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Could you kill your best friend?

"What we went through... All those deaths must never lose their importance. We don't have much, but what we have has to work. Never forget... Never cheapen their deaths by pushing the memory away. Even the worst of them deserved better."

In a fascist, alternate-timeline 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 this version of Japan won 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.

Originally a novel by Koushun Takami, Battle Royale was adapted into a live-action movie and a Door Stopper manga series (it has over 3000 pages). The plots of these adaptations have minor differences, but each feature the same general events. An American remake was announced in 2006, but it quickly fell into Development Hell.

One of the main themes of this book / manga / movie is fear and hatred of young people. Several Japanese government officials completely missed this and blamed Battle Royale for a sharp rise in teenage delinquency in Japan.

The book, along with its film and manga adaptations, is the Trope Namer for Battle Royale Game, a video game genre with rules similar to the "game" in the book and its adaptations.

Unrelated to Battle Royal High School despite the title, although otherwise similar in bloodshed.


The Battle Royale novel, film, and manga provide examples of:

  • Acceptable Feminine Goals and Traits: It's most apparent just after Noriko's dream sequence, where she tells Kawada how she was expected to just leave school, find a man, be a Housewife and live a normal, boring life. Now however, with all this, she realises that even if she does somehow survive (and remember that her protector, Shuya, is missing at this point) then nothing will ever be the same again.
  • The Ace: Kiriyama, especially in the novel. He can apparently keep up with Shuya in basketball, mastered the violin better than Oda at a young age, can keep up with Hiroki in martial arts, and as the manga puts it; has an intuitive grasp on everything. He may be even better at all those activities since he has no drive to do anything, meaning he wasn't even trying. Possibly moreso in the manga, since he's able to master just about anything just by seeing it.
  • Adaptation Distillation: The film distills the original novel down to feature length.
  • Adaptation Expansion: The manga expands the characters from the novel a lot.
  • Adults Are Useless:
    • In the film, the Japanese youth believe this to be the case for most if not all adults; in fact, this is the basis for the central conflict. See also Central Theme.
    • On a more personal level, Shiori Kitano and the film version of Shuya consider their parents (particularly their fathers) to have failed them in that role.
  • Affectionate Parody: The name "Takako Chigusa", which is a shout out to women's Professional Wrestling. 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 of the same name.
  • All-Loving Hero: 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 they die, of course).
  • All There in the Manual: Several of the students' weapons weren't seen in the film version, however what they were given was confirmed in promotional materials released in Japan along with the film.
  • Alternate History: The backstory, at least in the original novel and the manga, is that World War II 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 20 Minutes into the Future after an economic collapse and sharp rise in juvenile crime.
  • Always a Bigger Fish: Chigusa is pretty dangerous when pushed to it, easily turning the tables on Niida, but she runs out of luck when Mitsuko shows up. Mitsuko herself is taken out in all three versions by Kiriyama, the one person whose evil and ruthlessness outshines her own.
  • Ambiguous Ending: The novel ends with Shuya and Noriko fleeing from a police officer. While the narrator is optimistic about the duo's chances, there is a good possibility that Shuya and Noriko will be captured sooner or later by the government's forces.
  • Artistic Age: A lot of the characters in the manga do not even remotely resemble people in their 20's, let alone junior high school students. Shogo Kawada with his beard is the most unrealistically adult-looking character, while Yutaka Sato (who is about one or two years younger) looks like he's ten. And the hyper-sexualized manga version of Mitsuko looks and acts like she's in her 20s.
  • Audible Sharpness: In the film. When Kitano pulls his knife out of Fujiyoshi's skull, it inexplicably makes a metallic sound of a knife brushing against metal.
  • Author Appeal: "Born to Run" by Bruce Springsteen gets quite a number of mentions due to being a song the author loves.
  • Awesome, but Impractical: Some of the weapons, like the nunchaku. Notably, when Genre Savvy Kiriyama kills off Numai's gang and paws through their weapons, he doesn't bother taking that one.
  • Ax-Crazy: Several students become like this, if they weren't already psychotic before being kidnapped. Yoshio Akamatsu and Kazushi Niida are the most prominent examples. Some just go insane from the stress and paranoia, like Kaori. The Program director in the novel and manga takes great delight in seeing the students suffer and die. On the other hand, Kazuo Kiriyama is so terrifying because he's not like that. For him, killing his classmates is no different than playing a sport or a musical instrument. Most of the Ax-Crazy people are violent idiots who don't survive for very long.
  • Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: Kazuo Kiriyama manages to do this when he kills Mitsuko who happens to use sympathy and her body as a weapon. This makes her a perfect counter for someone like Shuya, and since Kiriyama is an Empty Shell that can't be seduced, he manages to kill her before she can kill any other students.
  • Better to Die than Be Killed: How 5 of the students chose to escape the game: 2 jump off a cliff, 1 jumps off a lighthouse into rocks and 2 hang themselves from a tree with rope.
  • Big Bad: The supervisor in all three versions. The secondary antagonists (among the students) are Mitsuko and Kazuo.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Kawada gets this trope multiple times. First, against the school president Kyoichi saving Shuya. Later, once again, in the manga, saving Shuya from Kaori.
    • Shuya and Noriko manage to distract the Supervisor from killing Shogo in all three versions
  • Bittersweet Ending:
    • In the film adaptation, Shuya and Noriko have survived and escaped, meaning the Program has failed for the first time ever, and Shogo has found peace at last, but everyone else is dead, including Kitano and Shogo, and they're doomed to live the rest of their lives as fugitives. And while The Program has failed, they didn't completely stop it from happening again... so it's likely that, in six months, another class will be chosen and submitted to it. And again and again. This is further emphasized by the events of Battle Royale II.
