Imawa no Kuni no Alice (2020)

Survival Of The Fittest & Smartest!

15/01/2023

In brief, this is about everyday people taken into a parallel world similar to their own only they have no idea why. In order to survive they must play all these games against playing card characters (E.g. Jack of Hearts/9 of clubs) to buy them time through visas as well as enable them to collect all 52 cards if they win the games.

Each game is a live or die situation and as each progresses it gets harder and harder to win as well as to stay alive.

Quite simply, if the hosts lose they die - if the players lose they die.

In addition, no one can really be trusted and outside of the games and set rules anything goes!

Once all 52 cards are collected the survivors don't know whether or not they get to return back to their own world or if something else is in store for them all together.

Expect alot of gore, death, intense adrenaline rushes and psychological moments throughout each action packed episode.

My favourite characters in this entire series are Arisu and Chesiya even though the main duo is Arisu and Usagi by the end of season one. Unfortunately, Chesiya isn't actually a main character like Arisu and Usagi, but still has a strong impact and presence throughout both seasons.

If Usagi had been taken out at all I wouldn't have cared.

Different story for Arisu and most definitely Chesiya.

To me Arisu is likeable because he represents hope, positivity, possiblities plus he's simply just a decent person (once he's evolved) that cares about everyone not just himself whereas Chesiya is a somewhat complex character that does what it takes to survive even if it means double crossing someone. He is indifferent, unemotional, doesn't care plus he has a very high IQ which makes him just that bit more interesting.

In fact, I like Chesiya a little more than Arisu despite Chesiya making some rather cut throat underhanded decisions on his part.

What is brilliant about this series is that the games just keep getting better and better throughout each episode with some of the best being in season two.

I am also a fan of SQUID GAME and want to say that I like SQUID GAME and ALICE IN BORDERLAND for different reasons.

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A series striking of intensity.

I'll make it short, but from the first episode the series transports us to a very intense world of anguish and fear.

People are forced to play games that are deadly, each of these games are represented by cards that designate whether it is a test of combat, physicality, mind or heart. Those of the heart being of course the most tragic.

The series makes us discover this almost apocalyptic world, we become attached to characters who leave far too soon, we root for them to just make out of a game while just afterwards they are immersed again in the cruel aspects of this world.

The loyalty and values of these individuals are put to the test.

It's really a superb first season that grabs the viewer and does not let go.

The production is insane and the acting is top notch, not one character was lacking.

I highly recommend.

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Interesting plot and games, but the Beach...

I started to watch this with little to no expectations, got addicted and finished s1 in two days:D. I found this because I heard its similar to Squid game (which I loved) and I have to say I liked this one even better.
The games were exciting and required intelligence to complete them. I was holding my breath and thinking all the solutions while watching.
I also loved the characters and their friendship (ep 3:().
Eventhough I loved the series, I have to say that I wasn't fan of two last episodes 7 & 8 mainly because of the Beach. Like I get that it might symbolize real society but yeah... I was looking forward what the heart 10 game would be and I was kinda disappointed, so many unnecessary fights and killings IMO. Also why were the women wearing only bikinis...
But overall I would definitely recommend this!

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Adore it

While usually I prefer plots where the main thing happening doesn't rely only on one specific aspect this one was really good overall! I just absolutely loved it similar to My Name it was amazing, just something about it that was good, spectacular even, the concept was executed really well, and the acting is amazing. Overall everything was just really good, I can't even really think of anything that I didn't like at all I also love the way the characters interacted and that they weren't all one dimensional but the best part was that they didn't spend too much time focusing on making extra characters more fleshed out but rather focused on the characters that mattered more. Some shows get a bit too ambitious in trying to add dimension to too many characters in too short a period of time...

