(Imawa no Kuni no Arisu - 2020)
*Contains Spoilers*
Alice In Borderland is a Japanese sci-fi, action, and drama series. Based on the manga by Haro Aso, the show was directed by Shinsuke Sato. The story is about a guy named Arisu, who loves playing video games and hanging out with his two childhood friends, Chota and Karube.
He often visits them at the bar, where they talk about all the places they want to see and what kind of future plans they may have. Arisu doesn't know what he wants for himself and prefers to stay at home, even though he's highly intelligent and has job offers from the best colleges. I really love the dynamics of these trio and they had great chemistry.
When Arisu goes back home, his father tells him that he needs to get out and find a job; however, Arisu isn't interested at all in finding one. He just wants to goof around and have fun, like most guys his age.
The next day, Arisu spends time with his friends at the Shibuya Crossing, which is near the subway station. They play around in the middle of a crowded street, but something goes wrong.
All of a sudden, lights in the sky appear but Arisu and his friends get into trouble with the police, making them run inside the Men's restroom. When they hear nothing, not even cars nor people, they all step outside and everyone from the subway station is completely gone.
At first, they think nothing's wrong, but soon realise the city they used to know is no longer the same. All the shops are empty and not a single person is outside. Once it becomes night, they see a billboard with instructions on it and they follow it to a building.
Eventually, they see other people, but they aren't very friendly. To their horror, they soon discover they're all part of a sick, cruel, and twisted game of life and death. There's two seasons. Each with eight episodes and they're about an hour or so long.
Just know that this show is bloody and violent as heck. The story is thrilling and the games Arisu and his friends play are brutally sadistic, but creative. It's not like Saw, because some of the games require thinking mathematically or from a logical perspective. Others require physical strength, such as running, hiding, fighting, and jumping from one rooftop to the next.
I love how creative each game was and they all have a particular set of rules. If anyone wins the game, they get a card, such as a Black Spade or an Ace. Queens and Kings are harder to get due to their difficulty. I really cared about Arisu’s friends… they are a great team and it’s their brotherhood that carries the story forward.
If anyone loses the game, it is instant death. Those who win get VISAs to buy food and water, but they do expire after a few days... so Arisu and his friends have literally no choice but to continue playing. There were a lot of characters that I loved and others that I hated, but Arisu and his friends, including Usagi and Kuina are the ones you're always rooting for.
They did a great job with the tension and emotions of fear and dread with each passing game. Once again, there's a lot of characters in this show and they were all interesting, even the villains.
My score for season one would be an A+.
Season 2
Unfortunately, my score for the second season is not good and much lower.... here are a number of reasons why the show got worse.
Certain characters that were supposed to be dead in the previous episodes, kept coming back. What made the first one so popular was the unknown and that anyone could die at any moment.
Some of the games made no sense and we get a naked character, who rambles nonstop about the meaning of life. Not only does it seem out of place, it doesn't explain how this character survives other games that would require you wearing clothes. How is he not injured just surviving in general, in the wilderness?
It took me out of the story, because one gunshot wound or cut and he'd die from infection or disease. They don't have much medicine or doctors in this world. There’s this place, called “The Beach,” where a lot of the survivors go (from Season 1) and party all night, etc. However, that place was short-lived and ends up in ruins once the next new game is announced and the majority of people are killed anyway. So technically, there’s not a lot of safe places for people to go hide and rest up.
Then, we have characters who are shot multiple times, set on fire, fell off a building, broke a leg, and they're still alive, even though they would've died in an instant. This is where I stopped caring as there were no real stakes involved and it’s like they broke the rules of their own world.
What was a thrilling action series with puzzles and mind games quickly devolved into long, boring speeches that dragged on and on for the entire episode.
Also, the games felt rushed. One scene the girls beat the game in less than a minute and I was not impressed at all. It's almost like they couldn't bother to explain the games nor the rules properly, and some games the rules kept changing all the time. I get they were trying to move the story along in a montage sequence, but what the original had was the tension of not knowing what the characters would do once the rules were set in place.
Not to mention, the final game at the end was such a huge letdown as nothing in the world was ever elaborated on. Instead, we get a bunch of random bullshit theories such as aliens, a video game simulation, and Asiru being in a mental institution. Spoiler alert! Both his friends die and they claim it was due to a car accident. Bullshit!
I was expecting answers to this world and why these games needed to be played, but none were ever answered. Such a huge letdown and I felt as though they wanted to finish it open-ended, so they could make another season. That made me angry and disappointed.
There was not even a risk that the main character would die; it just felt as though they were wasting our time.
The final solution seems somewhat happy, but more like a false flag and everything was just one big crazy fever dream... even though they said it was a natural disaster, but that too doesn't make any sense.
Some comet fell out of the sky and destroyed a chunk of the city... how anyone survived the raging fire, extreme heat, and debris is anyone's guess. Arisu was basically between two dimensions, between Heaven and Hell. Once again, they played around with all these theories as if they couldn't come up with a better conclusion.