Battle Royale (manga)

Battle Royale
Cover of the first manga volume
バトル・ロワイアル
(Batoru rowaiaru)
GenreScience fiction, thriller[1]
Manga
Written byKoushun Takami
Illustrated byMasayuki Taguchi
Published byAkita Shoten
English publisher
MagazineYoung Champion
DemographicSeinen
Original run20002005
Volumes15
Manga
Battle Royale II: Blitz Royale
Written byHitoshi Tomizawa
Published byAkita Shoten
DemographicSeinen
Original runDecember 21, 2003May 27, 2004
Volumes2
Manga
Battle Royale: Angels' Border
Written byKoushun Takami
Illustrated by
  • Mioko Ohnishi
  • Youhei Oguma
Published byAkita Shoten
English publisher
MagazineYoung Champion
DemographicSeinen
Original runFebruary 22, 2011August 9, 2011
Volumes1
Manga
Battle Royale: Enforcers
Written byKoushun Takami
Illustrated byYukai Asada
Published byAkita Shoten
English publisher
  • NA: Viz Media
MagazineBessatsu Young Champion
DemographicSeinen
Original runFebruary 1, 2022 – present
Volumes4

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.

  1. ^ "The Official Website for Battle Royale". Viz Media. Retrieved October 28, 2017.
  2. ^ "Final Chapter Memorial Discussion: Koushun Takami and Masayuki Taguchi." Battle Royale. Volume 15. Tokyopop