So now we reach what the book actually terms as Ch1.

Shuya wakes up in what looks like an ordinary classroom, but the windows are covered up by metal or something.

There were rows of desks and chairs made of plywood glued onto steel tubes. On Shuya’s desk someone had carved anti-government graffiti into the corner with a pen: “the Dictator loves women in uniform.”

There’s some consistency so far in that Shuya’s government doesn’t seem to be a particularly opulent place, thus the crappy desks, nor do they seem to push particularly hard for smiley conformity. We know that parents who object were beaten or killed, so merely objecting isn’t automatic death, and similarly they made no effort to erase unimportant dissent here.

I find this a lot mor realistic than making the evil government shiny and with endless resources to burn.

His classmates are all passed out at desks in their usual seating arrangement.

His watch is displays the day but doesn’t work on a twenty-four hour setup, so all he knows is it’s 1 and Thursday. Without seeing outside, he has no idea if it’s day or night at the moment.

Shuya looked at his classmates. Something felt off. Of course the whole situation was strange. But there was something in particular that disturbed him.

Shuya is a remarkably chill kid. His lack of screaming might be attributable to still being a bit drugged, though.

The writing of this book is really lackluster, and I have no way of knowing if the original author pulled this off better. If this was me, I’d have said that something else felt off, that something additionally was wrong, rather than what we see here, which presents it as if the nagging thing is more important than being in an unknown place with steel-covered windows and your classmates unconscious.

The thing that’s bugging him is that he realizes the kids are wearing silver collars.

Then the thought occurred to Shuya. He reached for his own neck with his right hand. He felt something hard and cold.

This is forced suspense. The book is really taking its sweet time with everything, isn’t it? If the collar is cold to his hand, it’d be cold against his neck. If it’s warmed up to body temperature, then it wouldn’t be cold to his hand.

This causes Shuya to flip out, but only quietly. He still hasn’t stood up or made any sound.

He fidgeted with it for a while with his fingers, but then gave up. He wondered instead…
What happened to the study trip? Shuya noticed his sports bag sitting by his feet on the floor. Last night he’d casually tossed his clothes, towel, school field trip notebook, and a bourbon flask into it. Everyone else also had their bags by their feet.

Holy shit, Shuya, DO SOMETHING.

Instead, someone else does something. A guy walks into the classroom.

He was stocky but well built. His legs were extremely short, as if they served as a mere appendage to his torso. He wore light-beige slacks, a gray jacket, a red necktie, and black loafers. They all looked worn out. A peach-colored badge was pinned to the collar of his jacket, indicating his affiliation with the government. His cheeks were rosy. What stuck out most though was the man’s hairstyle. He wore it down to his shoulders like a woman in her prime.

Huh. I can’t really tell if any of this is meant to invoke any particular stereotypes or if the author’s just really committed to giving everyone varied descriptions.

The two stared at each other for at least a full minute.

Shuya, really?

Although we’re in his head enough to get his occasional asides about things, there’s not much explanation for why he’s so extremely passive here. Like, maybe he doesn’t want to speak because that’d be admitting all of this is real, or something.

Their silent staring contest finally ends because the others wake up. They’re confused. Shuya points out the collar to his friend and shrugs in response to other people’s confused expressions. Shuya is committed to the not speaking thing.

the man spoke up in a cheerful voice, “All right, everyone awake? I hope you all slept well!”
No one replied. Even the class clowns, Yutaka Seto and Yuka Nakagawa (Female Student No. 16), were speechless.

And we end with 42 students remaining The book should probably have saved the countdown for now, as it’s kind of silly to have the same number twice in a row. If it was a lower number and there were only going to be a few deaths, having the number repeat might have heightened tension while waiting for the first death, but it doesn’t work too well here.

On to the next chapter! Everyone’s still alive so far.

The guy introduces himself as their instructor and even writes his name on the blackboard. Does Japan still use blackboards, or is this more signs they’re an impoverished country? Whiteboards are standard here and have been for quite some time.

“Kinpatsu Sakamochi”? Was this some kind of joke? Given the situation, maybe it was a pseudonym.

I assume there’s something there that would make sense if I knew Japanese names better. All I see is “mochi”, delicious food. Looking it up it looks like it’s Kinpatsu that’s the joke, after another fictional teacher named Kinpachi who was a great guy.

Suddenly the female class representative, Yukie Utsumi, stood up and said, “I don’t understand what’s
going on here.”

Finally! Someone reacting.

Everyone looked over at Yukie. With her long hair neatly braided into a pair of ponytails, she looked pretty wound up, but her voice remained assertive. Nonetheless, Yukie probably had to delude herself into believing they’d been through a traffic accident or some other event that caused them all to lose consciousness.

Oh shut up Shuya, you’re sitting around occasionally wondering if you’re asleep, you have no place to start speculating that maybe other people are delusional. Plus, she just said she didn’t know what’s going on, so obviously she doesn’t think it’s a traffic accident or anything specific.

Yukie continued, “What’s going on here? We were all in the middle of our study trip. Right, everyone?” She turned around and looked at everyone

And finally, everyone else collectively finds their spine and starts chattering.

“Where are we?”
“Did you fall asleep too?”
“What time is it anyway?”
“Was everyone asleep?”
“Damn, I don’t have a watch.”
“Do you remember getting off the bus, coming here?”
“Who the hell is he?”
“I don’t remember a thing.”
“This is terrible. What’s going on? I’m scared.”

Well, almost everyone. Shuya is still rocking the mute thing, and he looks around. (You have a watch, you could answer the poor person asking about the time!) Sakamochi is just waiting, Kazuo is coolly watching Sakamochi and ignoring the rest of his gang talking to him, Mitsuko looked jaded and we learn that she’s not sitting next to the two other girls she hangs out with and Of course none of the other girls, nor boys for that matter, would even attempt to talk to her. :( Also, she’s gorgeous but her expression is always strange and listless. In the manga she had a backstory full of childhood rape. Not sure how much of that was in the book.

Shogo Kawada sat at the second to last row by the window. He was also silently staring at Sakamochi. But he took out a piece of gum, then began chewing it, continuing to stare at the teacher as his jaw moved.

Well then.

Poor Noriko is just staring at Shuya, who really needs to say something to her already. Instead he gives a calming nod. It does seem to help a bit.

“All right, all right, please be quiet.” Sakamochi clapped his hands together several times to get their attention. The clamor suddenly subsided. “Let me explain the situation. The reason why you’re all here today then…”
Then he said: “…is to kill each other.”

I like this guy a lot more than the manga one, who was just an oily rapist. He’s like a demented elementary school teacher.

Everyone freezes except Shogo, who continues chewing the gum like a boss.

Sakamochi then clarifies that specifically, they’re going to be killing each other because they’d been picked for the Program. I guess when you’re in a evil dictatorship you need to be clear about which trumped up excuse you’re using for murder.

And we end. Still at 42 students, thanks countdown, I hadn’t noticed no one was dead yet.

I’m going to keep repeating the students list. New info is bolded, deaths will get strikethroughs.

Males
1 Yoshio Akamatsu: “the biggest kid in the class, the timid type, the kind of kid who’d always end up the target of pranks and insults. “
2 Keita Iijima
3 Tatsumichi Oki: jock, handball.
4 Toshinori Oda
5 Shogo Kawada: Looks older than the rest, has facial hair already, transferred in, scarred.
6 Kazuo Kiriyama: Awesome.
7 Yoshitoki Kuninobu: Shuya’s friend since childhood, they grew up in the orphanage together.
8 Yoji Kuramoto
9 Hiroshi Kuronaga: Part of Kazou’s gang.
10 Ryuhei Sasagawa: Delinquent. Part of Kazou’s gang
11 Hiroki Sugimura: Tall and knows martial arts. Seems tough but is actually shy, likes Chinese poetry. Shuya’s friend.
12 Yutaka Seto: Class clown.
13 Yuichiro Takiguchi
14 Sho Tsukioka: Part of Kazou’s gang
15 Shuya Nanahara: Main character? Minor but utterly harmless teenage rebelliousness.
16 Kazushi Nüda: jock, soccer.
17 Mitsuru Numai: Delinquent. Part of Kazou’s gang
18 Tadakatsu Hatagami: jock, Shuya’s friend when they were younger. ‘Shuya had started playing electric guitar, which was considered an “unpatriotic” activity. Tadakatsu’s mother was uptight about that sort of thing.”
19 Shinji Mimura: Shuya’s current friend. ‘short hair and wore an intricately designed ring on his left ear’, highly athletic, knows a lot of information, particularly about the outside world.
20 Kyoichi Motobuchi
21 Kazuhiko Yamamoto: Sakura’s boyfriend.
Females
1 Mizuho Inada
2 Yukie Utsumi: class representative, braided hair, Haruka’s volleyball teammate. The first one to speak after their abduction.
3 Megumi Eto
4 Sakura Ogawa: Kazuhiko’s girlfriend.
5 Izumi Kanai: ‘the preppy whose father was a town representative’
6 Yukiko Kitano
7 Yumiko Kusaka
8 Kayoko Kotohiki
9 Yuko Sakaki
10 Hirono Shimizu: Part of Mitsuko’s group.
11 Mitsuko Souma: Delinquent group leader. “Even though Mitsuko had the gorgeous looks of a pop idol, she always wore a strange, listless expression on her face.“
12 Haruka Tanizawa: Yukie’s volleyball teammate, exceptionally tall;
13 Takako Chigusa
14 Mayumi Tendo
15 Noriko Nakagawa: She has a crush on Shuya he’s unaware of and Yoshitoki has a crush on her she may be unaware of. She’s nice and likes literature.
16 Yuka Nakagawa: Yoshitoki says she’s fat. Class clown.
17 Satomi Noda : “model student who wore wire-rimmed glasses which suited her calm, intelligent face”
18 Fumiyo Fujiyoshi
19 Chisato Matsui: always quiet and withdrawn
20 Kaori Minami
21 Yoshimi Yahagi: Part of Mitsuko’s group.