History Literature / BattleRoyale

* FiveManBand: The lighthouse girls, who were a clique before they were put in the Program.
** TheLeader - Yukie Utsumi
** TheLancer - Haruka Tanizawa
** TheBigGuy - Yuka Nakagawa
** TheSmartGuy - Satomi Noda
** TheChick - Chisato Matsui
** [[spoiler:SixthRangerTraitor - Yuko Sakaki]]

* AllLovingHero: Shuya. Heck, the guy is so innocent and wonderful, he actually manages to convert and save the souls of several crazy / bad people by giving them emotional speeches (before [[KillEmAll they die]], of course).

* WeaponOfChoice: In the film, Kiriyama uses his machine gun much more often.

* {{Gonk}}: Kamon in the manga. He was so inhumanly ugly he clashed with the manga's art style. To be fair, pre-pubescent children are notoriously tough to draw (even by professionals) without making them look too old or produce an UncannyValley effect, assuming the artist is aiming for some sense of realism (which Taguchi does).

* DissonantSerenity: The BigBad casually explains the rules in all versions [[spoiler: he also kills a few students in a calm manner]].
** It's possibly [[UpToEleven even worse]] in the film, in which an instructional video featuring a GenkiGirl joyfully explains the rules to the students.

** Sho's CampGay-ness is taken UpToEleven in the manga. Asides from just being concerned with his appearance, he acts and speaks in an overly flamboyant, effeminate manner (for example, saying "drinky-poo" and wearing a zebra print suit, along with lipstick) and is shown making sexual advances towards Ryuji, a sexist regular in the bar his dad runs[[note]]Granted, it is just to get him to stop harassing a woman there, but he does it entirely willingly.[[/note]]. His stalker tendencies are also ramped up, to the point where the notes state he has a tendency to develop irrational crushes on heterosexual man.

* AdultFear:
** The plot revolves around a middle school class being sent on a deserted island and forced to kill each other. And there's nothing you could really do about it, as well; two of the adult characters protested against it in the book and manga, resulting in one getting brutally killed and the other getting raped to silence her. Yikes.
** One day, your children simply do not come home from school. One of their classmates killed the rest.
** And even in the unlikely scenario where your child is the SoleSurvivor, they are still probably going to come home scarred for life, and you'll have to live with the knowledge that your child is a murderer (not by ''choice'', but still) and there will always be that lingering fear that they'll kill ''you'' if you're not careful.

* TragicKeepsake: The sequel film reveals that Shuya keeps a photo of his classmates, Nobu's knife, and Shogo Kawada's bandana to remind himself why he is fighting against the government.

** 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 miliary and giving Kiriyama a DeathGlare, showing that Kawada is focused and knows what is going on.

Originally a novel by Koushun Takami, ''Battle Royale'' was adapted into a live-action movie and a DoorStopper manga series (it has over ''3000 pages''). The plots of these adaptations have minor differences, but each feature the same general events. An [[ForeignRemake American remake]] was announced in 2006, but it quickly fell into DevelopmentHell (though most view ''Literature/TheHungerGames'', which has a nearly identical premise, as a [[SpiritualAdaptation suitable Western equivalent]]).

minutes making peace with the world.
* 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

* HairColors: In the live-action movie, Kazuo Kiriyama's hair is a bright red color, allegedly to highlight his importance and delinquency. Takako Chigusa's hair is dyed blond in the manga, and Hirono Shimizu's is blue.

** While [[spoiler:driving a car]], Shogo hands Shuya a gun, asking him not to go [[Film/PulpFiction Marvin]] [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace on him]]. In the [[FanNickname Giffenized]] [[{{Macekre}} version]], that is.

In a [[PoliceState fascist]], alternate-timeline UsefulNotes/{{Japan}}, called the Greater East Asia Republic, the government has a unique way of curbing delinquency amongst its youth: It chooses 50 classes of high school students at random every year, then kidnaps the whole class and places them all on an isolated island with no chance of escape. The students are given one weapon each, then -- under the threat of death -- forced to kill each other until only one student remains alive. This once controversial (but now regularly recurring) military experiment has gone on since 1947, a few years after ''[[AlternateHistory this]]'' [[AlternateHistory version of Japan won]] [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII a certain war]], and is known only as "The Program." Out of the latest such class to "volunteer" for The Program, aspiring rock musician and orphaned teenager Shuya Nanahara has no desire to play the sick game -- and every intention of escaping with his life.

* GirlWithPsychoWeapon: Mitsuko with that sickle - the image of her smiling in Megumi's doorway, shining the torch upwards into her face and grinning maniacally is one of the most iconic from the film.
** [[http://content.internetvideoarchive.com/content/photos/7641/935323_008.jpg This one.]]

* GroinAttack Used by [[spoiler:Chigusa]] against [[spoiler:Niida]] after his attack on her fails.

* WhenSheSmiles: Hirono, at least in the manga. When she smiled from the heart, Shuya realized that she actually wasn't such a bad person after all. Especially noticeable in [[http://www.mangafox.com/manga/battle_royale/c064/16.html this page]].

* 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.

* HelpMistakenForAttack: [[MartialPacifist Hiroki]] tries to help save his crush, but the minute he approaches her in the game [[spoiler:[[TearJerker she shoots him down, mistaking it for attack]].]]

* HopeSpot: Lots of them, most notably [[spoiler:Hiroki Sugimura's death]].

* MoodWhiplash: Niida's extremely brutal attack on Chigusa and her equally violent defense, followed by her [[TearJerker gut-wrenchingly tragic death scene moments later]].

* 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.]]

** The main and most obvious one is trust and WhatYouAreInTheDark, both of which are tested by the Program. Paranoia also plays a part as ''certain'' students have darker tendecies.

** 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 in battle royale games 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''.

* 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 drive themselves insane trying to murder the other students so that they can survive the Program. 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.]]

** Interestingly, most members of Kiriyama's gang of delinquents, which includes Mitsuru, Ryuhei,and Hiroshi, [[EveryoneHasStandards do not want to partake in the Program]] and are more interested in escaping as a gang although they are not concerned about helping anyone else escape.

* ThereAreNoRules: As Kitano explains, there's no such thing as foul play, the students are allowed to to anything to ensure to be the last survivor. This includes murder, manslaughter, physical injury, arson, betrayal, manipulation... the laws of society don't exist on this island anymore.

In a fascist, alternate-timeline UsefulNotes/{{Japan}}, called the [[PoliceState Greater East Asia Republic,]] the government has a unique way of curbing delinquency amongst its youth: It chooses 50 classes of high school students at random every year, then kidnaps the whole class and places them all on an isolated island with no chance of escape. The students are given one weapon each, then -- under the threat of death -- forced to kill each other until only one student remains alive. This once controversial (but now regularly recurring) military experiment has gone on since 1947, a few years after ''[[AlternateHistory this]]'' [[AlternateHistory version of Japan won]] [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII a certain war]], and is known only as "The Program." Out of the latest such class to "volunteer" for The Program, aspiring rock musician and orphaned teenager Shuya Nanahara has no desire to play the sick game -- and every intention of escaping with his life.

** And even in the unlikely scenario where your child is the SoleSurvivor, they are still probably going to come home scarred for life, and you'll have to live with the knowledge that your child is a murderer (not by ''choice'', but still).

** And even in the unlikely scenario where your child is the SoleSurvivor, they are still probably going to come home scarred for life.

* AwesomweButImpractical: Some of the weapons, like the nunchaku. Notably, when GenreSavvy Kiriyama kills off Numai's gang and paws through their weapons, he doesn't bother taking that one.