Imawa no Kuni no Alice Season 2 (2022)

The hype was worth it

Things I liked:
*The ending. It wasn't an open ending. A lot of things made sense after season 2
*Children are also competitors there
*The CG
*How they brought back both major and minor actors
*More flashbacks and backstories
*The game masters also have a heart and are all brave enough to fight without fearing death. They are just enjoying freedom.
*The timeline (Events of both season 1 and season 2 take place around June 2021, in between their respective release dates).
*Kuina's father finally accepted her
*The wish of those who shipped arisu and usagi can sigh in relief now ( Also kento yamazaki and tao tsuchiya now officially co-starred in 5 projects)

A bit of warninng: Don't watch it with parents or probably anyone. There are rotten dead bodies and deformed bodies burnt by sulphuric acid. Naked kyuma and some other scenes.

Story: 10 The story started from right where the season 1 ended. Unlike season 1, there were fewer games that lasted longer than before. Each game has its own suspense and thrill. The CG was as good as ever and the ending was quite satisfactory. Some ppl may complain that they better remembered the days of borderland. But it is better to forget those horrible memories of near-death experience.

Acting/cast: 10 They brought back all the original cast members they needed. Even minor ones like kuina's parents, arisu's brother, the man they saved in the 4 of spades, momoka and many major characters.

Music: 10 The music was on spot and quite thrilling

Rewatch value:10 Might just rewatch tomorrow


The first 7 episodes were action-packed where the last episode was more calm than the previous episodes but the last few scenes were just all we needed after the 2 years wait.

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players slayed and master of games.

(please note that this is my first time writing a review so it might not be very good! but i hope this provides you with an intel on the show!)

it was long awaited but worth it! you need to watch the first season for the opening, introductions of characters. the second season is a continuation of the first season.

the storyline is simple, you play a game and earn visas. without these visas, you will die and a high chance of you dying when you lose in a game. continuation of the first season, this season focuses on the jacks, queens and kings which are the highest or highest, that only means that the challenges are harder and harder.

the games might be simple, but there are a lot of thinking and thoughts needed to outplay the other players. let's be honest, despite knowing that the main characters will not die, i feel safe about it. however, the suspend, the intensity is still there. there are surprises here and there for you to unwrap as the show goes on. one thing i would love is where they would explore more of different games and have a longer duration! like come on, i want more than 8 episodes.

i know there are some people that don't like/prefer japanese's acting but i feel like it is rather realistic. after watching many japanese dramas, i often feel like it is an autumn acting. i don't know what's an autumn acting but it is something more of feeling the autumn vibes. just because it is not up to your preference, it does not mean that it is not good.

an example would be arisu (kento)'s acting in the first episode where he was running super fast. the facial expression might be foreign to some but it was realistic. as you're running in your fullest speed, you wouldn't be looking good or near perfect. if you're wondering on the mature scenes, other than the bloody deaths, niragi, and yamapi's butt cheeks, the rest are fine.

what do i like about the show?
- games
- how the players play the game
- interactions between the players
- their acting

what i dislike about the show?
- too short
- niragi (this asshole never changes)

all the games are amazing but one that blew my mind was the queen of hearts. yes, it is the hearts. the ending is good, but i would love to see the other characters get back the memory during the time here. i just wish for a 3rd season with longer duration or more episodes.

i hope that this review helps you guys or i will delete it LOL! anyways, have fun watching alice in borderland season 2!

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Meh...

Just my opinion: season 1 was far better than this season 2. However, I even felt season 1 became weaker with the "beach" plot. Everything before the beach was perfection. It still was an amazing 1st season though and kept you on your toes. This season however, had new characters I didn't care about and way too much dialogue. It sidetracked into back stories so often that it became a drag. The suspense of the 1st season was gone. There were whole episodes where the main character, Arisu, isn't even in them. The story was just all over the place, with some characters never seeming to die no matter how many bullets hit them or how much they bled out. The best games were with Chishiya especially the prison one. The rest of the games were meh and it seemed like there were less than previous season. Also there's a fare bit of male gaze moments that weren't needed such as a cheap crotch shot of a character in a school girl uniform. Then again the whole 1st game could be seen as one long female gaze moment. So I guess it balances out? As for acting it was average to below average. I know Kento has a lot of fans who would probably want to wring my neck after saying this, but I find his acting hammy. Very handsome guy no doubt, but he's not the best actor amongst the ikemen actors of his generation, not by a long shot. The fl that plays Usagi and has starred with Kento in many projects isn't much better. Lastly, I found the ending in this season very underwhelming.

