I started "Alice in Borderland" knowing nothing at all about the premise or origins of the show and with only the trailer and previous good experiences with other South East Asian shows to go on. What I found was a promising and enjoyable series, that though perhaps not going in exactly the way I wanted it too, I burned through really quickly and am looking forward to a second season.
Three listless young men, Arisu (Kento Yamazaki), Chota (Yuki Morinaga) and Karube (Keith Machinda) are staggered to find themselves seemingly entirely alone in the whole city of Tokyo, when everyone else seemingly disappears. Their confusion gives way to moments of joy, as they experience total freedom, but this stops abruptly when an unseen force compels them, and some other people in various states of confusion, into playing a game of literal life and death.
Technical standpoints first. I went for subtitles and the original dialogue, as I have a real disconnect with anything that's dubbed. That worked really well for me throughout the series, as I never felt I missed anything key by having to read most of the time - and anything I might have missed is made up for by the genuine performances. It's a great looking show. The visual effect of the empty cities is flawless and the CGI work, when it arrives, is pretty solid.
I liked the setup, particularly in the first half to two thirds of the series. I liked how the games had a logic to them, rather than a more "saw"-esque endurance aspect. The consequences for failure were laid out in quite visceral way but there's intrigue from the get-go in what proves to be the bigger story. I was less impressed with the Beach aspect of the finale few episodes though despite the shockingly ballsy twist in the 3rd episode that points us in that direction. The internal logic starts to drift a bit here, particularly in the game that takes place there, but more than that, I think I wanted more time seeing our characters cope on their own and what they might do in an empty city, before heading into what's actually going on.
Promising then that the second season looks like it might be more in that direction, though we'll have to wait and see. Until then, this first run is largely great and if you can stick with it through a few "that's not what I would have done" moments, rewards viewers with a darkly comic and interesting experience.
