Is The Hunger Games so different from Battle Royale?

[Queen Michael]

The Hunger Games is Battle Royale. For pussies.
And racists...if you come to think about it.

How's that last part?

I might be wrong here, but I think he meant that it's Battle Royale but with a lower proportion of non-whites.

So having an all Asian cast isn't racist but an all White cast is?

I don't really think that the Hunger Games is for racists, but to answer your question as s eriously as I can: Yes. Japan isn't as ethincally diverse, so having only Japanese people is somehting you can do without trying to exclude other races, but in American productions taking place in North America, it's strange if there are only white people. It takes an actual decision not to feature any other races. Unless there's some in-story explanation, or the Hunger Games does feature non-caucasian races, of course, whoch it's perfectly possible that it might do. I haven't read it or seen it, so I can't tell.

tl;dr: Hunger Games and Battle Royale are really similar. So, how did Hunger Games get so popular, especially when Battle Royale is better?

Because it was originally written as a manga and the movie was never officially released in the states?

Basically, because it's foreign.

It wasn't originally written as a manga; it was a novel that was made into a manga and a movie.

 

[Queen Michael]

The Hunger Game and Battle Royal both took their core concept from Greek myth, so calling either a rip off doesn't really seem fair (unless you really want to go back to whoever wrote the story of the minotaur). Personally I really liked The Hunger Games precisely because it does focus on the politics of the situation and on the relationships between the characters.

Director Kinji Fukasaku has said that he based this movie on his experiences in World War II Japan, where he worked in a factory that was regularly bombed by Allied aircraft and many of his fellow workers were killed on their first or second day on the job and he never got to know any of them.

But that's just the movie version, not the original novel.

 

[Shadu]

I haven't seen or read the Hunger Games, but I would imagine it got so popular because of two reasons.

1. It's in English. Let's face it, in countries that speak English, English movies/books are more popular, right or wrong.

2. It targetted the correct demographic. The Hunger Games targetted the teen demographic, and that demographic typically pulls in others.

Right or wrong, that's pretty much the way I see it. Battle Royale is edgier and in a language most people have to read subtitles for. The general population don't want to bother with subtitles. That's why we get dubs for anime, and even live action movies.

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

Battle Royale never got an official Western release, so only nerds have heard of it.

Apparently the author of the Hunger Games has been asked about this and alleges that she's never read or heard of BR, which I find believable. What I find somewhat less believable is that she hadn't heard of, read or seen The Running Man, which has a similar if not identical plot.

Then again, here's a plot summary I'd like you to guess the book of:

Black haired green eyed young child unaware of magical heritage goes to a school teaching them magic. They aren't the best student in the class and often find themselves getting into trouble but still managing to save the school once a book with alarming regularity. Antoagonists come in the form of a blonde elitist from an old magical family with lots of money and a sarcastic and mean potions teacher who unfairly favours the blonde adversary and who everyone hates. Help comes in the form of the hero's two friends, one of whom who is much cleverer than the other two, but lacks some of the social graces of her friends. The other friend is taller than the other two and somewhat thin and gangly, but makes up for it by being the fun comic relief for the other two. Also, the kindly old head-teacher is on her side, which kind of helps keep her from getting expelled.

Spoiler

That's right! It's The Worst Witch by Jill Murphy, published in 1974 and apparently never read by JK Rowling despite being almost exactly the same book.

Writers steal all the time, sometimes they do it obviously, sometimes they do it by a sort of popcultural osmosis.

Frankly, I'm ignoring the Hunger Games and everything related to it. It's not like Harry Potter, it's not going to last, and it doesn't have anywhere near the appeal to adults which HP had. I reckon it's going to be like Twilight, really big for a few years, but then when everyone into it now grows up it'll fall out of favour.

 

[DudeistBelieve]

The Hunger Games is Battle Royale. For pussies.
And racists...if you come to think about it.

I'm guessing you haven't read the third book then?

Spoiler

Explody explody children BOOM

Anyway, what sets this apart from Battle Royale is the plot really. I quite enjoyed Battle Royale but I still liked Hunger Games more because I was far more invested in the characters, and it didn't leave me with so many arbitrary questions.

What? Really?

Maybe its because I read the manga before reading the book, but I was heavily invested in Shuya and Noriko surviving and the pure badass awesomeness of Shogo Kawada.

