When most people hear the word “Battle Royale,” they automatically think of the popular video game genre. But have you ever heard of the origin of the inspiration of that wildly popular video game genre?
Haika Soru Publishing
Front cover of “Battle Royale” novel from Koushun Takami.
“Battle Royale” started as a science fiction thriller novel written by Koushun Takami. It was completed in 1996 but wasn’t published till 1999. The novel consists of a class of junior high students taken to a deserted island where, as part of a ruthless authoritarian program, they are provided arms and forced to kill one another until only one survivor is left standing.
Sounds like another acclaimed dystopian teen novel? Before Suzanne Collins, “Battle Royale” was widely popular upon release. It landed on bestseller’s lists and received award nominations for its story and structure, but did not win its category due to its controversial content of children killing each other.
Stephen K with ArcadiaPod wrote, in 2022, “It’s a masterpiece of dystopian fiction and one of the most influential books of the last few decades.”
The following year, a manga series was released, written by Takami and illustrated by Masayuki Taguchi; this version ran from 2000-2005. The series continued, with many other “Battle Royale” manga still written by Takami to this day, the newest one, “Battle Royale III: Enforcers” is expected to be released March 18, 2025.
Akita Publishing Co.
“Battle Royale” manga.
The novel inspired director Kinji Fukasaku to produce a movie in 2000. The movie followed the same story as Koushun Takami’s novel. When “Battle Royal” the movie was released, it was a big hit and considered to be Koushun Fukasaku’s best films. Today, it’s rated as one of the best films of the 2000s.
PlayerUnkown’s “Battleground” (PUBG) began the video game battle royale genre in 2017. The flame caught, and soon we had “Fortnite”, with nearly 45 million players, “Free Fire”, and EA (Electronic Art) releasing “Apex Legend”. Blizzard caught on with their own version: “Call of Duty: Warzone”.
Mary Yang, a freshman from UW Green Bay stated, “I think that the novel inspiring newer creations shows how one remarkable creation can expand to new ideas/works. I find it intriguing that someone’s work can inspire many people to make their own version.”
Takami has inspired countless aspects of last team standing survival games, starting from a novel to movie depictions then to video games where players can see themselves in the middle of the action.
With multiple countries and cultures latching onto this storytelling plot, we don’t see “Battle Royal” type media going away anytime soon.
Battle Royale Production Committee
Movie poster of “Battle Royale”.