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A ~3 year long hunt ended just a little while ago as I finally found a uniform set and some promotional store products, made by BA-TSU Club for the movie Battle Royale II: Requiem.
I also by courtesy of the Wayback Machine managed to skim a good amount of information regarding the pattern and items that were originally posted on the movie's promotional website, which has largely long since disappeared.
But first, some background:
In 1999 Koushun Takami's book "Battle Royale" was published, about a dystopian alternate future Japan that had won WW2 and became run by a totalitarian government which hosted the Battle Experiment No. 68 Program (戦闘実験第六十八番プログラム) an event which takes 50 high school students and forces them to fight each other to the death with only one winner, which on paper was for military research but in actuality was simply hosted to instill fear in the Japanese people and prevent them from forming rebellions.
The "Battle Royale" takes place on an abandoned island, where the students are given a duffle bag with a random weapon, tool, or defensive item and scattered throughout and forced to kill each other with their given or acquired weapons, all while fitted with an explosive neck collar that detonates if it detects the student leaving the island's electronic "bounds" or attempting to forcibly remove the collar. Over the three-day battle the "play boundary" also shrinks and the students must consult their map to head into the new play area before the boundary closes and detonates their collar.
The book was a hit, and in 2000 a movie adaptation directed by Kinji Fukasaku was released to much praise and controversy, being banned in several countries and not being officially distributed in the US until ten years later in 2010, now considered a cult classic and spawning a still-booming video game genre inspiration of the same name.
However, less known is that a sequel was released in 2003 (which saw much less positive reception and is almost universally considered inferior by both fans and critics) which was started also by Kinji Fukasaku who sadly passed away from cancer after only filming a single scene, after which directing was taken up by his son Kenta, who was the screenwriter for both films.
Subtitled "Requiem", the sequel sees seven Battle Royale "winners" (including the protagonist of the first film), the Wild Seven, forming a rebellion and committing terror acts against the government, often by bombing which result in some civilian casualties. The government forms a new but altered Battle Royale class, this time instead of fighting each other, are forced to assault the Wild Seven's island fortress and kill them.
The 42 students are matched in pairs with linked explosive collars, this time if a student's partner dies or attempts to desert, that student's collar will explode. They assault the island on rubber boats and form the bulk of the movie's action and gore, with almost all of them being killed by various gruesome gunshot, explosive, and boob-trap methods by the Wild Seven.
They are outfitted with rifles, helmets, vests, boots, and the subject of this thread; matching camouflage uniforms which feature a very unique pattern.
Here's an official repeatable tile of the pattern, from the original promotional website:
In 1971, Ruki Matsumoto founded a men's fashion company called BA-TSU, and sometime by the 80's or 90's a sub-brand called BA-TSU Club was formed, which produced alternate clothing for both teenage and young adult men and women including punk, gothic, lolita, rocker, and streetwear.
BA-TSU Club was selected to do the costume designing for both films, for both the protagonists, supporting characters, and in the case of the second film, produced the camouflage uniforms worn by the student-soldiers.
The primary designer was Madoka Konno, who was interviewed here by BA-TSU staff member Eminko.
Taken from the original website, translated by Google, unfortunately the accompanying photos have been lost:
And here is the uniform featured in the film. It's unknown if there is any way to tell if a set was actually film-worn, as identical merchandise uniforms were sold at BA-TSU Club stores during the film's release. I will assume this uniform is one such store-sold promotional merchandise set.
The pattern features overlapping olive green, tan, and blaze orange circular shapes with jagged edges and "dripping" effects, designed to invoke the appearance of gunshot wounds, while abstract black shapes and numbers 0-9 are also spread throughout, the numbers representing the dehumanizing numbers that are referred to the unwilling students rather than their names.
As mentioned in the interview, director Kinji told Konno he wanted "the color of blood to shine in the battle scenes", and the initial version of the pattern featured bright red rather than orange shapes.
However, at some point it changed to orange, possibly so it would show up more on film. Konno also mentions there were several patterns that he created that were not used but were commercialized, which I believe refers to some of the color variations of the pattern seen on promotional BA-TSU Club store merchandise.
The uniform features a surprising number of features that make it decently suited for action wear, while also retaining some unique styling details signature of BA-TSU Club.
The jacket front closes with black buttons, and has four pockets.
The left chest pocket closes with velcro and has an orange elastic pull band, while the right pocket opens from the side Napolean style via zipper, and has three pen slots sewn on top.
The left sleeve pocket is a mirrored copy of the right pocket albeit slightly shrunk in size, and ditto for the right sleeve pocket being a smaller copy of the left chest pocket.
The split cuffs are closed via velcro, and also feature orange elastic pull loops like the pockets. The epaulets are removeable by button.
BA-TSU Club label and tags:
The trousers feature belt loops, a zipper fly and button waist, and an integrated adjustable black nylon belt that closes with a black plastic buckle.
