Shogo has a big advantage over all the other players: he's played this game before. The novel centres around three of the players, Shuya and Noriko, who ally themselves with Shogo. One player only gets a bulletproof vest, another a device that lets him know the location of near-by players.īetrayal is common, and Takami comes up with some entertaining twists of fate. Trust is hard to come by - and hard to keep.Ĭleverly, the students are outfitted with different weapons, everything from a machine gun to a set of darts. With the large number of participants at the beginning of the game Takami manages to go through most of the possible variations of reactions and attitudes.Ī few jump right into the game, readily willing to turn on their classmates, while others try to forge alliances and help each other out. It looks like a no-win situation for the participants, or at least all except one, since there appears to be no way to turn against the game-keepers, or to stay alive without turning to murder.
The final survivor of each class (the winner) is provided with a lifetime pension and a card autographed by The Great Dictator.īattle Royale is the story of one such class-battle.īeginning with 42 students, the novel follows their fates as they battle each other.Īmong the special rules of the game is that someone has to get killed every 24 hours or else everybody gets killed (which turns out not to be a problem - the slaughtering occurs at a pretty good clip), and that more and more parts of the island where they are playing become off-limits as the game progresses.Ĭontrol over the students is exerted via metal collars they've been outfitted with: explosive charges in them will detonate if they move in a prohibited zone (or if the 24-hour limit is exceeded). Provided with a variety of weapons, it's a winner take all battle: the students have to kill each other until only one survives: 68 Program'.Įvery year fifty third year junior high school classes are selected.Įach is brought to some isolated area (an island, typically) and the students set against each other.
State control is more far-reaching, and among the ways the state exerts its control is through the egalitarian but deadly 'Program', officially the 'Battle Experiment No.
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