    • The manga adaptation is similar but much more optimistic. Shuya and Noriko make it to the democratic America where they are presumably safe from the Republic of Greater East Asia. All their friends, including Shogo, are still dead though. Shuya's commentary lampshades how the apparent Happily Ever After epilogue is not indicative of his mental state or his future, and he is generally a bitter and violent person inside from all the death and gore of the "fucking game".
  • Black Comedy: Given the premise, most of the more humorous moments fall into this category. Notable examples include the Genki Girl who explains the brutal, violent nature of the competition in an utterly inappropriately cheerful voice while gesturely cutely, some of the more useless "weapons" the students are given, and Kitano munching on the cookies he confiscated from the students.
  • Blast Out: The fate of a group of friends. 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 Mexican Standoff 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 Driven to Suicide).
  • "Blind Idiot" Translation: Many of the subtitling attempts at the film version tend to localise very badly. (Channel 4 and the producers of the Korean Starmax version, here's looking at you!)
    • The 2012 North American DVD/Blu-ray edition features some of the worst English dubbing ever, and the dialogue often doesn't even come close to the translation given in the subtitles.
  • Book Snap: A flashback shows Kiriyama snapping his book shut and shouting "Some of us are trying to study!" when a few hoodlums try to start a fight in the library. He then opens a can of whoop-ass.
  • Boom, Headshot!: Common in the Manga (along with an eye is blown out of its socket by the sheer force.)
  • Break the Cutie: Pretty much all the students. Of course excluding Mitsuko, Yoshimi, and Yuko, who came pre-broken.
  • Bond Villain Stupidity: Numai's gang in the film fall victim to this, though in their defence (a) it's reasonable to assume that 3 people with guns and a fourth with grenades are going to win in a fight against a guy "armed" with a paper fan and (b) in the film version they don't know how just how dangerous Kazuo actually is. Hirono also makes the mistake in the film by not killing Mitsuko on one of the very rare occasions on which she was actually caught vulnerable. Unlike Numai, Hirono can't justify her actions with the belief that Mitsuko was unarmed, because it's clear Hirono knows her well enough that she realise know such problems don't stop a person like Mitsuko.
  • Boring, but Practical: Sugimura's tracking device. It's a good thing it never fell into the hands of a student actually playing to win; Kazuo or Mitsuko in particular would have been even more unstoppable had they added this little gadget to either of their arsenals.
  • Bottomless Magazines: Zigzagged. While many firearms run out of bullets (often at plot-convenient times which have nothing to do with the number of shots fired), reloading is almost never showed. Particularly egregious is anyone with a submachinegun (especially Kiriyama), as they're repeatedly shown firing on full automatic way too long or far too frequently. Let's just say that the film makers really didn't bother with being realistic about both single-magazine count, or the amount of ammunition that would have been given out.
  • Bowdlerise: Inevitable for TV showings or those in countries with strict laws regarding violence in films, but the German version was probably the most severe when it came to cuts, cutting back many of the deaths. The director himself produced a version like this though, for release to under 15s in his home country.
  • Bulletproof Vest: Oda's "weapon"; he lets people shoot him, plays dead, then strangles them when they check to make sure he's down. In all three versions, Kiriyama kills him and takes the vest for himself near the end. (In the film, he's only there long enough for Kiriyama to do him in.)
  • The Cameo: Sonny Chiba turns up for a scene as Mimura's uncle in the second film (although the character is already dead before Battle Royale, according to the original novel).
  • Central Theme:
    • The main and most obvious one is trust and What You Are in the Dark, both of which are tested by the Program. Paranoia also plays a part as certain students are very good at hiding their ulterior motives.
    • The film has an additional theme concerning The Generation Gap between youth and elderly. In the beginning of the film, the economic crisis has caused the country of Japan to collapse, demoralizing the adults. As a result, the youth revolt as they have lost confidence in the adults, and the adults fearing the youth fight back with the Battle Royale Act. This is best emphasized with Kitano, whose daughter doesn't respect him; subsequently, Kitano exploits the Battle Royale Act to take out his frustration on Class 3B, who are of the same generation as his daughter.
  • Chekhov's Gun: In the manga, Shogo Kawada remembers that they left a shotgun in a field when ambushed earlier by Kiriyama. He manages to shoot Kiriyama, but it doesn't work.
    • Furthermore, Sugimura gives Yukie a throwing knife to give to Shuya when he wakes up. Later, during Shuya's final fight with Kiriyama, he uses it to blinds Kiriyama in the same eye that Kiriyama had blinded Sugimura in during their last fight, though Shuya wouldn't have known that.
  • Chick Magnet:
    • Shuya. Quite a large portion of the girls in the manga were revealed to have crushes on him. Noriko, Yukie, Hirono, Yukiko and Yumiko were all shown to like him. And according to Yukie, "half the girls in class are sweet on him," indicating that other girls other than the aforementioned probably harbored an attraction to him as well.
    • Shinji had been a womanizer when we first see him. The manga even shows his first appearance as playing basketball and wondering if he has enough condoms to do the whole crowd of fangirls.
  • Children Forced to Kill: 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.
  • Close to Home: The premise is this, as well as part of its tagline of "Could you kill your best friend?". It revolves around 15 year olds being forced to fight each other, friends against each other.
    • Lampshaded by a ship's captain in the final chapter when talking about Noriko and Shuuya, who survived, saying that 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.
  • Combat Pragmatist: Kazuo, Mitsuko, and a few other students are this.