It has two hand pockets, the left side also having a plastic D-ring on the waistband for hanging equipment.
It has two rear pockets closed via velcro with orange elastic pull loops.
The leg cargo pockets are slanted and also feature velcro closures with orange elastic pull loops. You'll notice several spots on both the jacket and trousers like the buttons and pocket corners are reinforced with orange "X's".
The tag on the trousers are distinctly labeled as being for BRII.
In addition to these uniforms, the student soldiers were each issued a black skateboard type sport helmet marked with their individual number and a pair of goggles, black tactical vest with BR-II Program patch on the left chest, black gloves, elbow pads, and kneepads and shin guards, as well as some black leather Vibram-soled tactical boots.
A couple of books were also released, The Road to BRII and Ai Maeda in BRII, both chock full of behind-the-scenes photos, stills, and some modeling by Ai in both the movie uniform and some promotional clothing in the pattern.
I won't share the entirety of both books here for copyright and time purposes, but they both pop up for sale on occasion in Japan for usually pretty low prices if anybody would like me to try and source them a copy.
And some of the BA-TSU Club promotional merchandise sold in their stores during the film's release, first a few pieces I found and some photos from the original store page as well some in private collections.
I'm not sure there's even an entire inventory list of all the items sold by BA-TSU; everything from shirts, tank tops, pants, skirts, coveralls, hats, keychains, bandanas, action figures, and more were made in several style each, as well as different colors. Most notable one variation of the pattern you can see on the women's short-sleeve coverall and skirt I found feature a teal-blue color instead of the blaze orange.
These items, like the movie uniforms, have become fairly difficult to find and so far I've only been able to find a few random women's items.
Sadly, the reason for their scarcity is their fairly short production period. As times change, so does fashion, and by the mid 00's the punk/alternate/gothic/lolita fashion among young Japanese was fading from popular style, and BA-TSU began falling on hard times. In 2004 the head company BA-TSU was bought out by the Crown Creative Co., and on September 19, 2006 BA-TSU declared bankruptcy and closed all their lines, including BA-TSU Club, with the exception of Men's BA-TSU, their office/work clothing line.
Women's T-Shirt
Women's tank top
Women's short-sleeve coverall in blue variant
Skirt, in blue variant
And a bunch of the various other items, screenshots from the original store page and some private collections:
If I can find any others of the movie uniforms I'll post them here and part with extras if anybody is interested in them, as well as any of the promotional merch I can find.
But for now, that's all I've been able to find and research on this pattern that seems to be slowly falling into obscurity.
I'll post any new updates or pieces as I find them.
Enjoy!
-Nate
I also by courtesy of the Wayback Machine managed to skim a good amount of information regarding the pattern and items that were originally posted on the movie's promotional website, which has largely long since disappeared.
But first, some background:
In 1999 Koushun Takami's book "Battle Royale" was published, about a dystopian alternate future Japan that had won WW2 and became run by a totalitarian government which hosted the Battle Experiment No. 68 Program (戦闘実験第六十八番プログラム) an event which takes 50 high school students and forces them to fight each other to the death with only one winner, which on paper was for military research but in actuality was simply hosted to instill fear in the Japanese people and prevent them from forming rebellions.
The "Battle Royale" takes place on an abandoned island, where the students are given a duffle bag with a random weapon, tool, or defensive item and scattered throughout and forced to kill each other with their given or acquired weapons, all while fitted with an explosive neck collar that detonates if it detects the student leaving the island's electronic "bounds" or attempting to forcibly remove the collar. Over the three-day battle the "play boundary" also shrinks and the students must consult their map to head into the new play area before the boundary closes and detonates their collar.
The book was a hit, and in 2000 a movie adaptation directed by Kinji Fukasaku was released to much praise and controversy, being banned in several countries and not being officially distributed in the US until ten years later in 2010, now considered a cult classic and spawning a still-booming video game genre inspiration of the same name.
However, less known is that a sequel was released in 2003 (which saw much less positive reception and is almost universally considered inferior by both fans and critics) which was started also by Kinji Fukasaku who sadly passed away from cancer after only filming a single scene, after which directing was taken up by his son Kenta, who was the screenwriter for both films.
Subtitled "Requiem", the sequel sees seven Battle Royale "winners" (including the protagonist of the first film), the Wild Seven, forming a rebellion and committing terror acts against the government, often by bombing which result in some civilian casualties. The government forms a new but altered Battle Royale class, this time instead of fighting each other, are forced to assault the Wild Seven's island fortress and kill them.
The 42 students are matched in pairs with linked explosive collars, this time if a student's partner dies or attempts to desert, that student's collar will explode. They assault the island on rubber boats and form the bulk of the movie's action and gore, with almost all of them being killed by various gruesome gunshot, explosive, and boob-trap methods by the Wild Seven.
They are outfitted with rifles, helmets, vests, boots, and the subject of this thread; matching camouflage uniforms which feature a very unique pattern.
