Imawa no Kuni no Arisu (2020)

This takes the cake for the worst thing I have ever had the displeasure of watching

Big content warning for both the drama and this review: sexual abuse, murder, dead bodies (mostly women's)

Before I get into what exactly made this drama so disgustingly unenjoyable and so mind bogglingly regrettable for me, I want to say that I cannot believe that out of SIXTY SEVEN reviews, there were only two that rated this sad excuse for a drama 6.5/10, and that's as low as they get! The fact that the majority are 9s and 10s makes me sincerely question the authenticity of the reviews. No human being with more than two brain cells could genuinely give this shit-show a 10. Either most of the reviews are shills or I'm just some stupid lunatic who's lost their mind. Don't take my word for it, though.


Let's start with the characters. There is absolutely no reason to give a shit about any of them because this drama prefers to spend its hours upon hours of potential character development on useless scenes—failing to foster attachment to any of the characters or the story itself—and as a result literally every single scene that's supposed to carry weight ends up falling flat. Oh, character X is screaming his lungs out from grief because his best friends Y and Z (the three of whom we know jack shit about apart from a few flashbacks that last mere minutes) died, how sad! The emptiness of these supposedly "emotional" scenes is further emphasized by the epic-sad-angelic-dramatic music that J-dramas love to overuse.
Don't get me wrong, I'm a sucker for emotional scenes and the cliché J-drama tearjerker style. I love it when a drama is able to move me to tears, but this ain't it chief. This ain't even close. To empathize with characters and actually have an emotional reaction to any given scene we first need to be invested. This drama does the opposite of that, it pushes you away by trying to force a reaction too early and too hard.

The female characters are nonexistent. No, really. The first female character we're introduced to serves the role of a sex object, basically, who is then further degraded when she's easily restrained and manhandled by the token wimp character who's shorter than her, skinnier than her AND injured. Not to mention her opting for fucking high heels when she herself knows she might have to run in a life-or-death situation. Oh wait it wasn't her opting for high heels it was the stupid writers who created her character and made it so that she'd be pathetically attempting to run in high heels. It was painful seeing the first female character we're introduced to get humiliated (directly and indirectly) and reduced to someone who's good at nothing but being used for sex. It's not surprising when you take Japan's view of women into consideration but it still feels like some cruel joke. Oh and about that token wimp character, she decides to have pity sex with him hours after meeting him for no apparent reason. Maybe some self-insert fanservice for all the real life wimps?

The second female character is the female MC counterpart except she's actually brave, strong and capable. Sounds too good to be true? That's because it is. She is reduced to a sex object when she gets ordered to be taken to the stupid bald mustached tank-top wearing macho character's room at gunpoint because he's "taken a liking to her", the only thing stopping her from being taken away against her will and raped is another man (whose only virtue is having more authority than mustached bald-tard, otherwise it's obvious he's done his fair share of rape as well) stepping in to keep the peace. Cool, so does she get more character development? Nope, a few more episodes in and this time she actually gets taken to a room against her will and sexually abused (this time by the bald tanktop-tard's edgy, cringey henchman and his goonsquad—one of which is a woman herself), the only thing stopping her from being actually raped is the distraction of loud alarm noises signaling the start of a new game. Not to mention during said scene the cringe henchman monologues about rape and other similar crimes being normal and part of mankind's true nature, therefore his actions are justified. Some bullshit along those lines.

We have the self-insert mega gamer, high IQ, no purpose in life, NEET male MC character. We have the burly-bald-badass tank-top-tard male character. We have the cOoL bUt cRaZy, charming, cocky cult-leader character that midwits love to imagine themselves as, also a male. We have wimp male characters who make up for their wimpness through some other merit or virtue, we have aggressive male characters who care for their loved ones and aren't afraid to fight for them. We have mysterious male characters, cold hearted male characters, edgy male characters. If you're looking for a specific type of male character I'm sure you'll find them, or at least an echo of what you're looking for.
Female characters? Almost all female characters serve only one role: eye candy. Okay one of them is obviously smart and dissects bodies and stuff. Cool, she has no say in anything. No power, no authority, nothing. Her entire existence and character is reduced to looking pretty for every other male character. The other female character who is supposedly high in the ranks serves literally no role other than showing off her body throughout the entire drama until the very end where a weak ass-pull (that I won't spoil) occurs. Every other female character is only there to look sexy and die for shock value. That's it. Really. One scene was particularly disturbing in how specific it was, it practically screamed "Look at this pretty woman get brutally murdered for no reason!". Also about the aforementioned Ms. I-Dissect-Bodies, there's a scene in episode 6 where she's searching for a GPS chip in the brains of two dead bodies. Two dead bodies as in two dead women. Two dead women as in two dead women whose butt-naked bodies are exposed bare and shown off to the camera for some fucking reason. Like come on, really? What the fuck?