  • The Cracker: In a slightly more heroic example, formerly Playful Hacker Shinji Mimura decides to use his skills for something a bit more serious after being forced into the Program. In all three versions, he attempts to hack into the government's computer system to disable the collars in order to make an escape attempt: he is caught in the manga and novel versions halfway through his plan due to the microphones in the collars; but in the movie, he does succeed in doing so. His uncle, particularly in the manga version, is also an example.
    • Actually, in the end, Kitano realizes that Kawada, and not Mimura, hacked into the game's intranet system months beforehand.
  • Crapsack World: All three versions make it pretty clear that that's what the world has become, though the sequel to the film suggests that in the film continuity things aren't quite as bad as they are in the novel/manga, both of which have a Nineteen Eighty-Four type feel to them.
  • Creepy Doll: Mitsuko's alter ego is a giant damaged doll, the same as the one she was given as her mother remarried. Mai's doll also counts, being seen briefly in the first film and again in the second when it's packed with explosives and hurled at a group of attacking soldiers.
  • Cruel Twist Ending: In the manga, Hirono Shimizu climbs out of the well, manages to cure her thirst with rainwater, and meets up with Shuya, Noriko, and Shogo. It looks like things will work out for Hirono until the story reveals that all of the prior events were her own delusions and reveals that she has just drowned in the well. To be fair, the chapter does hint that it was an Unreliable Narrator since Oda picks up Hirono's gun after pushing her into the well and in the dream portion, Hirono reacquires her gun after "escaping" the well.
  • Cultural Translation: Keith Giffen's work on the manga. Also counts as Pragmatic Adaptation to an extent, considering the things that most people find fault with (unrealistic references to Western pop culture) could only be avoided by resorting to Viewers Are Geniuses.
  • Cute Kitten: Many kittens pop up in the story:
    • Shuya and Noriko find a cute kitten, play with it as they comment about how cute it is. Then they are attacked by Oki.
    • In the manga Kaori is driven mad by the violence and she shoots a kitten with her gun, thinking "Even kittens want to kill me!"
    • Hiroki has a flashback about Kayoko when he took with him a very young kitten in the street, hiding it in his desk and wondering why it is meowing so much. Kayoko teaches him that he must rub its crotch with a warm wet towel to make it pee.
  • Deadly Game: The Program is very deadly. Out of 42 students only one can survive and there is no such thing as foul play or unneccessary roughness. If there's no winner after three days, all of them will die.
  • Dead Star Walking: Yoshitoki Kuninobu is introduced as Shuya's best friend and comic relief, and it seems like he'll be at Shuya's side for the duration of the series... until he's killed during the Program briefing. Defied by Executive Meddling in the film, as a major Japanese star was going to play the boy, before his managers decided it would be dangerous to his career and forbade him from accepting the role.
    • The character of Mitsuko is depicted for much of the film as one of the lead villains (and was played by a well-known teen singing star), but she's killed off suddenly 3/4 of the way through the movie when she encounters Kiriyama, a student she can't seduce or overpower, and gets shot dead.
  • A Death in the Limelight: When a chapter suddenly switches to the point of view of a minor character, it's generally not good news for him/her...
  • Decoy Protagonist: Shinji is this in all three versions of the story due to his plan to disable the Battle Royale administrator's computer systems and facilitate the escape of the other students, along with him and Yutaka. While Shogo also has a plan, he does not reveal it to Shuya, Noriko, and the audience until the very end, which in the meantime raises questions about his true intentions. Thus, Shinji's death in the middle of the book is a huge surprise, after which no attempt is made to hide the protagonist status of the Cast Herd consisting of Shuya, Shogo, and Noriko.
    • In the manga, Shuya spends a lot of time reassuring everyone that Shinji's going to come up with a plan to get them all off the island. Finding his body is a big factor in Shuya's epic Heroic BSoD.
  • Defrosting Ice Queen: Shiori in the second film, as she comes to a greater understanding of herself and the relationship between her father and Noriko.
  • Demoted to Extra: For time constraint reasons, a lot of the characters were given offscreen deaths or given less screen time in general in the film. Particularly Sho Tsukioka.
    • Some of these characters' cause of deaths were also changed.
  • Depraved Homosexual: Sho Tsukioka is effeminate in manner but humorously masculine in appearance and uses his skills as a Stalker with a Crush to tail Kiriyama. He's also a borderline alcoholic drag queen with an irrational crush on Kiriyama and overall thinks like a total lunatic in the manga.
  • Deserted Island: The game takes place on a small and evacuated island where only the remains of civilization are found. Its circumference is about 10 km.
  • Determinator: Shinji Mimura and Hiroki Sugimura in the manga. While his initial plan to cripple The Program failed, Mimura is able to come up with his bomb plan which is only foiled by the Implacable Man. Sugimura also tracks down two people on the island thanks to his tracking device. Unfortunately, he finds the first girl too late and is once more stopped by the Implacable Man.
    • Also Mitsuko, more so in the film when she continues to get up even though Kiriyama is firing bullets in her.
  • Deus Angst Machina: Mitsuko's past, especially in the novel/movie.
  • Dissonant Serenity:
    • The Big Bad casually explains the rules in all versions he also kills a few students in a calm manner.
    • It's possibly even worse in the film, in which an instructional video featuring a Genki Girl joyfully explains the rules to the students.
  • Divided We Fall: In the book, this turns out to be the whole point of the Program. Every six months, everyone in Japan gets to see a broadcast giving the body count of a particular runthrough, categorized by means of death. When the average citizens all have it ingrained in their minds that the people they grew up with are willing to kill them to survive, trusting one another becomes quite a lot harder, meaning that they can't coordinate and organise effectively to overthrow the government. Additionally, the government is seeking to actively recruit the winners as people callous and self-interested enough to maintain control.
