A new season of Netflix’s Japanese sci-fi mystery, Alice in Borderland, is set to hit the streaming service in 2025. So, now is the perfect time to binge the first two seasons and get up-to-date and ready for Season 3. The show hinges on a complex mystery that is constantly unraveling and is wide open for theorizing and conversation, so it is a show you don’t want to get spoiled. Alice in Borderland sits neatly in the death game subgenre that has only grown in popularity since Squid Game became a cultural phenomenon. With Squid Game’s success, Alice in Borderland has flown under the radar, but the show is the perfect watch for fans of the subgenre. It still has compelling sequences of gameplay, but it balances this with an intriguing disappearance mystery that echoes the likes of Lost.
As opposed to many movies and shows set within the subgenre, Alice in Borderland is not confined to a small gameplay arena; instead, the whole of Tokyo is used as the setting. This creates an extremely expansive opportunity for creativity and gives the show this vast, almost ominous openness. Yes, the games are then given the flexibility to utilize the bigger arenas, but it also makes the time between the games much more explorative. Alice in Borderland is an unforgiving thriller with a central mystery that is only expanding. With a new season on the way, it’s the perfect time to get lost in the world.
‘Alice in Borderland’ Is a Unique Take on the Death Game Trope
Alice in Borderland sees a small percentage of the population of Tokyo transported to a barren version of the city, known as the borderlands, and forced to compete in dangerous games. The show’s lead is Arisu (Kento Yamazaki), who is obsessed with video games but struggles to feel like he truly belongs. His technical way of thinking comes from his gaming and is his major strength within the show — seeing him decoding the situations in front of him is what makes him such a likable protagonist.
Within the borderlands, game types are based on card suits: spades represent physical games, diamonds represent games of intellect, clubs represent teamwork and hearts are games of trust. The different types of games allow distinctive characters to thrive in different environments. Where some versions of the death game subgenre fall into the trap of the most physically able players being the strongest, the diversity of games within Alice in Borderland makes it so unpredictable. The solutions aren’t always necessarily survival of the fittest, and it makes the moments where characters succumb to their fate so much more sudden and emotional.
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This is the show’s perfect opportunity to further fracture what reality is.
In a similar vein to Squid Game, the games in Alice in Borderland are simple in concept and are inspired by popular schoolyard games such as hide and seek and tag. However, they are deadly in execution, with the focus not on the intricacy of the games but on the emotions of the players. This allows Alice in Borderland to not get weighed down by complicated rules, and every game can be explained quickly and simply. This is often an area where the death game trope is misused in other media. This allows the audience to gain empathy for the participants as they are not wasting time trying to decipher the rules of the game.
‘Alice in Borderland’ Takes Place in a Totally Reimagined Tokyo
Alice in Borderland‘s biggest strength is the stunning set design, where huge abandoned buildings in Tokyo become arenas. One particularly memorable game takes place in a greenhouse and the sheer scale of the playing field compared to the players really emphasizes the vastness of the borderlands. It is this urban landscape that sets Alice in Borderland apart from other death game media as it does away with grim blank rooms and creates vibrant, exciting spaces for gameplay. This completely barren version of Tokyo also adds to the intrigue of the mystery, as there is something so unnatural about seeing these huge spaces so empty.
Alice in Borderland manages to combine the kinetic gameplay of Squid Game with the unsolvable mystery of Lost. It constantly whips the audience around, providing no sense of security. With the end of Season 2 knocking the show wide open, you need to catch up with it before Season 3 is released.
All episodes of Alice in Borderland are available to stream on Netflix in the U.S.
Alice in Borderland
- Release Date
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December 10, 2020
- Cast
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Kento Yamazaki
, Tao Tsuchiya
, Nijirô Murakami
, Eleanor Noble - Seasons
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2
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