Imawa no Kuni no Alice (2020)

an awesome ride!

warning: might contain a lil spoiler but not too much

The show is definitely not for everyone if you cannot sit through some violence, blood, or some racy scenes, but Alice in Borderland will have you at the edge of your seat and for good reasons!

I first watched the show cause I had nothing better to do and the season only contained 8 episodes that are all shorter than an hour, so the show is very binge-able within one day. It is a good time killer, but also the kind that will have you keep wondering what's going to happen next (if you haven't read the manga, which I haven't).

AIB follows Arisu (who's pretty much the equivalent of Alice) who falls into the story's own version of "Wonderland" which is "Borderland" an empty out version of Tokyo where the only way to survive is through competing in deadly games at the risk of your sanity, friendship and all kinds of shit that will have you mind fucked. It thrives off human's selfish nature and how one will go to such an extent just to survive at the cost of others. Just when you think have something figured out, the show does a 180 and literally insult your IQ... and I kind of like that? Lol.

Our hero at first, seems like a lazy good for nothing bum who has all the right materials but isn't willing to do anything productive with his life. Even then I liked him because I felt for him in a strange way since emotionally and mentally, I knew something much deeper was going on. He hangs out with his 2 other friends who are pretty much just freestyling through life in the dark but gets to experience what happiness is when they're together. Their friendship is executed beautifully and it will make you cry ugly tears. Truly the perfect epitome of why you should not judge a book by its cover because inside, everyone is fighting their own demons. As the story progresses, you see exactly why Arisu is the protagonist. He has his heart in all the right places. He's intelligent, kind and selfless. Not once can you not see in his face that he felt guilty about surviving at the cost of others. Amazing character!

Our heroine is equally as great. She may seem a bit cold at first probably due to the fact that she's been on her own for a while and regarding her past, you kind of just grow to become numb. But even then you can tell she's a good person. As the story plays out, she learns to trust and rely on another person again and slowly, her mentality of you can only trust yourself disappears when she meets Arisu. She becomes Arisu's will to live and Arisu becomes someone she deeply care about, knowing in this fucked up place, they only have each other to rely on. I love how she's a mountain climber which really plays into her skills (it was satisfying watching her climb lol). Also love the bus scene because homegirl literally outran everyone. Kickass character.

I honestly love their chemistry. There's little to no romance in here, but even then you can tell they have that spark around each other and I love how the directors/producers doesn't force anything. You can just tell that they're starting to grow fond of each other. I hope in S2 they get together or at least hook up lmaoo.

Though if I have to complain about something, it'll have to be how Saori's character was executed. Like I said, I haven't read the manga (though I heard she was better in there) but I just hated how her character was so sexually objectified from start to finish and although she definitely wasn't an angel, girl was done so dirty. But that's for you to decide when you watch it.

but if you like a good looking cast, great storyline, great characters, intense scenes that will have you biting your nails and a couple mind fucks, what are you waiting for :)

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A Great Watch

One of the finest series watched in the recent times. The trailer gave an interest to watch this series. I do believe sometimes even though the series is not up the mark trailer can make even an average movie/series to create an interest to watch or give it a try. In that perspective the trailer made a great impact to watch this series.
Coming to the series, it is one of the interesting and exciting series to watch. Every episode gave made an interest and move onto the next episode. The story was well made and executed. Although it is fron the manga it made a justice to its original .
I do felt that the episode 3 was little dramatic but when we are going through the story it made justification why that particular part of the story is little dramatic because the story has to move on. You would sometimes feel that the cinematographic gives the manga vibes, but that's not giving a negative thing to the story/series.

On the whole very good action, thrilling and very engaging series in this year. I hope Japanese dramas should adapt more manga series and made it into a series, so that Japanese dramas can make a unique place in the drama industry as the Korean dramas has.

Glad that I watched this series. Should thank Netflix for bring more interesting Asian dramas and movies in its streaming business.

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while watching this I thought this was like Saw mixed with The Liar Games. maybe even a little Matrix and The 100, ooh also The Hunger Games.. now I'm not made for this kind of shows, I'm sensitive and I have a soft heart but I appreciate the change (and I just needed to close my eyes a few times, though I still saw stufffff...)


so the story wasn't that high quality, even some of the game "twists" weren't that shocking. they did pull a little at my emotions, especially the screams in agony, but still storywise it wasn't that great.