This gets a 6/10 from me.

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Expected more, but satisfactory

I’ll start off by saying that I’m writing this after binging this entire season without break so my brain is fried. I apologize if this is incoherent lol.

Firstly, I love this drama overall and would rate s1+s2 a 9/10 bc overall, the story flowed well and the conclusion was satisfactory. However, I think season one is definitely better than this season, in all aspects.

Season one had interesting and engaging games, as did season two, but the problem was that the games this season weren’t showcased as well as the previous games. I felt like there was something missing in each one, I’m not sure how to explain it. Honestly, I just found the games this season quite boring. Still, I can see how this might’ve been intentional since this season is more focused on them finding answers to their questions and conveying the main messages of the drama. Additionally, the games this season were made by previous players that defeated the games but chose to remain in borderland so I guess it makes sense for the games to be easier. Personally though, I still wish this season had the same momentum as the first one did in terms of games since that’s one of my favorite parts about this series.

In terms of acting and performance, I have no complaints. Everyone did really well in their respective roles. The action scenes were amazing and the cgi was done so well, you can tell how much time and money went into this season.

Lastly, I’ll talk about my thoughts on the ending and the explanation for borderland. I’m honestly very conflicted on if I liked the ending or not. Don’t get me wrong, the explanation makes sense and I appreciate that we got a closed ending for the most part. But, I feel like there could’ve been more to it? For example, I would’ve liked to know if borderland was actually real and the meteorite had to be created after the players chose to return, or if borderland was just a metaphor for something. The ending is meant to be interrupted in different ways though, so that’s why I don’t hate it. I like that we got a completed ending that everyone can still make different meanings of. It was a great conclusion to the series.

From my perspective, borderland is self explanatory, it’s literally a borderland between life and death. The meteorite hit and everyone near it was left to fight for their life and in this world, the borderland between life and death is a game world where people’s will to live is tested. Throughout the journey, players question their lives and whether they even want to go back to the real world aka if they even want to live. Those that make it to the end and choose to become citizens give up on life and die/remain in a coma state while those that deny citizenship wake up since they chose to live. I love this interpretation of life and death, especially in the context of the series since everything makes sense. We also get to see different perspectives of life, each of which is important. In the end, you can’t really judge those that remain citizens since there’s a reason they made that choice, whatever it may be.

Overall, I enjoyed this series a lot and would definitely recommend it to everyone. It delivered an engaging story and provided conclusions without leaving too much to interpretation. Alice in borderland, I’ll miss you. :)

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We all live in our border countries.

"If you don't know where you want to go, then it doesn't matter which path you take." -Lewis Carrol, from Alice in Wonderland.
I don't agree with Lewis Carrol. The path you take DOES matters. What you experience through the path does matters too. They all make you as a human. They give you your character.
Every journey may not start with decisions but they end with decisions. This was not only a drama. It was a journey.

First of all, kudos to the mastermind who created the games. They were all masterpieces. The only thing this serie lack is soundtrack. I wish they made some good ost. Especially for some scenes, it could've been more dramatic with background music. Don't want to spoil that much but especially in some scenes i imagined LiSa's Homura playing "sayonara... arigatou...".

--- I understood every character in it. I am more empathized with them in second season compared to first one.
--- I am glad that they didn't make real evil ones drastically change (like Niragi, he was just bad. some people are pure evil, we can't heal them).
--- I don't want to spoil but there are some good moments.
- for example Usagi didn't want to turn to her life until she meet that kid. Kid's parents were dead but they would want to see him to turn to his life. That was where she realized that her father would want that for her too.
--- She and Arisu asked the answers all the time. We are the same. We ask them all the time in our borderlands too. Why are we here? Who we are and what is our goal? What is our purpose of being alive? In the end, there was no answers, in fact, they don't need it either. We don't need it too.
--- Every character had their motives, every move they make made sense.
--- I liked the idea of borderland. It was like purgatory. You expiating by finishing all the games and facing yourself. The decision is up to you in the end. Do you wanna stay and run from your real self forever? Do you want to go to real world and seek the happiness not the answers?
--- Arisu and his late friends (Chota and Karube) conversations were great. They made me cry :( What a great friendship.

But what i liked the most is EVERY PERSON HAS IT'S OWN FLAWS. It's ok not to be perfect. It is a sci-fi but the biggest thing that made it realistic was characters. There is no perfect human being. You don't need to be good or bad every time, you don't need to smile or cry everytime, just be as you are. You don't need a dream or goal to move on to the next game, just listen yourself, care yourself and your loved ones, move for yourself not for answers. Because the answers won't make you happy, only you can.

"It's okay to not have a goal, just enjoying life and finding happiness is good enough." -BTS

Last scenes was perfect. I am glad that their memories about borderland are gone. They don't need to remember what they've been through, they just need to be happy.


I wish all of you guys happiness too!

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Season 1 was far better

Why I liked the drama?

- THE FEMALE CHARACTERS! Usagi, Kuina, and Ann. Honestly, they carried the whole show. Their relationships were interesting and each was independent and badass. They didn't need men to survive the games, in fact the men needed them. It's not everyday that you can find a survival story where the female characters took major controls.
- Chishiya! He's so interesting, more than the MC himself. His laid back personality was the opposite of his brain capabilities. Honestly, I'm glad he had his own screen times to finish two games. And he did it perfectly alone. Chishiya be like: Me, myself, and I.

Why I disliked the drama?
- Arisu's characterization. Suddenly, his characters got weaker than previous season. All of the time, he needed Usagi to take care of his ass because his mentality dropped down drastically. It's like he lost his confidence and never got it back lmao -.-
- Aguni and Heiya's relationship. It's disturbing that Heiya, a girl in high school (definitely underage, no?!), was head over heels to Aguni. Their age difference made me fume with madness. On the other hand, Aguni didn't seem to take it seriously, but who knows what the writers had in minds.
- Plot armor too visible. During the King of Spades', the main characters should've died multiple times, but no. They're invincible to the bullets, except the extras. Others got killed by ONE shot, our main characters could survive from ten thousands shoots to their bodies. Hooray to the armor!
- The ending. Such a shitty ending -,- people can make theories about the 'borderland' but I personally think the ending was not satisfying. On the Queen of Hearts' game, Arisu and Usagi made a whole speech to each other, but in the end, I was left with disappointment. This season's storyline was definitely too rushed.

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Incredibly boring dialogues

I almost dropped the show around episode 5 because of the incredibly boring dialogues:
at every opportunity, characters become philosophers and start babbling life lessons, typical sappy music rising in the background. So cliché...

Other irritating things:
- the games are kind of the meat of the show, yet, most of them are boring, dumb, flawed,
- acting is terrible (maybe actors could not believe the stupid lines they had to say),
- the action/fight scenes reminded me of "Hot Shots! Part Deux", but without the humour.

Fortunately, the last episode was quite entertaining. I don't know if I liked the ending, but at least it was not dull. And, yes, there's an ending (I was afraid of another cliffhanger, as I really did not want to watch a season III).

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It was so good exept one thing

I liked a lot of things about this season... the visuals were great, a lot of action and gore, the new games were really fun to watch and the flashbacks of the characters were a nice touch.
Everything was great until the 7/8 episode.
Why is the entire main cast immoral?? The characters were beaten, stabbed, shot and even burned alive and still got the chance to look at the beautiful sky full of fireworks. I hate when shows use wounded characters to make you emotional. Chishiya told Arisu his entire life story before his death, but he didn't die?!?!?!
I loved most of the games, the "villains" were very morally grey which I liked. The games themselves were mostly complex, even though I would've liked to see all of them and not just random glimpses.
The last episode made me confused and annoyed. The entire manipulation could've been cut in half. The trick stories were fun to panic about, but when the actual game begin it was pretty obvious and was stretched out for too long (I waited for this entire scene to end at some point).
To be completely honest, I feel zero connection to the characters or their relationships. A flashback of a few minutes can't make me love a character.
I'm not sure if there is gonna be another season, but I hope so because I really don't like this ending. The entire conversation with Mira is pointless if it actually was all in his head.
I just really hope the entire hospital scene is a trick the joker makes before the final boss.
Good show
Good blood
S1 was better
Recommend <3

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Rushed Story and Time Wasted on Unimportant Characters

What a step down this second season was.
The first 1 -3 and a half episodes are stella. They're really good! It was great to get back into the nitty-gritty of a game or two.

