Spot the Differences: Kazuo Kiriyama

Kazuo Kiriyama is the main antagonist of Battle Royale, racking up the highest kill count in all mediums of the story. While he is unarguably one of the top fan favorites, his character also shows noticeable differences among the three mediums: novel, manga, and film, which more or less change his character. 


Appearance- 

The novel and manga versions of Kiriyama show the most similarities, while the film goes completely off on another tangent. 

In the novel and manga, Kiriyama has his famous slicked black hair, a defining characteristic of the Kiriyama family. He wears a completely passive expression throughout the entire program, but has a handsome and well-defined face. In the novel, Mitsuru mentions that while he is part of the Kiriyama family, he has never seen Kiriyama smile. 



The only difference seen here is that in the novel, Kiriyama is described (by Mitsuru) as being on the shorter side, but scary nonetheless. In the manga, he has very long proportions and seems to be among the tallest of the Kiriyama family, even in the class. It makes sense that since the manga version emphasizes the visual aesthetics of the characters, the artists would depict Kiriyama as the stunningly handsome but emotionless character. They even take the time to care about the way the light shines on him, or that his coat remains perfectly draped on his shoulders even though he's somersaulting in the air. It's pretty ridiculous looking, but eh... it's cool.  

The height thing sort of takes away from Kazuo's original novel description of being "on the shorter side, but still scary," which I found to be one the best descriptions about him. 

I also do not recall the novel describing Kiriyama as having long, shoulder-length hair (I may be wrong), but that's not necessarily something to harp on. I mean, who cares?

Film Kiriyama shows the most differences, almost to the point where he can be seen as an entirely separate character (though, of course there are additional reasons for that besides his appearance). The novel must have emphasized the fact that Kiriyama had slicked back hair over a thousand times, but that description is thrown out the window once you see film Kiriyama.

Rather than the famous slicked back hair, Kiriyama has probably the exact opposite: large frizzy orange hair. Since he is now a transfer student fresh to the class of Shiroiwa students, and Mitsuru was the one who introduced novel and manga Kiriyama to the whole slicked back do, it sort of makes sense that the film directors can say "Hey! Let's just do what we want with this one since there is no Kiriyama family!" Even so, it's still kind of difficult to imagine the original Kiriyama we know and love would think that hair was a good idea. Kiriyama was all about being refined and well put-together. Sure, he does most things on a whim, but... really....? 

Now to what is most important: the expressions. Since film Kiriyama had no lines whatsoever, all we can go on is his appearance and his expressions. This is where film Kiriyama completely strays from the other two Kiriyama versions. 

He smiles like a complete maniac. In the beginning, he is more or less expressionless, but when he has the showoff with Mitsuko, all things change. We know that novel and manga Kiriyama participated in the program solely decided on a coin toss, but by this Kiriyama we can assume he actually likes killing the others... like really likes it. 



Personality-

Again, novel and manga Kiriyama are pretty similar, but unlike the appearance comparison, the differences are a little bigger. They both have the Kiriyama family standing behind them, but let's start with debriefing about novel Kiriyama.

Novel Kiriyama was partially lobotomized so he acts on a whim. One day, he decides to learn how to fight like a complete expert, the next he learns how to paint, the following day he learns how to master the violin. He throws the painting and the violin in the garbage, and barely uses his fighting skills unless needed (like when he beat up the guys beating up Mitsuru because they were disturbing his painting time). 

Oh, yeah, and he's a complete genius, too. Even though it's arguable whether Shinji or Kiriyama was smarter, Kiriyama had the best grades. He was, in short, a refined, talented guy. 

Manga Kiriyama is similar, but different. We don't really know if the differences come from the fact that more of Kiriyama's past is revealed in the manga, especially through his point of view, and less in the novel with no look on Kiriyama's point of view, but I'll count them anyway for the sake of this post. 

Kiriyama shows more interest in the things around him. When he is in a martial arts class at school, and is being scolded by the teacher for his overwhelmingly robotic moves (less about a synchronization of mind and body), he pauses and looks at the blood pooling in his mouth. He seems to strain his mind to comprehend it, but ultimately cannot.  

