Btooom!

''Btooom!'' (stylized as ''BTOOOM!'') is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Junya Inoue. It was serialized in Shinchosha's ''seinen'' manga magazine ''Comic Bunch'', where it ran from 2009 until 2018, with its chapters collected into 26 ''tankōbon'' volumes. ''Btooom!'' follows the adventures of Ryōta Sakamoto, an unemployed and isolated young man who is one of the world's top players in the titular video game. After Ryōta is nominated to participate in the real-life version of the game, he becomes trapped inside it and meets his love interest Himiko, who was his in-game wife. With the help of their fellow players, Ryōta and Himiko must find a way to return home.

An anime adaptation covering the first 50 chapters of the manga was produced by Madhouse and aired in Japan on Tokyo MX from October 4 to December 20, 2012 and was streamed with English subtitles by Crunchyroll. The manga series was licensed for an English-language release in North America by Yen Press. The anime series has been licensed by Sentai Filmworks for an English-language release in North America. A sequel, '' Btooom! U-18'', written and illustrated by Hiroki Ito was serialized from 2018 to 2022, and was collected into 6 ''tankōbon'' volumes.

Plot

Ryōta Sakamoto is an unemployed 22-year-old young man who lives with his mother Yukie. He is one of the world's top players of the combat video game called ''Btooom!'' One day, he awakes in what appears to be a tropical island, though he does not remember how or why he has been transported there. While wandering around, Ryōta sees someone and calls out for help. The stranger responds by throwing a bomb at him. Ryōta soon realizes that his life is in danger and that he has somehow been trapped in a real-life version of his favorite game. In the game Ryōta meets Himiko, who is another ''Btooom!'' player — and Ryōta's in-game wife.

As the series progresses during Iida's investigation with the government agents like Matthew Percier, along with the help from Ryōta's step-father and step-uncle Hisanobu and Mitamura, it is revealed that the developer of ''Btooom!'', Tyrannos Japan, has been associated with the Illuminati-like organization called Schwaritz Foundation, led by Longer Schwart, who is none other than Himiko's biological father, in an attempt to use the players as their test subjects for Project Themis to conquer the entire world through the domination of the virtual world and getting rid of the evidence of their exposed crimes they are currently committing.

It also contains two separate endings for Chapter 121: a good ending and a bad ending. In the good ending, Ryōta survives and plans a marriage with Himiko while the organization is forced to retreat into obscurity, while in the bad ending, Ryōta sacrifices himself for Himiko and the remaining players to survive the game. Both endings contain the same event; after the game the victors are called to the HQ of Tyrannos for a victory ceremony and 10,000,000 yen reward for each player but both outcomes differ. Himiko eventually met her father and he reveals her true heritage, imploring her to rule the world from the shadows alongside him and her chosen half-siblings. Disgusted with her father's actions in creating the death game and causing misery and death throughout the world, Himiko detonates the gas bomb, which she hid after making it back to the mainland, killing her father and ending his organization for good. '' Btooom! U-18'' follows the events of the good ending, rendering the bad ending non-canon.

Characters

Main characters

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:A hikikomori forced to play the game after his mother consented.
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:Himiko is a high school girl whom is also ''Btooom!'' player and was Ryōta's in-game wife, though they did not notice this at first; her real name is Emilia and she is the biological daughter of Lord Longer Schwart, the main antagonist of the series and leader of the Schwart Foundation.

Opponents

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:One of the ''Btooom!'' players believed to be three-star, he was with his father and attorney on the game, until he killed his own father: as a yangire, he was arrested for rape and multiple murder; however, he was sentenced lightly.
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:One of the most dangerous ''Btooom!'' players, he was once Ryota's friend back in high school, until a recent incident caused them to be expelled.
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:One of the ''Btooom!'' players.
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:One of the ''Btooom!'' players.
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:A ''Btooom!'' player and war veteran, he dislikes using his BIM, preferring to use his knife; died after being exploded using Natsume's BIM and exposed to a corrosive BIM.
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:A doctor who worked at the same hospital as Shiki Murasaki, he'd blamed her for his failure and played her feelings while on the island.
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:One of the ''Btooom!'' players who speaks in the Kansai dialect and an old man whom had initially aligned himself with Ryota.
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:A selfish and frivolous ''Btooom!'' player who joins forces with Nobutaka until he abandons her.
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:A ''Btooom!'' player who was killed by Ryōta after trying to chase and corner him.
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:Kōsuke's lawyer with a large forehead and a fair amount of wrinkles, suffering from drug addiction; died when Sakamoto threw a BIM on him.
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:The father of Kōsuke Kira whom he'd abused, only to be killed by his son.
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:One of the ''Btooom!'' players whom tried to rape Himiko, which made her kill him.

