Battle Royale – vol. 2

    

Title: Battle Royale vol. 2

Author: Takami Koushun

Manga-ka: Taguchi Masayuki

Published: 2000 (original) & 2003 (English ver. by TokyoPop)

Genre: Action – Drama – Horror – Psychological – Mature – Tragedy

Rate: 

As the violence begins to escalate, Shuuya continues searching for friends who would be willing to join his alliance. However, the search doesn’t go as well as he would hope, resulting in the deaths of several more students. Childhood friends Yumiko Kusaka and Yukiko Kitano would be glad to join Shuuya, but will they reach him in time? The answer may lie with the mysterious Kawada. Will Shuuya be able to convince the transfer student to join him? Meanwhile, having also decided not to play the game, how long will devoted couple Sakura Ogawai and Kazuhiko Yamamoto survive? Finally, the deadly Kazuo must decide what to do about his gang. Will he allow them to join him? Or will Mitsuru Numai and the rest just slow him down?

At this volume, we could see various feelings and thoughts of the students in this manga. Some of them are trying to avoid participating into the Death Game and chose to hide themselves from their fellow friends. While the others are so in to this game and started to hunt their friends, hoping that they could win this Death Game.

Shuuya and Noriko believed that if they trust  to each other, they could protect themselves and escape from the program. They tried searching for friends who have the same thought like time and will try to ask them to join their journey together. When they finally met Kawada, they had difficulty to convince him, but at the end Kawada agreed to join.

It is really sweet seeing Shuuya tried very hard to protect Noriko and how Noriko trusted him in this volume. But it was also irritating seeing how Kazuo could be so cruel and cold blooded toward his classmates, even to his gang whom praised him very much.

Some students also tried to ended this Death Game in their own way: suicide together. They thought it was a better way than forcing themselves to kill their friends.

Spoiler:

In this volume, we are introduced to Kazuo Kiriyama and his gang and when he begins his killing spree, including almost his entire gang, Izumi Kanai, Yukiko Kitano and Yumiko Kusaka. Sakura Ogawa and Kazuhiko Yamamoto commit suicide together, ending the first day of the program. The next day, Tatsumichi Oki ambushes Shuuya and Noriko. After a brief fall down a cliff, Shuuya accidentally kills Tatsumichi with his own weapon; Kyoichi Motobuchi also attacks Shuuya shortly after but is killed by Shogo Kawada, the mysterious transfer student. Shuuya and Noriko team up with Kawada and venture off to find more possible allies.

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Submitted for:

Project Baca Buku Cetak 2016 (#BacaBukuCetak)

Comic Reading Challenge 2016

2016 – 9th Annual Graphic Novel / Manga Challenge