Alice In Borderland (2020-): Season 1

Title: 今際の国のアリス

Year: 2020

Genre:  Action | Drama | Mystery |

Seasons: 1 | 2 |

Runtime:  50 min / Episode

Creator: Shinsuke Sato 

Starring:  Kento Yamazaki, Tao Tsuchiya, Nijirô Murakami

7.6/10

 Arisu is a man without much money or luck. He is unemployed currently as well. Out of the blue, a blinding light engulfs him one day in whose aftermath the city of Tokyo has lost all its inhabitants save Arisu and two friends. This is a dangerous and potentially fatal game of survival now in which they are forced to take part.

VIOLENT, EMOTIONAL, MYSTIC

Alice In Borderland is a driving force, adapted from a manga with the same name. It’s a Japanese survival series that optioned players in a parallel world to play deadly games to survive. We follow the characters Arisu, Usagi, and Chechnya.

Ryohei Arisu, played by Kento Yamazaki, is the lonelier, gamer that we get to follow with his instincts for playing, his love for friends, and his newly found girlfriend Usagi. Yuzuha Usagi, played by Tao Tsuchiya, is one of the best sympathetic characters that this series has to offer. She has a heart of emotions, is smart, and does everything to win. She’s funny and charming.  Shuntaro Chishiya, played by Nijirô Murakami, is a quiet character that works in the shadows. He is smart like many other characters and is sneaky with how he solves each game, yet he has a subtle charm.

Like many others, a lot is straightforward, but also is exaggerated in terms of acting and the emotional aspect. As much as it is for the games and the entertaining unfolding, the predictability still opts throughout the whole series. There is some surprising character development that is exciting and surprising in the first season.

It’s a well-made series on Netflix,  it has a certain scope and grandeur shaping the extent and the world of the deadly games. The suspense is thrilling and it’s fun to watch the first season with eight episodes. It has a decent variety in its visual effects and the shock factor and the emotional prosperities showcase a new side in this series. It’s a series that is easy to understand with subtitles and doesn’t hold back on the violence but it’s for a purpose. Yes, it’s violent and gruesome but the gore doesn’t overcome the story mostly thankful for the wonderful characterization mentioned in the sections above. It’s a series worth watching, might not be the strongest but still worth a watch.