But then episodes 4 to 6 were a conbination of montaging and rushing through multiple games and wasting time showing random one episode characters' backstories (they weren't even backstories for our three to four main characters who're actually interesting??!!).

They wasted so much time when we could've been getting more build up of our main characters' backstories and developments such as more about Arisu's relationship with his dad, or Chishiya's backstory - he is LITERALLY the best and most mysterious part of season one and the writers BARELY had him in this season. He has nowhere near enough screentime! Where was our Chishiya time and development?!?!?.
Episodes 7 and 8 is similar to episodes 1 tp 3 and definitely improves on sticking to the story and actually spending time on the people we actually care about in this show but...

At 1hr05mins in man. What a stupid reveal. If your show is 99% absolutely BONKERS, please don't give it a realistic reveal. I wanted an absolute BONKERS reveal (my own theory is similar to what is explained about 15 mins into episode 8).

Luckily the very very very final shot somewhat redeems it, but not by much.

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Good Enough

Japanese Drama " Alice in Bordeland Season Two " keeps the same atmosphere of the first season, but it's not as intense.

The main problem with the sequel is the tempo. When they present the games and the emotional impact of the whole situation on the characters, the series is pretty interesting and enjoyable. However, most of the games are rushed by in fast paced edits, while the whole story feels incohesive, jumping from one storyline to another.

The ending, on the other hand, was masterfully handled and quite dark but hopeful at the same time.

The performances, finally, were all great, just like the first season.

So, overall, six out of ten.

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Losing Games

Ah what a shame it is to report that I didn’t love Alice In Borderlands second season.
That’s right: Didn’t love. Not didn’t like, not hated. Just didn’t love.

I was tempted to write my review immediately after finishing the finale but decided that I had to read at least the last few chapters of its source material, to determine how much blame I could actually place on the screenwriters. So, have it confirmed that I am aware that this is accurate to the manga. Okay, that fact acknowledged, I am still unhappy with it.

Alice In Borderland continues to deliver outstanding cinematography. But it also seems to be a case of style over substance. While I wanted to happily welcome this drama’s entire change in atmosphere, many creative decisions invited more questions than answers. Back in 2020, when the first season aired, pictures of the almost empty modern Shibuya seemed to unintentionally mimic a COVID-19 reality. This second season was created during a period when deserted shopping malls and shuttered businesses were more current memories than fiction. Which is why the choice to move away from such images, even if it might be true to the source material, seemed a tad puzzling. While compositions of Tokyo in ruins were beautiful to look at and reminded of post-apocalyptic titles such as The Last Of Us, they failed to generate the familiar eeriness the first season provided.
I thought that at some point, there would be a point to this decision beyond aesthetics. Multiple characters comment on how weird it is, that nature has taken over the city this quickly. How the growth of plants seems impossibly fast. But we never get an answer as to why this development took place. It actually doesn’t do anything for the plot in the long run, except underline how this world “doesn’t seem to function like the normal one”. But we already knew that, because our world also doesn’t contain gigantic Battle-royal-esque games or killer lasers.
When Alice in Borderland featured more familiar settings such a courts, prisons or deserted halls, I found myself in awe of its picture compositions. Now that I have read at least a good bit of the manga, I can truly appreciate how masterfully this show recreates comic panels into moving images. During the games, every aesthetic choice taken felt very intentional.

