Battle Royale (manga)

Battle Royale
Cover of the first manga volume
バトル・ロワイアル (Batoru rowaiaru)
Genre	Science fiction, thriller[1]
Manga
Written by	Koushun Takami
Illustrated by	Masayuki Taguchi
Published by	Akita Shoten
English publisher	NA: Tokyopop (former)
Magazine	Young Champion
Demographic	Seinen
Original run	2000 – 2005
Volumes	15
Manga
Battle Royale II: Blitz Royale
Written by	Hitoshi Tomizawa
Published by	Akita Shoten
Demographic	Seinen
Original run	December 21, 2003 – May 27, 2004
Volumes	2
Manga
Battle Royale: Angels' Border
Written by	Koushun Takami
Illustrated by	Mioko Ohnishi Youhei Oguma
Published by	Akita Shoten
English publisher	NA: Viz Media
Magazine	Young Champion
Demographic	Seinen
Original run	February 22, 2011 – August 9, 2011
Volumes	1
Manga
Battle Royale: Enforcers
Written by	Koushun Takami
Illustrated by	Yukai Asada
Published by	Akita Shoten
English publisher	NA: Viz Media
Magazine	Bessatsu Young Champion
Demographic	Seinen
Original run	February 1, 2022 – present
Volumes	4

Battle Royale (Japanese: バトル・ロワイアル, Hepburn: Batoru Rowaiaru) is a Japanese manga series written by Koushun Takami and illustrated by Masayuki Taguchi. It is based on Takami's novel of the same name, telling the story of a class of junior high school children who are forced to fight each other to the death. It was serialized by Akita Shoten in Young Champion from 2000 to 2005,^[2] and later combined into 15 tankobon volumes, which were released in English by Tokyopop from 2003 to 2006. In October 2007, a special edition of the manga began being released.

The manga follows the plot of the novel fairly closely, but expands on the backstory of each of the students. Much like the plots of the novel and film adaptation, the manga is noted for its intense and gory violence. The Tokyopop English adaptation of the manga makes several changes to the plot, such as claiming that "[The] Program" is a reality TV show and changing the time setting of the story by almost 10 years; both changes are contradicted in later volumes.