I just recently completed the novel and since I was in that Battle Royale mood, I re-read a few scenes from the manga and picked up from where I left off.
My recommendation: read the novel if you can.
The manga overall is a good adaptation in that it did capture the world building and the mood of the novel. However, I still think that it was overly sexualized. Gore, I can handle, because it's part of the subject of the novel, kids killing each other. The gore facilitates the shock. The sex is however unjustified. Seriously, the artist drew the male sex organ big across one page. Gosh, I was so relieved I was not reading that part in public.
In the book, Mitsuko did not rape that anime guy. But in the manga, for some weird reason, the mangaka decided to do that.
My complaint about the creepy faces of side characters remains. I get that there are "ugly" characters but that doesn't mean most of them should look creepy.
Changes from the novel that I liked:
- Sugimura found his girl and was able to had some time with her before he died. I really liked how the mangaka drew their dying scene. The graphic effect was amazing. I was impressed.
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Hirono had that hallucination of joining the main trio before drowning. This change was very good: right when you thought she survived, it turned out she didn't. It made an impact on me.
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Except for Mitsuko's background, I liked all the ways the mangaka extended all characters' backgrounds based on the novel. The extensions stayed true to the spirit of the novel. The changes were "canon" in that sense; you feel like you got more information about the characters by reading the manga, not conflicting information.
My old review from 2012:
Subject: Overly sexualized and unnecessary gore with creepy faces
This manga overly-sexualizes the whole thing. It is so nasty how the artist drew girls, specifically girl body. After an absolutely disgusting sex scene (I can't believe they drew this. Not because I'm against sex scenes but sex just makes this whole story so shallow and mushy. Battle Royale deserves better.) and because the character I cared about the most
Shinji
died in an earlier volume, I gave up.
Most of the characters (especially male ones) who are not primary characters have weird faces. Creepy and disgusting faces. It's like the creator wants us to not form an emotional connection to those characters. It's blatant manipulation so we only care about the main characters. The back stories of some of the side characters are interesting but the faces are just so... Ugh. Add that with the sex and gore portrayed in this manga. Instead of a great psychological thriller like the novel, the manga adaptation comes short as a whole.
To its credits, the manga did portray the main characters's stories very well. My favorite characters were Shinji Mimura and Shogo Kawada. I was so devastated when
Shinji Mimura died.
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