What I Liked
I read this book for the first time a few weeks after I read The Hunger Games. Instead of being brought into the plagiarism debate that I encountered later, I was introduced to Battle Royale when a friend of mine said, "You like the Hunger Games trilogy? You'll like this one too." And that's how I prefer to see the two books: complementary, but different.

While The Hunger Games is about the consequences of war with a focus on character relationships, Battle Royale is almost exclusively about the psychology behind what could cause a bunch of children to slaughter each other. The big, bad government is explored much less than the reactions of each student to the Program. Another difference from THG is that the children in BR aren't strangers. They are all friends from the same class in school. BR is in third person omniscient, and while some characters are sympathetic, the reader is given a significant distance from them. Leaving the novel, I felt little sorrow over almost every character's death, while in THG, there are strong emotional ties to the main characters (and a much greater difference between the "bad guys" and the "good guys"). The concept of young people fighting to the death is haunting, but Koushun Takami takes it on in unforgettable style.

Spoiler

The most similar scene to The Hunger Games, in my opinion, was: "'Whether you meet Kayoko Kotohiki or not,' Shogo said, 'if you want to see us, make a fire somewhere and burn raw wood to get some smoke going. Make two fires. Of course, leave as soon as you make them because you'll only attract attention. And make sure you don't cause a fire. Once we see that, we'll make this call every fifteen minutes, say, for fifteen seconds. Try to find us by following this sound.' He pointed to the bird call." So similar to Rue, her whistle, and the attempt to distract the others with a fire. I'm not saying it's plagiarism. It's probably coincidence, but I found the two scenes strikingly similar.

The ending was fantastic. I was completely blown away.

What I Didn't Like
I can understand why Battle Royale was so controversial. Most of the violence is justified. Why read a book about children fighting to the death if you aren't prepared to read about children dying? However, at times I had to put the book down because the gore made me feel so squeamish. Mentions of rape became borderline exploitative at certain points.

Spoiler

An example would be the scene with Takako, as well as this quote: "Well, like Mr. Hayashida, she was very uncooperative. They both didn't accept your assignment, so in order to silence her, well, I had to..." Sakamochi said calmly," ...rape her. Oh, don't worry. It's not like she's dead."

The novel has been translated into English from Japanese, so there were obviously some awkward transitions between the two languages. There were some cultural differences that I had trouble understanding, and the dialogue often came across as cheesy. The similar Japanese names also made it even harder to juggle the 42 students. (One scene had a Yukie, Yuko, and Yuka!) Due to these things, I had trouble getting into the book, but it is a captivating read if one puts the effort into reading it.

There were a few world-building issues that bothered me. Again, this is a big difference between Battle Royale and The Hunger Games. There is talk in Battle Royale about a population shortage in the country. However, they kill something like 2,000 junior high students each year from the Program. No wonder the country is dying out. It doesn't make sense to systematically slaughter twenty thousand young citizens each decade in a country that is actively trying to repopulate itself. Surely it would be just as effective to hold only a few Programs each year.