  • Door Stopper: The original novel is 666 pages long, the manga has over 3000 pages, and the Ultimate Edition has 672 pages.
  • Double Tap: How Kiriyama kills Oda.
  • Dramatic Gun Cock: Shogo Kawada does this quite a lot.
  • Driven to Suicide: In the film, Shuya's father hangs himself after Shuya's mother left the family. During the program itself, this happens to a few students who would rather die than fight. Yuko Sakaki kills herself after accidentally poisoning one of her friends, which caused her other friends to turn on each other.
  • Dub-Induced Plot Hole: 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).
  • Due to the Dead: In the novel, whenever Shuya finds someone who died with their eyes open, he closes their eyes. Well, except for one character who's been so mutilated his head resembles a peanut—only one of his eyes will close properly, and as the narration observes, a winking mutilated corpse is just too much.
  • Dying Declaration of Love: Two characters do this before they get killed off. Several others get a moment to ask the other character with them who they liked.
  • Dystopian Edict: The Battle Royale law. It's the legitimization for the program and keeps all people in it from being criminally persecuted.
  • Earn Your Happy Ending: The manga adaptation fits here out of all the versions as it confirms that Shuya and Noriko make it safely to America and maybe become an Official Couple.
  • Establishing Character Moment: 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.
    • 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 Death Glare, 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.
  • Every Car Is a Pinto: The two cars in the chase sequence at the end of the novel/manga.
  • Everything Trying to Kill You: Most of the students actually decide to play the game, but Shuya doesn't seem to realize this.
  • Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Manga only, but when Yuichiro tries to befriend and understand Mitsuko, she believes that he is trying to gain her trust only to sleep with her. Whilst prepared for that situation, she is taken by surprise that he genuinely wants to help her. Even when he reaches towards her, she believes he is going to try to feel her up and is surprised that he is just removing the belt tying her hands up so she can have a drink. Of course, this depends on whether you believe she actually is pure evil, which she probably isn't.
  • Explosive Leash, Your Head A-Splode: If someone tries to leave the island, the collar that they are wearing explodes, along with their head. Ditto for trying to remove the collar, or lingering in a danger zone. Also, if 24 hours pass with nobody being killed, everyone's collars will go simultaneously. In the novel and manga, it only makes one victim, Sho. In the film, Yoshitoki is the only victim of the collar actually detonating, but Kiriyama gets shot in his explosive collar at the climax, which is what finally kills him.
  • Eye Scream: In the film, Hiroki suffers this fate, and so does Kiriyama from the frag and heat of the explosion - we get a good look at his ruined eyes, staggering around in pain before his collar is shot and his head goes bye-bye. Niida receives some of this from Takako in the novel and manga too. And, in the manga, Jaguar.
  • Fan Disservice: There are lots of scenes with any of the girls naked, but the fact that they're with dirty old men isn't exactly arousing and their age.
  • Finger-Licking Poison: Yuka dies by grabbing a sample of a dish meant for Shuya.
  • Flanderization: The manga does this to some of the novel's characters (and the movie to Kiriyama). The good guys are very beautiful, while two of the bad guys are hideous and irredeemably evil. Kazushi Niida is a big victim of this - in the novel, he was merely a horny teenage boy who tried to rape Chigusa when they were alone; in the manga, Niida was portrayed as a monster from the beginning. Toshinori Oda was also extremely Flanderized: he's a grotesque little goblin.
    • Mitsuko Souma's ultra-sexual portrayal is an actual rapist in the manga (the novel and film leave it more open about whether she goes that far).
    • Kazuo Kiriyama gets his Ax-Crazy streak magnified to the point that he's nothing more than a mute one-man genocide machine who goes sprinting after every quarry he can find, guns blazing; in the novel, he's a dispassionate psychopath who maintained a group of friends, put up a facade of being normal, and is extremely dispassionate in dispatching the competitors.
    • Sho's Camp Gay-ness is taken up to eleven 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 runsnote . 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.
  • Foreign Language Title: The film is called "Battle Royale" all over the world, including Japan.
  • Freudian Excuse: Mitsuko in the manga, who uses being betrayed as a child as a mental excuse to slaughter her classmates. But then, she rationally doesn't have any other choice than kill or be killed...
    • Similar for Kiriyama, except he actually has severe brain damage.
  • Funny Background Event: 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 their next interaction isn't so light-hearted.
  • Gangsta Style: In the manga, this is how Kazuo Kiriyama fires every single weapon. Apparently, genius though he may be, he fails to realize that this is a highly ineffective method of firing a handgun, to say nothing of firing an automatic weapon. However, this is sometimes an Averted Trope due to a few instances where he appears to fire normally.
  • Genre-Busting: The film is notoriously hard to classify, and the novel is no better. Some consider it horror due to the premise, but that classification always causes "traditional" horror fans to balk because it isn't traditional. Action-adventure may be better, but the satire and themes make it a little misleading. It's often lumped in with 'foreign' films (which is definitely is), and the novel is classified by bookstores as sci-fi, presumably due to the Speculative Fiction and Alternate History aspects.
  • Girl with Psycho Weapon: 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. This one.
  • Gorn: Often believed to be played straight, but actually subverted — the film is shockingly violent in order to, well, shock. The fact that this is happening to teenagers, and at the hands of their own friends/classmates is in no way meant to titillate, it's meant to horrify. Sadly, many people fail to realise this and believe it's a straight up gorefest.
    • The same could be said of the manga, though the artist was a little too eager with the gruesome images, so whether or not it achieves the same purpose is up to interpretation.
  • Gotta Kill Them All: To win the Program you must be the last survivor, either by murdering everybody who crosses your way or waiting until all other people have gone. Kiriyama and Mitsuko opt for the first possibility.
