Kazushi Niida

Kazushi Niida (新井田 和志 "Niida Kazushi") is a character in the novel "Battle Royale", and the film and manga of the same name. In the film he was played by Hirohito Honda.

Niida has B-type blood

Pre-Program

Kazushi Niida is one of the class of third-year students at the fictional Shiroiwa Junior High School in the fictional town of Shiroiwa (the novel and manga set the town in Kagawa Prefecture, while the film sets the town in Kanagawa Prefecture). Kazushi is a tall boy, with broad shoulders and long hair. He is described as being quite attractive, although he had very bad teeth. He played on the football (soccer) team as a forward, and got reasonably good grades, but he still felt the need to try and impress people, which often resulted in him coming across as arrogant. He was frequently making excuses, and blaming others for things that were his own fault. This is expounded on in the novel and film; however, he is shown as a self-absorbed killer in the manga. He had a crush on Takako Chigusa; during the 7th grade (the first year of junior high school), when rumours appeared that they were a couple, he did nothing to dispel them, even though they were false. Takako strongly disliked Kazushi, who remained as her classmate into the 9th grade. In the novel, Kazushi is a good friend of Tatsumichi Oki and Tadakatsu Hatagami.

During The Program

When Kazushi first leaves the school, he sees Mayumi Tendo's corpse and Yoshio Akamatsu's unconscious form. He picks up Yoshio's bowgun (better than his own weapon — in the novel and manga, a shamisen banjo; in the film, his assigned weapon was never shown, but in the accompanying literature it was a coat hanger), and when Yoshio wakes up and attacks him, Kazushi shoots and kills Yoshio with it. Taking both the bowgun and Mayumi's daypack, Kazushi disappears into the woods. In the novel Kazushi finds a set of nunchaku inside Mayumi's daypack and uses it later on.

In the manga when Kazushi finds Yoshio and Mayumi's corpses outside of the school, he comes out with "Should'a at least fucked her first." He takes the weapons and exclaims he's going to be a star - "Going to get me all I can, Man-Tits! Blood and booty!" and refers to himself as "Niida, stone-cold killer".

Later on, Kazushi comes across Takako Chigusa, and asks her to join him. He also propositions her, saying that they are both going to die, so she ought to have sex once beforehand.

In the novel, when she refuses in disgust, he threatens her with the bowgun, then he threatens to rape her. During the argument, Takako tries to run away, only to have Kazushi shoot her in the leg. After a very long, drawn-out battle, during which both get injured, Takako manages to stop Kazushi by gouging out his eyes with her thumbs. She also smashes one of his testicles by stepping on them with the heel of her shoe. She then kicks him repeatedly, and stabs her ice pick into his mouth and out his throat, killing him.

In the manga, Chigusa sticks her finger into his eye and, while he lies on the ground, she crushes one of his testicles by stomping on them. She then tells him, "You're down to one eye and one nut. How much more do you want to gamble?", to which he responds that it is long past the time he could walk away and then turns around to attack her. She trips him and impales him through the mouth with an arrow. Also, Niida is portrayed as somewhat sadistic and perverted in the manga only, while he's kind of wimpy and frightened in both movie and novel.

In the movie, Kazushi's arrow grazes the side of her face, and she becomes angry that he has scarred her. Takako manages to scare him off with her switchblade weapon and chases after him. The two scuffle, resulting in Kazushi being brought to the ground and being stabbed in the groin and chest before dying.