Battle Royale vol. 13
Art by Masauki Taguchi
Story by Koushun Takami
Translation by Keith Giffen
Talking about Kiriyama vs Soma! And bout our arguments with the opposite sex, plus stalkers! You can skip the synopsis @ minute 4:00
Topics:
· Kiriyama vs Soma (Soma's death)
· Keiko and Kawada's argument (arguments with the opposite sex)
· Stalkers
Pop culture references and idioms:
Natural Born Killers
(A movie directed by Oliver Stone, starring woody Harrelson and Juliet Lewis. The story is by Quentin Tarantino and is considered a controversial movie.
(ICN Neural network medical journal) A phenomenon, whereby a personality change happens after transplant.
"One scoop of raisins in cornflakes".
"I use to believe the brain was the most important organ" – Emo Phillips (comedian)
Synopsis:
The deadliest contestants, Kazuo Kiriyama and Mitsuko finally stand-off. Kiriyama throws glass at her, blinding her before he shoots her shoulder. Out of desperation she strips naked and resorts to goading him into rape, Kiriyama fails to be seduced by Soma's beautiful looks and shows no signs of a sadistic joy.
Soma reverts to her child personality, she grabs a Gatchapon ring; an old gift from her father and begs for pity.
Soma is relieved as she watches Kiriyama lower his gun. The gun slips out of Kiriyama's hand, he's able to catch it with his other and blasts Soma point blank. Destroying her beautiful face. In her final moment she thinks of her real father, who was forced to leave her whilst she was young.
Kawada talks to Noriko and Nanahara about the former love of his live, Keiko. He reveals to them that he would have been the "kiriyama" of the last game, he was playing the game for Keiko and would kill for her.
Before this game, Keiko and Kawada witness a family being arrested whilst on a date. This prompts them to have another argument about Kawada's cynicism, a reliance on logical explanation in spite of a lack of sympathy and sensitivity in comparison to Keiko. Keiko becomes upsets, she leaves kawada and takes Kawada's gift with her, a bird call whistle. The same whistle he's using now to call to Sugimura.
During their own Battle Royale, Kawada becomes an effective killer, He finds Keiko held captive at gunpoint by her stalker, Nakata. Nakata tells Kawada on the day of the argument that Keiko would run errands that evening, her eyes still red from crying. Kawada distracts Nakata, telling him the safety switch to his gun is on before he kills him and saves Keiko.
Keiko questions on how he is playing the game and raises the gun towards him. Kawada draws his gun at Keiko and retaliates. After Keiko is shot he senses the last contestant is behind him, and realises that Keiko was trying to protect him from her. The two trade shots resulting in Kawada being the only survivor of the game.
Through Kawada's long and arduous recovery of losing his father and girlfriend he finds out a package was delivered to his home. It was Keiko's bird call.
Kawada uses the bird call for the sake of Sugimura after Noriko tells him not to feel guilty about Keiko's death. He chooses to honour Keiko's memory and the love she always had for him. Unbeknownst to Noriko, Nanahara and Kawada is that Kiriyama is drawn to the bird call.
Instagram – weappreciatemanga.co.uk
Twitter - @RealJamesFitton
Website – Weappreciatemanga.com
Email – Weappreciatemanga@gmail.com