Here's an official repeatable tile of the pattern, from the original promotional website:
In 1971, Ruki Matsumoto founded a men's fashion company called BA-TSU, and sometime by the 80's or 90's a sub-brand called BA-TSU Club was formed, which produced alternate clothing for both teenage and young adult men and women including punk, gothic, lolita, rocker, and streetwear.
BA-TSU Club was selected to do the costume designing for both films, for both the protagonists, supporting characters, and in the case of the second film, produced the camouflage uniforms worn by the student-soldiers.
The primary designer was Madoka Konno, who was interviewed here by BA-TSU staff member Eminko.
Taken from the original website, translated by Google, unfortunately the accompanying photos have been lost:
And here is the uniform featured in the film. It's unknown if there is any way to tell if a set was actually film-worn, as identical merchandise uniforms were sold at BA-TSU Club stores during the film's release. I will assume this uniform is one such store-sold promotional merchandise set.
The pattern features overlapping olive green, tan, and blaze orange circular shapes with jagged edges and "dripping" effects, designed to invoke the appearance of gunshot wounds, while abstract black shapes and numbers 0-9 are also spread throughout, the numbers representing the dehumanizing numbers that are referred to the unwilling students rather than their names.
As mentioned in the interview, director Kinji told Konno he wanted "the color of blood to shine in the battle scenes", and the initial version of the pattern featured bright red rather than orange shapes.
However, at some point it changed to orange, possibly so it would show up more on film. Konno also mentions there were several patterns that he created that were not used but were commercialized, which I believe refers to some of the color variations of the pattern seen on promotional BA-TSU Club store merchandise.
The uniform features a surprising number of features that make it decently suited for action wear, while also retaining some unique styling details signature of BA-TSU Club.
The jacket front closes with black buttons, and has four pockets.
The left chest pocket closes with velcro and has an orange elastic pull band, while the right pocket opens from the side Napolean style via zipper, and has three pen slots sewn on top.
The left sleeve pocket is a mirrored copy of the right pocket albeit slightly shrunk in size, and ditto for the right sleeve pocket being a smaller copy of the left chest pocket.
The split cuffs are closed via velcro, and also feature orange elastic pull loops like the pockets. The epaulets are removeable by button.
BA-TSU Club label and tags:
The trousers feature belt loops, a zipper fly and button waist, and an integrated adjustable black nylon belt that closes with a black plastic buckle.
It has two hand pockets, the left side also having a plastic D-ring on the waistband for hanging equipment.
It has two rear pockets closed via velcro with orange elastic pull loops.
The leg cargo pockets are slanted and also feature velcro closures with orange elastic pull loops. You'll notice several spots on both the jacket and trousers like the buttons and pocket corners are reinforced with orange "X's".
The tag on the trousers are distinctly labeled as being for BRII.
In addition to these uniforms, the student soldiers were each issued a black skateboard type sport helmet marked with their individual number and a pair of goggles, black tactical vest with BR-II Program patch on the left chest, black gloves, elbow pads, and kneepads and shin guards, as well as some black leather Vibram-soled tactical boots.
A couple of books were also released, The Road to BRII and Ai Maeda in BRII, both chock full of behind-the-scenes photos, stills, and some modeling by Ai in both the movie uniform and some promotional clothing in the pattern.
I won't share the entirety of both books here for copyright and time purposes, but they both pop up for sale on occasion in Japan for usually pretty low prices if anybody would like me to try and source them a copy.
And some of the BA-TSU Club promotional merchandise sold in their stores during the film's release, first a few pieces I found and some photos from the original store page as well some in private collections.
I'm not sure there's even an entire inventory list of all the items sold by BA-TSU; everything from shirts, tank tops, pants, skirts, coveralls, hats, keychains, bandanas, action figures, and more were made in several style each, as well as different colors. Most notable one variation of the pattern you can see on the women's short-sleeve coverall and skirt I found feature a teal-blue color instead of the blaze orange.
These items, like the movie uniforms, have become fairly difficult to find and so far I've only been able to find a few random women's items.
Sadly, the reason for their scarcity is their fairly short production period. As times change, so does fashion, and by the mid 00's the punk/alternate/gothic/lolita fashion among young Japanese was fading from popular style, and BA-TSU began falling on hard times. In 2004 the head company BA-TSU was bought out by the Crown Creative Co., and on September 19, 2006 BA-TSU declared bankruptcy and closed all their lines, including BA-TSU Club, with the exception of Men's BA-TSU, their office/work clothing line.
Women's T-Shirt
Women's tank top
Women's short-sleeve coverall in blue variant
Skirt, in blue variant
And a bunch of the various other items, screenshots from the original store page and some private collections:
If I can find any others of the movie uniforms I'll post them here and part with extras if anybody is interested in them, as well as any of the promotional merch I can find.
But for now, that's all I've been able to find and research on this pattern that seems to be slowly falling into obscurity.
I'll post any new updates or pieces as I find them.
Enjoy!
-Nate
