History Literature / BattleRoyale

* InSpiteOfANail: In the novel, even though a totally different political situation replaced the Cold War as we know it, it didn't stop Armstrong from being the first man on the moon, or the rock music scene turning exactly in the same way as in our world, with the same stars.
** The totalitarian fascist government also appears to tolerate the otaku subculture (Yuichiro), and flamboyant homosexuality (Sho). (Though it might be in the same way as they "tolerate" rock music).
*** The Director in the book version makes some comment about how those degenerate Americans allow homosexuality, so it's probably not all roses for gay people.

* BlastOut: The fate of a group of friends. [[spoiler:Yukie Utsumi and some of her friends take shelter in a lighthouse. They take Shuuya Nanahara in when they find him injured, but one of Yukie's friends, Yuko Sakaki, is distrusting of Shuuya due to believing he killed another classmate (said classmate accidentally killed himself trying to kill Shuuya) and spikes a meal with poison in the hopes of killing Shuuya. Unfortunately, another friend, Yuka Nakagawa, eats the poisoned food and dies. Tensions spike, a MexicanStandoff ensues as trust erodes, and the entire group of friends end up shooting each other to death (save for Yuko, who is so wracked with guilt afterwards that she is DrivenToSuicide).]]

** [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by a ship's captain in the final chapter [[spoiler: when talking about Noriko and Shuuya, who survived]], saying that [[spoiler: he feels terrible because, looking into Noriko's eyes and seeing what she must've gone through, makes him think that it could very easily be his own daughter next time]].

* DubInducedPlotHole: The English translation of the manga introduces the conceit that the Program is actually a televised reality show, rather than just a government program. This creates multiple plot holes, including Mimura failing to realise that the collars are wired for sound (which goes from a foolish oversight in the original to totally inexplicable in the translation), and Kawada choosing a location to fake Shuuya and Noriko's deaths in an area where what's really happening can't be seen even though the entire island is meant to be covered in cameras so the footage can be broadcast (it's hardly unthinkable that there would be ''some'' camera blindspots, but in the original he chooses a heavily forested area so the government can't tell what really happens using satellite imaging).

** Kawada actually gets two in the film. The first is him already lacing up his shoes so he is ready to run when his name is called...then turning around and claiming a different bag as his own while fearlessly talking back to the military and giving Kiriyama a DeathGlare; this shows that Kawada is focused, knows what is going on, and isn't frightened by the circumstances. The second is when he saves Shuuya and Noriko from the class president but spares them when he learns that aren't a threat. He then tries to save two girls calling for peace by shooting in the air to scare them, while also stopping Shuuya from running to his death. These moments establish him as someone who, while willing to kill, is far from heartless or sociopathic like Mitsuko or Kiriyama.

* IJustShotMarvinInTheFace: Lampshaded in the English translation of the manga. At the beginning of the car chase, when Shogo kicks away the windshield so he doesn't have to "dodge flying glass", he hands Shuuya his Uzi, recommending him to not "go all Marvin in ''Pulp Fiction''" with the weapon.

* VillainsNeverLie: Kamon boasts that he raped and murdered the head of Shuuya's orphanage, Ms. Ryoko to demoralize him. [[spoiler: This is later subverted as in the final chapter, Shuya, spying on the orphanage, sees her alive and well. Kamon, apparently, was just being a {{Troll}}.]]

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Kazuo Kiriyama gets one in the film, where he's outnumbered and surrounded by five other students questioning him and disarms one of them before he kills them all in seconds; during which he casually grabd all his fallen opponents' firearms and explosives for himself, leaving only one student's nunchucks behind.
** Kawada actually gets two in the film. The first is him already lacing up his shoes so he is ready to run when his name is called... then turning around a claiming a different bag as his own all fearlessly talking back to the military and giving Kiriyama a DeathGlare, showing that Kawada is focused, knows what is going on, and isn't frightened by the circumstances. The second is when he saves Shuuya and Noriko from the class president but spares them when he learns that aren't a threat. He then tries to save two girls calling for peace by shooting in the air to scare him, while also stopping Shuuya from running to his death. This establish him as someone, while willing to kill, is far from heartless or sociopathic like Mitsuko or Kiriyama.

* GroinAttack

* HumansAreFlawed: The general consensus of the novel and its adapataions. Some of the students kill one other out of paranoia and at some points, the protagonists are forced to [[KillingInSelfDefense kill out of self-defense]], something that negatively affect their psyches. However, most of Class 3B are not killers; in fact, some of the killers go insane due to the Program's SadisticChoice of kill or be killed. On the same note, the best killers in Class 3B have {{freudian excuse}}s, most notoriously Kazuo Kiriyama, who is only a killer due to brain damage caused by a freak accident and even then, it takes a coin flip for him to decide to kill everyone else. [[spoiler: In the end though, it is the alliance of two [[TechnicalPacifist pacifists]] and a [[KnightInSourArmor hardened veteran of the Program]] that ultimately wins the Program and defeats the Program Administrator of Class 3B.]]

