For the novel, please go to Kazuo Kiriyama (Novel). For the Film, please go to Kazuo Kiriyama (Film)
Kazuo Kiriyama (桐山 和雄, Kiriyama Kazuo) is a major character in Battle Royale.
Backstory[]
Kazuo was a very happy child and would always look on the positive side of things and always laughed. Even when baby Ryubi broke one of Kazuo's toys, Kazuo didn't get angry and made Ryubi a toy made out of Legos. He also helped out Chef Toutaku who was feeling sick one day, so Kazuo helped out with the meal he was supposed to make. He used to enjoy watching the Action Rangers and wanted to be a hero just like them.
This all changed one night, when Kazuo, his mother, and the driver were involved in a car accident. Kazuo lost his mother that night and the ability to feel emotion, the doctors said he suffered from brain damage. The doctors tried to get him to recover but they never found a way. Gone was the happy and cheerful Kazuo, now taken over by his new sociopathic personality and inability to feel emotional attachment or remorse of any kind. The brain damage also made Kazuo an unparalleled prodigy of anything and everything he did.
Up until he was a freshman, not much about Kazuo's life was known so it can be assumed that he simply didn't do anything that was too important.
Shortly after becoming a freshman, Kazuo was studying in the library when he overheard several boys fighting. Kazuo walked over to tell them to keep it down which angered the older boys. They now wanted to fight with him but Kazuo easily defeated all four boys thanks to reading a book on human anatomy. As he was leaving, the boy who was beaten, Mitsuru Numai stopped him and wanted to know how he beat them. Mitsuru was in awe of Kazuo and told him that he was in debt to him. Mitsuru would later start calling Kazuo "boss" and they formed a small gang. Kazuo didn't bother getting into small fights like the rest of his gang, but still jumped in from time to time when he felt like it.
Friends and Enemies[]
Kazuo didn't have any real friends nor any real enemies due to his lack of emotion. The closest thing he does have to friends is his gang known as the Kiriyama Family.
In the Program[]
The First Victims[]
The first victims Kazuo had were his gang, Mitsuru, Ryuhei Sasagawa and Hiroshi Kuronaga. He meets his gang at the southernmost tip of the island. They meet him there, with Izumi Kanai as a captive (in the original Japanese, she just happened to be there). They decide to flip a coin, heads that they would rape her and go against the Program, tails they would play to win. Since the coin came up tails, Kazuo killed them all with his MAC-10. Mitsuru came just minutes after the killing, and Kazuo tells the story to him. He then turns his gun on him, and guns him down.
Adding to the Body count[]
His next victims were Yukiko Kitano and Yumiko Kusaka, who were trying to rally the students to not fight and negotiate. And then while he was resting, he began to suspect Sho Tsukioka was following him. He tricked him into staying him in a danger zone and his collar exploded. A while later, he saw Yutaka Seto and Shinji Mimura reconciling after the latter accidently killed Keita Iijima. Kazuo ambushed them and killed Yutaka in one shot. Shinji tried to blow him up, but he died from his wounds, not after blowing up the warehouse they were hiding out in. He then found Toshinori Oda and Hiroki Sugimura fighting and he killed Toshinori after he tried to trick him and took his gun and bullet proof vest. Then, he finds an almost naked Mizuho Inada lost by her imagination saying that she is "the daughter of destiny", he creeps up on her and shoots her on the head. After that, he followed Hiroki and Kayoko Kotohiki, and he and Hiroki fought. Eventually, Kazuo got the upper hand and killed them both.
