Japanese Title: Batoru rowaiaru

Length: 11 volumes

Story by: Koshun Takami

Art by: Masayuki Taguchi

Characters:

• Shuuya Nanahara
• Yoshitoki Kuninobu
• Yonemi Kamon
• Ms. Ryoko
• Mr. Hayashida
• Noriko Nakagawa
• Shogo Kawada
• Kazuo Kiriyama
• Mitsuko Souma

Summary: Reality TV gone very very wrong - in the future, random classes of ninth graders are chosen and placed on an abandoned island. The last one on the island at the end is the winner - the last one left alive that is. Students are given weapons to fight and collars that explode if no one is killed within a 24-hour period.

Commentary: This manga is definitely not for everyone. The blood-and-guts is some of the most graphic I have ever seen - it's not everyday that you see a drawing of someone who has been kicked so hard their eyeball pops out. For those who can take the graphic detail, the next hardest part is the emotion. When I read the first volume, I made the mistake of doing what I usually do when I read something - I put myself into the situation. This made Battle Royale very hard on me emotionally. I think this was the plan of the author - if you put yourself into the situation, you deal with these strong emotions; if you distance yourself from it, you become numb to the violence and react in the way that many of the characters react. It's hard to deal with, but there is something about it that makes you want to keep reading. Maybe it's that sick instinct that makes people look at car accidents on the highway, or maybe it's something more than that.

Rating: 9/10.

Reason for Rating: Great story and characters, keeps you involved in the story, not so crazy about the art with those giant eyes, definitely not for everyone.