Another thing that really bugged me was how unrealistic some scenes were. You think an untrained NEET is going to be able to run for miles and miles without his body shutting down, LET ALONE carry a fucking MOTORCYCLE all the way back to his starting point without resting or drinking more than a sip of water? You think humans can somehow outrun a fucking ravenous panther multiple times? How the fuck can a panther not reach under a car that a fat fuck somehow crawled under? How the fuck does a bald mustached tanktop-tard manage to pistol slap a full grown airborne TIGER so hard that it goes flying in another direction? You think some stupid bald macho-man can just casually slap a 600 pound muscle-bound monster (who can leap with the force of a fucking truck) so hard it changes trajectory? Fucking impossible. Literally against the laws of physics. How the fuck does a tattooed skinhead who doesn't weigh more than 100 pounds soaking wet, holding his katana in ONE HAND, manage to slice an airborne tiger (again, WEIGHS AT LEAST 600 POUNDS AND CAN LEAP WITH THE FORCE OF A TRUCK) like some anime character? That's only scratching the surface by the way! There's so much more that I won't even bother with, just know that the choreography and direction of most action scenes feel like they were handled by an 11 year old who has no idea how real life works.

Finally, about The Beach. So we've got hundreds of people who have been separated from all of their loved ones, being forced to face the reality that they may never return to their old lives (or old world, for that matter) and the majority of these people can just party, drink, do drugs and have sex without a care in the world? Like that's all their happiness and stability hinges on? Zero qualms about anything, including the fact that they have to participate in life or death games literally every couple of fucking days? Are these people completely immune to stress/depression? I can get that there would be a certain group of people who would thrive in that kind of situation, hell some would even kill for that kind of life. It just felt so weird seeing hundreds and hundreds of people act so carefree and oblivious as if they didn't lose anything, as if nothing's at risk.

The story had virtually zero progression. Zero foreshadowing. Zero sense of mystery. Zero development. We're not even close to finding out anything, nor are we even left wondering what's next. All I could wonder was what the fuck just happened. It's all one big confusing cluster-fuck shit-storm of a ride that I wish I had never gotten on in the first place. I couldn't give this pathetic excuse for a drama more than 1 star if you held a gun to my head. What a waste.

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Not only was I hooked from the start with this one, but so was my whole family -- and that's saying something because I'm usually the drama watcher. Lol but the moment I started this, everyone looked up and got just as hooked as I did.

I wish I could write this big long extravagant review about it but honestly I still feel mind-blown even though I finished this 2 days ago. I admit I wasn't expecting much from this show. Don't come for me, the cover and preview just was a bit bland for me. Even the title made just shrug like "eh" yet there was still something about it that made me really want to watch it. I'm not even mad! I'm so glad I watched this when I did. It turned out so good. I'm not sure many people know about the show Battle Royale but it gave me those vibes mixed with Hunger Games/Maze Runner.

I wish I could say I finished this show unscracted but bruh... by the end I feel like I had been through everything they had been through. My brain function pretty much shut down lol. The betrayal, man!! the freaking BETRAYAL! This show messes with your head like it messes with all of the characters. I seriously can NOT wait for the next season. There has to be some kind of justice. oegihrwohgrohg OMGGGG!!!! PLEASE!!! Lol

That ending left me hella shook. I just wanted to throw stuff at the TV while screaming my head off. I didn't expect that and it blows my MIND that they did that in CLEAR VIEW!! how did none of us notice THAT?! And if you have finished you know exactly what I mean! I feel like we knew, we KNEW but so much was going on that it was there but we never saw it coming. X_X *screams* lol I love this show though haha

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a well-made series

I did not know anything about “Alice in Borderland”. I approached the series without any expectations. But just a few minutes into the series, I already knew I have to and will finish watching it.

