Battle Royale
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Mitsuko Souma (Manga)

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“ I think maybe you're lost. And lost people... Sometimes they do bad things. ”

–Yuichiro Takiguchi telling Mitsuko his opinion of her.

For the novel, please go to Mitsuko Souma (Novel). For the film, please go to Mitsuko Souma (Film).

Mitsuko Souma (相馬 光子, Sōma Mitsuko) is a main character in Battle Royale.

Backstory[]

As a child, Mitsuko lived a happy life until her biological father who truly cared for her divorced Mitsuko's mother (it's implied the government chased her father thus he divorced his wife to protect Mitsuko). Before her father left, he told a tearful Mitsuko that she would always be "Daddy's girl", a phrase that Mitsuko has a habit of repeating, if not out loud, then to herself, usually when she is seducing others.

The Magical Emily Ring he gave her is always with her as her father wanted something to remember him by.

Mitsuko, who missed her father, then lived with her mother fairly happily until she was 9 years old. At that point, her mother met the man who would be Mitsuko's stepfather. On their first meeting, he gave a cloth doll to Mitsuko; this was the only time he ever showed her kindness with the promise that they would be a real family. Unfortunately, the man would violently abuse Mitsuko's mother and, after brutalizing her, he turned to young Mitsuko and subjected her to horrible physical and sexual abuse.

By the time she became a teenager, Mitsuko had gone from being a happy, innocent child to a cold, manipulative young woman who used her good looks to get what she wanted while sparing no mercy for her crimes. She was also left physically, emotionally and psychologically damaged for life while also harboring the delusion "touching makes it better".

Mitsuko later organized her stepfather's murder using a man she met in an alleyway and had an affair with; he shanked Mitsuko's stepfather and killed her mother. As this happened, Mitsuko stood outside and called the police, leading to the man's arrest. Following this, her circumstances were more or less unknown. Whilst on the streets, she would seduce men and have sex with them before hurting them.

On one occasion, she seduced a rich, famous boxer (known for his incredible cruelty and arrogance) having sneaked backstage after one of his matches. Mitsuko then slipped the boxer a powerful hallucinogen, and during his stupor, had sex with him before robbing him and fleeing. The next day, he intended to "beat her face in" to reclaim what was his. He called her while driving, but Mitsuko merely mocked him before asking, "How much you got to lose if I decide the cops should know? I'm only 15!" This triggered further hallucinations and he ended up driving off of a cliff and to his death.

Satisfied with her work, Mitsuko then took her "earnings" and went on a shopping spree with her gang.

Personality[]

At school, Mitsuko is considered the most beautiful girl in her class but she also (deservedly) carries a bad reputation. Mitsuko has no real friends and is hated and feared by most of her fellow classmates.

Mitsuko's crimes earned her the nickname "Hardcore" Souma in the English-language manga. Since she's been using her sexuality to get what she wants for most of her life, Mitsuko's idea of sex has been warped to the point that she believes it's the answer to all problems.

Friends and Enemies[]

Mitsuko has no real friends. She does lead a gang which includes Hirono Shimizu and Yoshimi Yahagi. The three of them regularly engage in activities such as prostitution, mugging, and larceny. The gang's victims are almost always older men, whom the girls seduce before taking advantage of them. After Mitsuko allowed two men to take Yoshimi's virginity, their relationship was strained.

The majority of the girls in her class fear or hate her and guys, such as Shinji Mimura and Tadakatsu Hatagami, while realizing how beautiful she is, choose not to pursue her due to her psychosis. The only person to give her the benefit of doubt is Yuichiro Takiguchi; however, he is too shy to talk to her.

In the Program[]

Mitsuko decided very early on that she was going to play the game and began killing her classmates, determined to win the Program.

She headed toward the residential area and entered a house where she saw the crushed phone on the floor and found Megumi Eto under the table. Mitsuko approached Megumi and told her that she was also scared and wanted to team up with her. Relieved, Megumi hugged Mitsuko, telling her how sorry she was for thinking about killing her and that they would be friends. Mitsuko then slit Megumi's nape with her kama sickle, having always intended to kill Megumi, and remarked that red was not Megumi's color and that she was playing to win.

With that, Mitsuko left the area.