  • Grenade Hot Potato: In the novel and manga, Shuya catches and throws away one of Kazuo's grenades.
  • Groin Attack
    • Used by Chigusa against Niida after his attack on her fails.
    • Used again by Kiriyama on Oda with a machine gun!
  • Hacked by a Pirate: The brief glimmer of hope that was the hacking scene featured a chibi-style basketball player dominating the monitors at BR headquarters.
  • Handsome Lech: Shinji Mimura. His marked sexist tendencies don't seem to get in the way of this at all.
  • Help Mistaken for Attack: Hiroki tries to help save his crush, but the minute he approaches her in the game she shoots him down, mistaking it for attack.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: In the second film, Shibaki and Osamu each pull one in short succession.
  • Hollywood Hacking: Complete with Rapid-Fire Typing in what appears to be perfectly valid C, but arguably a subversion since the source code is that of Nmap, a network scanning tool in common usage for penetration testing.
  • Honorary True Companion: Hiroki and the lighthouse girls provide some aide to the main characters and get offers to join their group, but none survive long enough to do so.
  • A House Divided: The girls in the lighthouse. Deadly distrust drives them apart of each other.
  • Humans Are Flawed: 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 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 Sadistic Choice of kill or be killed. On the same note, the best killers in Class 3B have freudian excuses, 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. In the end though, it is the alliance of two pacifists and a hardened veteran of the Program that ultimately wins the Program and defeats the Program Administrator of Class 3B.
  • Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: The entire plot of the story.
  • I Just Shot Marvin in the Face: 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.
  • Idiot Hero: Shuya Nanahara. Despite all of the events, losing his best friend and numerous others throughout the course of the Program, still believes that there is good in everyone, even going so far as to trying to save Kiriyama after shooting him in the throat in the manga. This is similarly backed up in several character backstories, where Shuya comes rushing in without prior thought and doing something stupid that earns him respect. Shogo makes mention of Shuya's foolishness many, many times.
  • In Spite of a Nail: 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.
      • And in the manga, a brief government-written overview of Sho remarks that he must not be allowed to leave the island alive because of his homosexuality due to issues with "genetic impurity."
  • Implacable Man: Kazuo Kiriyama. In all three versions, he just keeps coming...and he can't be reasoned with.
  • Improbable Weapon User: Mai in the sequel, with her explosive-laden doll.
  • Intimate Healing: In some twisted part of her mind, this is what Mitsuko thought she was doing to a bleeding/dying Yuichiro in the manga.
  • Inverse Dialogue/Death Rule: 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 Shiori Kitano spend five full minutes making peace with the world.
  • It Gets Easier: Niida doesn't quite lampshade it, but he clearly tries to make clear to Chigusa that having killed before accidentally, he's now in a position to do so again, deliberately.
    • In the film, Mitsuko makes several statements to the effect that she killed before the game even started (as shown in the Special Edition version of the film), and so killing again is no big deal to her.
  • Katanas Are Just Better: Used in the film, where Kazuo uses it against Oda. When the target is wearing a bullet proof vest, an Uzi isn't of much use (in the novel, he simply shoots Oda in the face). Such a pity he had to tell his assailant what had saved his life... Technically of course it isn't a katana, but a Wakizashi, but the principle still applies.
  • Kill the Ones You Love: "Could you kill your best friend?" is the Tag Line of the movie. Although Kiriyama and Mitsuko accumulate the highest body count, there are many instances where best friends kill each other like the lighthouse girls and Mizuho/Kaori.
  • Large Ham: Taku in the second film; almost everything he says he shouts. Granted, he's rather tame in comparison to Riki Takeuchi, the 'teacher' in the same film. Seriously, check out his best moments (moderate spoilers).
  • Leave No Survivors: You can only win the game if you are the last survivor.
  • Lemony Narrator: The book's narrator lapses into this whenever someone's about to die or has just died.
    In fact, she may have been dead a while ago [before she hit the ground]. Physically, several seconds ago, mentally, ages ago.
  • Let Them Die Happy: Mitsuko's big Pet the Dog moment (only in the novel) also involves this. She lies to her Morality Pet Yuichiro, who's dying by saying that his friend Tadakatsu (whom she killed) ran away after accidentally shooting him, making him believe that he's still alive. She also doesn't reveal to him that she manipulated them all along and gives him a sincere kiss just before killing him instantly with a gun so that her face is the last thing he sees. She makes her reasons clear after killing him, thanking him in her head for his kindness, and promising to remember him.
  • Lighthouse Point: At one point a bunch of the girls get holed up in a lighthouse.
  • Lonely Piano Piece: Shiori Kitano plays "Memories" in the second film, the scene cutting between her abuse of her late father in the past, and as she is now in the present.
  • Love Triangle:
    • Chigusa 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 I Want My Beloved to Be Happy 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.").
    • Noriko and Shuya are the Official Couple, 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.
    • 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 she and her friends massacre each other moments after their conversation.
  • Made of Plasticine: The manga version is extremely graphic. Kegfuls of blood are spilled, brains are frequently blown out, one character is disemboweled, and another is torn in half when she hits the ground after she jumps off a lighthouse. According to some, even blows the infamous Elfen Lied out of the water.
  • Major Injury Underreaction: Tatsumichi Oki in the film, after getting his own axe stuck in his head.
    "I'm okay, I'm okay!"
  • Martial Pacifist: Hiroki Sugimura due to his martial arts skills and his unwillingness to use them.
  • Maybe Ever After: Between Shuya and Noriko. They escape the Greater East Asian Republic together, and though it's not made explicit that Shuya returns Noriko's feelings, it's pretty heavily implied. It's less ambiguous in the manga in which the epilogue suggests they at least get a Relationship Upgrade at some point.