Battle with Mitsuko[]
Kazuo was repairing himself after the fight with Hiroki in the more civilized area of the island. He stitched up his wounds and got dressed and headed out. Unaware that Mitsuko Souma was in the house right across the street, he walked out in search of victims. Mitsuko saw her chance and shot at him, but he quickly rolled out of the way. His bullet wound in his arm caused by Hiroki opened and he dropped his gun in pain. Mitsuko, believing that she shot him, continued to attack. Kazuo rolled to cover as another of Mitsuko's shots destroyed his bag, scattering his guns out of reach. As Mitsuko angled herself to kill him, he grabbed his bag of glass which he got from a broken picture, and threw it at her, lacerating her face and temporarily blinding her. He then shot her in the arm, and Mitsuko tried to seduce him, and although he was confused but a little intrigued, he continued to shoot at her in her shoulder, stomach and shot all her fingers on her left hand off. Eventually, naked and in pain, she crawled to her bag and brought out a Magical Emily ring, a gift from her real father. Kazuo began to get more confused. She then began to say that her father never left her, and was watching. Kazuo, mesmerized with the ring and hurting from his wound, dropped his gun in the process. Eventually, he got out of his trance and grabbed his pistol in mid-air with his other unharmed arm and blew Mitsuko's face off with a shot through her nose. He then cut his arm open and took the tendon that controlled his pointer finger out and taped it to his arm. He tested it out and decided to go find the rest of the students.
Final Battle[]
When it came down to the last four, Kazuo didn't hesitate to try and kill them. He followed them for a while, and when they drove away, Kazuo eventually found a sports vehicle and began to drive after them. After a while, his MAC-10 was running out of bullets, he began using his pistol he picked up. Kazuo then followed Shuya Nanahara and the rest into a field, where his car blew up and rolled into a deep field. Thinking they had won, Shogo Kawada and the others decided to walk away. But, Kazuo still kept going. He began to shoot at them, while moving his body like a puppet, and he lost sight in his right eye. He finally stopped shooting, and fell down into the brush. After being shot by Noriko Nakagawa, Kazuo regained his emotions and simultaneously felt a rush from being shot and the trauma and grief of losing his mother, causing him to practically beg to "go back to the grey''. Before he finally died, he said to Shuya that he could finally feel again, meaning he could feel emotions again, and finally drew his last breath.
Abilities[]
As a result of the accident Kazuo's mind and body went through changes. Emotions no longer played a role in his thought processes. His mental performance made his mind operate in the most efficient and rapid manner possible, thus he processes the world in the most optimal manner possible. He could immediately intuit the best solution to any problem, he became a prodigy with the ability to master any skill upon his first attempt, and possessed perfect recall. He is described as the demon of emptiness, he gained a mind that is at all times totally calm - a mind not influenced or caught up in events or emotion, thus a mind more able to freely perceive and respond to any situation for his advantage. As such, he automatically; plans, analyzes, and takes action with absolute efficiency. His body also developed to the peak of physical condition; strength, speed, senses, attractiveness, stamina, agility, reflexes and durability. He gained a body that is as efficient as possible, his physical abilities are heightened to the point where he can do any physical act without difficulty.
He feels no guilt, and can instantly assimilate into any group and manipulate them. He cares, in essence, only about his own well-being, and everything else is reduced to a cost/benefit analysis. His detached way of looking at the world grants him an objective comprehension of anything that others would not be able to achieve, allowing him to understand the mechanics behind anything he faces and formulate the optimal solution. This is an inherent part of him, rather than an external ability, as such he automatically makes the most optimal decision in any scenario and deals with events in the most efficient manner.
Kazuo can apathetically and passively exude pure killing intent to intimidate others.
Etymology[]
- The name Kazuo means "harmony, peace" (和) (kazu) and "man" (雄) (o)
- Kazuo's surname Kiriyama means "foxglove tree" (桐) (kiri) and "mountain" (山) (yama)
Notes & Trivia[]
- This Kazuo was the only one to show a happy childhood as the novel and film, his background is mostly unknown.
- Kazuo is one of four students who were killed by a different person in the three different medias of Battle Royale. The others are Kaori Minami, Yoshitoki Kuninobu, and Fumiyo Fujiyoshi.
- Kazuo had the highest kill count at 15.
- Interestingly, brain injuries which cause "losing" emotions do not exist, and so his condition is not naturally possible, which makes the theory of Kazuo's personality impossible. There are, however, brain injuries that can cause emotional dysfunction and inhibited empathy. This is most likely an exaggerated version of those injuries.
- When Noriko shoots Kazuo, it is in just the right place to "rewire" Kazuo's emotions, allowing him to feel again just before dying.