Battle Royale, Vol. 14 [Paperback]

Koushun Takami (Author), Masayuki Taguchi (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 8, 2005

Reads from back to front and from right to left.

Product Details

• Paperback: 216 pages
• Publisher: TokyoPop (November 8, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591823439
• ISBN-13: 978-1591823438
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 6.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #444,234 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars HOW DO YOU KILL KIRIYAMA?, August 20, 2006

By 

Sesho "www.sesho.libsyn.com" (Pasadena, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Battle Royale, Vol. 14 (Paperback)

Yes, after 38 beheadings, stabbings, rapes, gunshots, sickle cutthroats, poisonings, falling down wells, chopping off of various body parts, suicides, arrows in the skull, and other miscellaneous methods of death, the Program is down to its last four participants! Shuuya, the idealistic guitar god, Noriko, who is in love with the adorable guy and couldn't hurt a fly, Shogo, a previous Program survivor whose goals are a little suspect, and Kiriyama, the demon possessed killing machine make up the four. All bets are off as our three heroes try to make it off the island before Kiriyama can execute all of them...IF Shogo is telling the truth about knowing a way for them to escape.

Battle Royale Volume 14 has some pretty ludicrous moments, but then again, the whole series is pretty ludicrous. The writers of the series did a pretty good job to extend basically a fight between four people into an entire volume of manga. The unintentional humor comes in when Kiriyama displays some Spider-Man like acrobatic stunts that I think were simply meant to reinforce the notion that he is perhaps not even human. While some of the "origin" flashbacks of the Program participants were annoying and flow destroying, I actually wish Kiriyama's story had been given more panel time, since in some ways he was the main villain of the manga.

5.0 out of 5 stars another chapter in this epic series., September 8, 2008

By 

Michael J. Butler - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Battle Royale, Vol. 14 (Paperback)

The action still continues, in this epic tale of survival in a sadistic act of the government set in tokyo. Close to the end of the series it will keep you turning the pages till the end of the book. It will set you up for the final end.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars DIE, KIRIYAMA, DIE!!!!1 HONOR KIRIYAMA!!!, November 19, 2005

By 

nir085 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Battle Royale Vol. 14 (Batoru Rowaiyaru) (in Japanese) (Comic)

(minor spoilers below)
As usual the dialogue in this book is pretty silly (and not in the comic book way), but the above title is not a direct quote from 14. It's more like a summary...and it's pretty sad when you can't include the death of a certain character in that summary. Yes, the battle doesn't end. Which makes me wonder how they're going to resolve everything in 15...

I accepted the DBZ fight with Hiroki Sugimura & Kazuo Kiriyama back in 11 and 12 because that at least looked really, really cool. And Kazuo's backstory with the karate instructor was amazing as well.

But we don't get too much Kazuo coolness in this one. We get the spider moment and him driving a car with his foot, but that's it. Kazuo crucifixion? The chosen one? What, are Japanese authors/artists trying to make money off of the Star Wars cash cow now?

And his over-the-top comic BR incarnation goes more over-the-top. Him escaping the car before it blew up? Ridiculous.

To think that his movie equivalent died in a couple of minutes...

At least we should be grateful that Kazuo's backstory didn't show gratuitous sexuality.

The cover does justice to the insides because 3/4 of the book, including the much anticipated fight, details every character's sentimentality and moaning (they could have really saved some for after the fight...).

All in all, it's a worthwhile purchase for definite fans of the Battle Royale series, but only if you are not expecting too much. If all you want is some closure, then just read this at your local Barnes & Noble. There's one last one coming out anyways, maybe two.

(Take note that I'm commenting on the english version of Battle Royale, Volume 14, which has been released in the U.S. Not sure why amazon.com doesn't have it in stock yet)