She next came across Yoji Kuramoto and Yoshimi Yahagi in an argument and when the two started to makeup, Mitsuko sneaked up and shot Yoji in the cheek with the gun he had tossed aside. Mitsuko said she was only doing it to protect her friend, but Yoshimi was angry at Mitsuko for killing the only person who understood her.

Mitsuko, growing irritated at Yoshimi, shot her in the eye, killing her. She understood how Yoshimi felt but it didn't mean that she cared.

The next person she came upon was the heavily wounded Takako Chigusa, whom she fatally shot multiple times in the back, leaving her to die.

Traveling around the island, she tried to sneak up on Hiroki Sugimura, but thanks to his GPS he saw her and knocked the gun out of her hand. Hiroki saw Takako before she died and learned who killed her and was ready to kill Mitsuko. At first, Mitsuko tried to tell Hiroki that Takako went crazy after Kazushi Niida raped her. Mitsuko claimed she only wanted to help her but Takako tried to kill her after killing Niida. She went on saying that she had been scared the whole time and was glad to run into Hiroki. Realizing that Hiroki wasn't buying her act, she revealed that she did kill Takako. She then tried to offer sex, but again Hiroki knew her tricks. Mitsuko then revealed her past to Hiroki, taking him off of his guard and she sliced his wrist with Megumi's knife and escaped.

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Mitsuko is touched by Yuichiro's kindness.

As she traveled, she witnessed Tadakatsu Hatagami peeing and tried to sneak up on him to kill him, however, she was spotted by Yuichiro Takiguchi before she could strike. Tadakatsu wanted to kill Mitsuko as he didn't trust her, seeing the sickle in her hand, but Yuichiro believed Mitsuko was just scared and was seeking protection. Mitsuko decided to play along and allowed them to check her for other weapons as well as tie her up until they could decide what to do with her. Tadakatsu decided to nap, leaving Yuichiro to watch over Mitsuko. Mitsuko and Yuichiro talked for a while, Yuichiro telling her that he believed that she wasn't as bad as their classmates always would say she was since she seemed to have a sad look in her eyes. Mitsuko was touched by his words but she didn't believe him. He later untied her hands so she could drink from his water bottle. Mitsuko was still surprised that Yuichiro was showing so much kindness to her as she was not used to it. Tadakatsu soon awoke and took over. Mitsuko decided to kill him while Yuichiro slept. Alone with Tadakatsu, she seduced him. As they kissed, she pulled a razor taped to her collar and used it to slice his neck. Tadakatsu, however, was alerted by a cat and the cut was shallow. Mitsuko then ran back to Yuichiro, disposing of the blade in the process.

Yuichiro woke up to gunfire and saw Mitsuko in her underwear and Tadakatsu with a cut on his neck. Mitsuko insisted that Tadakatsu had tried to rape her. Tadakatsu explained that Mitsuko had stripped and tried to seduce him into dropping his guard and tried to kill him with a razor. Yuichiro asked Tadakatsu to give him the gun until they could figure things out. Mitsuko then began to look at her sickle. Tadakatsu took notice, realizing that she was going to grab it and stab Yuichiro. He told Yuichiro that he couldn't give him the gun, firing at Mitsuko, knowing that she was beyond helping. Unfortunately, Yuichiro stepped in and took the bullet for Mitsuko. Mitsuko was surprised that Yuichiro would be willing to die for her. Taking advantage of Tadakatsu's shock, she slashed him with her sickle, killing him. She turned to Yuichiro, who was complaining that his bullet wound hurt. She callously responded that it was supposed to hurt and prepared to slay him as well. As she approached him, he pleaded for her to not "have sad eyes for me". Through his tears, he tried to smile, showing her he understood her and accepted her decision. Mitsuko then dropped her sickle.

Mitsuko began to cry, pleading with Yuichiro to stay with her. She crawled atop him, claiming she knew what to do. Of course, the only solution she could think of was sex. She unzipped his pants and began to rape him. Yuichiro begged her to stop, as the act was painful due to his wound. Mitsuko has a flashback remembering her stepfather raping her and telling her that the longer his penis became the more love he had for her. Noticing Yuichiro having an erection from her sexual touching, Mitsuko believed he must have a lot of love for her and if he focused on his love for her he could survive. Looking into Mitsuko's eyes, Yuichiro realized that she was not the same girl he had gotten to know. Mitsuko was not raping him. This "person" was the doll Mitsuko's stepfather gave her. When Yuichiro yelled at Mitsuko to get off him, she believed he was "betraying [her] trust" and stabbed him in the chin with the sickle, killing him.

