‘Battle Royale’ and ‘Hunger Games’ fight to the death
Battle Royale has the right touch of romance while conveying a political message.
By CHELSEA HELT
SNN Staff Writer
The parallels between Battle Royale and The Hunger Games are obvious. If Battle Royale and Twilight had a child, The Hunger Games would be the resulting child.
Koushun Takami’s Battle Royale is set in a semi-fictional fascist country called the Republic of Greater East Asia which seems to be a combination between North Korea and Japan. Every year the government chooses a class of children to be placed on an island and forced to kill each other. Before the students leave ground zero, they are equipped with a 100% waterproof and shockproof necklace that monitors pulse and location and is comprised of explosives, given a survival kit filled with food, water, a map of the island, a compass, and a random weapon that can range from a machine gun to a rusty fork. They are also informed of the various rules: You must not go into danger zones (locations on the island that continue to increase in number and size as the duration of the Battle Royale continues), you must not swim off the island, and you must not attempt to take off your necklace. If any of these rules are broken, your necklace explodes. And if someone is not killed every 24 hours then everyone’s necklace explodes.
The novel intimately follows 42 students (21 girls and 21 boys) as they deal with their minute by minute hardships and warfare among each other. The novel focuses in on 3 students: Shuya, a teenage boy with a passion for guitar and American rock n’ roll; Noriko, Shuya’s quiet and innocent love interest; and Shogo, the loner of the class. These three eventually become allies.
Takami created a truly amazing dystopian book. He analyzes the psychology behind nearly every one of the students’ creative yet realistic deaths, references Bruce Springsteen’s music throughout the book and includes just the right touch of romance all while conveying a political message attacking a form of government. It is a nearly perfect piece of work with countless dimensions within it. My only complaint is the Japanese names are a little difficult to keep track of.
Suzanne Collins took the basic story line of Battle Royale and sugar coated it with simple 5th grade level language and a lot of romance to appeal to a mass market. The Hunger Games has been dominating our pop culture for months and for Takami to get near to no recognition for his amazing piece of literature is unbelievable. The Hunger Games will never be able to reach the ranks of Battle Royale.