Battle Royale II: Blitz Royale

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Front cover of volume 1
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Front cover of volume 1

Battle Royale II: Blitz Royale (BRII ブリッツ ロワイアル) is a series of manga based on Battle Royale, in particular the manga adaptation. The series is presented by Koushun Takami and the artwork is by Hitoshi Tomizawa (富沢ひとし Tomizawa Hitoshi).

Like the earlier Battle Royales, a class of middle school students are picked to compete in fights to the death on an island until there is only one left. Currently only five chapters have been released so far.

The new series of the Battle Royale series follows the point of view of Girl #10 Makoto Hashimoto (橋本真恋人 Hashimoto Makoto), an unlucky girl who fears that her class will be chosen to participate in "the program," a mysterious event that forces students to kill each other. Makoto attends Shikanotoride Junior High School.

After the encouragement of her best friend Itou Yamamoto and her mother she decides to face the chances. Her fears are supposedly put to rest when word spreads that all 50 Programs had already been executed in the year making them 100% unlikely to participate. Arriving at their field trip in one piece, Makoto begins to forward all her nervousness into getting a boy she likes: Nomura-kun.

As the field trip kicks off, and the girls sneak into one of the boys rooms: Specifically Nomura's. While Itou takes advantage of the smuggled Vodka Nomura breaks the ice between himself and Makoto by asking her out, however, their romance is cut short when a boy runs in alerting the presence of their teacher. The girls hide inside the sleeping bags of the other boys which Nomura takes the chance of to feel Makoto's breast. Right when they believe the coast is clear, they are assaulted by a group of Navy soldiers who begin to forcefully push the students around (Which involved Nomura getting the end of a gun smashed in his face).

[edit] The program begins

The students are all held captive by the government, Nomura no longer himself, and brought to a room where a man in a military uniform, Hoshou Takagi, stands to address the students of the new Navi Exclusive version of the Program. While the students are recovering from the sudden announcement, the intoxicated Itou is grabbed by the hair and has her long locks forcefully shaved off. As Makoto rushes to her friends side she meets the end of a gun, and her fathers talisman ripped from her neck.

From this point the story becomes much darker, the students are sent to a non-aggressive defence school and forced to dispose of corpses they are then gassed in a shower chamber, dressed in full military attire (complete with collar).

When given the chance to rebel against the government Makoto declines causing Nomura to become aggravated calling her "Chicken Shit". However when Boy #3 Mitsugu Kawasaki gets the same opportunity, he takes it but as he turns his gun to the soldier he becomes the first victim of the new program and has his collar detonated before all his classmates.

[edit] Differences

The new series is different in that it is drawn in an almost chibi style of art. The main character is also female. In addition, the cover of the first chapter had a picture of four teenagers with a flag that says "Team Red", which may imply that team-oriented challenges may be present in this version of Battle Royale.

Some details of Blitz Royale were taken from Battle Royale II: Requiem [1].

Battle Royale (edit)
Novel & mangas Battle Royale (novel) | Battle Royale (manga) | Battle Royale II: Blitz Royale (manga)
Films Battle Royale (film)  | Battle Royale II: Requiem
Soundtracks Battle Royale Original Soundtrack | Battle Royale II: Requiem Original Soundtrack | Composer: Masamichi Amano | Orchestra: Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra
Main Characters BR: Shuya Nanahara | Noriko Nakagawa | Shogo Kawada | Sakamochi/Yonemi/Kitano (the Teacher) | Kazuo Kiriyama | Mitsuko Souma | Shinji Mimura | Hiroki Sugimura
BRII: Takuma Aoi | Shiori Kitano | Nao Asakura | Riki Takeuchi | Saki Sakurai
Secondary Characters BR: Yoshitoki Kuninobu | Takako Chigusa | Yukie Utsumi | Kazushi Niida | Yuko Sakaki | Megumi Eto | Satomi Noda | Yoshio Akamatsu | Yukiko Kitano | Keita Iijima | Kayoko Kotohiki | Hirono Shimizu | Yuichiro Takiguchi | Tatsumichi Oki | Mitsuru Numai | Yutaka Seto| Yoji Kuramoto | Toshinori Oda | Sho Tsukioka | Mai (smiling winner) | Keiko Onuki (Keiko Inoue) | Lieutenant Anjo | Soldiers (Battle Royale)
BRII: R: Mitsugu Sakai | Shugo Urabe | Maki Souda | Osamu Kasai | Soji Kazama | Kyoko Kakei | Kengo Yonai | Ryo Kurosawa | Haruya Sakurai | Haruka Kuze | Masami Shibaki | Jun Nanami | Makio Mimura (Shinji's uncle) | Prime Minister of Japan
Cast and crew Koushun Takami (novel author) | Kinji Fukasaku (director) | Kenta Fukasaku (screenwriter)
BR: Tatsuya Fujiwara | Aki Maeda | Taro Yamamoto | Masanobu Ando | Kou Shibasaki | Chiaki Kuriyama | Takeshi Kitano
BRII: R: Takeru Shibaki Shugo Oshinari | Ai Maeda | Ayana Sakai | Natsuki Kato | Riki Takeuchi | Yoko Maki
Other topics Battle Royale controversy | Battle Royale merchandise | List of Battle Royale weapons | GPS tracking | Wild Seven
Related topics Dystopia | Deathmatch gaming | Ultraviolence | Teenage rebellion | Betrayal | Authoritarianism | Terrorism