Delerium

Eh maybe some (Spoilers). Depends on what you consider a spoiler I guess.



Okay I've been very hardcore into the Tokyopop Battle Royale mangas...you know the ones you can easily find at Books-A-Million. I'm also a big fan of the original movie, which is what the premise of the manga is based on but I've found that some parts of it have been changed from the movie. Some parts are more detailed and some are less. I think in its own glorified graphicly sickening kind of way the mangas are better. It gives more and in some cases new light to the series in general. Deepens the characters. Anyways has anyone else read the mangas? Opinions? Heck opinions or news on the movie series too if you'd like. I guess I just find it interesting seeing something live action being turned into manga, usually its the opposite.

ffgirl23

I've read the book that both the movie and manga are based on. It was good, probably the most descriptive of them all. I don't know if I'd want to watch the movie; the book was pretty graphic, so I can't imagine what it would be like to see all that violence in live action. But I higly recommend reading the book; it will probably add a lot of story that was left out of the movie and manga.

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Hassun

The manga offers a fair amount of backstory too and it also gorifies (is that a word?) it.
I don't know if the Tokyopop manga is censored but there is also ALOT of sexual adult stuff, mostly because of Mitsuko Soma of course...

The film was a bit too shallow, although it's normal that a film can't give that much info on all the students. Takeshi Kitano was kickass al always though.

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Delerium

Yeah Tokyopop censors nothing, especially not Mitsuko.

And I had no idea they were based off of a book, thats pretty sweet. I'm going to have to check that out. And based on your description of it, it sounds like something I'd enjoy. I'm always into the darker gory stuff....

Hassun

The manga portrays the gore a bit better, those details...
Although, if you have a good amount of imagination you can make the novel as gory as you want.

sweeeet

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ffgirl23

I thought the novel was pretty gory in it's own right....but I think the best thing about it is that you get to go into the minds of all the characters. I don't know how the manga does it, but in the book you get the viewpoints of everyone, no matter how short they might be. I guess you get to see a little more of what motivated everyone in what actions they did or didn't take. BTW, have you seen BR2? It was directed by the son of the guy who directed the first movie. The original director (sorry, his name escapes me) died while the second film was in progress, so his son took up the rest of it. It's a direct sequel, but I don't want to give anything away. It's not based on a book, it was just a direct-to-movie release. I guess it's as bad (good?) as the first...

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And I remember now, at the top of my lungs in my arms, she dies, she dies.

Controlling you through a chip in your butt since 2004

Karn

My ranking would be like this:
1. Novel
2. Manga
3. Movie

*slight spoilers on the differences between the three versions*

I read the novel first, but I could be biased in that I had pre-conceived notions as to how I thought the manga and movie should play out. I liked it the best because:
A. Fairly detailed background info on many of the characters, including those that didn't get much info in even the manga, as well as a look at how these characters play out the "game" and what is going through their minds. And stuff.
B. Though there are a lot of violent scenes, it isn't as gratutious as the manga (though, to be fair, manga is a "laid out on paper" visual medium and the whole premise of the BR story is violent in general)

As for the manga, the thing I like most about it is it features my favorite character, Sugimura, quite a bit (the novel does this too, but the manga changes things completely by the end - and his backstory is much more developed). And while I am not a fan of the over the top violence the manga went for, it does seem apt. However, the additional Mitsuko stuff was too "shock value"ish for me.

Another minor gripe I have is with Keith Giffen's Tokyopop adaptation. While I'm a big fan of Giffen's Justice League, short lived Suicide Squad, and so on, I thought some of the slang used in the BR manga was kind of strange. Perhaps I'm just not with the times, though.

And finally, the movie. I saw it and liked it. Very stylish, but there was something missing, and I guess the message of the movie was supposed to be different too. What that is, I have no idea, perhaps the Old vs. young thing. "Beat" Takeshi's performance was awesome though.

Delerium

Ok I'm now convinced to buy this damn novel. The whole plot and story around this series has just grabbed me and kept me interested for over a year now. And if you guys are ranking the novel the top media, I guess I owe it to myself to get ahold of it.

ffgirl23

Well, you know what they say...The book is always better! But I hope you don't mind a long read; if I remember correctly, the novel was close to 700 pages. But it goes quick, because the action is non-stop.

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And I remember now, at the top of my lungs in my arms, she dies, she dies.

Controlling you through a chip in your butt since 2004

Delerium

True, yeah I've read longer, length is never an issue when it comes to good books for me, being an English major and all. Anywho, are the characters pretty much the same or are there a bunch of different ones?

Karn

The one thing I found annoying about the book (Viz brought it out, by the way) is that they mixed up character names a couple times (like two times maybe). For example, a scene with Kawada:

In this scene, it should say like "Kawada makes some tea" or whatever, but instead it says "Kiriyama makes some tea" (and Kiriyama is nowhere in the scene or anything). That isn't the exact scene or wording, but I guess you get the idea. Small mistakes like that...kind of nitpicky, and I didn't notice it until a friend pointed it out, but still.


The student characters are the same as in the manga, basically. Same names and basic characteristics, etc...there are a couple of minor (and a few major) differences though.