Imawa no Kuni no Alice [2020]

 

Arisu is a carefree NEET. He has two friends and one day, they end up in some kind of a weird world. It's still Tokyo, but it's empty. Barely anyone there and at first, it seems like they are the only ones there. Until they find the Games. 

Alice in Borderland (the English title) is based on a manga series. It was adapted before, as an anime, but it was short and cut off pretty abruptly, this seems to be a more cohesive adaptation and it also seems like season 2 is a possibility, considering how season 1 ended. I'll try not to spoil too much, but let's just say, that this is not a completely spoiler-free review. 

So Arisu and his friends find themselves in the so-called Borderlands. In Borderlands, you either play games to extend your visa, or you die by laser when your visa expires. You can also die playing those games, but Arisu is really smart. Unfortunately, he and his friends end up in a game that can only have one survivor. At first, they try to come up with a different solution, but in the end, his friends realize that they want Arisu to live so when he fulfills the surviving conditions, they hide and wait for the timer to end. 

And then Arisu and a friend he made in a previous game (Usagi), go and try to figure out what the heck is going on. They end up going to the Beach, and yes, that's a capital B, as it is a resort of some sort. Run by the Hatter. They reluctantly join the community there and still try to snoop around. 

This is where we finally learn the name of my favorite character. Which, surprisingly, not so surprisingly, is not Arisu. My favorite is Chishiya. The white-haired brat, that seems to be too smart for his own good. 

When Hatter dies, Chishiya recruits them to help him with his own agenda and they agree, only to be betrayed by him (at least temporarily). And then it all goes to shit as the whole resort is a stage for a new game. 

What you need to know is that at the end of a game, there is a playing card waiting for those who win. And Beach has been collecting those, and at this point, they are only missing the 10 of hearts and the face cards. Those have not yet surfaced, but the 10 of hearts is the price at the end of the game at the resort - witch hunt. 

Our heroes survive and of course, it's Chishiya that gets all the cards. And then they find an underground lair in the subway system and Arisu and Usagi come from one entrance and Chishiya and his friend (yeah, I guess you can call her that) Kuina come from another. And there, they meed the organizer (or one of them) and are told that more games have been prepared. And that's basically the end. 

Then we see giant floating airships dangling banners depicting the face cards and that's the end. 

And that's what makes me believe in season 2. Because this is not the end. They have all the number cards (Chishiya), but they still need to get the face cards. And I fucking want to know what will happen next. And no, I'm not going to read the manga. And you can't make me. I would have to read it on my PC and reading black and white manga on the screen hurts my eyes. So nope. Not happening. Though frankly, I probably wouldn't read it anyway. I'm not that big a fan of manga. I prefer anime and live-action and fanfiction. 

Somebody write a Chishiya/Arisu pairing fanfic for this, kay? 

~AnnElfwind

Written on the 13th of December, 2020