You see, I was so impressed with the introduction of the characters. It was is nicely done that it won’t matter if you are new to the story. The narration and direction made sure I fully grasp and never let go.

Ah! Alice in Borderland. I know Netflix has a habit of cancelling great shows. But I hope we get to see this series through the end as Alice in Borderland is such a well-made series.

Though set in a parallel world, it mirrors the world today. I hope people are trying to understand the story and forget that everything is fiction. The attitude, outlook and behaviours are not a sham. These people exist today.

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Wow…this was…a show. It felt like a combination of the Hunger Games, Lost and Liar Game.

The show in itself was enjoyable enough. The psychological aspect, the mystery of the upcoming games and the general unpredictability of it was pretty intriguing. You truly never know what direction the show's going to go in next. And I love that Arisu and Usagi have each other throughout the whole thing (love me some 'together but not together' vibes hehe)

You can basically split the show into two, the first half focuses on the games and the second half (the Beach arc) is more like The Society/Lord of the Flies with everyone trying to govern themselves in this place with no rules. It's in the second half where we see flashbacks to everyone's lives before entering Borderland (like they did in Lost) which I thought was a nice touch.

Although I really wish I knew it was gonna end in a ‘hAHA there’s still no answers, renew us for S2 if you want more’ kind of way. It felt so unsatisfying to finally be on the cusp of learning the truth, only to have MORE questions.

At least the show has been renewed for S2. Hopefully by the end we will get some answers - let’s see what they’ve got in store for us :D

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People who have never seen an asian series or movie in their lives, will watch this and enjoy it!

First of all, I really like Japanese series in general so I was quite excited when this was announced by Netflix. Why? First and foremost, because it is based on a manga that is mainly focused on death games (and we all know how good the Japanese are in this kind of themes) and secondly because of the budget.

One of the main things that people get to complain about, is the low budget that most Japanese series have. Many Jdoramas are character-driven stories, with dark cinematography and the absence of flashy clothes, homes or buildings in comparison with Kdramas. I personally don't really care about the low budget, since it adds realism to most of their series, but with this one it was different.

This is the kind of series that needs a good CGI and a very high budget. Many other Japanese series and movies could have been very famous if the production value was higher (Signal 100, Class 3A - All of You Are Hostages From Now On). And let me tell you that the production in this one is top notch. The directing is very well done and the music, even though not very memorable, adds to the suspense.

As for the plot, this is an ideal series for people who like death games. It is quite suspenseful, especially in the first challenges and the fact that the viewer tries to solve them together with the protagonists adds to the excitement. The characters are very unique and some of them stand out more than others (Chishiya and Kuina I am looking at you).

As for the portrayal from the actors I have a lot of things to say. Firstly, the majority of them were very good. Machida Keita was amazing and so was Asahina Aya. Secondly I want to apologize to Nijiro Murakami, because after watching him in Aogeba Toutoshi, I was very disappointed that he was going to play such an interesting character in this series. Not only he wasn't bad, but he was also the show stealer with his performance. Lastly, I will probably get killed because of this, but Yamazaki Kento was not as impressive as I expected him to be. He wasn't bad, but I felt like he was overacting at some points. Even though he might have wanted to give life to the manga by doing this, it felt very forced since all the other actors were very natural.

Give it a chance!

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Good Enough

Japan seems to like the game theme, and " Alice in Borderland " nailed every aspect of it. From the suspense to the gore, the drama had it all. Fortunately, that all didn't include romance, at least not yet.

Having not read the manga, and watching the drama with no prior experience of the Alice in Borderland universe, it wasn't hard to get introduced to the story and smoothly enter the gaming mode. The drama does a great job introducing each character and their background stories, blending them well with the main mystery about who's behind everything and the individual games the players were asks to play. The extra plotline with the 'Beach' and the strategies that the characters were ploting was another suspenseful factor that added a lot to the main entertainment of the drama.