  • Mood Whiplash:
    • Niida's extremely brutal attack on Chigusa and her equally violent defense, followed by her gut-wrenchingly tragic death scene moments later.
    • An even bigger one comes when Yutaka forgives Shinji for accidentally killing one of their classmates, and chooses to stick with him, bringing Shinji to tears as they reaffirm their partnership. Cue a barrage of bullets coming from nowhere and ripping through Yutaka's head and Shinji's stomach.
  • Morality Kitchen Sink: All the Class 3B students react to the Program and its rules in a variety of ways due to differing levels of morality.
  • No Indoor Voice: There is barely a single word that Takuma Aoi in the second film doesn't shout at the top of his voice.
  • No Periods, Period: Averted. Mitsuko had started having her period the day prior her fight with Hirono.
  • Nose Tapping: Hiroki does it out of habit, something the other characters recognize.
  • Not With the Safety On, You Won't: Shogo Kawada bluffs a student this way at the end of his first game, then shoots him.
  • Nothing Is Scarier: After each iteration of the Program, the government broadcasts the face of the winner, who is usually not in the best mental state, while reciting the death statistics for the iteration in question. There is no footage recorded for each round of the Program, so what exactly happened is left up to the viewers' imagination.
  • Obligatory Swearing: In the manga, almost every character can't seem to say a sentence without swearing.
  • Ocular Gushers: Too many instances to count. In the manga, practically every character has at least one instance of crying over something big (or small) over the course of the story. Except for Kiriyama.
  • O.C. Stand-in:
    • Mayumi Tendo and Fumiyo Fujiyoshi due to the characters receiving almost no characterization whatsoever in any of the media - including the novel (they don't live long enough for that).
    • Most of the students in the second film.
  • Offhand Backhand: Kiriyama kills Mizuho Inada this way in the novel.
  • Oh, Crap!: Mitsuko's facial expression says it all when, in the movie, she slashes Kiriyama across the chest, only to discover that he's wearing a bulletproof vest...
    • She also gets one when the teacher shows up while she has Noriko at gunpoint.
    • Shogo Kawada in the manga, when he realizes where the bus is taking the class.
    • Just about every time a character realizes how much of an Implacable Man Kiriyama is their face looks like this.
  • Ojou: Several prominent examples of the first type, with Noriko in the film more or less making this a Discussed Trope with her monologue to Kawada. Kotohiki certainly fits this trope, especially in the novel.
  • Older Than They Look: In the manga, most of the students in the class look a bit older than junior high students should.
  • Page-Turn Surprise: In the manga version, this trope gets used frequently in order to shock the player when things look up, only for the next page to reveal that things were never that happy. Prominent examples are seeing an image of Hirono successfully reuniting with The Hero and smiling, with the next page showing that smile to actually be a deranged one as she's drowning in a well. In a similar vein, showing a close-up of Yuko smiling in a photo with all her friends to then showing a tearfully smiling Yuko with a graphically broken neck.
  • Please Kill Me if It Satisfies You: In the novel and manga, Yoshimi, after learning that Yoji intends to kill her, tells Yoji that he can kill her. Yoji, in shock, does not kill her.
    • Also occurs with Shinji Mimura and Yutaka Seto. Shinji throws his gun at Yutaka and tells him that if he can't trust him then he can shoot him if he wants to. It leads to a moment where the two cry together.
  • Pop the Tires: The Grand Finale has the heroes facing off against Kiriyama in a car chase. They use guns to pop his tires and cause his car to get destroyed.
  • Power Copying: Kazuo Kiriyama in the manga adaptation. He's a genius who can perform flawlessly anything he's seen (or read about) once, and he employs this fully in his fight against Hiroki Sugimura (an accomplished Kenpo master).
  • The Power of Rock: While never actually having rocked out during the program, Shuya's reputation as an amateur rocker is what every character associates with his idealism of love and hope.
    • In the novel, this also takes the form of several shout-outs to Bruce Springsteen, particularly Born To Run.
    • Discussed with these words, when Shuya says that The Power of Rock could make the country crumble down.
  • Prisoner's Dilemma: A major theme all around. While most of them want to cooperate and find a way to survive together, they know that in the minute the game has started they can't trust anyone anymore because anybody could be playing the game to win and betray everyone (and Kiriyama and Mitsuko absolutely do).
  • Punch-Clock Villain: Kitano in the film, compared to his novel counterpart (an active psychopath, liar, rapist, and murderer who delights in the game) is much more apathetic and sad, having a dead-end job in the wake of an economic crash, under the iron fist of a fascist government, disrespected by his family, maimed by one of his students and ignored by the rest. - the only real joy he takes from Program is killing are killing the delinquents who severely wounded him or taunted him.
  • Rasputinian Death: Kiriyama and Shinji are the best examples, though others borderline this.
  • Re-Cut: Both films had an extended version made. The first's extra scenes includes a flashback to Mitsuko's past and a scene of the class playing basketball, shown in pieces throughout the film. The second film added extra characterisation to the main students and Shuya's group. The first film was also cut back so that it would pass the censors' requirements for under 15s to see it, as was the director's original intention.
  • Red Shirt: The vast majority of students receive at least some characterisation (at least in the novel and manga). Tendo and Fujiyoshi receive almost none even in those versions. In both films, almost everyone save the core eight or so and a couple of One Scene Wonders are this.
  • Rule of Scary: In the film, Kiriyama cuts a student's head off and shoves a grenade in his mouth. Just because. In the same scene, he puts his bloodied hand on the window just because.
  • Sawed-Off Shotgun: Shogo Kawada uses a sawed-off M31 Remington shotgun in the novel and manga, and a Franchi SPAS-12 combat shotgun in the movie.