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Debería haberse llevado toda la atención que se robó El Juego del Calamar

Ahhhhh Alice In Borderland, que decir de vos que ya no haya escrito en los chats aterrorizantes que le mandé a mi mejor amigo cuando saliste...
Primero: si pueden, lean el manga porque es BUENÍSIMO. Los mangakas saben trabajar muy bien la trama 'juegos de la muerte' así que si no lo leyeron hasta este momento salen de acá y se van a baio o alguna de esas páginas y lo buscan que no se van a arrepentir y van a hacer que la experiencia de mirar la serie les sea mucho más gratificante.
Segundo: si bien al principio no la iba a mirar porque a veces las adaptaciones de manga y comics que hace la plataforma de la N roja hay que agarrarlas con pinzas, me bastó con leer que Kento Yamazaki iba a hacer de Arise para ponerle todas las fichas. Y que bueno que lo hice.
Para quienes la piensan ver, hay que avisar que se pone medio/bastante violenta por momentos y podés quedar recalculando más de una vez porque hay escenas que te las regalo, pero si han visto Battle Royale deberían estar un poco con el antídoto en sangre y, por ende, van a poder disfrutarla.
Arise, que no quiere hacer nada en la vida más que jugar a lo' jueguito' y que el viejo le deje de romper las pelotas, de golpe se encuentra con sus dos mejores amigos en un Tokio vacío donde no están más que ellos y un poco de gente cool y un montón de gente loca. Hay personajes que los van a amar -como los de Ruzuna y Chishiya- y los juegos son geniales de los bizarros y crueles. Además, y eso me parece interesante de aclarar, que para ser un manga que se escribió en tan poco tiempo y no tiene muchos tomos hay tantos elementos que tocan tan ahí en la tecla que es impresionante; y ver como se muestra en ciertas piezas de entretenimiento aquello de lo que hablaba Nagisa Oshima cuando decía que todos los japoneses estaban mal de la cabeza la verdad que es algo que nunca hay que perderse. Y por eso también pienso que debería haber obtenido el reconocimiento que le dieron a su versión lavada de Corea, que si bien la otra no es mala la verdad que en parte es una mezcla de diferentes elementos comunes puestos todos juntos bajo el sueño de alguien que realmente quería que la pegue (pero bueno de esto me callo).
Veanla antes de que salga la segunda temporada que la verdad que no se van a arrepentir y se les va a pasar TAN rápido que cuando la terminen no van a saber con que llenarlo, así que ahí se van a leer el manga o mirar de vuelta Battler Royale y siguen la vida diciendo "gracias a Dios no vivo en ese lugar"...obvio hasta que en Diciembre llegue la nueva.

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Eh..

Hi, I’m just a Kdrama addict trying out a Japanese drama for the first time in my life after seeing this one advertised everywhere. Suffice it to say, I probably won’t be coming back, and here’s why. Since the very beginning, I felt no real connection with any of the characters. The only character I even remotely found myself liking was the FL and that was only because I thought her mountain climbing hobby was pretty dope. Still, I wouldn’t have minded if she died in this drama. The directors and writers tried to remedy this by working in some flashback scenes for individual characters, but at that point in the drama I just wanted to see how the final conflict would be resolved, not watch several minutes of an irrelevant side character’s sob story. It felt really forced and honestly ruined the flow of the action for me. After going from a pretty conservative style to korean dramas, I was entirely baffled by the amount of sex and nudity in this drama. To be honest, I rarely watch American TV, especially TV that is rated M or R, so seeing this in a Japanese thriller felt really out of place and reminded me of the days where I would watch anime that was disgustingly saturated in fanservice. While I’m on this topic, I have to say that the rape scene in the latter half of the drama felt absolutely unnecessary and completely uncalled for. It gave me a foul feeling because of the way that it was portrayed and the fact the FL quickly bounced back from the experience as if being almost raped was completely normal. Hell, even the rapist himself was justifying his act as “normal human behavior.” It disgusted me beyond belief. With that said, I did enjoy the premise of the drama. While it’s not original by any means, I’m a sucker for sadism and bloodshed (I watched too much TWD in my day), so this drama was mostly meant to be a mindless thriller that I can watch after a long day. It didn’t require much thinking on my part, which I appreciated, and it was quite nice to just watch people kill each other in a deadly arena, as sick as that sounds. My final words are: don’t expect much in the way of depth or character development from this because you won’t get it. Despite that, I say watch it for the cinematics and the awfully entertaining death scenes. This might not be for everyone though ;).