I used to be a fan of Saw (ik shocking) but then as I grew up I was like the heck did I watch as a kid, I watched like 7 of them? and I'd always cry too, like they just needed to work together! also recently with The 100, I watched 4 seasons until I thought why am I watching this!
I'm a scaredy cat and I hate violence, so I think they could've lived without all that gore and blood, atleast that burned eyes wasn't necessary...
on the other hand the hunger games was a dystopian future were people naturally lived in a "game of death", so like here what was their story?


it's like, I actually don't remember much from the matrix but what was behind it? a person? an alien? an evil organization? here too, yes we saw that lady at the end, but WHAT'S THE STORY. are they real people? are they a game but don't know it? do they die if they get killed in the game? is the game just a mental game like the matrix? did people from Tokyo go missing or are the people in the game the one's who got "kidnapped" and do the people outside the game know? are they living their lives not knowing anything? do they think the people in the game were just missing cases or deaths no one cared to investigate? come on, there was no answers....

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The acting is terrible. Terrible. Terrible. Terrible. I may be biased because I in general have a hard time getting into Japanese Drama. While I love anime and manga, I'm not into their "drama style". The mood is depressing most of the time and the acting is so exaggerated, it doesn't feel natural at all. Talking about this series in particular: The main character's acting was the worst. He made such strange faces most of the time, but what was even more annoying: he had no charisma. He was friends with the other two guys, but they had zero chemistry. Zero. Later on he met a girl, and it was the same: zero chemistry. The older actors who were also friends (I don't want to spoil the twist) had much more chemistry going on. Also, their friendship seemed deep and genuine even though we didn't get much background information about them. To sum it up: horrible characters, not likable at all, horrible acting most of the time. The film-making was good, though. Nothing special, but decent. The reason why I rate this so high is the plot. It was pretty intriguing. The games were nice. It's the kind of plot where you want to know what happens next, and you will watch it to the end for sure. I forgot: there was ONE good character - the trans girl. The portrayal was very refreshing, the actress did a good job. She was my favorite. I will watch season 2, despite finding those characters very annoying. But like I said: the plot keeps you watching.

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The people who have some problem with high stuff don't see it

I like it though ,kento yamazaki is such a great actor he always does a good job .I really like every single show by him . but this is different than others,a great show with minimum mistake.i appreciate every character and their chemistry between themselves. I would like to suggest you to see this drama/show.it would be a good killing time,as I said before,if you have guts then you can see this show on Netflix or asian websites such as drama cool or kiss assian .it is available now. Majority of this drama,I really liked it,but some parts I don't wanna see ok.hope u enjoy it

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Yeah, this show was somehow at once a great disappointment but also a very pleasant surprise. I was dreading watching this because literally everyone and their mothers seem to be comparing it to Sweet Home, a K-drama with a similar apocalyptic concept that I ended up loving to bits. What if its similar and I hate it because I've already seen it? Thank goodness the similarity is exaggerated, because Imawa no Kuni no Alice is completely its own drama. The more I watched it, the less and less it was like Sweet Home. That doesn't necessarily mean I still totally liked it.

To start off, I'm really surprised at how good an actor Sakurada Dori is. Admittedly, I've only ever seen him do boring shoujo male lead roles like in Good Morning Call and Coffee and Vanilla, and never really gave him a second glance. Here, it took me a solid 2 episodes to squint and twist my head whenever his character appeared on screen to finally figure out who was, and I was s-h-o-c-k-e-d! Man's brilliant. A quick run through of his theatre experience and its clear that the Japanese drama industry is short changing him, 'cuz this man can ACT!

Tsuchiya Tao, my queen, great as always. Yamazaki Kento surprisingly was decent as well, one of the rare times he's not a cold shoujo love interest or whatever, though Yamazaki Kento is Yamazaki Kento in all his roles, which can be a great thing if you're a fan of the dude himself, but ultimately makes his acting style kinda boring.

My main gripe with this drama, and the reason I rated it a 7, is how the viewers eventually stop caring about characters because literally everyone except the leads die before we can form any serious bond with them. I know certain deaths were supposed to be really gut wrenching, but because we got so little time to get acquainted with the characters, I literally felt nothing. Whenever the main character agonised, I fast forwarded. I want a little bit of unpredictability in my deaths, and honestly I don't want the good guys to live and bad guys to die in a world where fair is fowl and fowl is fair. I want to be angry and outraged. This was just eh.

Plus, the extremities in this show are almost comical: Mr. Evil Evilini is super Evil, Ms. Good Goodman is super Good and Evil People do Evil Things because they are Evil. Yeah, alright, TV show. The brief attempts at making them complex falls flat because its not sustained or explored deeply. By the end, I grew kinda tired over how Good the main characters were because...BOOORING.

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An adrenaline rush coming of age type of story

This drama was nothing spectacular in terms of story but it had its stimulating & intoxicating moments...
Worldclass in terms of production; the opening credits were stupendous and the scenery was stunning. Such things are naturally to be expected from a Nextflix Original.
The setting was done on a huge scale in a fake town, where roads, and some structures were solely built for the sake of this project. That entire empty Shibuya crossing sequence was breathtakingly beautiful!

