Newest Post
// On :mércores, 11 de decembro de 2013
#manga #anime #ogsn
Hi there! Today we'll talk about Battle Royale, a japanese book that has a premise similar to the Lord of the flies and that was a best seller back when it was published(In the 90s). There's been a lot of controversy regarding the fact that the Hunger Games book was way too similar to this one. The answer is obvious: yes, the Hunger Games book is really similar to Battle Royale and in my opinion that's not something that benefits the Hunger Games because , in my opinion, if you compare those two books Battle Royale is way better, no disccussion . Let's now take a look at the plot and the comment section afterwards to see if you agree with me!
Battle Royale is a book that tells the story of several students that are imprisioned in an island where they have to find each other until only one remains. But let's dig a little deeper into the concept that the book presents:
The book is set in the near future(30,40 years from now on) . In that future there's a country(Presumably China, although is not stated directly ) called the Glorius Republic of Asia(Or something like that) which rules a lot of population with an ironfist. People from the government say that people who live in the country are really happy but the thing is that if someone dare to comply is killed inmediately .
In order to educate young people in the art of war they hold an event in an island every year. It consists in placing a class of highschool boys and girls in an island and make them play a wicked game: they have to kill each other until there's only one remaining. I'll explain the rules of the "game" later but the point is that the game itself is nothing more than a mean to demonstrate how people truly behave. This tries to illustrate the fact that only the fittest survive. This doesn't mean that someone fat is unlikely to survive but that there's certain skills that are not learnt in school and that are aplyable in life.
Rules of the "game"(The most important ones at least):
-The island is divided in square zones. Each day the area is reduced so some of the zones are considered forbidden and if the participant go in there they blow up due to an explosive that they have in their body.
-If no one dies at the end of a day everyone days and the game is considered a fail.
-Everyone is given some items at the start of the game, that can be weapons or tools, along with a map of the island.
-To make it more interesting, the participants start the game with a difference of several minutes with each other.
Personal Opinion(Spoilers free):
The book is a bit slow at the beggining (specially if we take into account the fact that to find the real "start" of the story we have to read more than a hundred pages) but after that there's lots of plots going on at the same time(Eache chapter tells the story of one student(Or one group of students).
Something that makes this book better than the Hunger Games one is that in this book people die in a very realistic way. Having an awesome plan means nothing and everyone is at risk(some main characters die) , something that makes the experience thrilling and amusing at the same time: you wan to find out what happens to certain characters. However, sometimes this is not good because due to the vast amount of characters you may find some deaths pointless.
If we talk about the ending....well, it left me a bad impression. You can already predict it (more or less) and the conlusion feels rushed and unplanned , I think it could have been written in a better way.
Another point that could have been better is how detailed the background of the story is. Despite spending more than a hundred pages to make an introduction no further information is provided after that moment and there's not a a real explanation about the government and about all the things that happen in the country . It feels like the country is just a place when I think that it could have been a key element in the plot.
As a conclusion, I loved the book. It's a realistic survival thriller, with some unexpected elements in the plot and , above all, with a fast pace. I reccommend it.
Hi there! Today we'll talk about Battle Royale, a japanese book that has a premise similar to the Lord of the flies and that was a best seller back when it was published(In the 90s). There's been a lot of controversy regarding the fact that the Hunger Games book was way too similar to this one. The answer is obvious: yes, the Hunger Games book is really similar to Battle Royale and in my opinion that's not something that benefits the Hunger Games because , in my opinion, if you compare those two books Battle Royale is way better, no disccussion . Let's now take a look at the plot and the comment section afterwards to see if you agree with me!
Battle Royale is a book that tells the story of several students that are imprisioned in an island where they have to find each other until only one remains. But let's dig a little deeper into the concept that the book presents:
The book is set in the near future(30,40 years from now on) . In that future there's a country(Presumably China, although is not stated directly ) called the Glorius Republic of Asia(Or something like that) which rules a lot of population with an ironfist. People from the government say that people who live in the country are really happy but the thing is that if someone dare to comply is killed inmediately .
In order to educate young people in the art of war they hold an event in an island every year. It consists in placing a class of highschool boys and girls in an island and make them play a wicked game: they have to kill each other until there's only one remaining. I'll explain the rules of the "game" later but the point is that the game itself is nothing more than a mean to demonstrate how people truly behave. This tries to illustrate the fact that only the fittest survive. This doesn't mean that someone fat is unlikely to survive but that there's certain skills that are not learnt in school and that are aplyable in life.
Rules of the "game"(The most important ones at least):
-The island is divided in square zones. Each day the area is reduced so some of the zones are considered forbidden and if the participant go in there they blow up due to an explosive that they have in their body.
-If no one dies at the end of a day everyone days and the game is considered a fail.
-Everyone is given some items at the start of the game, that can be weapons or tools, along with a map of the island.
-To make it more interesting, the participants start the game with a difference of several minutes with each other.
Personal Opinion(Spoilers free):
The book is a bit slow at the beggining (specially if we take into account the fact that to find the real "start" of the story we have to read more than a hundred pages) but after that there's lots of plots going on at the same time(Eache chapter tells the story of one student(Or one group of students).
Something that makes this book better than the Hunger Games one is that in this book people die in a very realistic way. Having an awesome plan means nothing and everyone is at risk(some main characters die) , something that makes the experience thrilling and amusing at the same time: you wan to find out what happens to certain characters. However, sometimes this is not good because due to the vast amount of characters you may find some deaths pointless.
If we talk about the ending....well, it left me a bad impression. You can already predict it (more or less) and the conlusion feels rushed and unplanned , I think it could have been written in a better way.
Another point that could have been better is how detailed the background of the story is. Despite spending more than a hundred pages to make an introduction no further information is provided after that moment and there's not a a real explanation about the government and about all the things that happen in the country . It feels like the country is just a place when I think that it could have been a key element in the plot.
As a conclusion, I loved the book. It's a realistic survival thriller, with some unexpected elements in the plot and , above all, with a fast pace. I reccommend it.
