Like the earlier Battle Royales, a class of middle school students are picked to compete in fights to the death on an island until there is only one left. The manga follows the point of view of Girl #10 Makoto Hashimoto, an unlucky girl who fears that her class will be chosen to participate in "the program," a mysterious event that forces students to kill each other. Makoto attends Shikanotoride Junior High School. After the encouragement of her best friend Itou Yamamoto and her mother she decides to face the chances. Her fears are supposedly put to rest when word spreads that all 50 Programs had already been executed in the year making them 100% unlikely to participate....


Under the guise of a "study trip," a group of students from Shiroiwa Junior High School in the fictional town of Shiroiwa (Kagawa Prefecture) are gassed on a bus. They awaken in the Okishima Island School on Okishima, an isolated, evacuated island. They learn that they have been placed in an event called the Program. According to the rules, every year since 1947, 42 third-year high school students are isolated, and each student is required to fight to the death until one student remains. Their movements are tracked by metal collars around their necks, which contain tracking and listening devices; if any student should attempt to escape the Program, or enter declared forbidden zones, a bomb will be detonated in the collar, killing the wearer. If no one dies in a 24 hour time period, there will be no winner and all collars will be detonated simultaneously. (Source: Wikipedia) Note: The TokyoPop version was extensively rewritten by Keith Giffen which eventually led to contradictions and plot holes in the later volumes. TokyoPop rereleased the series in 5 omnibus volumes under the name "Battle Royale: Ultimate Edition" from October 16, 2007 to February 10, 2009.

High school students battle each other to the death in the original survival game!
 
Twenty years 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 set up Program 68, a savage military program where Japanese high school students were sent to a remote island and forced to kill each other—the Battle Royale.
 
After being banned for two decades, Program 68 is back, now under the direction of a sinister government artificial intelligence. The troubled and misbehaving kids of Daitoa Academy's Class F have been chosen, armed, and divided into squads, and now must fight each other to the death. Friendships and loyalties will be tested, and only the strongest will survive.
 
(Source: Viz)

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