Battle Royale
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For the manga, please go to Kazuo Kiriyama (Manga). For the film, please go to Kazuo Kiriyama (Film).

"That's when I tossed a coin. If it came up heads, I'd take on Sakamochi...if the coin came up tails, I decided I'd take part in the game."

–Kazuo, explaining why he killed his gang.


Background[]

Kazuo Kiriyama (桐山和雄 Kiriyama Kazuo) suffered a brain injury from a car accident which killed his mother, while in utero partially lobotomized him; he lost the ability to process basic human emotions (notably remorse) and empathy, which made him indifferent to the suffering of others. Kazuo also has a genius level IQ, and a talent of quickly adapting to any situation. Kazuo is shown to have easily learned how to do otherwise difficult tasks, (e.g. painting a beautiful picture, playing the violin) and then losing interest after mastering them (as he tossed both his violin and painting in the trash only moments after completion.) He does not see the difference between drawing art, playing a violin, or killing his classmates. It was said by Mitsuru Numai that he never saw Kazuo smile once. Kazuo is part of the richest family in the town, even richer than Toshinori Oda and his father is the owner of a large corporation. Kazuo intimidates his classmates because of his gang, the Kiriyama Family, whose reputation is widespread. He could take on high school bullies or even local Yakuza single-handedly. Though Kazuo is generally viewed as a delinquent, he actually has the best grades in the class and never does anything wrong. He usually sits in the back of the class as if his mind is somewhere else. He may also be an illegitimate child. Kazuo isn't particularly tall and his voice isn't particularly low but he still intimidates people. Since he has no emotion, Kazuo often makes choices on a whim as he has no particular incline or desire to act on anything.

Appearance[]

Kazuo is about 171 cm (5'8") in height. He also has specifically slicked back hair, which he adopted at Mitsuru Numai's suggestion. Kazuo is described as good looking, which is one of the reasons Toshinori Oda hates him. His eyes are described as blank and empty due to his lack of emotion.

Friends and Enemies[]

Kazuo doesn't have any real friends nor any real enemies. This is due to his lack of emotion. The closest thing he does have is his gang known as the Kiriyama Family. The Kiriyama Family, consisting of Mitsuru Numai, Hiroshi Kuronaga, Sho Tsukioka, and Ryuhei Sasagawa are eternally loyal to him.

In The Program[]

The End of the Kiriyama Gang[]

Kazuo gave a note to the Kiriyama Family telling them to meet him at the southern tip of the island. All of them came except for Sho Tsukioka who stayed nearby to follow Kazuo as he believes that betrayal is a part of everyday life. Unfortunately, Izumi Kanai accidentally comes to the southern tip and is held at knifepoint by Kazuo who flips a coin to decide whether to oppose Kinpatsu Sakamochi or play the program. He decides to play and slits Izumi's throat, then Hiroshi and then Ryuhei. He picks up Izumi's grenades and Ryuhei's machine gun which he uses to kill Mitsuru. He also took his gun.

Taking Care of Loose Ends[]

Sho Tsukioka was following Kazuo so that he could kill everyone and then when they were the final two Sho could sneak up and shoot him. Kazuo however was aware that he was being followed and tricked Sho into going into a soon to be forbidden zone. He went to a public bathroom and pierced a water bottle so that the water trickled out imitating him urinating. Then he escaped out of a back window and out of the forbidden zone, leaving Sho behind. Sho realized the trap just as the forbidden zone activated, killing him.

The Third Man[]

After wandering around the island some more, Kazuo came across Yutaka Seto and Shinji Mimura reconciling after the death of Keita Iijima. Kazuo killed the exposed Yutaka with the machine gun and injured Shinji. Shinji and Kazuo engaged in a massive battle which resulted in Shinji losing his toes which lost all his chances of becoming a professional basketball player. Shinji, realizing he was going to lose, detonated his bomb in order to kill Kazuo who shot and killed Shinji after. The explosion that was intended to free Shinji and Yutaka was heard and seen all over the island.

Battles[]

Kazuo next found Toshinori Oda and Hiroki Sugimura fighting. Hiroki fled but Kazuo shot Toshinori who had a bulletproof vest. The vest saved him and he planned to play dead and attack when Kazuo's back was turned. Kazuo however came up to Toshinori and shot him in the motorcycle helmet he had been using to tempt people into shooting his torso, smashing his skull and killing him.

Kazuo then ambushed Shuya Nanahara, Noriko Nakagawa, and Shogo Kawada who were moving from a soon to be forbidden zone to the shrine. He caused them to split and Kazuo pursued Shuya who he injured severely before he jumped into the sea. He was later washed up and brought to the lighthouse by Hiroki Sugimura to be treated by Yukie's group. After the lighthouse bloodbath, Kazuo ambushed Hiroki who was investigating the lighthouse but lost his bulletproof vest. Hiroki managed to escape, seriously injured, to find Kayoko Kotohiki.

The Crazy Girls[]

After Mitsuko Souma killed Kayoko, Kazuo sneaked up on her and shot her with the machine gun. She was in the process of building fires to signal Shuya, Noriko and Shogo. She put up a good fight with him by at one point almost killing him but lost to Kazuo's bulletproof vest. He continued building the fires and picked up all their good weapons. Then Mizuho Inada, who believed she was a space warrior and was killing the demon (Kazuo) attacked him. Kazuo didn't even turn and he shot her twice, once in the chest and another in the head.

Final Battle[]

Kazuo followed Shogo's bird calls until the trio realized that Hiroki had died and that the fires weren't lit by him. They left but Kazuo set up wire traps to kill around their general location first. Since Noriko was shorter, she got cut above the eye rather than in the neck as intended. The fight turned into a car chase in which the two teams tried to shoot each other but nobody would die. In the end they stopped, using the cars for shelter and were stuck in a shootout. Kazuo played dead and Shuya, Noriko and Shogo had nearly run out of bullets. He then shot Shogo (fatally) and was about to shoot Shuya when Noriko surprisingly shot and killed Kazuo. Shogo pretended to kill Kazuo to spare Noriko the guilt of killing someone.

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[]

  • Kazuo is one of four students who were killed by a different person in the different medias of Battle Royale. The others are Kaori Minami, Yoshitoki Kuninobu, and Fumiyo Fujiyoshi.
  • Kazuo is the deadliest male in the class. Another male also considered deadly, as he won both Battle Royales, is Shogo Kawada.
  • Kazuo was the last student to die while the program was still on.
  • Kazuo was the only student to kill another student in terms of same class number, he killed Yukiko Kitano and her class number was #6 and Kazuo's class number was also #6.
  • Kazuo was the last member of the Kiriyama family to die.
  • Kazuo was possibly the wealthiest student in Class B.
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