Obvious Spoiler Alert

Having watched Battle Royale for the first time the other day, it shocked me to find that some people consider Hunger Games (HG) to have ripped off Battle Royale (BR). What blasphemy. They are totally different films and I can show you why. First of all, BR ends with our heroes on a boat while HG ends in a train.

I admit that the general concept may have some similarities. In BR, a random class of 40 students are thrown on an island and to fight until the last one standing. In HG 24 tributes from districts are randomly selected and have to fight to be the last Man standing. However, I rebute this with the fact that BR ended on a boat while HG ended on a train.

In BR the reasons for the game is to punish youth violence for residents in the midst of a recession. The HG came as a result of violent revolution, affecting those in poverty. But BR ended on a boat while the hunger games ended on a train.

Maybe, if we focus on some of the outside characters, we can see the differences. In HG we had Effie happily explaining the games in a cheery manner, while in BR, a cheery girl in a video happily explained the Royale in a cheery manner. The HG gamesmakers Plutarch and Seneca preferred our protagonists. Seneca ended up dead for his role in the games. In BR, former teacher Kitano prefers the protagonists (he even has a picture painted). Kitano ended up dead in his role. I hope that the differences are clear now and that its easy to see that these films are not the same as BR ends in a boat and HG ends in a train.

Surely the protagonists are different. Well, in HG we have Katniss who starts from a disadvantage of being from district 12. She falls in love with Peeta who is also from 12. He is a whimp who doesn’t want to kill anybody. In stark contrast, in BR we start with Norika who starts from a disadvantage of having bincoluars for her weapon. She falls in love with Shuya who only has a lid. He is a whimp who doesn’t want to kill anybody. These differences for the suckers who can’t tell, make the films totally different, especially with the fact that BR ends on a boat and HG ends on a train.

And what of the other characters? Well HG introduces us to volunteer career tributes such as Cato. Meanwhile BR only gives us a volunteer fighter in Kiriyama with his cool haircut and SMG. BR also gives us a returning champion who sacrifices himself for the cause in Kawada. In HG2, we meet Finnick who is totally different as a returning tribute who sacrifices himself for the cause in HG4. There is also a psycho girl, Mitsuko, in BR who loves killing people. In HG a psycho girl cuts her teeth into fangs. Still, they’re totally different and I don’t think I need to explain why.

As they fall in love, you worry that Katniss or Peeta may have to die. Thankfully, the HG allows both to survive. BR makes you worry that Norika or Shuya may have to die. Thankfully BR allows both to survive. While this is a minor similarity in the grand scheme of things, the films are clearly very different due to BR ending on a boat and HG ending on a train.

While there may be similarities between HG and BR there are very clear differences between the two pieces. At least Hunger Games didn’t make a sequel about our heroes leading a revolution trying to bring down the government otherwise that would be a real copy…