Battle Royale/YMMV

• Big Name Fan: Quentin Tarantino named this as one of his all-time favorite movies. He would.
• Broken Base: Everyone generally likes the novel, and will typically also like either the film or the manga, but rarely both. Any of the three may be preferred though, and huge arguments are inevitable when trying to posit one version over the other. Especially on the most active forum for it, which is at IMDB. A film forum.
• Complete Monster: Sakamochi/Kamon and Toshinori Oda are considered to be the worst of the lot.
  • Also, Kazushi Niida, a bully who tried to rape one of his class mates and killed a class mate having a mental breakdown.
  • In the manga, Mitsuko's stepfather also counts. While Mitsuko is arguably a Complete Monster herself, his abuse is what caused her to become one. Her mother isn't much better, allowing this to continue and even beating Mitsuko herself. This troper almost cheered when Mitsuko convinced her older boyfriend to kill both of them.
    • In the novel, Mitsuko's mother, who first prostituted her at nine years old, and continued to do so until Mitsuko killed her.
• Contested Sequel
• Covered Up: Unofficial alternate title in the West: "That Manga that's sort of like The Hunger Games but came before it."
• Crosses the Line Twice: The film loves this trope.
  • The most memorable example is Toshinori's death; in the original novel, Kazuo merely shoots him in the face, but in the movie, Kazuo chops his head off with a sword and then stuffs a grenade into his mouth, using the head as a bomb.
  • Kyoichi tries to shoot Shuya, but Shogo blows off his arm. Now most of us would have give up there, but Kyoichi goes for his fallen arm, pries the gun loose with his teeth, and tries again. Only to take a shotgun blast through the gut. At that point, he would probably have tried to throw his entrails at Shogo, but the author decided to let him rest.
  • Another occurs in the film version during Mitsuko's death. Kiriyama shoots her point blank in the chest: she gets back up. He shoots her again: she gets back up. He shoots her again: she gets back up. She finally dies after the fourth shot.
• Cult Classic: The film especially.
• Deus Angst Machina: Mitsuko's past, especially in the novel/movie.
• Die for Our Ship: Kakayo. Well, Takako Chigusa is one of, if not the coolest and most popular female character in the series. Granted, Kayoko does die. Not that it helps Chigusa.
• Draco in Leather Pants: The prevalent fandom attitude towards Mitsuko, who is a backstabber, and murderer (as well as the only student to have killed someone before the Program). May have been designed as such, the author having admitted she's his favourite female character.
• Fanon Discontinuity: Almost (though not quite) universally, the second film. Due to the Broken Base however, all three versions have been hit with this depending on which version is favoured by that particular fan.
• Fan Dumb: Just about anyone who discovered the film after Quentin Tarantino named it the best film since he started directing in 1992 - the only film in his list of 20 he could give a definite rank to. The problem was most people investigating films on the list were his own fans, and so expected something akin to what he would create. Cue massive surges on forums of people complaining that it wasn't gory enough, etc. This has admittedly been a constant since each of the three versions first came out however.
  • Tarantino fans complaining BR isn't gory enough, despite the fact it's far more gory than any of Tarantino's films barring Kill Bill? Yeah, that's some serious Fan Dumb.
  • There's also the Urban Legend that this movie was banned in the US. The reason why it never came to America is covered below in No Export for You. In reality, America has rarely, if ever, banned movies from being shown. This didn't stop rumors from spreading that it was so violent that the American government does not allow it to be shown. Once fans found bootlegs, torrents, or other means to see the film, they realized that it was no more or less gory than your average American slasher flick. This caused some Hype Backlash from people thinking it would be full of Squick.
  • Do not put fans of Battle Royale (novel, film or manga, it doesn't matter) in the same room as fans of The Hunger Games. It never ends well.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: There are a lot of fanfictions dedicated to Shinji and Takako.
• Fanon: Mitsuko is either a Depraved Bisexual or Psycho Lesbian. There is only one implication in the novel as evidence, as Mitsuko obviously prefers men to woman. It's batted about as commonly as "Shuya is the hero" (which is true) however, and fanfiction featuring Mitsuko that don't put her as one of those is all but non-existent. Seemingly even her expies in Original Battle Royales require it.
• Ho Yay: Shinji and Yutaka, Shuya and Shinji, Shuya and Shogo.
  • Let's not forget Mitsuru Numai and his hero-worship of Complete Monster Kazuo.
  • Les Yay: Yumiko and Yukiko, even though they both admit a crush on Shuya. Mitsuko and Takako, when Mitsuko admits she's "maybe a bit of a dyke". Mitsuko then blasts Takako away.
• I Am Not Shazam: The words "Battle Royale" are never uttered once in the original book; the "Alternate Universe" prologue makes it clear that the title is a reference to the kind of conflict the Program involves. In the manga, there's only one easy-to-miss All in The Manual reference to the "Greater Eastasia Combat Experiment 68, also known as the Battle Royale Act".
  • Note that this does not apply to the other film version - there, the colloquial name for the Millenial Education Reform Act is "The Battle Royale Act". The logo also appears to be officially used by the government.
