Battle Royale

Copyright

© 1999 Koushun Takami. English translation

© 2003 by Yuji Oniki/VIZ Media, LLC.

All rights reserved.

First published in Japan by Ota Shuppan in 1999

“Born To Run” by Bruce Springsteen.

Copyright © 1975 Bruce Springsteen (ASCAP).

All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission.

Excerpt from HOMAGE TO CATALONIA by George Orwell, copyright 1952 and renewed 1980 by Sonia Brownell Orwell, reprinted by permission of Harcourt, Inc.

Editorial acknowledgment: Tomo Machiyama

No unauthorized reproduction of any portion of this book is permitted without written consent of the publisher. The stories, characters, institutions, and incidents mentioned in this book are entirely fictional. Any resemblance is purely coincidental.

Published by VIZ Media, LLC

295 Bay Street

San Francisco, CA 94133

Printed in the U.S.A.

ISBN 1-56931-778-X

First printing, February 2003