Shogo Kawada would kill the fuck out of the hunger games girl.

 

[RoBi3.0]

Ok, this is just me wanting to get a general opinion from the strongly-opinionated people of the Escapist Community. As I'm sure many of you are aware, The Hunger Games movie released today/tonight. For those of you who don't know the plot, it focuses on a bunch of kids being thrown together (by their government) and told to kill each other in order to earn supplies for their respective villages. I read it, didn't like it because it focused less on fighting/killing and more on the romance between characters, along with the politics behind the "game" itself.

On the other hand, you have Battle Royale. The plot of the story is... there are a bunch of kids who are thrown together (by their government) and told to kill each other in order to survive. Last person standing wins. In the book, it's described as originally being a way to keep down the population, while also being a source of sick televised entertainment. A movie was made based off the book, but it received a relatively poor reception. They even made a sequel, which did worse.

Now, to me, these books seem really similar. I liked Battle Royale significantly better than The Malnourished Games. However, with all the hype due to the upcoming movie, everyone's fanatic about it. Barely anybody I talk to has even heard of Battle Royale. I feel that it should have more recognition, especially if such a similar movie is so popular. So, my question is: what's so different about the Hunger Games? If there is no difference, how'd it get so popular? Escapist Community, any thoughts?

tl;dr : Hunger Games and Battle Royale are really similar. So, how did Hunger Games get so popular, especially when Battle Royale is better?

To provide a short answer it as written by I assume an American and published from Americans. While I believe Battle Royale transcends nationality it never picked up mainstream success because of its East-Asia centric nature. Also the movie was a very poorly dome book adaptation. It complete change the motivations of several main characters which killed a lot of the tone that made the book so powerful. Also the movie was done by a Japanese studio focusing on a Japanese audience. Most Americans hate doing two things 1. reading subtitles and 2.Trying to see things through a non-American prospective.

Sorry that was not a short answer, but to be fair I could have went on a lot longer.

 

[burymagnets]

It has a gratuitous romance thrown in? Because the protagonist needs a motivation other than, oh I don't know - survival instinct? Sounds like tween trash to me.

However I am going to see it this weekend so I'll then be able to compare the two in more depth.

No the Romance was played up for the capital spectators (the tributes can be sent aid packages while in the arena, but you need sponsors to pay for them) The two leads had only met once before they were chosen as tributes, although Peeta really IS in love with Katniss.

There's a romantic relationship at the centre of Battle Royale too, it's just... realistically portrayed.

Hunger games is very tweeny, but its not bad, its just tweeny.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

I haven't read The Hunger Games yet, but I really enjoyed Battle Royale. There's a third series that's pretty similar to it as well, a seinen manga called Btoom!. Instead of a bunch of kids thrown on an island by a government to kill each other, it's a bunch of people of all ages nominated by people who hate them to be taken to an island by an evil corporation and kill each other while following the rules of the fictional videogame Btoom!, which is best described as Halo with all of the weapons replaced by various types of grenades, and a ridiculously cool radar mechanic that I'd like to see implemented in a real game.

 

[Mebulous]

The Hunger Game and Battle Royal both took their core concept from Greek myth, so calling either a rip off doesn't really seem fair (unless you really want to go back to whoever wrote the story of the minotaur). Personally I really liked The Hunger Games precisely because it does focus on the politics of the situation and on the relationships between the characters.

Director Kinji Fukasaku has said that he based this movie on his experiences in World War II Japan, where he worked in a factory that was regularly bombed by Allied aircraft and many of his fellow workers were killed on their first or second day on the job and he never got to know any of them.

But that's just the movie version, not the original novel.

oh I thought we were talking movies, sorry :0

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

The core plot of the books is, from what I understand (not having read either battle royal or any of the hunger games series) but the world of the two is very different. While the titular battle of battle royale is merely for the amusement of depraved adults, the hunger games represent a cultural domination on the part of the aristocracy that subjugates the working classes and makes them sacrifice their best and brightest children for a shot at prosperity.

If that doesn't seem like a big enough difference to you, well... shut up, girls are finally flipping out over a series with a better moral than Twilight. Don't ruin it.

Spoiler: spoilers for Battle Royale, but the quoted post completely misread it

The battle in Battle Royale was completely about keeping the population subjugated. It was used as a way to keep people from realizing the value of a human life, and also to keep them in fear of having something like that happen to them. The goal was to have that big piece of brutality out in the open, so that smaller brutalities went unnoticed.