  • Say It with Hearts: Various characters in the manga (obviously). Used for a variety of effects, from the very creepy to the heartwarmingly sincere.
  • Say My Name: In the movie, Shuya and Yoshitoki shout each other's names before Yoshitoki's collar explodes.
  • Screaming Warrior: Mitsuko, during her Last Stand in the movie.
  • Shoot Everything That Moves: Most of the students attack others on sight, especially Kiriyama, who has no qualms about killing his classmates.
  • Shout-Out:
    • Shiroiwa, the small town the class are from, is Japanese for Castle Rock (a homage to both Stephen King and Lord of the Flies).
    • There are several homages to George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four in the book.
    • There is a disturbing scene in the manga (Niida's attack on Chigusa) that the creator admitted was a Shout-Out to Deliverance.
    • In the Giffenized version, while driving a car, Shogo hands Shuya a gun, asking him not to go Marvin on him.
    • In the manga, Hirono's death is a clear Shout-Out to An Occurence At Owl Creek Bridge.
    • Kinpatsu Sakamochi is a spoof of the character Kinpachi Sakamoto from the Japanese drama Year 3 Class B Kinpachi-sensei. Also, the students in the book, manga and film are Year 3 Class B.
  • Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Probably part of the reason that Shuya is a Chick Magnet, as he's one of the nicest boys in the class.
  • Slasher Smile: Mitsuko, oh so often, with the start of her encounter with Megumi being the best example.
    • The first female winner shown at the beginning of the movie has one of these too.
    • In the movie, Kiriyama pulls this off a few times.
  • Smug Snake: Kamon and Oda both qualify.
  • Soundtrack Dissonance: Beautiful classical music is played over the 6 hourly announcements in the movie, a torturing counterpoint to the chaos and death taking place on the island.
    • Also in the movie, Mitsuko's death is to the tune of Bach's Air on the G String. It's Asuka's death in End of Evangelion all over again.
  • Split Personality: Mitsuko basically has two sides to her. One is a child desperate for love, the other is a deranged, cynical killer.
  • Stupid Sacrifice: Shintaro in the second film accidentally pulls this - not only does his death accomplish nothing, it gets Kazumi killed because he's her partner.
    • And let's not forget Riki's final rugby dive.
  • Supporting Leader: Shogo is this to Shuya and Noriko, especially in the film. Consider that he's the one with the dark and brooding past, he's the one with a grudge against the Program, and he's the one who knows how to stop it. He does it deliberately though, because he's not interested in his own survival, just wanting revenge and to understand what happened with Keiko. He's happy to let the others take the credit. Consider just how much Shuya and Noriko would actually accomplish (answer: nothing) without Shogo's help and you'll see how he fits.
  • Take a Moment to Catch Your Death: Shinji realizes a bit too late that either the bomb did not hit Kazuo or he's just that much of an Implacable Man. The second he feels as though it's over Kiriyama escapes from a burned down car, with not a single bit of damage.
  • Talking Is a Free Action: Played aggravatingly straight in the second film with almost every main character. We're talking several hundred soldiers storming a fortress in a heated and violent battle, all of whom suddenly have a coffee break to allow a character to make a Final Speech lasting several minutes. Then, 10 minutes later, it happens again for an even longer speech.
  • Tampering with Food and Drink: Mistakenly believing Shuya to have murdered another student (the death was accidentally self-inflicted), Yuko tries to kill him with food laced with potassium cyanide. Another student ends up eating it, her death causing a domino effect that kills all of Yuko's friends, then Yuko, herself.
  • Team Mercy vs. Team Murder: When the stakes reveal themselves, everyone instantly splits into groups of "doesn't want to kill anyone" and "definitely wants to kill someone."
  • Technical Pacifist: Sugimura subverts it; While he refuses to take Shuya's gun because "that's not my way," he's genuinely dedicated to only using his ample martial arts abilities in self defense, because he worries that if he genuinely beats someone up, he'll enjoy it.
  • Teens Are Monsters: The main question asked of the movie is a large part of the point of the story. 'Could you kill your best friend?' In a lot of ways it doesn't matter that the protagonists are teens, it's about human nature in general.
  • There Are No Rules: As Kitano explains, there's no such thing as foul play, the students are allowed to do 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.
  • There Can Be Only One: The object of the Program. Many people still work together but sooner or later they'll have to settle the score.
  • Tomboy and Girly Girl: The two best friends, Yumiko Kusaka and Yukiko Kitano, are this respectively in the novel. Yumiko is on the softball team and Yukiko enjoys making cakes.
  • Too Dumb to Live: Anyone that trusts Mitsuko despite her reputation.
    • Toshinori Oda in the film only, who is shot with an Uzi by Kazuo but survives because of his awesome Bulletproof Vest. A fact he screams at the top of his voice the second he realises he's still alive. Cue Kazuo leaping off a small building beside him, wakizashi in hand.
    • He's less obviously stupid in the book and manga, but still pretty stupid—in the manga, he fakes a death rattle so Kazuo will come close to him and check if he's dead, allowing Oda to stab him with his hidden kitchen knife. Kazuo doesn't fall for this moronic ruse.
    • The normally rather practical and intelligent Noriko becomes this briefly during the film when she runs out into the rain looking for Shuya, leaving Kawada (her primary protector and only armed one of the two) scrambling to find her. This leads to her bumping into Mitsuko and nearly being killed if not for the arrival of Kitano.
