13 Quotes from Battle Royale

When I feel like I don’t have the will to read books (either because I am so tired or no time or simply no desire to read), I always try to boost my will to read by rereading the books I love. I had lots of books in my TBR but I need to boost myself first with my all time fav books…and the choice lies of the amazing Battle Royale by Koushun Takami.

I had written two reviews on this book:

• in 2009 : Battle Royale
• in 2011 : Battle Royale – A book I will read again and again

And…yes, it’s 2015! The third time I read this book 🙂 and therefore I will not review it again, I will share 13 random quotes from that book.

Here’s the synopsis:

Battle Royale is a dystopia book where Japan had turned into The Republic of Greater East Asia, a very wealthy country which ran by a dictator. A country where everything from American Imperialist was banned. A country where Rock music was considered as illegal music. A country which was heartless enough to put several classes of third year junior high school into a killing game held every year where they had to kill their friends and be the only winner. A heartless game of distrust and betrayal.

Here are 13 random quotes from the book:

1. Page 42

“Allow me to explain the rules.”

“I think you all know how this works. The rules are simple. All you have to do is kill each other. There are no violations. And the last remaining survivor can go home. You even get a nice card autographed by the Dictator. Isn’t that wonderful?”

~Kinpatsu Sakamochi

2. Page 44

“Once you leave the premises, you are free to go anywhere. However, announcements will be made across the entire island at the hours of twelve and six, in the morning and at night. That’s four a day. I’ll be referring to this map when I announce the location of zones that will be forbidden after a certain time. You must examine your maps closely and check your compasses against them. If you are in a forbidden zone you must clear out of the area as soon as possible. Because…”

“…of the collars around your necks.”

“…it will explode.”

~Kinpatsu Sakamochi

3. Page 81 & 82

“That’s when I tossed a coin. If it came up heads I’d take on Sakamochi and—”

“If the coin came up tails, I decided I’d take part in the game.”

~Kazuo Kiriyama

4. Page 86

If he weren’t so inarticulate, Kazuhiko could have said so much more. How much her expressions, her words, her gentle manner, and untainted pure soul meant to him. How important, in short, her existence was to him. But he wasn’t able to put it in words. He was only a third-year student in junior high, and worse yet, composition was one of his worst subjects.

5 Page 146

“Like I said before, the rule is to suspect, not trust, everyone in this game. And you have to be all the more suspicious of someone who’s smart.”

~Shogo Kawada

6. Page 153

“I’m sure you must know this, Shuya…but loving someone always requires you to not love others. If you care about Noriko, don’t go.”

~Shogo Kawada

7. Page 201

“He’s just like me. He wants to bring down these assholes in charge of this game, these assholes who won’t think twice about making us play this fucked up game of musical chairs, this game of mutual fear and loathing. He wants to send them to hell just like me.”

~Shuya Nanahara

8. Page 215

“I am who I am. And you’re you. Even if I’m pretty good at basketball or computers, or popular with the girls, that’s doesn’t make me a better person. You can make people laugh and you’re kind. When you’re serious, you’re a lot more sincere than I am. Like with girls. I’m not resorting to that cheap cliche about everyone having something to offer, but I am saying there are a lot of things I admire about you. I like you. We’ve always been buddies. You’re an important friend. My best friend.”

~Shinji Mimura

9. Page 245

“I see. So you just want to rape me. Right? You think dying gives you the right to do anything?”

~Takako Chigusa

 10. Page 394

“Fine. That’s what women are like anyway. They’re just a different species. Just a tool to produce children (and of course to provide pleasure for men when they need it), and if they were good-looking then they were just ornaments to place beside successful men. Yes, it all came down to…money and connections. And my talent is worth the investment of money and connections. Therefore…”
…I deserve to be the survivor.”

~Toshinori Oda

11. page 438

Of course…this might have been a psychological result of their confinement. Under these circumstances, they were probably going to die soon (no, according to the rules, they were definitely going to die. He’d never heard of someone else besides the winner surviving the hellish Program), and now that thesurvivors were becoming fewer and fewer, maybe a boy that you liked “a little” ever since having anexchange in the corner of an elementary school gym might turn into somebody you’d “die for.”

12. Page 466

“Why? Why are you trying to save me? Is it because you want to use me to survive? Or, oh, I get it. You want to kill me with your very own hands!”

~Yuko Sakaki

13. Page 520

“You asked me, Shuya,” Shogo said. Shuya looked up. “Why I trusted you guys, when we first met, right?”
“Yeah.” Shuya nodded. “I did.”
“And I believe I said you two made a nice couple,” Shogo said, “It’s true. That’s how you two looked. So I decided I wanted to help you guys out, unconditionally.”

*********************************

If reading the quotes and synopsis of this book reminds you of Hunger Games, in defense of this book (as I love this book so much) this book came out way before Hunger Games.

I love this book to bits…even after reading it for the third time, I still enjoy it as much as when I first read it and I know I will read this again in the next 3 or 4 years.

Happy TT and find more TT @ newthursday13