Needless to say, the "enjoyment of the adults" aspect only went as far as a few high level party members in the totalitarian government holding a betting pool. For the rest of it, the subjugation was the point.

 

[Queen Michael]

The Hunger Game and Battle Royal both took their core concept from Greek myth, so calling either a rip off doesn't really seem fair (unless you really want to go back to whoever wrote the story of the minotaur). Personally I really liked The Hunger Games precisely because it does focus on the politics of the situation and on the relationships between the characters.

Director Kinji Fukasaku has said that he based this movie on his experiences in World War II Japan, where he worked in a factory that was regularly bombed by Allied aircraft and many of his fellow workers were killed on their first or second day on the job and he never got to know any of them.

But that's just the movie version, not the original novel.

oh I thought we were talking movies, sorry :0

We are; I just meant that the memories of the director can't have been the original inspiration for the story.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

The Hunger Game and Battle Royal both took their core concept from Greek myth, so calling either a rip off doesn't really seem fair (unless you really want to go back to whoever wrote the story of the minotaur). Personally I really liked The Hunger Games precisely because it does focus on the politics of the situation and on the relationships between the characters.

Director Kinji Fukasaku has said that he based this movie on his experiences in World War II Japan, where he worked in a factory that was regularly bombed by Allied aircraft and many of his fellow workers were killed on their first or second day on the job and he never got to know any of them.

But that's just the movie version, not the original novel.

oh I thought we were talking movies, sorry :0

We are; I just meant that the memories of the director can't have been the original inspiration for the story.

There's an afterward by the author in my copy of the book. If I'm remembering this right, he was inspired by two things: one, his love of pro wrestling (no, really), and two, his annoyance at just how strong of a cultural value conformity was in Japan. The book was his idea of what would happen if a totalitarian government ever arose in Japan; he felt like his own culture had such a strong group think going that such a government would never collapse from within. The general plot was his way of squeezing a battle royale from pro-wrestling (I think it's called royal rumble in the west these days) into that setting.

 

[Mebulous]

The Hunger Game and Battle Royal both took their core concept from Greek myth, so calling either a rip off doesn't really seem fair (unless you really want to go back to whoever wrote the story of the minotaur). Personally I really liked The Hunger Games precisely because it does focus on the politics of the situation and on the relationships between the characters.

Director Kinji Fukasaku has said that he based this movie on his experiences in World War II Japan, where he worked in a factory that was regularly bombed by Allied aircraft and many of his fellow workers were killed on their first or second day on the job and he never got to know any of them.

But that's just the movie version, not the original novel.

oh I thought we were talking movies, sorry :0

We are; I just meant that the memories of the director can't have been the original inspiration for the story.

Unless, of course, you are/were like me and ignorant of it being a book previous to being a movie. In which case it is very plausible for the memories of a director to be an original inspiration for a story. Again, sorry for the mix-up, as I read that quote years ago when I first watched that movie.

 

[DaWaffledude]

You said it yourself. Battle Royale is about the fighting and THG is much more about the characters and the politics. IMO they're both equally valid appproaches.

Also, I'm getting pretty sick to death of people comparing Battle Royale to THG. They have the same premise. I get it.

No need to bring it up every 5 seconds.

 

[PureChaos]

when i heard the plot of Hunger Games i did think 'that sounds a lot like Battle Royale'. hope it's as good

 

[Dejawesp]

The problem with Battle Royale is the same problem that the Japanese version of "The Ring" had that all actors are young Asians, same age range, same hair colour, same eye colour, basically the same size and build and you can't tell who is who unless one of them has a beard. Then he's the guy with the beard and everyone else just blends together.

 

[guitarsniper]

The difference is that The Mildly Peckish Games is basically Battle Royale dumbed down for people who really probably wouldn't like Battle Royale. Although I will say with absolute sincerity that I really hope that it does better at being "That Movie" than the Twilight movies. I'm definitely a fan of having our young female lead characters pine and be confused about relationships AND SHOOT THINGS than just pine and be confused about relationships.

just my 2 cents.

 

[draconiansundae]

I've been asking this question endlessly since I heard about the Hunger Games. However no one I know who has actually read the books has even heard of Battle Royale.