Btooom!

Btooom!
Cover of the first manga volume
ブトゥーム! (Butūmu!)
Genre	Action, Romance
Manga
Written by	Jun'ya Inoue
Published by	Shinchosha
English publisher	NA: Yen Press
Magazine	Weekly Comic Bunch (June 2009 – August 2010) Monthly Comic @BUNCH
Demographic	Seinen
Original run	June 19, 2009 – present
Volumes	9
Anime television series
Directed by	Kotono Watanabe
Written by	Yōsuke Kuroda
Studio	Madhouse
Original network	Tokyo MX, AT-X, SUN, KBS, TVA, BS11
Original run	October 4, 2012 – present

Btooom! (ブトゥーム!, Butūmu!), stylized as BTOOOM!, is a Japanese manga series written by Jun'ya Inoue and serialized in Weekly Comic Bunch and later in Monthly Comic Bunch. An anime adaptation by Madhouse began airing on October 4, 2012. It has been licensed in North America by Sentai Filmworks.

Plot

Ryōta Sakamoto is an unemployed 22-year-old who lives with his mother. In the real world, there may be nothing really special about him, but online, he's one of the world's top players of the combat game called Btooom!.

One day, he awakes in what appears to be a tropical island, though he has no memory of how or why he has come to be there. While wandering around, Ryōta sees someone and calls out for help. The stranger responds by throwing a bomb at him! Now Ryōta realizes both that his life is in danger and that he has somehow been trapped in a real-life version of his favorite game! Will Ryōta be able to survive long enough to figure out how and why he ended up here?

Characters

Protagonists

Ryōta Sakamoto (坂本 竜太, Sakamoto Ryōta)

Voiced by: Kanata Hongō

Ryōta is the series' 22 year old main male protagonist. He is an elite 4 stars player of the Btooom!. He is nominated by his mother, to participate in the real life Btooom! game. He was often seen as being abusive to his mother when she tried to make him get a job. He later develops feelings for Himiko, vowing to stay by her side and bring her back home.

Himiko (ヒミコ) / Hemilia (ヘミリア, Hemiria)

Voiced by: Suzuko Mimori

Himiko is a high school girl who is also Btooom! player and was Ryōta's in-game wife, though they didn't noticed at first. She has feelings for Ryōta and cooperates with him in the Btooom! game. She was nominated by her group of friends. Her real name is Hemilia.

Kiyoshi Taira (平 清, Taira Kiyoshi)

Voiced by: Tōru Ōkawa

Kiyoshi is one of the Btooom! players who speaks in the Kansai dialect. He was a Real estate agent before his participation in the game. He believed he was nominated after arguing with a client. He later killed himself using his own bim.

Antagonists

Kōsuke Kira (吉良 康介, Kira Kōsuke)

Voiced by: Miyuki Sawashiro

Kōsuke Kira is one of the Btooom! players, 3 stars player. He is Yoshihisa Kira's son. He was convicted of murdering 3 women at the age of 14. In the real life Btoom game, he has a very sadistic nature and has no qualms about murdering others due of being abused by his father.

Masashi Miyamoto (宮本 雅志, Miyamoto Masashi)

Masashi was a Btooom! player and a war veteran. He was killed by Ryōta.

Nobutaka Oda (織田 信隆, Oda Nobutaka)

Voiced by: Yuichi Nakamura

Oda was an old school-pal of Ryōta. He was his best friend in high school and they often hung out together. Their friendship went downhill after Oda had sex with Ryōta's crush. Back then, he was competitive, good at everything, whether it be sports or grades, extremely popular with both guys and girls and always cheerful.

Masahito Date

Masahito was a doctor who worked at the same hospital as Shiki Murasaki. He was involved in a medical malpractice in the hospital and, after realizing Murasaki was willing to assist with the cover up out of her respect for him, manipulated the hospital management into making her a scapegoat in order to further protect himself. After having escaped the previous Btooom! game, Masahito was ironically chosen to participate once again.

Hidemi Kinoshita

Hidemi is a Btooom! player who affiliated with Nobutaka.

Yoshiaki Imagawa

Yoshiaki was a Btooom! player. He was killed by Ryōta.

Sōichi Natsume

Natsume has a large forehead and a fair amount of wrinkles. He has small eyes and wears rectangle glasses. His hair is short and sided to the right. He wears like a stereo-typically lawyer, with a white, buttoned shirt and black pants, accompanied by black suspenders. He was killed by Ryōta Sakamoto.

Yoshihisa Kira

Yoshihisa was one of the Btooom! players and the father of Kōsuke Kira. He was killed by his son.

Mitsuo Akechi

Mitsuo was a Btooom! player and the man who sexually assaulted Himiko. He was killed by Himiko.

Other characters

Shiki Murasaki

Is a player from the previous round of Btooom! a year and a half ago and a former associate of Masahito. She was betrayed by Masahito after she was made the scapegoat for his medical malpractice. Shiki was later picked to be a participant of the Btooom! and ironically teamed up with Masahito, who was also picked. However, she was betrayed again by the man after he blew off her hand containing the radar sensor. Shiki was able to survive her injuries and had been living on the island ever since. She currently wields a Kama.

Isamu Kondō

Kondō is one of the Btooom! players who constantly spoke his mind and argued with Masashi Miyamoto. Subsequently, he was killed by Masahi early in the game. Prior to his participation, he was a Middle School Teacher.

Unnamed woman

Tsuneaki Iida

Yukie Sakamoto

Ryōta's Mother.

Nobuhisa Sakamoto

Yoshioka-senpai

A young man Himiko knew and trusted. He was part of a band and convinced Himiko to introduce her friends to them. He later drugged her friends and attempted to do the same with Himiko but failed. Himiko caught Yoshioka-senpai and his friends beating and raping her friends and called the police. He was caught and charged.

Miho

Formerly the best friend of Himiko. She was beaten and raped by Yoshioka-senpai's friends after being drugged. As a result, she was forced to move away and partially responsible for Himiko's nomination.

Arisa

Formerly a friend of Himiko. She was beaten and raped by Yoshioka-senpai's friends after being drugged. As a result, she was forced to move away and partially responsible for Himiko's nomination.

Yuki

Formerly a friend of Himiko. She was beaten and raped by Yoshioka-senpai's friends after being drugged. As a result, she was forced to move away and partially responsible for Himiko's nomination.

Anime

In June 2012 it was announced that the manga will be adapted into an anime TV series by Madhouse. It began airing on October 4, 2012. The anime has been licensed for streaming and a 2013 home video release by Sentai Filmworks in North America. The opening theme song is "No pain, No game" by Nano and the closing theme song is "Aozora" (アオゾラ) by May'n.

External links

• Official anime website Template:Ja icon
• Btooom! (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia