When I was about twelve, I read THE BACHMAN BOOKS, a collection of four short stories written by Stephen King. It was a pretty wild ride for my young mind. Two of them (RAGE and ROAD WORK) were contemporary takes on human anger that disturbed me so deeply that I have never read them again.

Aside: Even after reading 4-5 of his 'scary' books, it was those two stories that made me question King's mental state. They were that unsettling.

THE LONG WALK is the one that stuck in my mind: a future where an authoritarian regime forces 100 teenagers each year to participate in a government-sponsored walk-to-the-death contest. I think what drew me in was the society depicted in the story: an entire country treating the walk as a national holiday, complete with betting, sponsorships, and media coverage. It's so bleak that it captivated me.

THE RUNNING MAN depicted another dystopian future - but this time, adults are forced to compete in a gladiatorial games of death spectacle on a live television show, hunted by "Hunters" for the entertainment of the masses. It was more cartoonish and over-the-top than THE LONG WALK.

Anyway, I've always had the sense that BATTLE ROYALE is a subconscious blend of THE LONG WALK and THE RUNNING MAN. Takami says he never read King, but I'm not entirely convinced.