I don’t want to compare this title to Squid Game because I feel like they both function perfectly as its own thing and they honestly don’t seem that similar to me. However, in my opinion, the deciding advantage this show had compared to the Korean title, was the thought and care put into its games. Squid Game never bothered to feature complex challenges, because that was never its focus. Instead, the games in Squid Game almost had to be arbitrary to highlight the random and cruel nature of capitalism. Alice In Borderland had the privilege that it could have complex trials where the players got a chance to outsmart the system they were up against. It’s thrilling, to watch Arisu come up with complex and clever solutions to challenges that are rigged against him.
While season two does have a few interesting concepts for games, quite a few of them are riddled with logistical errors. The show seems to be aware of that fact, so often the players only can win based on conveniences or by trying to gaslight their rivals. And a good chunk of the time, our characters play no real games at all. Instead of clever challenges, this season wastes a lot of time on action segments that get so repetitive that I almost started feeling bored with them. While these scenes were executed well technically, I found myself missing the days when we were provided with games that truly tested their players. I made the mistake of believing that this show was supposed to be about missed potential. Arisu spent his pre-Alice In Borderland-days, wasting his talents by sitting home and being a NEET, so now he gets challenged to show what he’s actually capable of. But he can’t do that when the majority of this season he is preoccupied with being chased by an almost omnipotent master-shooter.

So then, what is the point, really? What is it all about? When Arisu and Chishuya no longer win by making use of their talents and no longer get a chance to self-actualize themselves, what is this show trying to tell me, really?
The writers seem to wonder the same thing. Which is why we get a lot of dialogues of characters philosophizing out loud. A lot of subtlety is lost that way but Alice In Borderland has always been everything but subtle. What does it all mean? Why are we still doing this to ourselves? What is the meaning of life?
Those are all valid questions. Problem is, no one in Alice In Borderland seems to have an answer for anything that has been going on. While the drama's last episode got closer and closer and none of my questions got answered, I worried that I would be subjected to a finale of tiring exposition. But I didn’t even get that, or at least not really. Alice In Borderland fails to answer its biggest riddles, not only about its theme but also its logistics. Who is the mastermind? She’s just a random person. What was her end-goal? Who knows, she doesn’t even seem to be real. Who were the aces of the game and how did they even get to this position? I don’t know and it doesn’t matter because turns out that all of this has just been a mass hallucination.
When Arisu had his last conversation with the gamemaster and she gave him multiple possibilities of what the reality behind this world might be, I found myself preferring every single one of them to the real one. The one where all characters willingly put themselves through a cruel simulation in the future, because they were so bored with their lives, could have been a powerful commentary about how we the viewer also seek thrill in gruesome fiction to distract ourselves. A world where the rich and powerful bet on the players as a form of entertainment, might not have been particularly original, (hello Squid Game, hello Hunger Games), but it would still have had a tighter theme and message than the actual ending. Hell, even the visual of Arisu trapped in a mental hospital could at least have been haunting. But then the show's mastermind literally laughed in my face for believing that the finale could have been something cooler than what it ultimately was. I was a fool for thinking this show was about anything meaningful in particular. What is the meaning of life really? The gamemaster gives the answer to the viewer: “Life is a game. You should try to have fun.”
So there you have it, the theme of Alice In Borderland is to turn our brains off and have fun.

Arisu walks out of the experience and we have to just believe that he is a changed person. But even if that should be the case, the reason in his fundamental change does not lie in the things he learned while playing games, he doesn’t even seem to remember any of them. He’s changed because he lived through a traumatic environmental catastrophe that tragically killed his friends. He doesn’t get to remember all these times he has been clever or brave and he doesn’t learn about the potential within him.

Here you go, those are all the reasons I ultimately felt let down by this finale. Rest assured, I did find myself turning off my brain at some points and having fun. I loved the character King Of Clubs, I cried over Ann's and Hikari's tender moments of friendship. I found myself smiling at Arisu's and Usagi's blooming romance. But ultimately this show has been all spectacle trying to make up for its very apparent flaws. Like an elephant in a hot spring. It’s beautiful to look at, sure, but eventually, you ask yourself how it even got here.

