Some students get guns and hatchets, others get forks and throwing darts complete with a dart board. Each student is given a bag with bread, water, a map of the island, and a weapon. The collars of every student also explode if there fails to be a death within 24 hours-a cruel way to keep the “game” progressing. Once taken to a remote location, each student is fitted with a metal collar which detonates if they are found in any of the declared “forbidden zones” of the island, which change every day. Each parent is notified by the government that their child has been “chosen” for the Program, essentially informing the parent of their child’s death. When one does the math, this amounts to the senseless murder of over 2000 innocent children each year. The Program is a government run procedure in which, each year, 50 junior high classes consisting of 42 students each are chosen to fight to the death in a remote location selected by the government.

The story centers around the “Program,” which students in the novel learn about in school from a young age. The novel is set in the fictional “Republic of Greater East Asia,” which is run by a Big Brother-like authoritarian government. Battle Royale is a contemporary Japanese pulp classic now available for the first time in English.Battle Royale by Koushun Takami is an action-packed novel which explores the depths of human nature and how far one will go to survive. Koushun Takami's brutal, high-octane thriller is told in breathless. A group of high school students are taken to small isolated island and forced to fight each other until only one remains alive! If they break the rules a special collar blows their heads off. Made into a controversial hit movie of the same name, Battle Royale is already a contemporary Japanese pulp classic, now available for the first time in the English language. Criticized as violent exploitation when first published in Japan-where it then proceeded to become a runaway bestseller- Battle Royale is a Lord of the Fliesfor the 21st century, a potent allegory of what it means to be young and (barely) alive in a dog-eat-dog world. Koushun Takami's notorious high-octane thriller is based on an irresistible premise: a class of junior high school students is taken to a deserted island where, as part of a ruthless authoritarian program, they are provided arms and forced to kill one another until only one survivor is left standing. In an alternative future Japan, junior high students are forced to fight to the death! L to R (Western Style).

Battle royale by koushun takami