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...as long as one is safe, it doesn't matter how many others die. Isn't that humanity?

My lord, what an utterly incredible experience this was. I've always thought that Sato Shinsuke was a director capable of making live-action adaptations that are not only watchable but actually entertaining (let's just ignore Bleach). His combination of dark humour, uncompromising ruthlessness, kinetic action sequences and high budgets allow his works to succeed where others have been derided. Alice in Borderland is probably his most popular work to date (breaking into the Western mainstream), and in my opinion, his best as well, in its blending of intense, hair-raising thrills with probing questions about morality and survival.

Alice in Borderland is a series that examines how 'human' qualities- compassion, rationality, camaraderie- are stripped away by death's cold stare, leaving behind the singular impulse to fend for yourself and throw your brethren under the bus without a second thought. In the process, the capacity for high reasoning is often left behind, and the tragedy of many of the games is that participants will impulsively launch themselves to their deaths without realising that the solution could have been easily discovered with just a bit of thought and teamwork. In the second half of the series, The Beach sets up an interesting Lord-of-the-Flies-esque scenario that demonstrates the impossibility of establishing order amongst humans in the absence of societal restraints, resulting in (especially amongst the executives and militants) the emergence of violent and hedonistic impulses that only have a chance to creep forth in parallel Tokyo. As suggested by some of the characters' names (rabbit, cheshire) and the recurring zoomorphic elements in the games (tigers, jaguars, horse-headed killers), Alice in Borderland reminds us that we were born as animals, and, if we were to be placed in a world where we are both hunted and allowed to roam free- we will become animals once more. And those who value their humanity? Though anyone can die, they stand the highest chance of survival.

But depth of themes alone don't make a series memorable- there has to be fun and games! And how darkly hilarious these games are, blending an off-kilter playfulness with horrific violence and ironic twists that are often so obvious that participants will trip over them and fall to their deaths. Eschewing the grandiose, sweeping setpieces so often seen in Western dystopian works like The Hunger Games and Maze Runner, Sato opts for ordinary apartment complexes and subway tunnels, plainly decorated and illuminated with sterile white light that contrasts with the red of spilt blood. Marrying the fast-paced hand-to-hand combat of 'Kingdom' with the wanton firearms slaughter of 'I am a Hero' and 'Inuyashiki', the series DELIVERS on the action sequences (my favourite would have to be a certain strobe-lit fight scene in the penultimate episode), though these are sadly somewhat absent from the middle of the series, which suffers slightly by trading off thrills for a slightly fanservicey mystery element. And as shown in the infamous third episode, this is is a series which isn't afraid to pull its punches, driving home the hard premise that anyone can die-and that ultimately, survival is as much a product of pure luck as it is of intellect and stamina.

With the backing of Netflix and his usual high-level polish, Sato's budget and camerawork far exceed the tacky, cheaply-filmed quality of most Jdramas. As usual, he brings in a cast of A-listers, all of whom perform at least admirably. Yamaken was dashing as usual, but the standouts were Tsuchiya Tao and Asahina Aya, who demonstrate a capacity to be excellent action heroines, and Murakami Nijiro, who delivers an enigmatic, smirking performance as the Cheshire Cat of this violent, bizarre Wonderland. Overall, Alice in Borderland is a must-see, and I just hope that the second season keeps the same level of quality.

