Customer Reviews

Battle Royale Vol. 11

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After finding his best friend Takako too late and having her die in his arms a couple of volumes back, Sugimura made a vow to find his love interest Kotohiki and protect her from a similar fate. At the beginning of Volume 11 he finally does find her. But things quickly worsen because the cold as ice demon Kiriyama is on their trail, and there is no chance of reasoning with such a monster. Through the use of flashbacks we get insight into Sugimura's character and how he fell for Kotohiki. We also find out about the self-doubt and perceived weakness beneath his martial arts fighter look and the reason why he fears the inevitable battle with Kiriyama.

11 is a pretty weak installment in this series. The flashback sequences in Battle Royale have always been a drawback in my mind and an unwelcome interruption in the main action. But they weren't as obtrusive in the beginning because exposition is what you do in the outset of a story. But here we are close to the end, and the writer is STILL explaining why these characters behave the way they do! I don't want to read pages and pages of the characters chatting about the good old days when in reality every second they spend blabbing increases their chance of getting killed. I would recommend buying Volume 12 along with 11 because this book ends in a cliffhanger ending just as the action gets started.

First, before I say anything else, let me say that I write this review while bearing the ELEVENTH volume in mind, as this page does have the cover of manga volume #11. I don't know why others are reviewing the novel (and why some are moronic enough to rank the movie above the manga/novel)...but whatever.

Have you seen the movie? Or read the novel? Are you willing to pick up only one Battle Royale manga volume among all of the ones you see on the shelves? Then make sure it's this one. Not only because the Kotohiki/Hiroki meeting is a much happier, slightly romantic alternative to the movie/novel one, but because...

Taguchi's art is gorgeously illustrated in these chapters, having some lovely dark and iconic pages of characters, a la Volume 8, to some extent. Volume 8 will still remain as the most chilling book, both in terms of artwork and story, but the word "grotesque" has much more than a minute part to play in this volume as well - it simply carries a less... promiscuous meaning.

This topical, character-focused, gloomy cover art is what all of the covers should be like in my opinion. But the latter ones to the highest degree, seeing as how they're in wind-up, hope-is-gone mode. I've seen the cover art for Volume 13, which is already released in Japan, and it's very disappointing. I was getting sick of constantly seeing boring happy shots of Shuuya - in fact, it's what deterred me from picking up the manga in the first place. However, this kind of cover art is not work that would bring someone completely foreign to Battle Royale into Battle Royale, but it doesn't need to be. Simplistic though this art may be, every little aspect of the front has meaning that is obviously dispersed throughout the book - the cross, symbolizing his "boy scout"-ness, his teardrop-like blood, symbolizing his fight with Kiriyama, his hopeless yet firm look into the light, symbolizing the [self-explanatory], and finally his expression, symbolizing gloom, maybe even repression. That's how I perceived it anyways and while others may not take scrutinize the cover to such a degree, I'm sure many will appreciate this.

Kiriyama easily takes the cake as the coolest (as well as the coldest) character in the manga/novel, despite him being the least developed and the weirdest in the movie. If there's one thing I could have asked more for in the novel it would be more of Kiriyama's backstory. Which we do get, and when you get to the end, there's a cliffhanger that hints at the possibility of there being more...

Kazuo. Kiriyama. He kills, but not out of hatred, odd idealism, sadism, psychosis, stupidity, or the like...but out of a simple and logical willingness to play The Program. No volume released so far makes this clearer, and based on what I've read in the novel, it's not likely to be made more clear in the future; automatically making this and the subsequent book a must-buy for Kiriyama enthusiasts (such as myself).

Giffen's humor also helps a bit. Of course, I'm not entirely positive the guy intended his DBZ, Batman, and Boy Scout remarks&references to be funny, perhaps just a mere "Americanization", but this guy's irreverence towards some of the original lines make me laugh. 'Specially as a longtime DBZ fan.

Here, in this volume, the manga series truly begins the "countdown" segment of Battle Royale. The punks, hoes, conceited morons, and other extraneous (but interesting and fun) characters are gone. They're all gone.

Order this, now. You're a fool if you don't; a fool who deserves his ey-...oops, almost let a spoiler slip =).