Shuya Nanahara
Main article: Shuya Nanahara
Assigned weapon: Army Knife (novel and manga); Pot lid (film)
Boy #15 Shuya Nanahara (七原秋也 Nanahara Shūya?)
is the primary protagonist. He has witnessed a good deal of troubling
events throughout his life. His father was killed by the government for
struggling against the regime, and his mother died while he was in third
grade. When the rest of his family rejected him, Shuya was put in an
orphanage. He is willing to trust others, not wanting to take part in
the Battle Royale program. He tries several times to rally fellow
students in an attempt to escape, but fails. Consequently, he narrowly
escapes death at the hands of his classmates on several occasions. Shuya
is a self-proclaimed "rock star", listening to and playing rock 'n'
roll music in spite of the ban on the genre. Shuya's favorite artist is
Bruce Springsteen. After the death of his best friend Yoshitoki, he vows
to protect Yoshitoki's crush, Noriko, in his stead. Shuya survives the
contest and escapes. In the manga version he emigrates to the United
States.
In the English manga he has the nickname "Shu."
In the original novel Shuya develops an anger and feels remorseless when he kills soldiers on the boat. In the manga, Masayuki Taguchi
altered Shuya's personality so the characters could differentiate
themselves, as he believed the serialization of the manga requires more
of this aspect than other mediums such as novel and film. Taguchi
described Shuya as developing a justice-oriented personality like "the
character of a shonen
manga." As Taguchi developed Shuya's pacifistic characteristic, he
decided to change the ending and allow for Shuya to spare the soldiers
in the boat. Taguchi somewhat felt that Shuya pulled him into the story.[1]
Kills: Tatsumichi Oki (accident); Unspecified number of soldiers (novel); Kitano (film); Kazuo Kiriyama (manga)
Main article: Shuya Nanahara
Assigned weapon: Army Knife (novel and manga); Pot lid (film)
Boy #15 Shuya Nanahara (七原秋也 Nanahara Shūya?)
is the primary protagonist. He has witnessed a good deal of troubling
events throughout his life. His father was killed by the government for
struggling against the regime, and his mother died while he was in third
grade. When the rest of his family rejected him, Shuya was put in an
orphanage. He is willing to trust others, not wanting to take part in
the Battle Royale program. He tries several times to rally fellow
students in an attempt to escape, but fails. Consequently, he narrowly
escapes death at the hands of his classmates on several occasions. Shuya
is a self-proclaimed "rock star", listening to and playing rock 'n'
roll music in spite of the ban on the genre. Shuya's favorite artist is
Bruce Springsteen. After the death of his best friend Yoshitoki, he vows
to protect Yoshitoki's crush, Noriko, in his stead. Shuya survives the
contest and escapes. In the manga version he emigrates to the United
States.
In the English manga he has the nickname "Shu."
In the original novel Shuya develops an anger and feels remorseless when he kills soldiers on the boat. In the manga, Masayuki Taguchi
altered Shuya's personality so the characters could differentiate
themselves, as he believed the serialization of the manga requires more
of this aspect than other mediums such as novel and film. Taguchi
described Shuya as developing a justice-oriented personality like "the
character of a shonen
manga." As Taguchi developed Shuya's pacifistic characteristic, he
decided to change the ending and allow for Shuya to spare the soldiers
in the boat. Taguchi somewhat felt that Shuya pulled him into the story.[1]
Kills: Tatsumichi Oki (accident); Unspecified number of soldiers (novel); Kitano (film); Kazuo Kiriyama (manga)