This is a sequel to a good manga. This is not a good manga. As a matter of fact, I rank Battle Royale 2 among the worst manga that I have ever read. I had always heard bad things about it, but I assumed they must have been exaggerated or superficial. All of my expectations were shattered. This is the exact opposite of what a sequel should be. Everything that the first Battle Royale did right, this manga does entirely wrong. It takes all of the first's strengths and turns them completely on their head. Battle Royale featured a cast of very flawed teenagers and made us feel sympathetic towards them. This sequel features a group of idealized and unrealistically innocent teenagers only because it lacks the finesse to make us feel for a flawed character. It tries to make the characters more sympathetic with their over-the-top innocence, but it achieves the opposite effect due to how unrealistically they are portrayed. The characters would all describable in one word, that is if they would be if they showed any sort of consistency. The cast of characters was reduced from the original in quantity as it was in quality, the scope and ambition of the work decreasing proportionally.

The art suffers from the same fatal flaw as the characterization. The gritty and detailed art of the original Battle Royale is cast aside for a poorly sketched cartoonish abomination; comically huge ears and noses are the norm. The characters' faces aren't even drawn with a consistent amount of shittyness, the proportions changing constantly. It's not "different" or "creative," it's simply atrocious and it makes absolutely no aesthetic or symbolic sense. It was done because it was easy to draw. After it tries and fails to make a sweet and innocent atmosphere to contrast with the plot, it only serves to detract from the quality of the manga.

Despite this abominable gimmick of an art style, Battle Royale 2 paradoxically takes itself more seriously than its predecessor, and all of the comic relief and satire from the first is absent. As are the quality action and tactics, but that somehow becomes a minor concern compared to all of this manga's other unforgivable and blatant flaws.

The plot starts off somewhat similarly to its predecessor, but it quickly veers off into sheer nonsensicality and a complete lack all of logic. Characters' actions make absolutely no sense at all, nothing is explained, and some important plot events were simply physically impossible. It lacks continuity and it seems to not even take place in the same universe as the first, nor does the royale itself occur in a remotely similar way. Also, rather than portraying a slow degradation into madness, important parts of the plot and the character development are skipped over entirely. The conclusion could not be called a conclusion by any stretch of the imagination; it just kind of tapers off without much of a climax, and with the reader having absolutely no idea what the fuck they just read.

I have no clue who could have possibly thought that this sequel was a good idea, but they are clearly in possession of an extraordinary lack of intelligence or good taste. Or they are just very lazy. Or this manga was simply a cash-in on the popularity of Battle Royale. Or, my personal favorite, all of the above. I can think of no other reason than greed for this to have been labelled a sequel of Battle Royale. Any similarities between the two are fleeting and conceptually superficial at best.