Noriko Nakagawa
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Noriko Nakagawa (中川 典子 Nakagawa Noriko?), also known as "Girl #15", is a fictional Japanese student and one of the three main protagonists novel, manga and film Battle Royale. In the English-language manga she is nicknamed Nori.
Noriko is played by Aki Maeda in the film version and its sequel Battle Royale II: Requiem. Ai Iwamura "stands-in" for Maeda as Noriko in one of the scenes in Battle Royale [1].
Noriko has a blood type of A.
[edit] Pre-Program
Noriko Nakagawa is one of the class of third-year students at the fictional Shiroiwa Junior High School in the fictional town of Shiroiwa (the novel and manga set the town in Kagawa Prefecture, while the film sets the town in Kanagawa Prefecture). Noriko has a younger brother. She was not a member of any clubs or groups at school, but she often hung out with Yukie Utsumi and her group. In the film, Noriko is best friends with Megumi Eto. Noriko had a crush on Shuya Nanahara, whom she admired for his music and song-writing. Literature was one of Noriko's best school subjects, and it was her ambition to become a teacher.
In the film, the audience sees Noriko arrive in class (Shiroiwa Junior High), with no one present apart the teacher (Kitano). When Kitano leaves the classroom, he is slashed by a male student with a butterfly knife in the buttocks. The male student, Yoshitoki Kuninobu, drops the knife and runs away, and Noriko picks it up and hides it behind her right before Kitano turns around after washing his blood off his trousers.
Later, the audience sees a small flashback scene where Noriko is locked in a toilet stall by three other girls . Different insults, written on the wall of the stall, were definitely targeted at Noriko, as her name is written on the tombstone.
[edit] During the Program
In the novel, when the students are in the school building having the rules explained to them, Noriko is shot in the lower leg by Private Tokihiko Tahara (one of the soldiers) as she ran to help Yoshitoki Kuninobu, who, in the novel, had also been shot.
In the manga, Yonemi Kamon shoots Noriko in the leg after she rushes to help Yoshitoki after Yonemi Kamon shoots Yoshitoki.
In the film, a soldier shoots her in the upper arm after the students try to flee from the classroom after Fumiyo's death; the soldiers shoot in the air and the ground in order to scare the students in submission, and one of the soldiers accidentally shoots Noriko in the arm.
Shuya Nanahara made a vow to protect Noriko throughout the game, because he believed Yoshitoki, his best friend killed while the rules of the game were in explanation, had a crush on her (but over the story Shuya falls in love with her himself). As Noriko left the school, she meets Shuya. Her issued weapon in the manga and the novel is discovered to be a boomerang (in the movie, she receives binoculars). Noriko witnesses Tatsumichi Oki attack Shuya and after the two fall down the hill. She runs after them and finds Shogo Kawada has saved Shuya from Kyoichi Motobuchi after which Kawada teams up with them. Noriko's injury gives her a fever, so Shuya and Shogo take her to an infirmary on the island to rest. When Shuya is injured in his battle with Kazuo Kiriyama, and ends up in the Lighthouse, Noriko stays behind with Shogo.
Later in the novel, during the final shootout with Kazuo Kiriyama she is the second to last person to shoot Kiriyama. It is unknown whether Noriko's bullet or Shogo's was the one that finally killed Kiriyama.
At the end of the Game, when Noriko, Shuya, and Shogo are the only survivors, she helps Shuya and Shogo with the plan to escape. Noriko and Shuya manage to get back to the mainland, and as the book ends, they are wanted criminals planning on escaping to the United States.
[edit] Post-Program
In the novel Shuya and Noriko are given the address of a doctor in Kobe who will help them by Shogo Kawada. Kawada dies after he gives the address. The doctor once knew Shogo's father and he happily helps them and tells them how they can get out of Japan. Later the two are at a train station in Umeda in the city of Osaka when a policeman recognises them and chases them. Shuya and Noriko run off and the book ends.
In the manga version, Noriko and Shuuya (as his name is romanized in the English manga adaptation) are also given the name of somebody who can help them by Kawada and the two of them stay in hiding at his place for three months. Just before they leave Japan, Noriko phones her mother on a secured line and though the reader only hears what Noriko is saying to her mother, it is clear that Noriko's little brother has been taken by the police as a way of getting her family to help look for her and it is also clear that her mother rejects her. This means Noriko has nothing left in Japan. Then Shinji Mimura's aunt helps them cross over the Pacific clandestinely aboard a cargo ship and land in the United States, where they decide to live in New York City.
In the sequel Battle Royale II: Requiem, Noriko is not mentioned by the name throughout a large portion of the film. Instead, various characters refer to her as "that girl" or "this girl" until she is mentioned by her full name by Shiori Kitano. Shuya reveals that he escaped with her to a war-torn country to avoid the Japanese authorities. When Shuya decided to return to Japan and fight, Noriko stayed behind. She finally appears at the end of the film to greet Shuya on his return home. Presumably, she is living in relative peace there.
