History Headscratchers / BattleRoyale

* It might just be another BlindIdiotTranslation on Tokyopop's part, but in the beginning when Kamon says that last year's winner was a girl, wasn't the last year's winner Shogo? Didn't it also mention that Shogo went through an entire publicity stunt? Even if it was just to stir-up further mistrust among the students, wouldn't everybody in the class already know when Shogo transferred in that he was the winner? Even if he did buzzcut his hair in order to try and look unrecognizable, shouldn't the wounds on his body, his name, and the fact he'd been held back a year make them put two-and-two together (you'd think Kiriyama at least) would've made the connection or raise some suspicion? Shouldn't that whole thing have backfired a bit, giving less credibility to his scare tactics. In the novel, they only give the student's gender and number and the prefecture they'd come from and, and I think the entire family was put on gag-order or get shot if they don't comply.

** I saw it as Kiriyama stopping out of his usual morbid curiosity. He's just been in an full-on gunfight with this girl and she pulls out a Magic Emily ring? It makes him curious.

** I kind of took it as it striking a chord and a part of him wanting to feel emotion again, but he shook it off and went back to the EmptyShell. When he did the surgery on himself, I thought it was mostly because he was confused by his hesitantion in shooting her, so he pulled those muscles out of his body to see if there was something wrong, and he just taped them in place in order for it not to happen again (not realizing what really caused him to stop).

*** Viz only did the novel, TokyoPop handled the manga and its regrettable translation choices.

** It doesn't have to be Japan by itself winning WW2 either, it was allied with other nations. Maybe in AlternateHistory FridgeLogic the German atomic bomb project actually got finished before Berlin's fall?

** Also in the novel and manga after Shinji's attempt to hack their system fails, he figures out their collars are mic'd so he and Yutaka switch over to writing out their communications.

** Also, in the original novel, several characters states that there were instructions following their weapons, especially the guns. Some, however, only noted that they did not bother reading because they already knew...

* If the Battle Royale is held to keep young people in fear, then why does no one in the class (barring the two who signed up on purpose) know about it beforehand? Especially when they display the winner on television every year?

** I'm pretty sure it was supposed to be ambiguous. Kiriyama looked like he was smirking as she attempted to seduce him, and sure took his time with killing her. And his reaction to the ring was extreme for him, and he did seem to hesitate there. But he's later shown performing surgery on himself, suggesting that it was simply due to injury.

* In the manga, what exactly was up with Kiriyama's reactions to Mitsuko's Magic Emily ring? Did it have to do with all the stuff Mitsuko saying in her delirium touching a nerve deep down in his subconscious? Or was it something LostInTranslation?

*** Calling it Pro-taliban is stretching it. Sure, they appears to be ending up in Afganistan, but where else to run when you a pinned as a terrorist organisation by one of the major military powers, thats not affraid to use it? I see it as lesser of two evils

* In the manga, what exactly was up with Kiriyama's reactions to Mitsuko's Magic Emily ring? Did it have to do with all the stuff Mitsuko in her delirium touching a nerve deep down in his subconscious? Or was it something LostInTranslation?

** They don't care, at all, about killing innocent law abiding citizens. The entire purpose of the game is to show people that you can't trust anybody. This prevents people from starting a rebellion against the government. They likely don't particularly care about regular street level crime.

* The fact that they're putting in classes of students and having them kill each other. Aside from the fact that this could likely lead to the killing of innocent (or at least law-abiding) kids for scare tactics seems silly, when they could just round up any delinquents they could find or know about and have them fight instead. If anything, that'd probably be an even bigger deterrent for criminal activity.

** I believe that was [[spoiler:a charade. Remember Shogo had to prevent the ones in charge from figuring out his scheme for as long as possible, and they were almost certainly monitoring the bus. A "Just As Planned" smirk(or even showing no reaction) would have been too suspicious.]]

* During the bus trip, Shogo is shown to look shocked and tries to open a window before he falls asleep, too. [[spoiler: But that doesn't make sense! Shogo hacked into the databank, learned which school was going to be picked next and deliberatly put himself into that school and class, to try to bring The Program down and kill the people responsible for it. If that was his plan all along, why does he look shocked or even try to avoid being recruited?]]

** While I could've been more specific (my bad), the difference between 'aiming' and 'shooting' in our context is semantic. I mention marksmanship issues - aiming points, shooting conditions, training, and zeroing. Also, unless you're up against a nigh-unstoppable killing machine wearing a Hollywood bulletproof vest, aiming for centre of mass is your best shot at incapacitating your opponent. It is a large target and offers the best chance of hitting the central nervous system and major organs. Furthermore, even if you miss dead centre, you may still tag the target somewhere, and there is no 'safe' place to shoot someone. Marines and soldiers may not agree on many things, but I'd hazard a guess that this is one of them. XD That said, you make an excellent argument about Kiriyama (a nigh-unstoppable killing machine wearing a Hollywood bulletproof vest) and I concede on that point. I should've thought about it from that angle.

** While I could've been more specific (my bad), the difference between 'aiming' and 'shooting' in our context is semantic. I mention marksmanship issues - aiming points, shooting conditions, training, and zeroing. Also, unless you're up against a nigh-unstoppable killing machine wearing a Hollywood bulletproof vest, aiming for centre of mass is your best shot at incapacitating your opponent. It is a large target and offers the best chance of hitting the central nervous system and major organs. Furthermore, even if you miss dead centre, you may still tag the target somewhere, and there is no 'safe' place to shoot someone. Marines and soldiers may not agree on many things, but I'd hazard a guess that this is one of them. XD That said, you make an excellent argument about Kiriyama and I concede on that point. I should've thought about it from that angle.

** While I could've been more specific (my bad), the difference between 'aiming' and 'shooting' in our context is semantic. I mention marksmanship issues - aiming points, shooting conditions, training, and zeroing. Also, unless you're up against a nigh-unstoppable killing machine wearing a Hollywood bulletproof vest, aiming for centre of mass produces the most successfully downed targets. I know marines and soldiers don't agree on many things. But I'd hazard a guess that marksmanship being harder than telly makes it look is one of them. XD That said, you make an excellent argument about Kiriyama and I concede on that point. I should've thought about it from that angle.