Shuuya and Noriko have managed to survive the first night of the Program and have promised each other not to play the game. But the problem is how do you know who is and is not playing? How can you approach someone and ask them the question, and secondly, are they telling you the truth, or will they kill you as soon as your guard is down? It's a setup whereby no matter what you do, innocent people are going to get killed. Sakura Ogawai and her boyfriend Kazuhiko are also pondering this question in another part of the island. And Kazuo, the gang leader who doesn't even fear the yakuza is also coming to a decision as to whether to play the game. Yumiko and Yukiko, two girls on their own, make a desperate plea via loudspeaker for everyone to quit the game, even though it will probably be their last request if the right side doesn't show up first!

Battle Royale again dishes out some of the most compelling drama I have seen in any medium. It's sad because a lot of the people WANT to do the right thing and yet the circumstances favor those who want to win the game, those who want to kill. The flashbacks each of the characters has adds to the tragedy that befalls all of them. Yes, there is death, there is spectacle in this manga, but the true message lies in the battle of the characters to deal with the twisted reality into which they have been thrown. You really care about the people striving to hope, and despise those that are participating in the Program, because these character's acceptance to play means that they have no hope of escaping the island any other way. Shuuya and Noriko think there is another way out, and hopefully, they can find others of like mind.

Having read the book and seen the movie, I think this may be the definitive version of the story. I loved the book, and highly recomend it, but I really like the way Takami has expanded on the characters and the backstory for this Manga version. Unlike the movie where they had to cram a 600 page book into two hours, with this eight vollume manga they have the oportunity to expand that 600 pages into 1600 pages. Sure, you can't fit as much information on a comic page as you can a page in a novel, but almost tripling the length really gives Takami the chance to flesh some things out that were only hinted at or briefly mentioned in the book. Again, don't get me wrong, I loved the book, but based on the first two Manga (the first 400 hundred pages of the comic story,) I think almost every character and situation has been improved, expanded, and refined. Shuya becomes even more noble and likable (and you get to see more about why all the other students seem to like and trust him,) and almost every confrontation he has becomes even more tragic because Takami gives him the chance to be more vocal about not wanting to hurt anyone. Also, in relation to that, Takami spends more time explaining on why the people who force Shuya into fighting act the way they do as well. Another scene that I think benifits greatly from the new telling is the scene where the two lovers commit suicide to avoid having to fight and to avoid losing each other. It's a great scene in the book, but even better in the manga -- the artistic flashback as they jump is heartwrending. An anime magazine in their revue of the Manga tried to say the scene was done better in both the book AND the movie, which I found rediculous. The book is arguable, but in the movie the scene lasts maybe a minute, you get no background information, and you care very little. How that can be compared to the comic, I don't know, but I really think the whole revue in that particular magizine was way off base.

As for Giffen's dialogue -- I know some people have complained that he Americanized it -- well, to them I say "that's what he was supposed to do." It's a translation, and part of translating a book is getting the idea across -- not just the literal words. Japanese translated straight into english often seems vague, mystical, unclear, or just plain impossible to understand, and I'm sure English translated straight to Japanese is the same. When I read a translation, I accept that I'm not going to be reading the writers exact words, but that I will be reading his or her ideas instead. Giffen does a tremendous job in my mind of translating Takami's ideas into words the American reader can relate to, and I can't imagine a translation going any better.

As for the art -- it's very well done. Some of it is gruesome -- but hey, that's part of the story -- but at the same time, some of it is beautiful. The characters are nicely done and easily distinquishable, and the action plays out in ways easy to understand visualy. I really can't think of a single complaint, artisticaly speaking. Then again, I'm not sure I can think of a single complaint about this manga at all. I even made my wife read it, and she loved it as well.

In short, I loved the book, think the movie was pretty good (despite making some needless and overall plot weakening changes,) but feel that the Manga is the one that really tells the whole story and lets you know the characters the best.

Battle Royale raises disturbing questions. There are inevitable comparisons to ýLord of the Fliesý, except that BR is that on amphetamines, plus hormones. Terrifying, and heart-breaking, this is a tale of friendship, love and betrayal, that should not be missed. This is the second volume of the manga, which is based on the book of the same name, which resulted in a movie.

Japan. The not-so-distant future. It is a nation run by a military dictatorship, which has control over the media and the country. This most popular of television shows makes ýSurvivorý look like ýSesame Streetý.

Itýs simply called the Program, and itýs the highest rated show of all time. In Japan, 9th grade is the last year of required schooling, the last year of junior high. And it is the year that 9th grade students are subjected to a state run lottery. But no one wants to win this lottery.

Youýve just woken up after passing out on your class trip. The 42 students in your class, including you, have just found out that theyýve lost the lottery: the class has been selected to be on the Program. Itýs a chance to be a star...if you live.

21 boys. 21 girls. The winner? The sole survivor. The Program has been on for years, and no one has ever escaped. Youýre trapped on an island, with an explosive collar around your neck. If everyone refuses to play, and if no one is killed in a 24 hour period, all the collars detonate, and everyone dies. Try to swim off the island? Youýll be shot by the patrol boats; the collars are tracking devices, and transmit the health of the player. Hide, and hope to last things out? Well, the place is divided into grids on the map youýve been given with randomly rotating danger zones. When an area is announced as a danger zone, youýve 5 minutes to get out, or your collar explodes. Band together, try to take out the sadists whoýve done this to you and your friends? Ah, but theyýre located inside a permanent danger zone. Youýve all been given an assortment of weapons, ranging from knives, sickles, crossbows, shotguns, pistols, and semi-automatic machine pistols.

So, youýre in the game. What do you do? What will happen to the class cute couple? Will she turn on him? Will he, high on fear and adrenaline, kill her? Will idealists keep to their ideals? Will the person that helped you one day, be driven to kill 2 days later? What will happen when fear, desperation, and hysteria strike? Could you, would you kill your friends? Could you, would you, kill the girl you had a crush on, the guy who youýve dated, the friend you grew up with? And if you canýt kill them...will they kill you?

Thought-provoking, this series is not for kids. This story uses graphic violence to drive home the horror of what has been done to these kids. There is gore, graphic gore, sex and rape. And it all is necessary; the rawness drives home the horror, shows the waste of lives. We often have flashbacks, showing the kids in prior times. Some of these are rotten kids, some of them are merely the products of a terrible background. Others are so sweet, so nice that youýll agonize should they die.

And die they do. By the end of the first two books, 15 are dead. There deaths serve to illustrate how no one deserves to die because of the actions of outside authorities, whether it is at the orders of mad government, or from the bullets of a moron shooting up a workplace or school. The morons who did Columbine would no doubt have gotten the wrong message about this book. But the violence serves not to glorify violence, but to excoriate it. It serves not to praise murder, but to condemn murder and those who kill.

This manga is about how incredibly precious life is. The only encouragement from the government? Try to die where there are at least two cameras, all the better for the DVD sales.