As for the performances, everyone did a great job with their characters and were enjoyable to watch. Some of the actors were acutally unrecognizable!

Finally, the CGI were spot on and didn't ruin the whole experience.

So, overall, 9 out of 10.

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This is not my typical genre when watching a series ( I can't watch the slightest of gore, I get stressed out!) but I was actually engrossed with watching this and finished it in one sitting. It probably helped that I was binge watching this with my family.

The premise and plot is really interesting. I like the concept of the games and the way they incorporated playing cards with them. I really like that everytime we are introduced to a character we get a flashback of who they were before they were holed up in the game. It makes their motivations more heart wrenching and touching even to a point that I shed a tear or two. The ending is definitely gearing for a second season so it's a given that we didn't get answers and may be back to square one again. They did a good job in that because I am desperate to know the whole scheme in this too. If only I knew it's an open ending, I would've waited for the completed seasons. That's probably my only complain in this.

I have watched Kento Yamazaki in his shojo days and I was even a little bit infatuated with him before. I gotta say he really improved heaps in his acting in this. All the characters actually really shined even the ones in the militant group. It took me a while to realize that Niragi is Dori Sakurada. He nailed his role! Keita Machida, who I was just watching a little while ago before this series, embodied this whole new character with him. The rest of the cast did an amazing job too.

Highly recommended and I will definitely wait for the second season.

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There is no place where we'll always be safe in this world.

Alice in Borderland is one of the best Japanese drama of 2020. Insane! Violent! heartbreaking! Bloody epic! No words left to explain. Cinematography is the end of humanity! this drama is a must watch! I watched it without reading the manga but still it never failed me. The cast is amazing and there is so much social message hidden in this drama! There was trans representation. Give Yamazaki Kento an EMMY! Oscars! All the awards that exist in this world. Machida Keita was insanse too then not to forget Aya Asahina, Sakurada Dori and the entire cast! This is mad acting! Loved it. Can't wait for season 2.

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speculative mysterious horrifyingly thrilling goodness !!

YOOO this show is intense. I have zero complaints about pacing. It jumps straight into the inciting incident within the first half-hour of the first episode. Our main character, Arisu ends up in an alternate Tokyo with his two best friends Karube and Chota where they must play games in which a game over actually means the end of their life. Tragic, right? From there we're on a wild ride of watching Arisu and friends attempting to survive and find the game master so that they can return back to the real world.

First off, what I found interesting was how the games were based on a playing card system. Before each game commences, the players are notified which card will be their "prize" if they clear the game. Each of the four suits represents a different purpose of the game. This later becomes something monumental in the plot - a huge turning point - that had me screaming at the audacity and betrayal it led to.

The games themselves are CRAZY too. Like, think of something straight out of Saw because that's essentially what they were. Nothing but pure psychological torture and the pressure to survive by any means necessary. This makes for very very gruesome deaths so beware.

What else I liked:
-Arisu's character development. He starts out as a directionless gaming addict but eventually is forced to become a stronger man with a purpose. His character arc is as heartbreaking as it is triumphant.
-USAGI. What a phenomenal and inspiring woman that we have no choice but to stan. As our female lead, she's a well-written character played by an amazing actress who brought her strength and kick-ass mentality to life. I was living for her.
-The exploration of the darker side of human nature.
-THE CINEMATOGRAPHY. So many artfully composed scenes. I loved it.

What I didn't like:
-The fact that I have to wait for season 2 ಠ_ಠ

IN CONCLUSION, I literally can't wait for season 2.

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shits wild

well now i NEED to read the manga. came from watching Sweet Home cuz i heard they were suited for similar audience. exceeded my expectations 100%. when did japan live action get this good?? visual effects and cinematography were astounding. seen a handful of the cast before but they did such a great job recruiting the actors. for me tbh it reminded me of mirai nikki and a more messed up and upgraded version of battle royale. suspense was there for sure and looking forward to season 2.
(also noticed that they filmed in pretty iconic parts of Japan. dope edition to the cinematography)

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