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De l'autre côté du miroir

Aborder le visionnage de ce drama me pousse à la frontière de ce que je peux supporter en matière de blockbuster. Si j'apprécie tellement les séries japonaises c'est pour des raisons bien particulières et qui les font souvent détester par beaucoup de mes con-génères. Jeu d'acteur, réalisme ou originalité des situations de la vie quotidienne, sentiments à fleur de peau, humour, twist, mystère, etc, etc ... Mis à part pour les derniers thèmes, rien ne laissait présager que j'allais apprécier cette énième réinterprétation du mythe d'Alice au pays des merveilles. D'autant plus que les productions japonaises Netflix (Violet Evergarden mise à part) m'ont souvent rebutées. Je me souviens encore avec effroi du premier épisode de Followers. Breuuuh

Destiné à un public international, rempli de violence gratuite et d'effets spéciaux, la série va à l'opposé total d'un plongeon dans le "vrai"Japon, tant l'histoire aurait pu se passer dans n'importe qu'elle jungle urbaine, voir jungle tout court. Mais c'est bien par la porte d'entrée de la ville de Tokyo, à l'architecture moderne, magnifiées par des plans chiadés sortis des meilleurs catalogues de voyage que je me suis laissé happer. La photo est un atout majeur de la série, mais amateurs de l'époque Edo, passez donc votre chemin. Shinjuku et Kabukicho sont présentés comme le top de la coolitude. Histoire évidement de rameuter un max de touristes consuméristes étrangers. La ville de Tokyo a sûrement financé une partie du tournage pour cela et c'était clairement nécessaire d'avoir sa coopération, vu le scénario.

D'abord, désolé de ne pas comparer la série au manga, ne l'ayant pas lu, mais je pense qu'elle s'apprécie surement mieux ainsi étant déjà très courte. L'histoire ce passe donc dans un Tokyo, complètement déserté de la plupart des êtres humains. Il fallait donc mettre la main au porte-monnaie pour fermer des quartiers entiers en plein jour. Et le jeu en valait la chandelle car les images sont rares et même maintenant, avec la pandémie, les passages piétons emblématiques ne sont pas vides.

Ensuite, le scénario prend certainement quelques libertés avec le manga publié de 2010 à 2016... 2010, oui vous avez bien lu ! Battle Royal, 2000 - Death Note, 2003 - - Doubt 2007 - Btooom!, 2009 etc, etc, ... et on est en 2020 !!! 10 ans après le point d'orgue du phénomène. Y a-t-il vraiment encore quelque chose de nouveau à raconter dans le le pays des battles royals en 2021.

Rappelons les règles immuables du genre :
- bande de copains plongée dans un autre univers ou/et huis clos, check
- mise à l'épreuve de leur amitié, check
- vamp prête à tout pour ne pas mourir (donc sexe), check
- mort violente d'un personnage principal sympathique, mais pas le héro quand même faut pas pousser, check
- énigme, traitre, esprit d'équipe qui triomphe, check, check, check, ...
Des codes vus des dizaines de fois, donc. Si on rajoute à cela la construction dite moderne du Cliffhanger, mais surtout la mise en scène cinématographique qui me fait depuis des années m'endormir devant les blockbusters de 2h30, pas gagné pour que je trouve du positif dans cette série (à part Tokyo, vous l'avez compris). Il y a un bon nombre d'épisodes rallongés artificiellement par des flashbacks assez poussifs, en plus de scènes statiques où l'on contemple des visages larmoyants pendant des plombes. Bref cela manque de vie et pas seulement par manque d'habitant. Tout n'est pas bon à prendre dans le cinéma moderne (américain ?) et surtout pas cette manière de rallonger la sauce. Faire des flashbacks permet de donner de la profondeur à certains personnages et leur disparition n'en aurait été que plus forte, mais pour cela il aurait fallu s'en donner les moyens sur des épisodes quasi-entiers.

OK, j'ai démoli toutes vos envies de regarder la série. Mais malgré les situations téléphonées (c'est le cas de le dire) des jeux de la mort proposés, j'ai regardé jusqu'au bout et j'en suis même à me demander si je ne regarderais pas la saison 2. Il y a du positif, donc...