• Internet Backdraft: Expressing an opinion on forums of any kind regarding the proposed, stuck in Development Hell American remake should only be done if you enjoy being ritually disembowelled. Opposing it will get you accusations of being an It's Popular, Now It Sucks guy who fears it becoming mainstream, supporting it makes you a perpetuator of the rubbish Hollywood churns out via conveyor belt these days.
  • And, then there's all the comparing/contrasting it with The Hunger Games.
• Jerkass Woobie: Mitsuko is the epitome of this trope.
• Mary Sue: In the novel and manga: Shuya, Mitsuko, Shinji and Kazuo. Yes, half of the main cast. Be wary of claiming any of the above is/isn't a Sue in any of the three media unless you have either a death wish or an extremely long essay by way of justification. Note that consensus among the fandom seems to be that the film largely removed the Sues, though Mitsuko remains a borderline and the main reason for Kazuo not being one is that he doesn't have enough personality to be considered a character at all.
  • Arguably, Noriko becomes one in the manga, but is far more well rounded and developed in the film and novel.
• Misaimed Fandom: While the story is about the terror of the violent, hopeless situation, a lot of young viewers see it as a cool action flick.
  • Some quasi-sociopath fans seemingly wish they could enter the program with their class.
  • Amazingly, there are fansites dedicated to admiring Kazuo.
• Moral Event Horizon: By default, you are forced to cross it if you want to survive the Program.
  • Kazuo Kiriyama has the most notable crossing, however, because he did it in such a gratuitously cruel and sadistic way.
  • Yuko Sakaki feels she has crossed the Moral Event Horizon when she poisons one of her friends, which causes suspicion and sets off the whole massacre in the lighthouse. When she understands what her action has caused, she is Driven to Suicide.
  • It was, of course, also crossed by the politicians who set up the Program.
  • Kazushi Niida crosses this with his attack on Chigusa in all three versions.
  • If Sakamochi didn't cross it by forcing a junior high school class to slaughter each other and happily telling them the rules, he definitely did when he raped the orphanage caretaker and then cruelly taunted Yoshitoki about it. Until Yoshitoki exploded with rage and got killed.
• Nausea Fuel: Mitsuko's complete mental breakdown and slow death at Kazuo Kiriyama's hands in the manga. Also a bit of a Tear Jerker.
• Nightmare Fuel: Almost every scene towards the end.
• Paranoia Fuel: The premise itself is a wonderful/horrifying example of this trope. You'll never look at your friends the same way again after seeing/reading this.
• Purity Sue: Noriko is considered by some people to be one of these.
• Sequelitis: Battle Royale 2: Requiem, up to and including the hamfisted attempt to tie in the 9/11 attacks. The extended version, Battle Royale 2: Revenge is considered better than Requiem, though not to redeem the worst flaws. May be due to the fact that there is only one novel, that doesn't go beyond the lore of the first movie.
• Squick: The manga does not believe in the Discretion Shot. The novel and film aren't immune from this either, with all three versions of Niida's death being very brutal, and in the film Kazuo finishing off Yumiko by putting the megaphone to her mouth so that her dying moans are audible before firing his Uzi down the length of her torso definitely qualifies.
• Thirty-Sue Pileup: The entire main cast, in the novel. Arguably not changed in the manga, though the film does remove all but Mitsuko as a Mary Sue.
• Too Cool to Live: Shinji Mimura, who, in opinion of many, at least in the manga does better job as a protagonist (in his subplot than the actual main character. Arguably near the end of the story Kawada also qualifies, because if he lived, he'd be overshadowing Shuuya in his victory over The Program.
• Uncanny Valley: Kazuo's expressionless, dead-eyed appearance in the manga.
• The Woobie:
  • Yoshio
  • Megumi was bullied by Hirono in school. Her first scene has her hiding under a table, crying and wanting to go home. The memory of the strawberry tart her mother made for her was especially sad.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: In the film version, Kitano the director borders on this. Sure, he sets up dozens of children to kill each other and even kills two himself, but you can't help but feel sorry for him as he tries to teach those delinquents at the start of the movie.
• Worthy Opponent: YMMV, obviously. But, I think Kiriyama saw Sugimura as this in the manga. Being the first person to significantly damage him. Even when Shuuya was throwing the knife, he was having a Call Back to Hiroki doing the same thing.
• Values Dissonance: Several instances where Japanese cultural ideas that would will be lost on unknowing Western audiences, such as Kitano nonsensically answering a phone call and eating the last cookie from the bag after he's been machine gunned and supposedly dropped dead on the couch. The entire classroom scene also qualifies as it parodies what is a very Japanese style of schooling.
• Villain Sue: Kiriyama is pretty much the definition of this.
  • Mitsuko in all three versions, though a loose translation of her final words in the film means that it's less clear in that. The book and manga go to great lengths to justify her actions on the basis of her Freudian Excuse (see above). The character wants the audience to feel sorry for her, and while her classmates don't fall for it, Takami seemingly does.