* IJustShotMarvinInTheFace: Lampshaded in the YMMV English translation of the manga: in the beginning of the car chase, when Shogo kicks away the windshield so he doesn't have to "dodge flying glass", he hands Shuuya his Uzi, recommending him to not "go all Marvin in Pulp Fiction" with the weapon.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Kazuo Kiriyama gets one in the film, where he's outnumbered and surrounded by five other students questioning him and disarms one of their Uzi before he kills them all in seconds, casually grabbing all the fallen peoples firearms and explosives for himself, leaving only one students nunchuks behind.

* FunnyBackgroundEvent: Mitsuko, somehow catching Zs amongst the clamour of Class B's final bus ride, gets irritably awoken by Megumi's beeline down the aisle. Pity next interaction isn't so lighthearted.

* TamperingWithFoodAndDrink: Mistakenly believing Shuya to have murdered another student (the death was accidentally self-inflicted), Yuko tries to kill him with food laced with potassium chloride. Another student ends up eating it, her death causing a domino effect that [[MexicanStandoff kills all of Yuko's friends]], then [[DrivenToSuicide Yuko, herself]].

* InverseDialogueDeathRule: all the major characters get long drawn out deaths, with the huge hordes of enemies at the end of the film all stopping their attacking to let characters like [[spoiler:Shiori Kitano]] spend five full minutes making peace with the world.

* TriangRelations: There's a few of these:
** Type 5 with Chigusa, who loves Hiroki, who secretly loves Kotohiki. Chigusa does find out when she flat out asks Hiroki if he loves her, but she's dying when she asks so, while clearly upsetting to her, it's the least of her concerns at the time. Also qualifies as a heartwarming IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy moment, since she'd clearly already worked it out and was just hoping he really did love her. In the novel, when Hiroki admits that he does have crush, Takako comments that he'd better ''not'' say her (i.e. "You know better than to say it just to try to make me happy in my last moments.").
** Type 4 is seen with Shuya, Noriko and Kuninobu; Noriko and Shuya are the OfficialCouple, with Kuninobu also very obviously crushing on Noriko. While Shuya's feelings for Noriko are left slightly ambiguous, this appears to be due to not wanting to go after the girl his best friend was crazy about so soon after his death. That she has feelings for him though she can't hold in, even if she does apparently feel a bit guilty about it.
** Type 4 also occurs with Utsumi, Shuya and Noriko, as Utsumi secretly has feelings for Shuya which she tries to tell him (when he's barely conscious though so not the best time). Admittedly we don't know for sure where she would have gone with her feelings given [[spoiler: she and her friends massacre each other moments after their conversation]]

* FromClonesToGenre: [[invoked]]
** The [[DeadlyGame Program]] as featured in ''Battle Royale'' inspired a genre of multiplayer shooters known, appropriately enough, as {{battle royale game}}s, combining a SurvivalSandbox with a "last player standing" deathmatch. Some of the more important ideas taken from ''Battle Royale'' include the diminishing safe zones to ensure that the players interact with one another as much as possible and the random weapon distribution to ensure variation in each round. Brendan Greene, the creator of ''VideoGame/PlayerunknownsBattlegrounds'' (the first true hit in the genre), openly described his game as a SpiritualAdaptation of ''Battle Royale''.
** In its native country, its influence is more obvious as it initiated the battle royale genre for manga, anime, and visual novels long before inspiring the battle royale game genre for video games in the west. Some examples of such works in the genre include ''Franchise/DanganRonpa'' and ''Manga/{{Btooom}}''.

* AdaptationExpansion: The manga expands the characters from the novel a lot ([[BrokenBase though whether this is a good thing or not is hotly contested among fans]]), as well as the fight scenes.

* AffectionateParody: The name "Takako Chigusa", which is a shout out to women's ProfessionalWrestling. The classroom scene in all versions, and the evil instructor Kinpatsu Sakamochi's name is a parody of the heroic teacher Kinpachi Sensei from the [[Series/KinpachiSensei series of the same name]]. Naturally this will be lost on Western viewers, hence the occasional misinterpretation of the classroom scene in the film as {{Narm}}.

* AlternateHistory: The backstory, at least in the original novel and the manga, is that UsefulNotes/WorldWarII ended in favor of ''Japan,'' which decided to keep up with the military dictatorship--in fact, it looks like it had one even back in 1917. The first Battle Royale Program took place as early as 1947, shortly after the Japanese victory. In other words, it's become so commonplace by the time the story takes place (in 1997, at least in the novel) that no one really cares. The movie takes place in modern Japan, but TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture after an economic collapse and sharp rise in juvenile crime. Which is better depends on [[BrokenBase who in the fandom you're talking to]].