Battle Royale: A Change of Seasons

Welcome to the page for Battle Royale: A Change of Seasons, the fan-made sequel to the novel Battle Royale by Koushun Takami, and, canonly, to the movie Battle Royale II: Requiem.

This project stemmed from a sudden thought which occurred to me while watching the movie adaptation:

What would happen if my friends and I were forced to kill one another?

The concept of creating a fictional world of this nature filled me with a kind of visceral excitement at the time. In my rush to grasp and drain every bit of enjoyment at playing God over my classmates, I created a hurried script treatment which virtually mirrored every event in the movie. Though many of the people on MySpace liked it, I realized a while ago that it wasn't as good as it could have been. But this wasn't the spark that set off this new project.

Josh Anderson called me after a brief hiatus of conversational periods and wondered whether I would write a sequel or not. Now, given that everyone is killed at the end of "Battle Royale: Zero", a sequel with myself and Josh would be logically unlikely. I had started another script entitled "Battle Royale: Alternate Beginnings", but, like most of my other works, I failed to complete it and it dwindled into non-existence.

But Josh's insistence that I write a new Battle Royale spurred my thoughts into imagining this world again, returning to the BR universe again in order to give the people in it thrills at seeing their avatars murder each other. This was initially my only directive- stream-of-consciousness writing solely designed to make others indulge in their desires for violence. Later, however, this purpose faded, and was replaced.

I started writing a darkly humorous script entitled "Battle Royale: Terminus Exordium", in which Jeff Goldblum (a sublime actor from Jurassic Park) was the Program administrator, Gabe Cunningham was the main antagonist, and almost everyone spouted bizarre one-liners. Had this treatment continued, I would have produced another carbon-copy of Koushun Takami's visceral masterpiece.

But I did not. I had gotten about fifteen pages in when I had my pivotal epiphany: I should make this into a novel. At the time I started, I hadn't written a true novel in several years, my longest completed one being a 60-page story in sixth grade and a non-completed story which was about 100 pages during the same time. Originally, I was hesitant, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized the potential of a novel.

Yet I hadn't imagined that I would, in a year's time, write a 498 page novel. Over the course of writing the first chapter, several changes began to occur.

In order to accomodate as many people as I could, I multiplied the amount of students in the original story, 42, by 2.5, ending up with 100. Though it was a challenging number to fill, I managed to create a balance between the people I knew during the different stages of my life.

The title was first retained as "Battle Royale: Terminus Exordium", before I switched it to "Battle Royale: Exodus". Then, in a style imitative of such television shows as Degrassi, I thought that, instead of me coming up with contrived, vague chapter names, I would name every chapter after a song, and, in doing so, switched the subtitle. Dream Theater's twenty-three minute epic "A Change of Seasons", with its thematic lyrics, seemed to be a perfect subtitle. Listening to it to draw allusions will be more effective than my textual explanation.

Also, in the beginning, I, consciously or otherwise, mirrored events in the original novel. As I continued through the year, however, I realized that imitation would simply not work. Now that I have completed the novel's first draft, I realize that, instead of making a work paralleling the original, I will analyze the similarities between them and either utilize or reverse them in the next draft.

I admit that this project can be indicative of a possible disturbed mind of the author. Though I can't medically deny that, I would like to maintain the truth of the matter- this, although being a novel of dark concepts and events, is much more than an exploitative work. Mr. Takami's original novel suffered the same criticism, and I can assure you- this isn't mindless violence.

The violence is utilized as a medium in which to convey my interpretations of the effects of paranoia and suspicion on the human mind. It is far from meaningless, as this is simply art imitating life. I've strived to both create a realistic enough environment while gaining input from the people in it in order to provide a multi-collaborational story, if only in essence.

My purpose now in creating this is not merely for yours and my visceral entertainment. It will still be darkly entertaining to most of us, but it will be also used as a vessel to enlighten us on the themes of which it carries. In doing so, I will be creating a two-part series.

The first part will consist of the current draft's major rewrite, which will increase its page count to over 1000 in order to more in-depthly explore its themes while providing connections with as many characters as I can.

The second part, though several people already know its contents, will be kept from my discussion in case of changes.

I would like to thank those of you who stayed with the story from its inception, as well as those who contributed their ideas to this novel's completion and those who supported my cause. Though it may be meaningless, I would like to apologize to those who find offense in this work. I quote Koushun Takami's words in the beginning of his Battle Royale- "I dedicate this work to everyone I love. Even though it might not be appreciated".

For those of you just starting the journey into my tapestry of paranoia, violence, insanity, and achievement, the frail, virgin minds, I welcome you to Battle Royale, and invite you to watch the crimson sunrise.

-Julian McMillan

Battle Royale: A Change of Seasons is now on MySpace: www.myspace.com/br_serial

The first draft of "Battle Royale: A Change of Seasons" was started on Wednesday, July 18, 2007; it was finished on Saturday, July 26, 2008.

Crimson Skyline High School Class A is chosen for a participating section in the Program, a government instigated population control event which abducts the 100 students and places them on an island. They are given random weapons and forced to compete in a literal "battle royale", the goal being to eliminate all but one person in three days. They are tagged with explosive collars to monitor their movements and keep them confined to certain zones on the island, straying from "forbidden zones"- entry into which will detonate their collar. The collars also regulate their numbers- if, at the last hour of the final day, more people than one exist, every collar explodes.

Of course, people react to this in different ways. Some go insane from the stress and paranoia, some go insane with the thirst to kill others, others desire to utilize extreme measures to win,or some try and figure out ways to escape the island. Watching them from a protected location is the administrator Robert Smith (who hates The Cure, ironically), monitoring their actions and delivering apathetic death reports every six hours. However, this Program seems to be deviating from the standard procedures- a replacement instructor, a mysterious Palm Pilot, and the constant threat of the terrorist organization Wild Seven looming over the government may turn the tables of the new Battle Royale.