This article is for the character from Battle Royale. For the character from Battle Royale II: Blitz Royale, please go to Mai Minakami. For the actress, please go to Mai Sekiguchi.
Mai (舞) is a minor character in the films Battle Royale and Battle Royale II: Requiem. She is a previous winner of her own class's Battle Royale and was driven mad by the experience. She later joins Wild Seven.
Zentsuji Program[]
In the year prior to Shiroiwa Class B's turn at the program, Mai's class at Zentsuji Middle School was chosen by the raffle. Mai is briefly seen during a TV news report. Shown on camera while hugging a bloody doll, she is revealed as the winner of her class's Battle Royale. The reporter notes that Mai is smiling, but doesn't make note of how crazed her smile is, as Mai's experience had driven her mad.
ATAT Attacks[]
Mai in BR2
In the second movie, Mai has become a member of Wild Seven, a terrorist organization led by Shuya Nanahara. She appears twice; first, she appears in a brief scene to give another insane and sadistic smile. Later, in the last stand battle when the government troops are raiding the terrorist fortress, Mai can be seen packing explosives into her doll shortly after commandos punch a hole through the wall. She throws her bloodstained doll (which she still had at least four years after she was seen at the beginning of the first film) that contains an explosive device. It explodes killing the entry soldiers but she is shot at least twice while throwing it. The explosion throws her down on the floor, she can be heard screaming the whole time. After, she is killed off screen by a bomb or an ATAT soldier.
Etymology[]
- The name Mai means "dance" (舞).
Trivia[]
- For the first film, Mai's actress, Ai Iwamura, also worked as a stand-in for some of the students during certain shots of the classroom in which Kitano briefs the class. The total time she's on screen as a stand-in exceeds her time on screen as Mai, who is only on camera for about five seconds. Characters she did stand-in work for include Noriko Nakagawa, Hirono Shimizu, Haruka Tanizawa, and Izumi Kanai.[1]
- Mai seems to have been inspired by a minor character mentioned in a flashback in the novel. As a little boy, Shuya saw news footage on TV of a girl that had just won her class's Battle Royale that was heavily mutilated. The girl was smiling, but Shuya was too young to realize that she had obviously gone insane. His caretaker Ryoko Anno, however, recognizes the girl's state and feels sorry for her.
- It is suggested in "The Making of Battle Royale" that Mai had killed all of her fellow classmates due to her actor, Ai Iwamura, stating that she had won the Battle Royale and killed all her classmates, but her chuckling and jokey attitude brings this into question.