Mitsuko, realizing Yuichiro was dead, cried at his apparent betrayal of abandoning her. Mitsuko declared that if she got pregnant she would raise his child (text taken from the original manga). She then dressed and left.

Mitsuko continued her travels and found herself in a deserted neighborhood. She stopped in one of the buildings to clean herself using water bottles and then, thinking of Yuichiro, started masturbating although she was later seen crying, implying that it had brought back painful memories of her own abuse.

She later dressed in fresh business attire and transferred all her belongings from her school bag to a new handbag.

She then set out again, enjoying a walk while admiring the flowers in the garden.  

Then she spotted Kazuo Kiriyama across the courtyard. She shot at him and a large chunk of a brick wall came off from the blast. Kazuo rolled to the side and raised his machine gun, but his own patched bullet wound tore open in the process, and he dropped his gun in agony. Mitsuko, believing she shot him, raised her magnum to fire again. Her next shot caught Kazuo's bag mid-flight which rips open, scattering his gun out of reach as he rolled to duck behind the brick wall. Mitsuko angled herself for another shot but Kazuo grabbed his bag full of glass shards, flinging it at her. 

Mitsuko, having caught several shards in her eye, cursed and dropped her magnum and handbag. Kazuo regained control, shooting her with Mizuho's gun. The shot hit Mitsuko's right arm and she was sent flying back in pain. Her mind flooded with childhood memories in response to the pain and she became mentally unstable. Mitsuko stood and stripped to her high heels, hoping to seduce Kazuo and kill him. She would appease Kazuo's fetish for pain, describing the two of them as being like Mickey and Mallory from Natural Born Killers.

Due to his emotionless mentality, Kazuo shot her again. Mitsuko began to go insane, shifting between her broken doll persona and herself. More of her haunting childhood flashed as well as her memories of manipulating the man who killed her stepfather and mother. Kazuo shot her again. Kazuo was strategically shooting her in non-fatal parts of her body to drag out the pain. He then shot her leg and she collapsed into a birdbath.

Underwater, Mitsuko remembered her real father. Mitsuko crawled out of the birdbath towards her handbag.

Screaming for the pain to go away as she retrieved her Magic Emily Ring keepsake given her by her real father. Mitsuko then began repeatedly yammering "Magical Tool", reminiscing of her father leaving.  

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Kazuo fatally shooting Mitsuko.

On her knees, she showed Kazuo the ring. Kazuo dropped his gun, entranced by the ring and pain from his wound. Kazuo hesitated to shoot her, her ring reminding him of his own childhood. However, as his gun fell, he grabbed it with his unharmed left arm and shot Mitsuko in the face.

Mitsuko's nose was blown out the back of her head as her left eye popped out and blood gushed out of her ear, her face so mutilated she no longer looked human.

Etymology[]

  • The name Mitsuko means "light" (光) (mitsu) and "child" (子) (ko).
  • Mitsuko's surname Souma means "phase, aspect, countenance, mutually, fellow" (相) (sou) and "horse" (馬) (ma).

Notes and Trivia[]

  • Mitsuko was the first female and the third student overall to kill someone. She was also the last female to be murdered.
  • Mitsuko is inconsistently shown with either pubic hair or no pubic hair. This is usually plausible as these scenes are often shown with gaps (Such as when she had sex with Yuichiro and when she later masturbated) But when she faced off Kiriyama when she first stripped she had no pubic hair, yet right before her death and during which she had a full bush.
  • She is one of 2 girls to kill at least one boy in the program, the other one being Takako Chigusa.
  • In the novel, Mitsuko is "normal" despite being a killer. However, in the manga, she seems to have mental issues and nymphomania which appear to mostly be caused by her abusive background story as a young child.
  • Mitsuko had the second highest kill count at six.
  • In the later chapters of the manga, Mitsuko was periodically transitioned with the doll her stepfather gave her, either showing tears and exposed stuffing or lack of clothing.

Appearances[]

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