Other characters

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:A player from the previous round of ''Btooom!'', a year and a half prior to the start of the series and a former associate of Masahito; she'd lost her arm and lived off the island.
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:One of the ''Btooom!'' players who constantly spoke his mind and argued with Masashi Miyamoto; killed by him through a slit throat.
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:A ''Btooom!'' player killed by Nobutaka Oda.
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:A former senpai of Ryōta's who works in Tyrannos Japan.
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: Ryōta's mother, committed suicide after she sold her own son out of depression due to her own son's NEET habits and her partner's company going bankrupt.
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: Ryōta's stepfather, learnt his partner sold her own son and committed suicide, just to give him money.
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: A young man Himiko knew and trusted, he was part of a band and convinced Himiko to introduce her friends to them, before raping them.
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: Formerly the best friend of Himiko, she'd betrayed her for money and was raped by the group.
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: Another former friend of Himiko, also betrayed her for money and abandoned them.
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: Yet another former friend of Himiko who betrayed her for money and abandoned them.
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: A government agent who helps Ryota to expose the dark secret behind Tyrannos Japan's Btooom! "beta test", then led an operation to rescue him along with other remaining Btooom! survivors on behalf of Iida and Hisanobu.

Media

Manga

Junya Inoue began publishing ''Btooom!'' in Shinchosha's weekly magazine ''Comic Bunch'' in 2009. ''Comic Bunch'' ceased publication on August 27, 2010, but returned on January 21, 2011 as a monthly magazine. It was announced in the May 2014 issue of ''Comic Bunch'', released on March 20, that the manga would enter its final arc in the June issue, released on April 21, 2014. Inoue revealed on Twitter that the series will end with the release of its 26th volume, publishing its final chapter in the May issue of ''Bunch'' in March 2018. In an unusual twist, the author made two unique endings, providing "the dark" and "the light" versions of the ending, so that the readers are able to choose what protagonist Ryota Sakamoto will do at a pivotal point in the manga's story.

The series is published in ''tankōbon'' form by Shinchosha, and has been licensed for release in North America by Yen Press, who released it between February 2013 and August 2018.

With the ''Btooom!'' manga ending in March 2018, a manga spin-off/sequel called ''Btooom! U-18'' was announced in February 2018 to begin publication that April. The new series was written by Hiroki Ito, who is known for ''Ouroboros'' and ''Impossibility Defense'' (''Funouhan''). The new manga is a sequel to the main story and launched in the same magazine issue that featured the original manga's light ending. The spin-off ended serialization in December 2022 and was collected into six volumes.

Volume list

The series has been collected into twenty-six ''tankōbon'' volumes as of August 2018. All twenty-six volumes have been published in English, with the final volume published in April 2020. The final chapter was released on March 20, 2018, and the final volume was released on August 9, 2018.

''Btooom! U-18''

Anime

In June 2012, it was announced that the manga will be adapted into an anime television series by Madhouse, director Kotono Watanabe, and scriptwriter Yōsuke Kuroda. The 12-episode series premiered in Japan on Tokyo MX from October 4 to December 20, 2012 and was streamed with English subtitles by Crunchyroll in North America, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Scandinavia, the Netherlands and South Africa. The anime has been licensed for a 2013 home video release by Sentai Filmworks in North America. The opening theme song is "No pain, No game" by Nano and the closing theme song is "Aozora" (アオゾラ) by May'n. The anime covers the first 50 chapters of the manga (up to Volume 9).

At the beginning of November 2019, the company Televisa through BitMe announced the premiere of 3 new series to its program bar, Among those series was ''Btooom'', the same series was released on November 28, 2019 being dubbed 12 episodes in Latin Spanish and distributed by its video game channel and anime bitme by a large part of South America.

Game

In late February 2017, the ''BTOOOM!'' game produced by Masato Hayashi was launched and immediately shot to the top of the charts for free game apps. Despite early success, the game stayed in Japan's top five only for several weeks, and by April 2017 ''Goboiano'' reported that the app had “fallen below the top 50”. The game was last updated in July 2017 and never received an English port for Android and iOS/iPhone.

Also called ''Btooom Online'', originally developed in 2016, it was a battle royale game, predating ''PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds'' and ''Fortnite''. The original ''BTOOOM!'' manga itself also features a fictional battle royale video game. The manga was in turn inspired by the 2000 Japanese film '' Battle Royale''.

Reception

Theron Martin from ANN reviewed the first few episodes by making comparisons with ''Sword Art Online'' which has similar plot theme but differs in style and takes a "darker, grittier, and entirely more visceral approach" as well as displaying combat "ingenuity" rather than SAO's "powermongering approach". Despite the similarities, Btooom! has fairly typical weaponry that produces "a novel twist which dramatically shapes the strategic moves of the players in interesting ways" and the character choices that sway the audience's impressions of them. Overall, he praised the consistency of thrilling action scenes, the efforts on developing the protagonist and its effective dramatic, intense moments.

Even though the anime series became popular internationally, the ''BTOOOM!'' Blu-ray/DVD discs only sold 338 copies in Japan.

References

External links

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{{Madhouse

2012 anime television series debuts
Action anime and manga
Anime and manga about death games
Anime series based on manga
Battle royale anime and manga
Fiction with multiple endings
Madhouse (company)
Seinen manga
Sentai Filmworks
Shinchosha manga
Television shows written by Yōsuke Kuroda
Yen Press titles