Battle Royale - Koushun Takami - So You Haven't Read 

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This might be a cliche thing to say, but the original book is even better than its various adaptations. The English translation is excellent. It's a crying shame that Takami has never written anything else!

I didn't know Battle Royale was originally a novel. The director of the film Kinji Fukasaku was a teenager worker in a munitions factory during World War II and had to take shelter under the corpses of his coworkers during American bombing raids. That feeling of being child abandoned and exploited by the adult world very clearly drew him to the material.

I always thought the most disturbing thing about BR was the fact the students all knew each other so well. In the Hunger Games the contestants might know the other representative from their district, but the others were strangers. There are no strangers in BR (apart from the few recent transfer students), which makes being made to fight and kill them even more horrific.

IIRC Suzanne Collins was referencing the tail of Theseus and the Minotaur with the Hunger games, hence why the releasing of vicious unnatural monsters into the arena to kill off kids that are getting too good at hiding from their competitors is such a recurring theme of the games.

The beauty of this novel was how every character was introduced to you. You learn a level of detail about each that makes you understand who they are so they don't feel like plot NPC's but main characters of their own story. It makes each death have more of an impact and keeps you hooked on the story. The film, personally I didn't enjoy as much as it twisted a few very important aspects, such as Shogo being present and Kiriyama deciding to play, which add twists to your perceived motivations for them. I would recommend the Belko Project as a great movie version of this genre, if a little more light hearted (for a Battle Royale murder story!) as it keeps the whole "are they playing or not" and "Is there a way out" aspects that provide a lot of the back bone to Battle Royale.

Can you guys do an Extra History on the nationwide Japanese Student Protests that seem to heavily influence modern japanese media? I see it referenced in games like Battle Royale, Danganronpa, and anime where the adult population fearful about the youth rising up and preemptively pit them against each other to create a new adult generation built on distrust and paranoia towards their neighbors.

"But in times of crisis, the wise build bridges while the foolish build barriers."

Ah, The Long Walk. One of King’s underrated short stories.

This was one of my favorite movies as a teen. This is the first of your series that I ACTUALLY read lol!

This is still my favorite novel of all. I own both the original Red release, and the updated version for the translation fixes that came with it. The manga and film have noticeable differences that take away from some of the quality, and the audiobook available on Audible sadly has a very monotonic narration, but I've read the physical print version over a dozen times, and will always go back to it. But seriously, can we get an audiobook version that doesn't sound like the reader is sleeping through his lines? Please?

I find the Belko Experiment from 2016 to be one of the better underrated versions of this concept. "Ya'll work together in 1 office building, now do our tasks or kill enough of each other via each time limit and we won't randomly kill enough." Albeit annoyingly, the office setting had so many good possibilities of what normal objects can be used as weapons, they just implement a "oh well this office building has a gun storage locker" (Albeit the elevator and projector room kills are my favourites)

This is easily among my favorite stories of all time. It's the first one that taught me that no matter how bad things get, you have hope so long as you're alive, and that every life, no matter how twisted or cruel, is worth saving.

I've seen the movie and it was powerful... Specially the lighthouse scene.

Me: "I wonder why that list of results starts with things like fortnite and not the Hunger games. I mean, it's clearly a copy/paste" **Suzanne Collins says she never read Battle Royale** Excuse me, my eyes rolled so hard I have to collect them from the floor!

A little mention of secondary villian Mitsuko would made it better. Anyway a good video, I like that all the adaptations has different charms. Books has detailed descriptions, movie has nice action and of course Takashi Kitano and manga has some gore and violence and additional characterisation. But in all three version Lighthouse is perfect. Another interesting thing is Kiriyama killed by different people in all iterations. In Movie Kawada, in Manga Shuya, in Book Noriko.