The dogfight, battle royale mindgame concepts were nothing new in the competitive death match genre. But surely, they were thrill-inducing!
The worldbuilding & the game rules were intriguing. This kept me guessing: What will happen next? Who the Game Master is? What will they do to come back to their usual lives?
The drama & suspense had me on the edge of my seat the whole time, the games keep me guessing how they'll end, who will be sacrificed in a cruel & unusual death & how will the next game rules be defined...

Characters:
The title's pun "Alice in Borderland" and the "Alice Illusion" aspect in terms of referential names (Arisu=Alice, Usagi=Bunny, Chisiya=Chesire, Hatter, Doudou, ..) was a good "clin d'oeil" to the masterul literary work.

The NEET MC was definitely the most fleshed out character. His internal struggle & character evolution was well elaborated. Despite his larger-than-life intelligence & gaming skills, he was a relatable flawed character, who went from being presented as a relatively simple & plain-looking young NPC to a rough, battered, determined MC displaying heroic willpower. The strength of his character leveled up by a new found sheer force of will & empathic virtue.

The strong FL character aka "athletic badass action girl" was worth rooting for as a composed, dependable, well-determined, likeable tough cookie.
Both lead characters were memorable, their complicity in/out of battle was symbiotic. Their actor casting choice was also appropriate.

The rest of the characters and their individual backstories were clichéd. Though they had diverse talents, struggles and goals. They were altogether enjoyable to watch.

Cons:
-The live action format is very limiting but this is the best example of a potential anime story being translated extremely well.
-The viewer must overlook the nudity & the gratuitous explicit scenes. That were "just there" where they could have been hinted at subtly instead. This "mature audience appeal" though is expected from Netflix.


Overall:
Although there were no grand "moral lesson" to be had. The whole concept applied the rule of cool really well. The journey was definitely entertaining & gratifying.

10/10 in terms of enjoyment. An enthusiastic 9 out of 10 if everything else is taken into account.

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a solid show...except?

after putting AiB on hold for four months i finally sat down and binged watched it. am i satisfied? id say so. this is one of those dramas you sit and watch for the heck of it and dont feel much attachment to after (if you were a hardcore fan of the manga you may disagree).

this is a solid watch if youre into action, thriller, mystery, or gore content (or if you enjoyed sword art online) and i have nothing bad to say about the plot, acting, or pace. but for a show that focuses on the themes of morality and humanism, it almost... fails to divulge in it? to explain, our characters often ponder about their lives before the games, and a lot of them show remorse for their actions in it, depicting their humanism and morality. we also get to see their lives in the real world: their struggles, relationships, families. but at the same time, the characters seem somewhat superficial, their personalities underdeveloped in exchange for more screentime for gore and bloodlust. now i understand, this show isnt meant to make you question your life choices but i think a good show takes everything into consideration.

for one, it felt like some of our main characters dont get much of a personality outside of their 2d cutouts: arisu is a genius neet rejected by his family, his friends are his moral support, usagi likes climbing rocks with her dad. wouldnt it make more sense for the characters to be more developed and realistic so we can grow more attached to them and experience more of a shock factor if something happens to them? instead, show replaced valuable screen time that couldve been used for a meaningful conversation to allow for emotional growth on sex scenes and gore. not that i particularly mind, but one less dead person wouldnt have affected the body count, but it did take away time from us learning the characters. on the same note, a character that comes in later in the show seems to possess no emotions at all? (i believe his name is chishiya, the blonde one). again, this show focuses so much on humanism but this guy has one facial expression for the entirety of his screen time. he isnt fazed by death, important/shocking discoveries and revelations, or even when standing in a building on fire. this, to me, felt like either lazy characterization or inadequate acting. it was off putting to watch him act nonchalant amidst chaos because real humans dont act like that. at the beginning of the show, i was under the impression that our characters were supposed to feel real. their shock when entering the game world felt- what i would assume to be- accurate, their internal struggle when they had to choose between their lives and the lives of their loved ones was heartwrenching. but why then, are some of the more important characters not more fleshed out? why are the evil deeds done by antagonists done just to be done and we dont see reasoning behind them? this was more prevalent from episode 6 and onwards, where it really lost that humanistic touch.

nonetheless, this isnt the focus on the show. its just things that i noticed after watching it for 8 hours straight. this show is still very solid, and very much worth the watch.

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It's all fun and games until someone dies

If you are planning on watching this show, just be prepared to see a lot of blood, killing, psychological trauma, and gore. I started watching this Jdrama very late into the hype and since I kept having it on my watch list, I gave it a try. It was very entertaining and it really makes you think about the next move of the players.

