Thoughts on Season 1 of Alice in Borderland

Hello everyone!

I recently finished the Netflix original Alice in Borderland and I’m obsessed. A quick synopsis without any spoilers is that some people in Tokyo are somehow transported to a different world, where they have to play games in order to survive. Once they win a game, they receive extra days added to their Visa, we can think of it as “life’s” in a videogame. The games are deadly and have different themes and difficulties.

This is based on the manga, Imawa no Kuni no Arisu, and it’s also an anime. I haven’t read or seen it, but I’m planning on watching the anime soon.

SPOILERS AHEAD: Do not continue reading if you don’t want the first season spoiled for you!

My favorite thing about Alice in Borderland is that it’s unpredictable. Squid Games is trending right now, and yes, I am obsessed like everyone else, but there’s a lot that I was able to easily predict. With Alice in Borderland, I thought Arisu’s two friends, Karube and Chota would make it closer to the end or one of them would die. The fact that both of them died in the same episode, I was just shocked. Karube was the saddest, like the man had his engagement ring for this girlfriend, give him a break. But, they did foreshadow in the first episode when he said that Arisu would survive even before they entered that world/country. Still, I would never have predicted that. I thought that Saori would die or that Arisu would find some kind of trick with the game where they could all survive.

Also, is it just me or was Saori sleeping with Chota kind of unnecessary? If she had managed to get him to chose her and not his friends during the game or something, it may have been worth it, but it was definitely overly done. I guess they wanted to show that she was a manipulative person, but it was so out of the blue, I blinked and was like ‘what in the world is going on’.

To the main event, I didn’t read the manga or anime, so I don’t know why or how they’re in that world/country. I remember Hatter saying it was a country, hence the Visas. The Beach were such an interesting concept. It makes sense though, people in that dystopian situation would crave some sort of remnant of their regular lives and want to stay with other people. Most people want other people in charge to feel safe and that’s what Hatter and his group were. Some form of leadership/government who kept The Beach under control and after they risked their lives in the game, they could come back to friends and escape their reality.

Also, I feel like many others, my favorite character is Usagi, and I was terrified when that jerk Niragi and his goons tried to rape her. I saw the warning on the episode, and was like ‘nah, it won’t happen’, but still, got super close. I loved when Arisu was talking to Chishiya and said that he would keep playing and hopes that if he didn’t make it, at least Usagi would, ship sailed.

I really love Kuina too! Her backstory was really interesting and I loved that her martial art skills were perfect against….crazy tattoo, sword killing man…I’m sorry, I forgot his name, but his character design was very cool! I think Kuina has a lot to offer, we only got to see her martial art strength. It’s obvious that she has more compassion than Chishiya, especially when Arisu was being tortured. Chishiya seems to use people as pawns for his plans, and I feel like in Season 2, we may see Kuina team up more with Arisu and Usagi, and betray Chishiya.

I don’t quite understand the ending of Season 1. I’ve been talking about it on Twitter, feel free to follow me there at AmandaSushma. I didn’t think that lady on the screen was the overall creator of the game. I thought as the Game Master, she’s part of the group of people in charge of the country/game, but more like the face of the organization. I didn’t think they would reveal a creator so soon. Let me know what you think? I saw from a few articles that there’s not an exact date for Season 2, but it should be in late December of this year (2021). I can’t waitttt!

Let me know what you guys think! If there’s a part you want to talk about, feel free to leave a comment and let discuss!