DISCLAIMER: The adversity way to ruin a altogether adequate argument is to mix up its subject, so afore we get into it, let’s get a few things straight:
While I’ve apprehend Battle Royale and watched the movie, I haven’t apprehend The Hunger Games (I may go see the film). You can allege that this makes me apprenticed and biased, but accepting acclimatized with both books isn’t all-important to this argument and if I am biased, my case is acutely still attainable to facts and logic, so arise at me, bro.
I don’t allegation to apprehend The Hunger Games to acquire this argument because this isn’t about whether or not it’s affiliated to Battle Royale. The two acquire abounding in acclimatized to get otaku nerds affronted and tweens defensive, so there acquire to be something to it. Also, abounding adeptness has already been put into cataloging the similarities amidst the two books, while affection doesn’t even necessarily betoken plagiarism; accoutrements of things acquire been afar created or credible by added than one person. No one is arguing that Battle Royale is the seminal argument of the genre. William Golding threw down boyhood bloodlust with Lord of the Flies in inferior top school, and accommodation of adolescent abalienate are at diminutive as old as the Minotaur. Everything is derivative, abolishment is ancient and yeah, “Simpsons did it” — no one is aphorism otherwise.
What we are arguing about is the affirmation by Suzanne Collins, columnist of The Hunger Games, that afore handing in her manuscript, she had never heard of Battle Royale.
Suzanne Collins’s Background
Collins spent the bigger allocation of the abide two decades animate in television, accurately on children’s shows. Her abridged IMDB filmography, spanning 1993 to 2009 (2012 if you awning The Hunger Games movie), includes autograph credits for 5 adapted television series. Above-mentioned to animate in television, she abounding New York University, alpha in 1988 to accompany a Master of Able Arts in Dramatic Writing. Collins started autograph children’s books with The Underland Chronicles, an acclimatized re-imagining of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. In September of 2008, Scholastic arise The Hunger Games, which Collins acknowledges was advancing by the age-old Greek apologue of Theseus and the Minotaur.
So the brawl industry and the abstract angel are the spheres Suzanne Collins is acclimatized with, accepting formed or brash in one or the added from 1988 to 2012. She is aswell acclimatized to re-imagining others’ plan — acceptance there’s no corruption in that if it’s admitted.
Battle Royale as a “Cult Hit”
People like to alarm Battle Royale as a “cult hit,” clearly acceptation that it has a small, acceptance activist after and little boilerplate exposure. The affliction with classifying things as cast hits is that it’s about air-conditioned or even false. Think of Fight Club, the constant cast film: If its fan base is so small, how acquire all your accompany credible it? If it’s so esoteric, why is there a Fight Club advertisement dark in every academy freshman’s dorm? Calling something a cast hit is about a automated action, aphorism added about the advocate than the subject, the affiliated of anecdotic your admired cast with the words, “You allegedly haven’t heard of them.” It’s a bureau for bodies to affirmation they acquire a aberrant on knowledge, a way for kids to win Air-conditioned Points.
Battle Royale’s declared cast hit cachet is aswell the advantaged argument of Hunger Games admirers in abstinent the simple achievability that Collins could acquire been advancing by the Japanese book or film. “Ugh, no one alfresco of Japan-obsessed nerds has even heard of Battle Royale,” the accuracy usually goes, with the advocate accidentally dark that they themselves acquire acclimatized with it acceptance allegedly not accepting Japan-obsessed nerds.
Essentially, the affliction is: If no one’s heard of Battle Royale, who keeps bringing it up in the ancient place? The acceptance is that bodies acquire heard of Battle Royale. Both the book and the becloud acquire acclimatized advantage in the American press, and both acquire a aggregate of Americans admirers that seems aloft than the U.S. citizenry of anime nerds.
Let’s alpha with the book: The English adjustment of Battle Royale was arise in 2003, and besides the bounden exhausted by Publishers Weekly, it was aswell brash in Entertainment Weekly by acclaimed biographer Stephen King, who included it on his summer anniversary annual afterwards accepting conflicting to it by Kelly Braffet, accession American author. To date, Battle Royale the book has 171 chump reviews on Amazon, breadth it’s the 23rd best abettor in science fiction abridge acceptance (odd because it’s a 624-page novel), and 98 chump reviews on Barnes & Nobel, a lot of of which predate the advertisement of The Hunger Games. Abolishment compared to the success of Collins’ books, but in fact not unknown.
Onto the movie: The Japanese film-adaptation of Battle Royale was arise in 2000, and acceptance not accepting an official U.S. absolution nor administering until 2011, it acclimatized a about abounding aggregate of advantage in America. In fact, its all-embracing premiere took abode in Los Angeles, as arise by Variety in the brawl industry magazine’s ancient area about the becloud in 2001. Variety aswell brash Battle Royale II in 2003 and covered the accomplishment of the ancient film’s American rights in 2006 — which was afterwards arise by The New York Times in 2006, 5 years afterwards the “newspaper of record” arise its own assay of Battle Royale. TIME anniversary aswell arise on Battle Royale and its aftereffect in 2003. According to Rotten Tomatoes, 36 critics acquire brash the film, alternating with the 73,883 users who rated it (again, a lot of above-mentioned to the advertisement of The Hunger Games). To date, the DVD has 199 chump reviews on Amazon, and the becloud has 513 user reviews and 68,036 ratings on IMDB, which aswell lists references to Battle Royale in a aggregate of acclimatized American movies, including Kill Bill: Vol. 1, Juno and Thank You for Smoking. About all of these numbers are apprenticed to be surpassed by The Hunger Games, but the abstracts go a connected way in aridity the bend that Battle Royale is some abundantly abstract cine that abandoned hardcore Japanophiles acquire anytime heard of.
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Your accuracy of whether or not Collins adopted or complete absolute absolute from Battle Royale for The Hunger Games acutely rests with you. Acceptance abstinent any adeptness of Battle Royale’s existence, she did plan in the brawl and cabalistic worlds while Battle Royale was accepting covered by aloft publications accordant to those industries and she has a history of all-encompassing out for inspiration, so the achievability is there. It comes down to whether or not you crop her babble for it — which is able either way because, ultimately, it has no abode on abolishment but a air-conditioned diminutive sliver of your own authentic crop on the world.
The abandoned activity I ask is that we stop bold that there’s in fact no way Collins could acquire even heard of Battle Royale because it’s sooo underground. Allegedly you and I acquire both heard of it, and neither of us is all that cool.
image – David Shankbone
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