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Chishiya’s show

When I first watched season one I immediately rated it a nine. However a few weeks before the release of S2 I decided to give it a rewatch and honestly I would probably rate it a six now. It had many flaws that I didn't really care about in my first watch but when I rewatched it, it was almost painfully bad at times.
After rewatching S1 and reading some of the comments here on MDL about S2 my expectations were low.
That being said, this time, probably once again, I didn't really think it through when I rated it a nine, because I had fun and that is the most important thing in my mind. That doesn't mean that it deserves it or that I won't criticize it in what will follow, so here we go:

What I liked:
- Production quality: Everyone knows what a good production quality means and you can see it here. It is expensive and it shows.

- The games: If you ask me they were much better than in S1. First of all, the characters that appeared in the games were extremely interesting. Besides that, the games were much more suspenseful, difficult and not as predictable comparing with S1. Lastly they were much more violent.

- Chishiya: Okay, I will be honest. This guy should have been the main character and he is caring this show on his smart brain cells. He is so fun to watch and Murakami Nijiro's performance is on point. He is intelligent, flawed and has the best lines in the entire series. He is just a pleasure to watch and I believe that without him the series would be half as memorable.

- Manga feeling: First things first, I haven't actually read the manga, but the series does give you a manga-feeling. The action scenes, the way the characters act and look and some specific scenes are like they came out from manga pages, something that is probably one of the biggest advantages this drama has.

- New characters: Even though our old fav characters like Kuina and An are still there and they have kept their awesomeness, new interesting characters appeared like Kyuuma or Akane.

- Easy to watch: Look, some of the episodes were very long (with the longest being 1h and 20m), but generally the series was very easy to watch. Yes, there were some draggy scenes and some boring moments, but I didn’t feel the urge to see how long it is left from the episodes.

- The ending: As probably all sane people that were planning to watch season two, I was very concerned -and I mean very- about the ending. Will it be nonsensical? Will I want to break my screen?
The ending surpassed all of my expectations and it was the perfect way for the final episode to end. It was so mind-blowingly good that I had to rate the show a nine. It was also unexpected -at least comparing to what I had in mind-.


Things I found mediocre:
- Philosophical aspect: In this season there were many philosophical questions regarding the meaning of life, justice, the ''price'' of humans etc. Even though I liked that they added these existential questions, sometimes it felt a bit forced especially since it wasn't that evident in the first season.

- Main leads: I know, I will get killed for saying this, but the main leads were just boring to watch. They were so uninteresting comparing to the rest of the characters and their plot armour was so huge that even with a nuclear disaster they would survive.

- Nonsensical stuff: I know it is based on a manga and to be honest I didn't really care because I had fun watching, but the amount of disbelief I had to live through was just unimaginable. I think that they could have handled it a bit better to make it more suspenseful and ''realistic'' before the grand finale.

What I disliked:
- Acting of the two mains (and some other characters):
I had a huge problem with the acting of the two main leads, especially with Yamazaki Kento. He was overacting most of the times and no matter how much I tried to feel for his character his expressions were so ridiculous that I had the urge to laugh than actually care about him. Tsuchiya Tao also wasn't that great and her way of talking in some scenes felt like she was pressuring herself to sound in a specific way.
Let me be clear about something here. I know that in many Jdramas actors tend to overact, but there is a difference between good overacting and bad overacting.
Even though this is based on a manga (so I can get the need to overact) the only character that was overacting badly was Yamazaki Kento (and another character that barely appeared). Acting is acting and to be able to succeed in this type of acting you must know how to pull it off in moderation, something that our main lead obviously did not know.
They both had their good moments though (thankfully) and most of the times their acting was bearable.

- "Romance": Once again it is ruining the show and it is just not there, I am sorry. I saw no chemistry between the mains even though it was obvious that their affection was building from season one.

- Emotional moments: this series is about death games and people will die, they will get hurt (physically or emotionally) and they will question their existense and values. Even though there were some scenes that made me emotional (which I won't mention because of spoilers) the majority of them didn't work. They even used sad music as background and managed to make it feel bland. The fact that some of these scenes lasted longer than what they should have, reduced the emotional impact to zero. Funny thing is that I felt so much more when it came to some new characters comparing to what I felt for the main leads.


All in all, I had fun watching this season and -even though this is an unpopular opinion- I believe it was much better than season one especially when it came to characters, pacing and games.

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