If you don't want to see any spoilers please skip this review. At first, I thought that Arisu's friends were going to make it to at least halfway through the show or at least that Arisu was going to find a way to save them but I guess that just made it more interesting. I didn't think that the show was going to be that interesting and that it was overhyped but it was totally worth it. Watching the show made me want to read the manga since I know for sure they probably changed some of the details from the original manga.

The acting, I have to say that it was great. I love Arisu's acting and at some point, his acting made me want to be the one solving the games (not really since I, for sure, would die). One actor that I didn't really understand was Chishiya, he was always lurking around in the shadows, just observing and kinda not helping but I guess that was his role. He did help here and there but not as much as I thought, and the betrayal part really made me want to kill him. On the other hand, Sakurada Dori (Niragi) was so good, I mean I have only seen him act in another drama and that was a totally different type of role that he played here. It was great to see him going from the caring and kind acting in Coffee & Vanilla to a crazy and maniac acting in Alice in Borderland. At first, I couldn't believe that it was the same person in those two dramas but A great actor is someone that can do any role.

One thing that really caught my eye was the stories that were revealed for some of the characters during the last few episodes. As for the title, it was very clever to name it Alice in Borderland. Which if you think about it really resembles a lot of Alice in Wonderland. Both main characters went into a different and alternate dimension, they had to play games and think critically about the answers, there was even a [mad] hatter in both and they had cards that in the main story appears. At first, it didn't really connect the dots that Arisu sounds very alike to Alice in English, which was very mindblowing to me when I found out. Overall it was a great drama to see, I really recommend it for anyone that has the stomach to watch it.

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Great story, concept and presentation

Assume that one day you find that all the residents of your city has gone missing. Your busy city got so quiet you can't even imagine to. You are now forces to play games which risks your survival. If you won , you will get to live for some more days but if you lost , you are over. Sounds interesting, is'nt it? Yes it definitely is. This show perfectly delivers us this in a mind blowing way. The games were really interesting and brainer. The games were not all the same , they were different according to the Card you get. I had rated this a full 10/10 but unnecessary adult scenes made me cut a star. Overall it was great and a amazing journey. Highly recommended.

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Messes the viewer's psyche, but also messes its story's logic

This is the second Jdrama that I have ever watched, so I really don't have a solid opinion about their storytelling technique as of now. But based on my "background knowledge" on animes, I have come to conclude that Jdramas, especially for this genre, know how to portray gore and violence well. This show was not an exception.

Fundamentally, it shares the same root as Squid Game in that it is a survival show where morality is often questioned and often times, it's grey. They both focus on how the main lead would push through several challenges/games, and ethical dilemmas along the way, then ultimately survive in the end. However, the best distinctive characteristic for this particular show is that it focuses more on the narrative and its story, rather than the people around said narrative and story (which is not the case for SG). My opinion for SG is that it focused too much on the characters rather than the story, and that is what I loved on its Japanese counterpart.

The best episode for this show has got to be the 3rd episode. I won't be sharing how the events happened for this specific episode, but it was just messed up, to say the least. And it being messed up and its unexpected outcome was just brilliant in the storytelling perspective. I utterly gasped as the credits rolled, and just couldn't properly function for some time.

Moving forward though, there were some illogical events and inconsistencies on its story. The screenwriter was not able to properly grasped the game's complexities, therefore some plot holes appeared here and there. I want to make this review spoiler-free, and to be honest, said inconsistencies are not that obvious on its first watch. But then again, when it is becoming quite prevalent, one would question whether it is really just a coincidence or already an inconsistency.

Furthermore, I was just impressed on the male lead's character development. Arisu (Yamazaki Kento) came a long way from being a wimpy loser into a strategic and mature person. But at the same time, was quite disappointed with the female lead's character development. Usagi (Tsuchiya Tao) fell prey on the "strong FL at first, but became dependent on the ML later on" syndrome, and I was quite disappointed on that. I hope it changes on the 2nd season since the dynamic between them is already great. By the way, I am already predicting a romantic subplot later on.

But, the most obvious letdown here is the plot twist as to who the game master is. I was appalled when the person's identity was revealed at the end. Yes, it was surprising and shocking. But unlike its Korean counterpart, the show did not invested some story and emotions on said person, yet I am hoping that this would be tackled more on the next episodes.

Despite all that, Alice in Borderland (今際の国のアリス) is still better than SG in that it was consistent on the story that it wanted to tell. The gore and violence was much extreme and bloody, which in my opinion, made this series more thrilling and gripping. Each episode was just different, and the level on shock increases as more that I watch this. Still, I just can't visibly omit my criticisms for this series and also can't say that it's miles better than SG. Overall, this Jdrama messes the viewer's psyche, but also messes its story's logic.

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