I watched movie with my brother (mostly, because I like Takeshi Kitano, The Man), and it was veery scary! And then I've read the manga and I was in such shock... I'm usually not afraid of gore in media, but that! But I prefer manga version since it opened for me more interesting points that I missed in the movie. Especially I was fascinated by demontration of how fear of your friend or just fear for life changes and twists people in their own way, it's REAL scary and you just can't help but think, that these students before Battle Royale were just like us - ordinary people, but how we could be twisted in our own way. (Also, while I read the manga, I've immideately understood, where Danganronpa series of games takes inspiration for their story) Thanks EC for showing this story to everyone! It's amazing effort, tyring to push for learning some really interesting and on-the-time topics with such talent and fun!

The biggest problem I had with it was keeping the characters straight since it kept switching between first name, last name and nicknames. Also it had two characters with the same first name which I kept getting mixed up which one was which.

Thank you EC, you inspired me to read the book and watch the movie too! I'll say I really liked the book, it's one of my favorites now, and was really disappointed in the movie. I see people saying how the book has a lot of flashbacks narrative and it is long, but that was part of why it worked for me. What makes BR distinct from Hunger Games is the fact that the characters all know each other and have that intimate relationship prior to the game, which is how the government exploits them to exert power, and makes it all the more heartbreaking when they have to kill each other. I didn't feel that theme at all in the film; it just felt like "man kids these days sure are terrible, let's kill them all for no real reason." I didn't know anything about the characters before the game started in the film, so I didn't care that they were now in the game. I didn't have the chance to get connected that the books first act gave me. I respect what the director was trying to do, and there were some good action scenes, but it leaned too far into the action for me. I liked how in the book there were long sequences of no killing, because it gave me time to focus on the characters and world and settle my heart rate, and the narration over the fights gave just the right amount of time for my tension to build. Movie felt like a constant series of shocks with no down time, so it didn't have the punch of the book for me. Also the epilogue was just so much weaker for me without the Springsteen motif and that ending with the teacher was just...so bizarre in the movie. I'll take Sakamochi from the book any day, thanks very much, haha. Overall thanks again for adding some new literary interest to my life!

Appreciate you not spoiling the ending. There's a lot to be said for little things like that. I have read it and can confirm that it is fantastic. Definitely worth checking out.

The author of The Hunger Games claims she hadn't heard of Battle Royale, but I think it's pretty clear she was banking on the fact that since it's foreign, most people would be unfamiliar with it.

Even Marvel had their own take on Battle Royale genre with the Avengers Arena series

0:23-0:40 I like the way Matt delivers those lines as if he were part of the story in this intro.

Though it didn't directly contribute to his conception of the story, the title Battle Royale comes from the style of boxing matches in which many combatants would fight all at once in the ring. While boxing has never been the highest class sport, these bloodbaths in particular exploited the lower classes disproportionately.

Will always prefer this over Hunger Games, for the simple reason that Battle Royale does what good dystopian stories should do: it makes a pointed jab at a specific aspect of totalitarianism, rather than just a general "it's bad because the government is bad" point that a lot of YA dystopias do. Like yes, dystopias should depict governments as being bad, but they stillneed to justify it in terms of ideology, history, interactions with the wider world etc. Most YA dystopias never do that. HG is still entertaining though and anything that gets kids into reading AND thinking about societal issues is always going to be preferable to hollow stories made of nothing but setting. Just never properly got into that flavour tbh.

This is the first time I've seen someone give Stephen King credit for kind of inventing the genre. The long walk is good highly recommend

I love the movie.... but goddammit the book is a Dystopian fiction masterwork and i am so glad the movie lead me to it!! Also, it is kinda hilarious you used the character designs from the movie

I lowkey love this series more than Extra History

Sad tale if the book is... (Spoiler ahead) If you survive. You will need to take your 3rd year again and the class you drop in to will be the next one kidnapped.

So, no one has read Lord of the Flies (1954)? Same theme, but without the Evil Overlord - just fun-loving British schoolboys.