Tout d'abord le thème des jeux de cartes est intéressant. Il mêle du coup, jeux de hasard, maths et traitrise. Les maths étant mon domaine j'espérais voir plus d'énigmes de logique. Mais elles sont assez rares et souvent connues, les pièces en carré et l'ampoule, j'attendais plus. Les jeux de cœurs sont basés souvent sur le sacrifice et on devine assez vite l'issue. Le problème c'est qu'on se doute aussi de l'issue du dernier jeu qui tourne quand même sur 3 épisodes. Donc les amateurs d'énigmes n'en auront pas pour leur argent, mais auront surement envie de lire le manga, pour les autres, c'est une bonne initiation.

L'histoire entre nos deux héros est classique et platonique. Du coup elle risque de décevoir les grands fans de séries à l'occidental, bien plus tactiles. Mais elle colle au fait qu'on est au Japon et que la production est japonaise. Malgré cela les codes des films/séries d'actions américaines sont bien présents. En termes de musique, mise en scène, cascades et effets spéciaux. Certains crieront au génie, en disant :"Enfin une adaptation japonaise réussie". Pour les adeptes de séries et films asiatiques, nous savons ce qu'est un bon film venant de l'est. Il n'a pas besoin d'inclure un mec tatoué façon kabuki, katana à la main ou une amazone adepte du karaté (si, si, ils ont osé). Si on passe donc ses personnages "plus cliché de l'Asie, tu meurs", il reste un excellent jeu d'acteur et quelques moments qui donnent envie de voir la suite.

Mais c'est surtout par Yamazaki Kento, NEET extrêmement cool et petit génie des maths qui s'ignore, que l'on appréciera le plus la série. Je me souviens avec plaisir de You Lie in April ou l'excellent Death Note de 2015 dans son rôle inoubliable de L et à 26 ans il est à deux doigts d'une carrière internationale avec son rôle d'Arisu. Ce qui pourrait me faire dire que tout n'est pas à jeter avec Netflix. Notre mignon petit lapin, Tsuchiya Tao ne lui vole pas vraiment la vedette, même si elle impressionne par ses bons et son mimétisme avec Faith l'héroïne de Mirror's Edge (le premier évidemment).

Finalement je ne crierai ni au génie, ni à a la bouse. Seulement à, ça dépend qui on est et qu'est-ce qu'on veut. Pour moi c'est un produit destiné à exporter du rêve (Tokyo+arts martiaux+bikini) mais qui fait aussi marcher sa tête. Dans cette optique il est réussi et mérite 10/10. Mais si on compare à des productions typiquement japonaises et destinées qu'au marché japonais, comme Anata no ban desu, il ne tient pas la comparaison en termes de mystère et de suspense, même si la production est léchée. De la violence et du voyeurisme ça il y en a, mais attendons-nous vraiment cela d'un drama ? Quoi qu'il en soit, Je m'interroge sur QUI répartie les cartes des productions mondiales. Une reine de cœur qui joue avec les sentiments humains certainement.

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Wild ride full of adrenaline

I have not read the manga which was this show based on, but I watched this because of good ratings and I really was not disappointed.
Kento Yamazaki is my favorite actor and he proves he can act really well, all the emotions he was able to show was really amazing to see. The other cast was great as well, I liked especially the cold character of Chishiya played by Nijiro Murakami.
Overall it was a really wild ride, I was on the edge of my seat all the time and there were definitely some moments I really did not expect to happen.
I am looking forward to the second season, really good job and I am curious how the story will continue.

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There Better Be A Season 2

I loved the brain games they had to play. I don't mind gore or sex or any of that which they showed in this. It reminded me a little bit of Battle Royal (2000). Good acting, great FX, interesting story, decent music and great production. I liked Murakami Nijiro's character: Chishiya Shuntaro and hope he's got more screen time in Season 2.

The reason I'm not giving it a 10/10 is because there better be a Season 2 or else the ending makes me mad. There were some scenes that were irrelevant or not really needed. IF Arisu and Usagi are to become more than friends or partners of the game, then the writers need to make that clearer in Season 2.

Overall I binge watched this show. I've rewatched it a few times too!

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