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SECTION INDEX: Manga Index • Sample Pages • Manga Outline • Manga Students

The Manga    
In November of 2000, shortly before the theatrical release of the movie, Young Champion comics released a manga (comic book) adaptation of the novel (independent of the movie adaptation), written by the original author Koushun Takami and with art by Masayuki Taguchi. The manga stays more faithful to the novel than the movie does, but there are still a number of changes made to the manga to make it work better, such as the dramatization of scenes only alluded to in the novel.

The manga was released as a series of volumes every few months; Volume 15, the final installment, was released in the Spring of 2005. The original manga is available at Amazon Japan.

Sample Pages - a couple of scanned images from the comic book
Manga Outline - what happens in which volume (spoilers)
 
The American adaptation  
In May of 2003, TOKYOPOP released the first volume of an English version of the manga by comic scribe Keith Giffen. One thing to note, however, is that Giffen has decided to make this more of an adaptation rather than a translation of the Japanese source, and has taken a few liberties with the premise text. It's still a worthwhile read, though, and a good alternate take on the world of Battle Royale. As of July 2005, Volume 13 is the latest issue; because of the way the release schedules have turned out, the next volume (second to last) of the manga won't be released until much later this year. The American manga is available at Amazon and at finer comic book/anime/manga shops.
 
Battle Royale II: Blitz Royale
  

The July 2003 issue of Young Champion Magazine (which featured a photo spread of BRII's Ai Maeda) presented the first thirty pages of BRII: Blitz Royale, a manga illustrated by Hiroshi Tomizawa and written by none other than Koushun Takami, the author of the original BR novel.

Blitz Royale looks like it's at least partly based on BRII the movie (which was written by Kenta Fukasaku); in both, the name of the unlucky school is Shikanotoride Junior High; the teacher seems to pop a lot of pills; and it looks like the kids will be put in camouflage uniforms. But there also seem to be a lot of differences, and time will tell how closely the manga hews to the movie. 

The first volume of Blitz Royale hit Japanese shelves on December 21, 2003, in conjunction with the DVD release of the sequel.
  above: an ad for Blitz Royale in Young Champion Magazine.
above right: a sample page from the YC magazine preview.
right: the cover of Blitz Royale Vol. 1.		  

 

 
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