    • While Shuya is a bit of an Idiot Hero in general, two particular moments of stupidity stick out from the film. The first is him screaming at the top of his lungs after two girls are killed nearby, thus potentially alerting the killer to his location, and the second is him sticking his head up in full view of the window when he knows a killer with a gun is nearby. Both times Shogo is left to keep Shuya from getting himself (and Noriko) killed, first by telling him to shut up and second by literally shoving Shuya's head down out of sight.
  • Tormented Teacher: Kitano'a antipathy towards the kids under his "care" stems from his former life as a much-abused teacher who got maimed by one of his students.
  • Tragic Keepsake: The sequel film reveals that Shuya keeps a photo of his classmates, Nobu's knife, and Shogo Kawada's bandana (and possibly his flask) to remind himself why he is fighting against the government.
  • Unbuilt Trope: Battle Royale is often credited with inspiring the Battle Royale Game genre, which is named after the book and its various adaptations. However, Battle Royale plays the tropes found in the Battle Royale Game genre for drama to explore themes about trust, paranoia, and morality; as a result, it unintentionally acts as a Darker and Edgier deconstruction of the video games it inspired. While games such as PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds or Fortnite encourage killing the other players to win, Battle Royale notes that in a real-life scenario, killing other people, especially one's friends, to survive goes against most people's instincts and would naturally invoke a moral dilemma. In fact, most of the students in the story are uninterested in killing one another, and some try to rebel against the system. Likewise, the top killers in Battle Royale were a sociopath, whose brain damage gave him a Lack of Empathy, and a cynical Empty Shell, who wanted to take revenge against the world due to her abusive upbringing. Finally, winning the "game" is a Pyrrhic Victory as most of the winners tend to end up mentally broken by the entire ordeal.
  • Villains Never Lie: Kamon boasts that he raped and murdered the head of Shuuya's orphanage, Ms. Ryoko to demoralize him. 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.
  • The Voice: An extremely interesting case that makes a sub-plot stretching across both films more effective. In the first film, we don't see Shiori Kitano, the teacher's daughter, we only hear her voice on the phone. In the second film, she's a main character. What adds more to this is that Kitano (senior) sees Noriko as his surrogate daughter as Shiori hates him. Noriko and Shiori are played by real life sisters, Aki and Ai Maeda (respectively).
  • What Could Have Been: In-universe, Kazuo's coin flip in the novel and manga acts as this, especially since Shuya and Mitsuru believed that given Kazuo's many talents, Kazuo could have easily outsmarted Sakamochi and the others.
  • What You Are in the Dark: One of the main themes. Given the secrecy of each Program experiment, the public usually does not know the specifics of each experiment other than the face of the winning student, along with some other trivial details, such as causes of death for the students killed. This means that every student in the Program experiment can do anything without risking public disapproval; as a result, this brings out the worst/best in the Class 3B students. See the Morality Kitchen Sink entry above for more info.
  • When She Smiles: 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.
  • Wide-Eyed Idealist: Shuya and Yuichiro, though Yuichiro actually made some headway; His refusal to think of Mitsuko as a bad person genuinely touched her to the point that she had a complete mental breakdown when he was shot.
    • There is at least one recorded instance of an entire Program completely refusing to kill each other. The government decided to detonate all their collars after they avoided the hot zones and lasted two days.
  • A Winner Is You: A rare example outside of video games. The winner will get nothing in the film and nothing besides a small life-long pension and the the dictator's autograph in the novel.
    • Shogo was the winner of the last (third to last in the film) year's program. It doesn't protect him from being part of the program again.
    • Mai is the winner of last year's program (in the film) but doesn't receive anything. She joins Shuya's resistance in Requiem:
    • The winner of this year's program is technically Shogo after faking the deaths of Shuya and Noriko but he dies on the boat shortly after the Big Bad dies. Shuya and Noriko are legally dead now and have to go underground. They are back for Requiem.
  • Wise Beyond Their Years: Most of the students in The Program handle things better than other classes would. Not only that, each of them usually has some special skill.
  • With This Herring: Weapons are doled out completely at random. A student might get lucky and get a gun or they might wind up with something completely useless like a small pot lid.
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: In the film version, Kitano the director borders on this. Sure, he sets up dozens of children to kill each other and kills two himself, but you can't help but feel sorry for him as he tries to teach those delinquents at the start of the movie.
  • Worthy Opponent: Kiriyama may or may not have seen Sugimura as this in the manga. Being the first person to significantly damage him. Even when Shuuya was throwing the knife, he was having a Call-Back to Hiroki doing the same thing.
  • Wounded Gazelle Gambit. Mitsuko in all three versions, though the victim changes. In the novel and manga, it's Hiroki, who has captured her and intends killing her in revenge for Chigusa. A combination of her crocodile tears and his martial pacifism allow her to escape. In the film she pulls it on Hirono, though it doesn't actually work as Hirono knows her too well. Mitsuko still kills her though.
  • Your Head A-Splode: What will happen to anyone caught in a danger zone. In the end, though, it only befalls one person in all versions (Shou Tsukioka in the novel and manga, and Yoshitoki Kuninobu in the film, and in the latter case, it was deliberately set off before the game properly begins).

 
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Mitsuko Souma

Mitsuko Souma is the most feared girl in her school and one of the most ruthless players in the Program killing game, having little issues with killing her classmates such as Kayoko Kotohiki.

However, when faced with the even more ruthless and sadistic Kazuo Kiriyama, Mitsuko goes down swinging: when Kiriyama sprays her with bullets, she survives and plays possum. She then uses Megumi's Static Stun Gun and her sickle to attack him, but his Bulletproof Vest saves his life and he shoots her. But she keeps getting up until Kiriyama finally puts her down with a fourth shot.

That said, her final words are a poignant "I just didn't want to be a loser anymore," explaining why she became that screwed up.

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