Battle Royale: Angels' Boarder by Koushun Takami

A side-story written by the original Battle Royale author Koushun Takami has just been released and distributed by Viz. I picked it up as soon as it was available. Although I haven't read all the Battle Royale manga (considering it's long out of print for now) but of course I know the story well. An entire 9th grade class is chosen to participate in "the program". The program is a winner kills all death race on a remote island off the coast of Japan. This story centers around the young girls who join forces and stake out a hiding spot in a lighthouse. This gives further insight into the inner workings of those characters while revealing a little bit more about the government of this world. It's pretty creepy.

Even if you haven't read the manga (which is easier to find digitally pirated than in print I'm afraid) this story will still be a great read. I found some of the ideas extremely intriguing. In the story, no one knows for certain why the country chooses to conduct these test on a regular basis. Why should the country loose so many of it's youth. There is a presented idea in this story that perhaps a nation is only truly united when it suffers together. There is a shocking and scary truth behind that. Terrifying really.