'Battle Royale' vs. 'The Hunger Games'

Battle Royale is a 1999 Japanese book written by Koushun Takami. It takes place in a alternate reality Japan ruled by a totalitarian government. Each year a class of 42 students is chosen to participate in "The Program" which is a winner take all fight to the death. The winner of the games is set up for the rest of their life by the government. The Hunger Games is a 2008 young adult novel written by Suzanne Collins. It takes place in a futuristic North America in the wake of WWIII. A totalitarian government rules the region from a large city in the Rocky Mountains. Each year one girl and one boy is randomly selected from the 12 districts surrounding the capitol to participate in "The Hunger Games" which is a winner take all fight to the death. The winner of the games is set up for the rest of their life by the government.

I liked both of these books. Battle Royale more so than The Hunger Games. But as I read The Hunger Games it became clearer and clearer how much of a blatant rip off it is. The similarities are noticeable even in my brief descriptions of the books and they just get deeper. It brings up two points of interest.

1. Cultural Appropriation- The west has a long history of co-opting, bastardising, and marketing Eastern culture. Why do we feel the need to constantly re-create as opposed to create? There are constant re-makes, re-boots, re-imaginings, sequels, spin-offs, and adaptations but very little original material. This speaks to me of a lack of creativity on our part. We don't have ideas so we take others idea's alter them and then reproduce them. The other thing that really bothers me is that there's never any nod to the source material. The Hunger Games never gives any credit to what's gone before it. Someone had that idea 10 years ago. The Hunger Games is very popular and rightfully so, it's a good fun read. But I don't understand how huge it's blown up and how ignored Battle Royale is. The plot and character similarities are startling. I don't mind that everyone has heard of The Hunger Games, I mind them not having heard of Battle Royale.

2. Artistic Inspiration/Plagiarism- Someone has said that all stories have already been written. All characters, themes, ideas, and scenarios have already been used not once but many times. So anyone creating art of some kind is already copying someone else whether they know it or not. I don't know if I buy that but I don't know if it's wrong to start with someone else's idea. If you can improve upon it, change it, make it you're own, you're just furthering artistic expression. Maybe. One of my favorite authors Jonathan Lethem wrote an interesting article about this "The ecstasy of influence: A plagiarism." He makes an aggressive case that plagiarizing or 'borrowing' from other artists in fact advances art because it creates more art and is therefore accessible to larger amounts of people. If someone creates something which inspires someone else which inspires someone else, we're building, we're progressing. He ends the article by offering up all his creative works for copy and re-creation. Needless to say I'm of two minds about this. All I would ask is, if you've read The Hunger Games and enjoyed it, do yourself a favor and check out...

Battle Royale