Battle Royale

By: Koushun Takami, Yuji Oniki - translator

Narrated by: Mark Dacascos

Length: 19 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

Battle Royale, a high-octane thriller about senseless youth violence in a dystopian world, it is one of Japan's best-selling - and most controversial - novels. As part of a ruthless program by the totalitarian government, ninth-grade students are taken to a small isolated island with a map, food, and various weapons. Forced to wear special collars that explode when they break a rule, they must fight each other for three days until only one "winner" remains. The elimination contest becomes the ultimate in must-see reality television.

A Japanese pulp classic available in English-language audio for the first time, Battle Royale is a potent allegory of what it means to be young and survive in today's dog-eat-dog world. The first novel by small-town journalist Koushun Takami, it went on to become an even more notorious film by 70-year-old director Kinji Fukusaku.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©1999 Koushun Takami; Translation copyright 2009, Yuji Oniki (P)2012 Simon & Schuster

great book, bad narration

This is a great book, not a great audiobook. I read this book twice and decided that it would be fun to listen to it in my spare time since I loved it so much, bad mistake. The narrator is the worst narrator I have ever heard. ever. This is an emotional book and he puts no emotion into it. The characters all sound the same and when someone is dying and yelling at their enemy he reads the same as if they were talking to a friend. He does do a good job pronouncing names but this in no way makes up for how horrible he did with everything else. the narrator manages to make a book that is so intense and exciting come off as such a boring book. sometimes you dont even understand what is going on because of how horrible it is read. I hope that they decide to make another version read by someone that can put emotion into characters. If you really want to enjoy battle royale just pick up the hard copy of the book, it is so much better.

Slightly Monotone Narrative

What made the experience of listening to Battle Royale the most enjoyable?

I've read this book twice, hard copy and always wanted an audible version so I could listen at work. The fact that Mark Dacascos was able to pronounce the Japanese names extremely well, his voice was slightly monotone. However, for me, it was fine because I'd read the book before and hearing the action sequences rather than reading them made what was happening more clear.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Battle Royale?

Kiriyama's ruthlessness as he took out two girls at close range. Yikes! That scene in the book and the movie always makes me cringe.

What about Mark Dacascos’s performance did you like?

His pronunciation of Japanese names.

If you could take any character from Battle Royale out to dinner, who would it be and why?

Shinji Mimura ;)

Hyper-graphic teenage murder drama

first--_Hunger Games_ is closely related to this book, though Collins cut out most of the explicit descriptions of the violence and made the ending/political themes more complex--though _Battle Royale_ is longer and more nuanced.

_Battle Royale_ is mostly preoccupied with descriptions of teenage angst and mistrust. The 'program' is an excellent setting for such a project, as it reduces every encounter to a catalyst for the students' motives and insecurities to play out in dramatic action. The political commentary that frames the whole story--'fascism and corrupted conservatism create an irresistable state of efficient oppression we can't break away from'--is also nicely described in the actions of the students.
Some of the writing (perhaps only the translation?) is a bit clunky and formulaic, and the performance of the reader here only accentuates that. A revised edition/translation and some careful direction for the voice talent would go a long way to making this a much better audiobook.
Dacascos reads with a good sense for pace and he gets the emotion of the main (male) characters just right, but it's a subtle and monotone reading and might come off as boring if you're hoping, for example, to hear the panic or fear or anguish in some of the students' words. He also steamrolls through some of the detail in complex dialog or description, which is where a little direction would have helped. The accent seems close enough to Japanese to be believable to my untrained ear, not sure if that's how Dacascos reads his other parts.
I enjoyed this book, but the graphic descriptions of murderous violence (not to mention a seduction-turned-murder) aren't easy to listen to. Caveat auditor.

Not for the faint of heart...

What a great book!

I picked it up because a friend heard me raving about The Hunger Games trilogy and vehemently expressed his disdain for it, stating the author had "bitten" this story. I loved all three of The Hunger Games books so I decided to check it out. I had to get the audiobook to accompany it because a book as long as this one will take me forever to get through if I am not able to listen to it while I drive.

Surely this isn't the first ever book that has been written about a fight to the death but it seems to me pretty unique in that junior high students are put into the mix as the contestants.

There are definitely a lot of parallels and similarities and while no one can say for sure if The Hunger Games blatantly "bit" Battle Royale, it is clear that the author read this book prior to writing hers and definitely tailored it to be extremely similar.

But hey, whatever... Nothing is new under the sun.

Normally, I have to question the editing of a book that is more than 400 pages. Maybe it's my journalistic training but I just don't understand what you have to say in 600+ pages that you couldn't say in 400. If your book is that long, it better be brimming with absolutely necessary prose or I'm going to be pissed. Every page of Battle Royale was absolutely necessary.

Although there were clear main characters, I love how nearly all of the 42 student perspectives were shown. It made it that much more heart-wrenching when one of the students I liked died. My dialogue with the book while reading surely made my husband think I was nuts. I was constantly yelling "Noooo," "Are you serious!" and "Don't trust him/her! Kill him/her!" It was an emotional roller coaster and I very much enjoyed the ride.

Short chapters are essential to me. I need frequent breaks in a story. This book did not disappoint in that regard. I also enjoyed the official count of how many students were still alive at the end of each chapter. It added to the anticipation. I found myself skipping ahead and looking at the count thinking "Oh no! 3 students are going to die! Please don't let it be ______!" The descriptions of the violence, blood, and gore were so thorough that I found myself turning my face away from the book in horror as the images came to life in my mind. Yikes!

Not sure why people said the names were confusing. I had no problem distinguishing the 42 Japanese names. I also thought the narrator did a great job distinguishing voices. Some people didn't like the narrator but I really did.

19hours and I finished it in 4 days because I could not turn it off.

While I loved the Hunger Games, I will say this; if I had read this first, I would not have liked The Hunger Games nearly as much...

Who knows what the future will bring, but as of this very moment, Battle Royale is my favorite read of the year...

great, original story

the story has some cliches, but the concept is so unique. the tension is high the entire time. the only drawback is that there are some characters who only show up for one chapter or so toward the end.
also while the narration is adequate, there are so many different characters that you wish the reader used some different voices for characters to help distinguish them.

Good Story, Annoying Narrator

This book was really good once I got the names down. I really had trouble in the beginning because the names are foriegn for me and hard to remember. Other than that I loved the story. But, the narrator had this horrible whistling sound when he pronounced a S in a word. So bad sometimes i just wanted to turn it off.

Love the story.

Honestly this is one of my favorite stories. Definitely not a tale for everyone but it's best in the genre if you ask me. Thought the audio performance was very good too.

Excellent novel

Honestly if it hadn't been for a handful of multiplayer pc games based on the concept of this book, I probably never would have discovered it. I'm glad I did. As a fan of The Hunger Games series (which many people say ripped off thus book), I loved this book and the fact that it's setting is more grounded in reality. Highly recommended this one!

Hunger Games Meets Squid Game Meets Japanese Teens

This book gave me One Hundred Years of Solitude flashbacks, when I had to give up keeping up with the family tree and focused on the story because I kept getting lost. Particularly if you're listening and not reading, it gets really hard to follow all the Japanese names and remember who is who, because there more than 42 of them! However, it is an interesting dystopian story very much like Hunger Games and Squid Game, but with high school teenagers bringing out their own life traumas while trying to survive.

Genuine good book

Predating other similar books, this is a well written, very thoughtful. It is good satire on how people can become an inconvenience for the government. I know i am late to the party, reading this, however this book has aged well and i found it surprising relevant despite the decades passing.