Battle Royale
Spoiler alert. You've been warned.
So I've been reading Battle Royale. I'm up to page 260-something or so. The book disgusted me at first, but I've really gotten into it now. I find myself interested to see where each arc is going, how each person will act and react, and how each of them dies.
Shuya's going to be the survivor. It doesn't take a mental giant to figure that one out. The book is practically written from his point of view, for fuck's sake. So, by extension, everyone else in the book will die, including Noriko. Not difficult math there. Once you get past that realization, you can see the book for what it is; a study of human dynamics.
Well, I hit a part of the book that pissed me off again, so much so that I had to set it down afterward to reestablish my separation.
Let me say that Mitsuko Souma has earned a place in the list of villains I utterly and completely despise, formerly consisting of Windy (from Suikdoken), Nakago (from Fushigi Yuugi), and someone else whose name escapes me at the moment (maybe I'm thinking of Yawgmoth [from The Thran] or Sephiroth [from Final Fantasy VII, who were once on the list but were eventually removed). Most of my friends know that I like villains and usually pull for them, but let me tell you that I am now very much looking forward to the moment that bitch gets killed...hopefully by Kazuo, if there is any justice.
Which brings me to my point. This book lacks any sense of justice. In fact, it is easily argued that one of the core themes of this book is injustice. Well, for a moment it tricked me good. I was reading the fight between Takako Chisuga and Kazushi Niida, wherein Kazushi is a creepy fucking bastard. I'll spare you the details (intended rape), but he deserved to die. I was also starting to get attached to Takako; I liked her personality. Well, as the odds would have it, despite his superior build and two superior weapons (bow gun and nunchaku), Takako managed to kill him with an ice pick and her bare fucking hands. I was elated.
Then, as fate would have it, Mitsuko Souma, the manipulative bitch that she is, manages to be there as Takako has finished. And she has a pistol that she acquired a little earlier (maybe an hour?) near the residential zone.
No! No fucking way! Goddammit, she just managed to beat that bastard! She can't die now! Not now! my mind screams as I read on. But Mitsuko helps Takako to her feet and they begin chit-chatting, sorta. Alright, maybe they'll stick together for a little while before one of them dies, I think, hoping that Takako will hang around a little longer. Not a fucking chance. As the talk closes, Takako, realizing Mitsuko's intentions, turns and runs. She makes it a short distance before she her attention is cordially requested by three bullets in the back.
I was livid. Okay, so Kazuo is a mindless killing machine running around the island with no fear, a submachine gun, a pistol, and now a pair of grenades. It sucks, but he'll get his. Mitsuko is a manipulative bitch...whatever. I know everyone is going to die (except Shuya, presumably), and it barely bothered me when Mitsuko killed the other three. Hell, they practically deserved it for their own stupidity. But this, killing Takako, that really pissed me off. She had managed a narrow victory, a just victory, only to be gunned down not a minute later by that manipulative two-faced bitch.
How the fuck, on this whole fucking island, do so many students so often manage to run into each other? It's statistically improbable! Not to mention that, just minutes or perhaps an hour before, Mitsuko was near the residential area acquiring a pistol. How the fuck could she be here already? HAX! It was then, upon checking the map at the front of the book, that I realized that the island is only about two and a half kilometers across. The distance between the residential area and Takako's fight is at most four football fields. Goddammit.
When it comes, I will relish every moment of Mitsuko's death. From this day forward, Mitsuko shall be a tainted name in my book, as would be Souma if not for Fruits Basket.
So I've been reading Battle Royale. I'm up to page 260-something or so. The book disgusted me at first, but I've really gotten into it now. I find myself interested to see where each arc is going, how each person will act and react, and how each of them dies.
Shuya's going to be the survivor. It doesn't take a mental giant to figure that one out. The book is practically written from his point of view, for fuck's sake. So, by extension, everyone else in the book will die, including Noriko. Not difficult math there. Once you get past that realization, you can see the book for what it is; a study of human dynamics.
Well, I hit a part of the book that pissed me off again, so much so that I had to set it down afterward to reestablish my separation.
Let me say that Mitsuko Souma has earned a place in the list of villains I utterly and completely despise, formerly consisting of Windy (from Suikdoken), Nakago (from Fushigi Yuugi), and someone else whose name escapes me at the moment (maybe I'm thinking of Yawgmoth [from The Thran] or Sephiroth [from Final Fantasy VII, who were once on the list but were eventually removed). Most of my friends know that I like villains and usually pull for them, but let me tell you that I am now very much looking forward to the moment that bitch gets killed...hopefully by Kazuo, if there is any justice.
Which brings me to my point. This book lacks any sense of justice. In fact, it is easily argued that one of the core themes of this book is injustice. Well, for a moment it tricked me good. I was reading the fight between Takako Chisuga and Kazushi Niida, wherein Kazushi is a creepy fucking bastard. I'll spare you the details (intended rape), but he deserved to die. I was also starting to get attached to Takako; I liked her personality. Well, as the odds would have it, despite his superior build and two superior weapons (bow gun and nunchaku), Takako managed to kill him with an ice pick and her bare fucking hands. I was elated.
Then, as fate would have it, Mitsuko Souma, the manipulative bitch that she is, manages to be there as Takako has finished. And she has a pistol that she acquired a little earlier (maybe an hour?) near the residential zone.
No! No fucking way! Goddammit, she just managed to beat that bastard! She can't die now! Not now! my mind screams as I read on. But Mitsuko helps Takako to her feet and they begin chit-chatting, sorta. Alright, maybe they'll stick together for a little while before one of them dies, I think, hoping that Takako will hang around a little longer. Not a fucking chance. As the talk closes, Takako, realizing Mitsuko's intentions, turns and runs. She makes it a short distance before she her attention is cordially requested by three bullets in the back.
I was livid. Okay, so Kazuo is a mindless killing machine running around the island with no fear, a submachine gun, a pistol, and now a pair of grenades. It sucks, but he'll get his. Mitsuko is a manipulative bitch...whatever. I know everyone is going to die (except Shuya, presumably), and it barely bothered me when Mitsuko killed the other three. Hell, they practically deserved it for their own stupidity. But this, killing Takako, that really pissed me off. She had managed a narrow victory, a just victory, only to be gunned down not a minute later by that manipulative two-faced bitch.
How the fuck, on this whole fucking island, do so many students so often manage to run into each other? It's statistically improbable! Not to mention that, just minutes or perhaps an hour before, Mitsuko was near the residential area acquiring a pistol. How the fuck could she be here already? HAX! It was then, upon checking the map at the front of the book, that I realized that the island is only about two and a half kilometers across. The distance between the residential area and Takako's fight is at most four football fields. Goddammit.
When it comes, I will relish every moment of Mitsuko's death. From this day forward, Mitsuko shall be a tainted name in my book, as would be Souma if not for Fruits Basket.