanese. As a Japanese, his love for King is real.😂
Thank you for the video.
Thank YOU for watching.
Even Marvel had their own take on Battle Royale genre with the Avengers Arena series
this video inspired me to read the original, and its now my favorite book. thanks EH!!!
The author of The Hunger Games claims she hadn't heard of Battle Royale, but I think it's pretty clear she was banking on the fact that since it's foreign, most people would be unfamiliar with it.
Reminds me of that comic, *Diesel*.
I've seen both random cuteness and betrayals from strangers in fortnight, where they risk ban hammer. Very curious if that carries over.
I saw the film years ago but only vaguely remember it. Hadn't realized it was from a novel adaptation and am not surprised there's a manga.
Really hope you guys cover Dr. Zhivago. One of my favorite stories.
I saw the movie
Hey there, there's a question about Zhivago maybe you can answer. When I read an English translation of the book, I enjoyed the story, but I found the dialog very stiff and formal, which hasn't been the case for other Russian novels I've read. So did I just get a bad translation, or is that just how Pasternak wrote?
Love this! The OG of Hunger Games, which is the OG to Squid Game. But have you heard of “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell? Or how about “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson? Now those are inspirations.
What's funny is my students are reading those this year and they're mentally like checking out. But I think they might really like Battle Royale
I have read both of them while I was in school. They were in my English book.
I lowkey love this series more than Extra History
AWww thank you! We really love this series a lot. We've had so much fun with it.
I especially like this show when Shakespeare is involved.
This is the first time I've seen someone give Stephen King credit for kind of inventing the genre. The long walk is good highly recommend
To think this is the same author who wrote quite a few books while he was either drunk or high.
@@MovieFan1912 he wrote cujo on a two week coke binge and can't even remember writing it lmao
@@YOSSARIAN313 He also wrote Dreamcatcher while high on Oxycodone that he was taking after a near fatal car accident.
It also has elements from the Most Dangerous Game, which itself predates Stephen King. Neither of those works resulted in the explosion of battle royale scenarios into mainstream culture, however. That comes from Takami's novel.
After this, I read all 629 pages... Omg I love that book! Thanks Matt for hooking me up with a great book👍
Okay, now this is epic
Will always prefer this over Hunger Games, for the simple reason that Battle Royale does what good dystopian stories should do: it makes a pointed jab at a specific aspect of totalitarianism, rather than just a general "it's bad because the government is bad" point that a lot of YA dystopias do. Like yes, dystopias should depict governments as being bad, but they stillneed to justify it in terms of ideology, history, interactions with the wider world etc. Most YA dystopias never do that. HG is still entertaining though and anything that gets kids into reading AND thinking about societal issues is always going to be preferable to hollow stories made of nothing but setting. Just never properly got into that flavour tbh.
Hunger games feels like it settled on being more about how things can't be accomplished by a single person. You end up with a character who feels like she's the center when ultimately it's everyone around her that cause change.
Using the one to introduce the concept and the other to expand on it later could be a good approach too. Like you said, anything they gets kids reading and thinking is good. :)
@@Nothing2150 kinda reminds me of the messaging behind V For Vendetta, the graphic novel anyway, wherein V is ultimately only a symbol and true change only comes about when people cast off notions of leadership and come together in mutual aid. Honestly, the anarchist messaging getting lost in the film still annoys me, but at least the book is still there.
I think Hunger Games is a completely different story compared to Battle Royale, each great in their own terms. BR talks a lot about Japanese society problems like the rigid educational system and the lack of dialogue between adults and teenagers, while Hunger Games focus on economical inequality and media alienation. They also differ a lot in structure: the participants in Hunger Games come from different parts of the country while in Battle Royale we follow a class that grew up together, the result of these different approaches is that BR makes you empathize and care more about the tragedy of each student (a character focused narrative) while Hunger Games gives a broader view of a group (more of a "sociological" narrative). I do agree tough that most YA dystopias suck because their fictional worlds simply do not criticize a real problem of the real world, like, in Divergent the government is evil because it forces people to follow one life path based on a single personality trait, but who on Earth would ever think to do that? That is simply a non-issue.
Funny coincidence that at about 3:00 you show the exact type of lootbox that was made obsolete just a few days earlier. RIP Overwatch 1.
The book and film end up being very different experiences because of the medium. Books excel at character insight because they allow you to literally depict a character's thoughts, but are weaker at tension because the reader has full control of the pacing; films can usually only imply character thoughts but use tension and dread much more effectively. It ends up splitting the genre, almost; the book is much more clearly dystopian because you watch the ways of thinking this warfare creates in these children, whereas that is up to the audience to see in the film and it becomes much more of a straight horror film.
30 seconds in the video and I had to stop watching because I have to read this first, thanks EC!
See I get why people compare Hunger Games to Battle Royale if you only look at both stories at a surface level they are alike but if you REALLY look at both stories they're very different.
I think you should cover the giver quartet next !
The film adaptation of this book is absolutely amazing. You're really missing out if you haven't seen it
It really introduced be to the genre, and I got hooked.
Thanks
I read this book a while ago… it was so bloody but so good
It is my 2nd favourite manga after Berserk. So sinisterly captivating. So dark and deep at the same time. So many plot twists with great dialogue and character dynamics. It explores the worst parts of humanity especially when pushed to the edge. Never seen mental breaks and PTSD portrayed so intensely.
Sad tale if the book is... (Spoiler ahead) If you survive. You will need to take your 3rd year again and the class you drop in to will be the next one kidnapped.
