Battle Royale: Enforcers, Vol. 1

High school students battle each other to the death in the original survival game!

Decades ago, the fascist government of the Republic of Greater East Asia seized control of Japan. In order to terrorize the citizens and crush any possibility of rebellion, the government established Program 68--a savage military program where teenage students were sent to a remote island and forced to kill each other--also known as the Battle Royale.

After being banned 20 years ago, Program 68 is back, this time under the direction of a sinister government artificial intelligence. The troubled and misbehaving kids of Daitoa Academy’s Class F have been chosen, divided into squads, given weapons, and commanded to fight to the death. Now friendships and loyalties will be tested, and only the strongest will survive.

Koushun Takami was born in 1969 in Amagasaki near Osaka and grew up in Kagawa Prefecture of Shikoku (the fourth largest island in Japan), where he currently resides. After graduating from Osaka University with a degree in literature, he worked for a newspaper company, Shikoku Shinbun, for five years, reporting on politics, police reports, and economics. Also, he attended Nihon University’s liberal arts correspondence-course program and acquired an English teaching certificate for junior high and high school.

Battle Royale, completed after Takami left the newspaper company, was his debut work and his only novel published so far. With its publication in Japan in 1999, it received widespread support and became a best seller. Battle Royale was serialized as a comic, made into a feature film in 2000, and has been translated into more than ten languages. Since its initial release, Battle Royale continues to be a cult favorite in Japan and internationally.

In 2012, Battle Royale: Angels’ Border, a spin-off manga scripted by Koushun Takami, was released.