Toshinori Oda

Toshinori Oda (織田敏憲 "Oda Toshinori") is a character in the novel "Battle Royale", and the film and manga of the same name. In the English-language manga he is nicknamed Froggy.

In the film he was played by Shigehiro Yamaguchi.

Toshinori has O-type blood.

Pre-Program

Toshinori Oda is one of the class of third-year students at the fictional Shiroiwa Junior High School. He is an unpleasant boy, said to resemble a frog. Toshinori knew he was ugly, and as a result was resentful towards the boys in his class who were good-looking. He also hates the boys who are tall; as he is quite short himself (162 centimeters). He has a particular hatred for Shuya Nanahara, and later Hiroki Sugimura, who are tall, attractive, and possess the sporting prowesses that Toshinori lacks. He also believes in misogyny, and has a disdain for women, and views them as merely tools for producing children, or to show off as "trophy wives". In summary, he is resentful towards all people that he considers to be "vulgar".

As well as his dislike for most other people, Toshinori has an aversion to dirt, and in particular, dirty houses. He also shows disgust for what he calls "vulgar" activities, endeavors, and people. Included in these supposed "vulgarities" are rock music, promiscuous sex (including homosexual relationships, it is implied he is extremely sickened by fellow and openly gay classmate Sho Tsukioka), sports and pep rallies at school (touched upon briefly in the manga), television, and, most notably, those that are in a lower socio-economic stratus than Oda and his family.

Toshinori comes from an extremely wealthy family. His father owns a large food company, which was due to be passed to Toshinori's brother, Tadanori, upon his death or retirement (In the English manga, Oda's brother is Nobunaga). Toshinori views a vast majority of his classmates, and even his brother, as being "vulgar", and he views himself as being far more important than any of them. Oda also considers his intellect far superior than that of his classmates and even some of his instructors, even remarking that top student Kyoichi Motobuchi is a 'wannabe intellectual' whom he doesn't respect.

He excels at playing the violin, but his classmates are unimpressed with his classical music when compared to Shuya's rock music, which makes Toshinori hate Shuya even more. His ambition is to become the conductor of the government's Symphony Orchestra. His skills at the violin, unbeknowst to Oda, were surpassed only by Kazuo Kiriyama, who is uninterested in the instrument despite his skill with it (it is revealed Kiriyama became a virtuoso, then tossed his own violin in the garbage). This action extremely annoys Toshinori. He considers Kiriyama to be "vulgar" because Kiriyama is even better at Toshinori in a great variety of things, and the fact that Kiriyama is richer and has a much larger mansion than Toshinori. But what most annoys Toshinori, about Kiriyama's attitude is that he does not seem to care very much about anything.

Oda's only known other hobby is collecting model guns, and, though familiar with their operation (at one point he chides Sugimura for not pulling the breech-slide on an automatic pistol to put a round in the chamber) he, up until the point of participating in "The Program", never fired a real gun.

During The Program

Toshinori received a defensive item as his designated weapon - a kevlar vest. He hid near a house in the residential area.

In the manga and novel, he was disturbed by Hirono Shimizu, who was looking for water in a nearby well. He sneaked up on Hirono and attempted to strangle her with his belt, only to be shot in the stomach by her. Unaware that he was wearing the kevlar, Hirono turned away from Toshinori, giving him the chance to attack her again. This time, he managed to strangle her. He took Hirono's gun and continued hiding. In the manga version, Toshinori kills Hirono by pushing her down the well.

Later, in the novel and manga he had a chance meeting with Hiroki Sugimura, who was reluctant to fight. An argument ensues, and Hiroki shoots Toshinori's ring finger off (In the manga he breaks Oda's index finger with a kick), ruining any chance he had of pursuing a career as a violinist. In the manga, Hiroki spreads Shuya's message of hope of escape, and Toshinori plays along until he is about to shoot Hiroki when Kazuo Kiriyama comes. In the novel, while Toshinori is distracted by his injury, Kazuo Kiriyama appears and shoots him in the chest, giving Hiroki an opportunity to run away. Toshinori's vest saves him again, but he plays dead, planning to kill Kazuo when the latter goes to check the former's daypack. His plan backfires; in the novel he becomes nervous as Kazuo approaches, and opens his eyes. Kazuo then shoots Toshinori in the face with his machine gun, and takes the vest for himself. In the manga he sits up and takes aim with the gun that he took from Hirono but he leaves his legs open (a weak spot which his Kevlar does not protect), Kiriyama moves too quickly for Oda to react and Kiriyama shoots Oda between his legs with his MAC-10 until his intestines are hit and he is killed.

In the film, Toshinori is not as highly characterized as in the book or manga. He is focused on in a scene where he is being chased by Kazuo, and he still uses his kevlar trick to fool him. However, as he stops playing dead, Kazuo jumps down from a roof while wielding a wakizashi. Kazuo decapitates Toshinori, stuffs a grenade in his mouth, and uses his head as a bomb. In the film Oda does not kill Hirono; Mitsuko Souma kills Hirono.