I love you guys
8:43 You have no idea how much that reference means to me, my brother, and my uncle. We love that series and the drawings you used look great.
by far one of my favorite movies ever
I don't read Manga often but I did with this one. It's crazy good
Ok, please do Enders game, it is one of my favorite sci-fi books out there
I didnt realize this came out in 99'. Freakin awesome story, both movies too.
I read this back when I was 16. Amazing memories
Mutual aid is the solution to just about ever problem known to man.
I still don't believe for a second that Suzanne Collins had never heard of Battle Royale. She definitely expanded the concepts of Battle Royale, but anyone who believes her should probably check out a bridge for sale in NY.
Eh, there's other, earlier version of the "humans hunting humans" genre which could have influenced her. While it may not be likely she didn't read\watch it, it's not impossible.
DINORIDERS! Loved that show as a kid!
The film, my only experience of the 'original' story, is excellent and extremely well performed.
Same.
Regarding that last point: Just before this, I watched your Easter Rising series, where the revolutionaries did rely on their fellow citizens to join them...and that turned out to be a mistake. Things are more complicated, apparently...
I think this will be the next book I read
Could you do a video on Richard Wright's "Battle Royale"?
nice to hear about this especially since it is super relevant to what is happening in the world today
So, no one has read Lord of the Flies (1954)? Same theme, but without the Evil Overlord - just fun-loving British schoolboys.
I was surprised they didn't mention that. My copy of the book mentions Lord of the Flies right on the back.
*Extra Breakfast* Nice touch 🙂
A recommendation. Protector of the Small:First Test, by Tamora Pierce.
More stuff like this.
I would really like to hear Koushun Takami's opinion on the Battle Royale boom in the gaming world.
I absolutely loved the manga but god-damn is it depressing. So many heartbreaking moments! I'll definitely have to check out the novel now. Also, Shinji Mimura is the MAN. He's my favorite character in this story.
The Long Walk was amazing. A great example of dialogue driven storytelling.
Libertarian book
HELL YES! I NEVER THOUGHT ID SEE THE DAY THIS GETS TALKED ABOUT SERIOUSLY!
The 2000 movie is glorious my favorite
It was hilarious, heard on the news that they banned the movie, so I immediately went to Chinatown and got vcd of Battle Royale😅.
Pretty nice work! Your videos become more animated
Great ideas from a depressed land of barely surviving gone into a moderately depressed land of just kind of living on
There were definitely already books about dystopian dictatorships that use violence against their people before 1999. For example 1984
No! I’m not willing to experience it first hand. That’s why I’m listening to this.
I've never seen a genre go through such a quick and painful mutilation by copycats than the Battle Royale genre. It's like the zombie flick where the ideas went over so many people's heads that when they copycatted it all they did was copy and paste the violence but leave out any characters that matter or any interesting themes.
Though it didn't directly contribute to his conception of the story, the title Battle Royale comes from the style of boxing matches in which many combatants would fight all at once in the ring. While boxing has never been the highest class sport, these bloodbaths in particular exploited the lower classes disproportionately.
I have this book....somewhere, and I have read it...I should read it again.
DO ittttt!
Read the manga and watched the movie. Was pretty pleasantly surprise to see how both seemed to match almost beat for beat, which is something you don't see very often from one adaptation to the next. Looking at you Netflix and wb with your shitty anime adaptations...
FWIW, the 6th season of Jojo is pretty good, even if they're releasing it in chunks. And the Cyberpunk anime was fantastic.
Oh man I haven't heard Dino Riders since I was a kid 🙂.
Fun fact: the unemployment rate in the book that is so shocking to a japanese person... is LOWER than the unemployment rate in Argentina s 2001 economic crisis. I had a lot of laughs over that bit of info. My country is so weird...
Never thought I'd see a Rifts reference in a random KZhead video...
it's a really good book, sad it ended
So what's the twist at the end of it? I've watched the film but can't remember it, a wiki read didn't really seem to reveal a major twist. Anyone able to clarify it for a dunce like me? Thanks!
Read the manga and watched the movie, but I think I might look to check out the novel one day - hadn't bothered since I heard everything was pretty faithful but maybe there will be something new there for me to experience after all. Glad it got covered here!!
I first watched film then read manga and then read novel. It's like building a puzzle everything's in the right place. There's a lot of things that was changed in manga from novel or absent. But yeah in whole manga is faithful to original overall
NO WONDER I loved this book so much... My favorite King story is also The Long Walk, followed super closely by The Running Man.
I would love to read those.
Awesome video! Keep it up!
I had never heard of this book, though I have read all three hunger games books, and I’m now quite interested in it.
I find new vid I press vid There is a fucking ad on the verge of being a 5 sec skippable one I cry.
World's most unbalanced loot drops
I read the mang.
Very relevant in today’s political climate. We’re not too far from such dystopia.
Still wish you'd do Hitchhiker's Guide. Those who read it think it's great, those who haven't think it's drivel (until they read it, then they think it's great."
Its both drivel and not. It definitely has great writing but a bad story, if that makes sense. I can barely remember what happened, but have memorized passages out of that thing. VERY rare
Where can i read this book online for free?
Still such a shame it's not available as Kindle :(
It is available on audible, but unless they've changed the original narrator, I wouldn't recommend it. He reads the novel in a monotone drone that actually takes a fast paced, exciting story to a boring snooze.
Waiting for so you haven't read Re: Zero starting life in another world by Tappei Nagatsuki
Cough cough the most dangerous game cough cough
Weird they didn't mention this considering that short story is considered by many to be the most popular short story of all time.
Wow Suzanne Collins is a HUGE liar. She even stole the “coming back to take revenge” plot. Lmfao.