Hi! I'm an anonymous soul who misses the BR Fandom, so I thought I'd ask you a few BR questions if you'd like to answer c: 1. What is your favourite moment from the novel? 2. What is your favourite moment in the movie, which wasn't in the novel? 3. What is your favourite moment from the manga, which wasn't in the novel? If you'd like, you could also include your least favourite moment(s) and which change you disliked the most in the other adaptions. Thanks!
I haven’t been on here for a while and checked on a whim, and this ask made me super happy because I’m actually getting sucked back into BR as well. So great timing!
1. My favorite moment in the novel is Shinji and Kazuo’s ‘showdown.’ I just love how Shinji thinks during it and how fast paced it is. And that final moment when he finally realizes that Yutaka is dead and he’s about to go into grief mode, but then there’s Kiriyama and Shinji is just like, ‘of fucking course.’ And he has his final thoughts to Yutaka, his uncle, and his sister. Ugh, it’s good shit!
2. Hmm, my favorite movie moment not in the novel is probably anytime Shogo makes a joke about his father’s profession. Comedy gold there. I also like the basketball moments because the kids deserve something wholesome.
3. My favorite manga moment not in the novel is probably anything to do with Hiroki and Takako. I just really like their background. Honorable mentions to ‘eat yellow death’ and Kayoko’s chapters where she’s a manic pixie dream girl doing anime moves. I love it.
And then as far as other stuff.... I hate how the movie changes Kazuo. I think the best part about him is that he doesn’t feel anything about what he’s doing. It makes him blameless in a way, which showcases how the real villain in the story is the government. Making him a killing machine takes that away. I also dislike that Shogo and Kazuo are transfer students in the movie. It takes away some of the horror for me. The thing that makes Battle Royale scarier than some of the other killing game stories is that they all know each other. These are people they’ve been in class with all year. A lot of them have known each other for years. This isn’t can you kill a stranger, it’s can you kill the kid who sits in front of you in math? Can you trust your friends? Like, Kazuo killing Mitsuru, who trusted him completely is the first moment where you really get a taste of how bad things are going to turn. So the movie watered those aspects down for me too much.
As far as the manga goes, they just aged the kids too much. Like, why do they look 40? Why am I seeing panty shots of 15 year olds? Why is Mitsuko trying to get at Yuichiro while he’s dying? These are just all things I don’t need. The actual story has plenty of trauma for the kids to endure, let’s not venture into overkill.
And of course my only issue with the novel is wanting even more from various student’s povs. Oh, and a better translation. But what can ya do?
Anyway, thank you for the ask! Feel free to message me! Like I said I’m crawling back into the BR hole myself :)