He also rips out the teacher's eyeball and plays with it, something novel Kiriyama probably wouldn't do because he's smart enough to keep his "mischief" (for a lack of a better word) out of his school life.

The main distinction here is that while novel Kazuo acts on a whim, he has the brains and logic to know to control his actions in the proper time and place. The Kazuo in the manga just seems to act on a whim without the logic.

Novel Kazuo also shows no effort to do any self-reflecting. In the program, he also cuts open his bicep and plays with a visible tendon to simulate a trigger-pulling motion with his fingers. He shows more awareness of his body. Novel Kazuo was not about studying himself, but more about getting from point A to point B in the cleanest fashion. 



At the end of the manga, he is not killed so instantly after a shot to the head. He has enough time for his emotions to flood back to him and for him to remember his past when he was a happy and carefree child. 



He also comments on how different his present self is from his past self, which is interesting to see, especially since they're so different.



While I prefer the novel on any day of the week, I have to admit this was a hell of a close for Kazuo Kiriyama. Even though he killed a boat load of his classmates, you're still like... 'But yeah, that wasn't the real Kiriyama. He's a softy under it all.'

It's kind of weird that as soon as he gets his emotions back, he immediately starts cursing out Noriko. 



The manga was really heavy on having its characters curse (even to the point to where it sounds forced and unnatural especially concerning Shuya but this isn't about him so I won't elaborate on that). 

Again, film Kiriyama takes the cake for the most unrecognizable. Rather than the calm and collected Kiriyama we know from the last two mediums, Kiriyama is wild-eyed and bloodthirsty. He skips the whole coin-toss thing and jumps right into killing. From this we can assume that while Kiriyama has no remorse, he's kind of a psychopath. He seems to enjoy killing... a lot... rather than just participating because he has to. He even bleeds from his eyes with fire behind him to further dig into the viewers' eyes that yes, this man is nuts. 




Backstory- 

The novel and manga align on a few things. Yes, Kiriyama was partially lobotomized from an accident that killed his family. The similarities end there.

Novel Kiriyama has his accident that welcomes his immediate birth and his mother's immediate death. His father later dies from complications from the accident, and the doctor later dies, completely sealing off the truth from ever reaching Kiriyama. Of course he knows his parents died, but he doesn't know why they died or why he is the way he is. We don't know who Kiriyama lives with, but the common speculation that his father is some rich CEO (something like that) couldn't be further from the truth. I'm pretty curious on who exactly is paying attention to him, but I wouldn't be surprised if Kiriyama's that brilliant to find his ways around it and live alone.

Manga Kiriyama plants the same curiosity (WHO THE HELL IS TAKING CARE OF HIM?) but his parents are still dead, only they died later, which gives Kiriyama room for a more tearful death where he remembers who he once was. His parents died when he was a young boy, and the transition from a smiley kid to a stone-faced numb kid is completely chilling. 

Now the novel had some backstory, the manga had a lot of backstory, and -- wait for it... the film had no backstory. They bring some random psychopath into the film. He's not even their classmate, he manages to kill almost half of the class, but they don't say anything about him. Who is he? They turned Shogo into a random transfer too, but at least they showed his backstory. As the main antagonist, Kiriyama should've had at least some explanation. Even though he doesn't talk at all, you can do the flashbacks like how they did with every other main character. 

You can imagine I'm pretty disappointed with how film Kazuo turned out without me actually having to tell you. Yeah, I'm still going to say it. I'm disappointed. I know a lot of people like him, and I'll respect that (everyone has their own interests), but... sigh. 

Conclusion- 

Judging solely by Kiriyama's character in the three mediums (not the mediums as a whole), I'd say I like novel Kiriyama most. 

Manga Kiriyama is placed second. While I do like where they went with the character, I also think that Kiriyama, like most characters in the manga, were treated as caricatures of their novel counterparts.

Last places film Kiriyama. The manga strayed from the novel in some instances, but they made it work, and gave you a different take on who Kiriyama could've been if for this or for that. Film Kiriyama, to me, seemed to fall apart at the seams. He took away from the whole 'classmates being forced to kill each other' concept because he wasn't part of the class and killed nearly half of them.