I've seen both random cuteness and betrayals from strangers in fortnight, where they risk ban hammer. Very curious if that carries over.

Danganronpa but actually good

The book and film end up being very different experiences because of the medium. Books excel at character insight because they allow you to literally depict a character's thoughts, but are weaker at tension because the reader has full control of the pacing; films can usually only imply character thoughts but use tension and dread much more effectively. It ends up splitting the genre, almost; the book is much more clearly dystopian because you watch the ways of thinking this warfare creates in these children, whereas that is up to the audience to see in the film and it becomes much more of a straight horror film.

See I get why people compare Hunger Games to Battle Royale if you only look at both stories at a surface level they are alike but if you REALLY look at both stories they're very different.

Funny coincidence that at about 3:00 you show the exact type of lootbox that was made obsolete just a few days earlier. RIP Overwatch 1.

I really liked this book and have read it multiple times. It is nice to think of it being shown to more people

I saw the film years ago but only vaguely remember it. Hadn't realized it was from a novel adaptation and am not surprised there's a manga.

I still don't believe for a second that Suzanne Collins had never heard of Battle Royale. She definitely expanded the concepts of Battle Royale, but anyone who believes her should probably check out a bridge for sale in NY.

this video inspired me to read the original, and its now my favorite book. thanks EH!!!

30 seconds in the video and I had to stop watching because I have to read this first, thanks EC!

Really hope you guys cover Dr. Zhivago. One of my favorite stories.

Fun fact: the unemployment rate in the book that is so shocking to a japanese person... is LOWER than the unemployment rate in Argentina s 2001 economic crisis. I had a lot of laughs over that bit of info. My country is so weird...

Love this! The OG of Hunger Games, which is the OG to Squid Game. But have you heard of “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell? Or how about “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson? Now those are inspirations.

The film adaptation of this book is absolutely amazing. You're really missing out if you haven't seen it

There were definitely already books about dystopian dictatorships that use violence against their people before 1999. For example 1984

Honestly the similarly between Battle Royal vs Hunger Games can be boiled down to teenagers fight each other to survive. But as like stories they're very different.

Okay, now this is epic

I've never seen a genre go through such a quick and painful mutilation by copycats than the Battle Royale genre. It's like the zombie flick where the ideas went over so many people's heads that when they copycatted it all they did was copy and paste the violence but leave out any characters that matter or any interesting themes.

I think you should cover the giver quartet next !

Mutual aid is the solution to just about ever problem known to man.

SHIROIWA（城岩）→CASTLE ROCK in Japanese. As a Japanese, his love for King is real.😂

Thank you for the video.

It is my 2nd favourite manga after Berserk. So sinisterly captivating. So dark and deep at the same time. So many plot twists with great dialogue and character dynamics. It explores the worst parts of humanity especially when pushed to the edge. Never seen mental breaks and PTSD portrayed so intensely.

If anybody on the island understood game theory, that makes the best move an INSTANT up rising to take out as many of the people who captured you before they can set off the boom necklaces. Only one person surviving at a cost of everybody, with none of them taken out, vs possibly taking out enough of them to punish them and no survivors.

The Long Walk was amazing. A great example of dialogue driven storytelling.

Very relevant in today’s political climate. We’re not too far from such dystopia.

The film, my only experience of the 'original' story, is excellent and extremely well performed.

8:43 You have no idea how much that reference means to me, my brother, and my uncle. We love that series and the drawings you used look great.

I didnt realize this came out in 99'. Freakin awesome story, both movies too.

The things you had mentioned in the video reminded me of secret police services like the KGB, Stasi and others who often had people as close as spouses, mothers and sons report in on their loved one’s transgressions to the police in order to be seen as a more loyal citizen and the benefits which came with it.

I don't read Manga often but I did with this one. It's crazy good

Regarding that last point: Just before this, I watched your Easter Rising series, where the revolutionaries did rely on their fellow citizens to join them...and that turned out to be a mistake. Things are more complicated, apparently...

