History Headscratchers / BattleRoyale

** Because the centre of mass is the easiest aiming point. Even then, it already isn't easy to hit the centre of mass in a range, much less under battle conditions and without training. Aiming for the head in a heated firefight only makes sense if you *know that hitting your target in the torso won't hurt him.

** Because the centre of mass is the easiest aiming point. Even then, it already isn't easy to hit the centre of mass in a range, much less under battle conditions and without training. Aiming for the head in a heated firefight only makes sense if you *know your target can't be hurt in the torso.

* Exactly ''why'' does nobody in the novel/manga know that the best way to kill someone is shooting them in the head? Granted, Kiriyama tends to shoot a lot and has killed multiple classmates by shooting them in the head. But what about the final fights? Hiroki VS Kiriyama? Great Martial Artist that he is, and all, he ''did'' let Kiriyama hit him back towards the uzi and fires a whole barrade at Kiriyama's chest... which he later realizes did nothing since he was wearing a bullet-proof vest. [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim Why did he (or Shuuya, Noriko or even Shogo not just shoot him in the HEAD]]? Of course, Noriko ''does'' shoot Kiriyama in the head and he does survive it for some time. But why didn't they just aim for the heads to begin with?! It's like they were asking for the battle to be prolonged if it could have been ended many issues/chapters before.

** Hell, I can see the headlines now!
'Battle Royale Act passed, school attendance drops by 80%'.
** They probably can't get out of the country. And realistically the rich are probably if not entirely at least largely sheltered from the Game. They claim otherwise but I imagine just like in real life with the draft people of sufficient means will find ways around it probably starting with private or otherwise immune schools and ending if necessary by somehow getting those kids who belong to sufficiently important people to skip a grade.

** Because she's a woman. And she already runs the risk of bleeding all over their weapons. That's probably what ran through the heads of the people who wrote it. Either that or she's not the protagonist, she is TheChick.

'Battle Royale Act passed, school attendance drops by 80%'.

* Why is the rest of the world letting "East Asia" get away with this? Also how did Japan win WW2?

* As is shown, the program can pretty much target anyone for the games, regardless of class or background. And they don't even try to hide it, broadcasting it on live television for everyone to see. Unless massive propaganda is used, what would prevent other students from making the necessary precautions to avoid such a scenario in case the government decides to choose their school for the next Battle Royale? Heck, since pretty much everyone is fair game, why don't the richer residents high tail it out of there and move to another country?

** The movie's kind of flimsy on that, but in the book, they all know about it. The movie's excuse would presumably be the "degeneration of youth" that was the main motivation behind the games' creation in that universe, with the students being too rowdy to take notice of even that.

* 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?

** It's explained in the novel, by Sakamochi to Shougo at the end. Basically, the reason why they put forth the idea of BR and then broadcast the winner to the entire country is so that young people will get frightened and fear and distrust will be rampant among the populace, resulting in it being much less likely for them to form a coup de etat against the government.

** Basically, yeah, the government is just run by psychopaths that think this is a good way to control the populace. The novel features an excerpt from a speech announcing the start of the program with an official public rationale. But that speech is mostly nonsensical gung-ho scare tactics and word salad that only has a chance of working on an already emotionally compromised audience.

** Except for the fight against Kiriyama, the protagonist trio are trying ''not'' to kill anyone.
* Also probably because Kiriyama was not paying much attention to hear. He thought that she was harmless and concentrated on Shogo first who was the most dangerous of the trio. Noriko only shot him anyway to protect Shuya she wouldn't have done it otherwise. Also Kawada pretends to kill him to save Noriko's sanity.

* So, this bugged me about the Hunger Games too, but...do we ever see the in-universe thought process that lead up to The Program, or, like in Hunger Games, is it just hand waved with everyone in the Government being a child hating psychopath?

* Is it me or does movie Noriko not seem to care that her classmates are dying? She even says at the end "It's such a beautiful island, even if that's where everyone died"

* When watching the film, this troper noted that Shuya's actor captured some of the pain of losing close friends rather well. Whereas Noriko does not seem to be in much grief or shock when her friends/female classmates die.

** It's mentioned in the novel ''and'' the manga that Shogo had not been with their class very long, and most people (Shuya included) were wary of him. There were rumors about how he'd come to be so scarred-up, mostly to the effect that he'd been mixed up with hoodlums at his old school.

* When watching the film, this troper was surprised at the apparent lack of grief and shock Noriko displayed when classmates died, escpecially compared to Shuya. Is it just me?

* How did a French foreign exchange student get caught up in the (very publicized) Program without causing an international stink?

** No it doesn't. Kirayama was a delinquent so they placed in him a Battle Royale where he can be killed at the press of a button, has a strong possibility of being killed, and isn't even part of the rest of the regular society.

** Of course they can afford 42 guns. There are two reasons why they don't give guns to all the kids: 1) Because the varying weapons make the game more random, and 2) Because the students outnumber the soldiers already, and would then have superior firepower if all of them had guns.

* Not to mention---Japan (or the Greater East Asia Republic) has very, very strict gun control. How is it that these totally untrained kids are able to even figure out how their guns work, much less hit anything other than the broad side of a barn?

* In the film, the purpose of the game was to stop youth delinquency. However, the government lets Kiriyama participate in the game because he wanted to do it "for fun." Saying this, doesn't this go ''against'' what the government tried to do in the first place?