Salutations, traveler of The Internets! Welcome to William's Bloody Hell, so named after our founder, Sir Bloody William.
He is seen in the likeness above in a rare, 19th century woodcut. This
image was rumoured to have been
commissioned after a bout of unpleasantness
in the White Chapel district of London. Do enjoy your stay and peruse our many, varied offerings, much of which cannot be found elsewhere!
:: Battle Royale by Koushun Takami & Masayuki Taguchi ::
by William the Bloody
WARNING! The series Battle Royale is for mature readers only! This manga series contains extremely graphic depictions of violence including but not limited to: detached retinas, evisceration, gun shot wounds to the face, head, torso and limbs, severed fingers and limbs, bloody and gory stab wounds, exposed brain matter, and the dead bodies of the victims of such violence. Also! Battle Royals has graphic depictions of sexual content including but not limited to: full frontal nudity (both male and female), masturbation (both male and female), teenagers in sexual situations, teen prostitution, groping, sexual abuse on a child, and disturbing rape scenes.
In the not-too-distant-future, Japan: It’s time to watch the country's most popular reality television series The Program! Yes, every few months our government will kidnap an entire ninth grade class, place them in a secluded and closed off area, and force them to fight to the death until only one is left for our entertainment! How is it that they can force them to fight, you ask? Why, by wiring them all with explosives, of course! This serves the dual purpose of keeping them within the combat zone boundaries (leaving will trigger explosion) as well as the added threat that if 24 hours pass and no one dies ALL of the students will be blown up. How can the general population stand for this? Well, when you live in a near totalitarian nation, it’s very hard not to go along and also, people watch. It is the highest rated show on the air. You may not think that 15 year olds in mortal combat would be an interesting or a fair right. I mean a petite girl stands little chance against an athletic boy, right? Wrong! The government, in its wisdom, has come up with the ultimate equalizer and added entertainment value: each student is issued a duffle bag which contains food and water rations, a map of the “game” area, a compass, and a random weapon! Imagine that same tiny teen girl only now armed with an automatic weapon! Suddenly, she has the advantage, regardless of physical prowess! Weapons can range from edged weapons such as hunting knives, machetes, and crossbows, to firearms running the gamut from a double derringer all the way up to a fully automatic AK-47, and random items in between like boomerangs, poison, and kitchen utensils. It’s the ultimate fight to the death! Oh sure, you’ll have some students who will do their best not to “play”, by running away or hiding, but it is worth the watch for those who want to play, and play to win!
On this season’s broadcast of The Program it’s Shiro Iwa Junior High School – Grade 9/Class B, forty-two students. All must compete until one “winner” remains.
The Good: Okay, yes, forty-two students. I know what you’re thinking, that this is going to be just a mindless blood bath, slaughtering students violently for “entertainment.” You couldn’t be more wrong. I was pleasantly surprised that given the large number of students, more than half of them are well fleshed out, actual characters, and not just fodder for a high body count. Sure, there are a few who die early on and off panel who we don’t really get to know, but more often than not we’ll get treated to their life story and background, or at least a couple of choice defining moments in their lives leading up to the choices they make on The Program. And believe me when I say it isn’t all “kill or be killed” or “get them before they get me” mentality either. The variety of responses of the characters put in this sort of situation runs the entire spectrum and make the group dynamic very believable. Think about the situation. A ninth grade class. 15 year old students. Do you remember your ninth grade class? These are all people you have gone to school with pretty much for nine years. Seen them in the halls, played sports with them, studied with them. Was your best friend in your class? Girlfriend? Boyfriend? Secret crush? Now they are people you are expected to kill in order to survive. Could you do it? Kill your best friend? Would you trust your best friend not to kill you? This series accounts for all of these things. Some students try to find their friends to watch each other’s backs. Others their boyfriend or girlfriend. Some are lone wolves. Others run to hide and cry. Some are using this as an opportunity to live out every rape and violent fantasy they’ve ever had. A couple choose to kill themselves rather than wait to be hunted down. A few outright crack under the pressure and go more than a little crazy. Then there are those who are going to play and play to win. And still there is our lead character Shuuya Nanahara who wants to believe the best in everyone, that these are his friends, no one has to play, and that there has to be some way to beat The Program. Nearly every possible reaction is covered and well suited to each character. Yes, the ones who live longer get more characterization than those who perished early on, and yet even they can have deaths that really pull at you because it is so easy to believe as valid. There are more than a couple of deaths in this series that really got to me personally and even made me misty in the eyes, and some of them were for characters who only got one flashback sequence to tell me who they were as people. But it was enough. The writing, therefore, is utterly fantastic. But that is not to imply that the art is anything less! No, the art, too, is terrific. Forty-two students, and they all have their own looks as well as personalities. And most of them have unique appearances without turning into over accentuated caricatures. Yeah, there are some fairly similar in looks, but then, didn’t you go to school with a couple of kids who you always got mixed up with each other? The art excels in every other aspect, too. The expressions are unmistakable, and the rendering of the violence is graphic and unapologetic. The detailing is positively outstanding, and its everywhere; this guy draws it all from flawless firearms to blown up automobiles and never once scrimping on the backgrounds. This series is truly the perfect marriage between writer and artist.
The Bad: Well, the first view of just how graphic this series is going to be took me off guard, as volume 1 has both several people shot in the face and a rape scene, and I wasn’t aware how far the book was going to take it. Once I realized what exactly this series was “about” it didn’t bother me anymore, but if you’re not one to stomach this sort of graphic violence and sometimes disturbing sexual situations, you really ought not to read this. Also, the guy who is in charge of The Program uses some awful, awful sexually suggestive language throughout, which really wasn’t my cup of tea AT ALL, but I suppose it was a necessity to the character.
Overall, I love this series. It blew me away with how in depth the majority of the characters were, considering the sheer number of them, and their unique personalities and responses to be shoved onto The Program were an amazing cross section of reality. The fantastic and detailed art work only adds to an already incredible read. I remember the first time I read it, the whole series wasn’t out yet and I had to wait long intervals in between volumes. When I finally got the next book, I was reading it wide eyed and white knuckled. I have since loaned it out twice and got rave reviews from each. Everyone should read it if they can handle the graphic content.
A+ all the way, baby!!