Great ideas from a depressed land of barely surviving gone into a moderately depressed land of just kind of living on

The film and manga adaptations of this book don't do the material any justice: they're almost pornographically violent and excise any of the good sociopolitical context that's nessesary to understanding it as commentary on Japanese Nationalism and far right radicalism.

Could you do a video on Richard Wright's "Battle Royale"?

Read the manga and watched the movie. Was pretty pleasantly surprise to see how both seemed to match almost beat for beat, which is something you don't see very often from one adaptation to the next. Looking at you Netflix and wb with your shitty anime adaptations...

No! I’m not willing to experience it first hand. That’s why I’m listening to this.

The Hunger Games made a perversion of this masterpiece.

Wow Suzanne Collins is a HUGE liar. She even stole the “coming back to take revenge” plot. Lmfao.

I absolutely loved the manga but god-damn is it depressing. So many heartbreaking moments! I'll definitely have to check out the novel now. Also, Shinji Mimura is the MAN. He's my favorite character in this story.

The 2000 movie is glorious my favorite

I would really like to hear Koushun Takami's opinion on the Battle Royale boom in the gaming world.

Ok, please do Enders game, it is one of my favorite sci-fi books out there

Still wish you'd do Hitchhiker's Guide. Those who read it think it's great, those who haven't think it's drivel (until they read it, then they think it's great."

I read this back when I was 16. Amazing memories

Cough cough the most dangerous game cough cough

Waiting for so you haven't read Re: Zero starting life in another world by Tappei Nagatsuki

NO WONDER I loved this book so much... My favorite King story is also The Long Walk, followed super closely by The Running Man.

Collins' claim about not knowing about Battle Royale before writing the Hunger Games is absolutely ludicrous. Like he said: Read both books.

Somehow I only saw the second movie. It was a shocking movie to me as teenager. In a good way I mean, I had no idea what was going to happen(it might be because it was an Asian movie, which didn't follow western logic)

A recommendation. Protector of the Small:First Test, by Tamora Pierce.

I read this book a while ago… it was so bloody but so good

by far one of my favorite movies ever

It was hilarious, heard on the news that they banned the movie, so I immediately went to Chinatown and got vcd of Battle Royale😅.

A true story. About 'Mental-Health and Racism'.

Never thought I'd see a Rifts reference in a random RU-vid video...

DINORIDERS! Loved that show as a kid!

Read the manga and watched the movie, but I think I might look to check out the novel one day - hadn't bothered since I heard everything was pretty faithful but maybe there will be something new there for me to experience after all. Glad it got covered here!!

So what's the twist at the end of it? I've watched the film but can't remember it, a wiki read didn't really seem to reveal a major twist. Anyone able to clarify it for a dunce like me? Thanks!

nice to hear about this especially since it is super relevant to what is happening in the world today

Fortnight took no inspiration from this. PUBG took massive inspiration from this and fortnight saw the popularity of pubg while it was in early access and decided to copy PUBG.

HELL YES! I NEVER THOUGHT ID SEE THE DAY THIS GETS TALKED ABOUT SERIOUSLY!

Pretty sure the point of the book was to talk about the cutthroat dog-eat-dog Japanese school system of ranking students and how only one student can be number one and be successful.

I think this will be the next book I read

The original battle royale was the 5 little monkeys jumping on the bed

I had never heard of this book, though I have read all three hunger games books, and I’m now quite interested in it.

Oh man I haven't heard Dino Riders since I was a kid 🙂.

Someone tell me the rest of the book!!!!!!!

I can see how you would think that , but people don't just "get along." They disagree from their perspectives , and have weaknesses that can be exploited. And some are opportunists that want to twist history , or erase it. The average one can barely govern one life , much less the lives of many others.

That scene in the lighthouse made me physically ill. The book is so good.