015: Battle Royale vol. 8
By Koushun Takami and Masayuki Takaguchi
School kids are forced to kill each other until only one survives! We talk about rape and child abuse on this episode. For your convenience we've provided the following helplines:
UK SAMARITANS: 116 123
JAPAN: 03-5774-0992
USA SUICIDE PREVENTION: 1-800-273-8255
USA NATIONAL SEXUAL ASSAULT HOTLINE 800 - 656 - HOPE (4673)
We talk about the following topics on this episode:
· NOTE* TRIGGER WARNING – rape + child abuse (as we talk about Mitsuko Souma)
· Jamie Walton's work on the Wayne Foundation, a non-profit organisation made to protect the young from sex exploitation.
You can listen to her interview with Kevin Smith on his following podcast.
And you can visit the Wayne Foundation website if you want to see more.
· Using expressionism and surrealism in manga to appropriately censor, but also horrify.
· The optimistic characters in Battle Royale, are they realistic or unreal?
· Opposites attract and the femme fatale trope.
POP CULTURE REFERENCES:
"A star is born"
A 1937 film, Esther Blodgett is the titular star, who falls for a self-destructive man.
Remade with Judy garland and once again in 1976 with Barbra Streisand and another time in 2018 with Lady Gaga.
The following is a plot synopsis of Volume 8:
Since the Battle Royale program began the majority of students have been killed. The strongest competitors being Kazuo Kiriyama and Mitsuko Soma. Soma encounters Hiroki Sugimura who is fully aware of Soma having killed his best friend, Takako Chigusa. Soma fails to seduce Sugimura and instead toys with his peaceful and pacifistic nature, buying enough time to distract Sugimura and flee.
Soma's next encounter involves two boys, Tadakatsu Hatagami and YuichiroTakiguchi. Despite one being an anime geek and the other a sports lover, the two boys are best friends and have developed a trusting relationship throughout the Battle Royale. Soma's plan is to divide these two whilst she's caught in their custody. Yuichiro is the more trusting of the two and whilst Katsu naps, he loosens her cuffs and in turn Soma develops a genuine sense of intimacy with the charming Yuichiro.
Katsu wakes from his nap and decides to switch places with Yuichiro so to watch over Soma. She quickly plays on Katsu's jealousy of Yuichiro and eventually she works up the sexual tension to get his guard down. She lures him into having sex and before she can get out a hidden razor blade, a cat jumps out of the bushes foiling her attempt. She doesn't kill Katsu, but merely cuts his cheek.
Yuichiro wakes up confused, Katsu tells the truth but Soma tells Yuichiro that she was raped. In a demand for trust, Yuichiro asks for his gun back and Katsu is willing to give it, that's until he spots Soma glancing at her sickle. Katsu does not hesitate and fires his gun at Soma. Yuichiro gets in the way of the bullet. This makes Katsu distraught and Soma uses this moment to grab the sickle and kill Katsu.
Soma switches her behaviour from killing Yuichiro to feeling guilty about his bullet wound. The guilt overwhelms her and in an act of pity she promptly rapes him. Yuichiro is bewildered and in pain yet he notices something about Soma's mood swings and the look in her eyes. There are two Mitsuko Soma's. A past trauma she endured has resulted in her having split personalities. Soma, or the cold and calculating Soma, eventually kills Yuichiro and proceeds to her next target.
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