Alice in Borderland Season 2 Review: A New Game That Is Even More Reckless And Risky

Cast: Kento Yamazaki, Tao Tsuchiya, Nijirô Murakami, Yûtarô Watanabe, Shô Aoyagi, Ayaka Miyoshi, Dôri Sakurada, Aya Asahina, Tsuyoshi Abe, Riisa Naka, Tomohisa Yamashita

Director: Shinsuke Sato

Streaming Platform: Netflix

Filmyhype.com Ratings: 4/5 (four stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

Alice in Borderland arrived two years ago on Netflix in December and made itself heard in its small way, to then make a comeback with the arrival of Squid Game last year, which proved to be a new global phenomenon for the platform, also coming from the Asian world. Here we are, two years later, again in the Christmas period, with the review of Alice In Borderland Season 2, the Japanese series based on the homonymous manga by Haro Aso. A series renewed at the time after two weeks after the release of the episodes by the streaming giant, which gives us the impression of having always been designed for two seasons, however with a possible opening towards the future.

There are twelve cards left to complete the deck: Arisu and company return to try to escape from this strange country where they can succumb at any moment. Netflix has made a triplet by completing three years in which series have been released in which innocent children’s games turn into savage bloodbaths where the Grim Reaper will more than meet his quota. Alice in Borderland started in 2020 with a hectic first season in which several people jumped into an alternative world, identical to ours, where they had to participate in wild children’s games to stay alive in that “country of wonders”. In 2021 we didn’t have any more episodes of the Japanese series, but South Korea took over with the revolutionary Squid Game, which has a more realistic cut than this, without “supernatural” aspects.

Alice in Borderland Season 2 Review: The Story

Unsurprisingly, Alice in Borderland Season 2 picks up where the first one left off, making it clear that there are still plenty of deadly games to face if the protagonists are to have any chance of getting out alive. It is there where its vibrant rhythm, its hooking tests and its uninspired dialogues reappear. To put it another way, ‘Alice in Borderland’ is a great series conceptually, since this adaptation of Haro Aso’s manga is a stimulating variant of titles like ‘Battle Royale’ that presents its universe in which there is room for action, emotion and reflection. A winning combo to which a good production job must be added so that everything looks good and even leaves specific images of indisputable beauty -for example, a moment when two characters are looking at the sea in a wide shot comes to mind general.

So, what is it that makes Alice in Borderland better but not the great series it could be? Mainly its most dramatic facet, since the dialogues often make two mistakes that are very difficult to ignore. On the one hand, they are overloaded, overemphasizing the message that is to be conveyed to the viewer, and on the other, they lack the naturalness necessary for one to believe that the character in question is saying those words. This mainly affects the character of Arisu (Kento Yamazaki), the great protagonist of the show, being especially evident when he finds himself in very compromising situations, but here at least there are situations in which he almost seems to be playing with that impression he causes.

I think, for example, of the way he ended up winning in one of the games when everything seemed against him. Luckily, that is less in other cases and even allows us to enjoy an exemplary game in which both human relationships and the growing mistrust that arises in extreme situations are successfully explored. I was so satisfied during the third and fourth episodes that I even came to think that with that alone I would have been compensated by watching the whole series.

Arisu and Usagi will not have a moment of calm, the action will find them in the early stages of the season and it will not take long for them to realize that the only way to discover what is that world they have been dragged into and, hopefully, escape, it is by playing the different games that they will get the face cards. The plot of Alice in Borderland is partly guessed from the title. The serial reinterpreted the tale of Alice in Wonderland by telling the story of Arisu (Kento Yamazaki), an unemployed former university student and video game enthusiast, who suddenly finds himself in a desolate Tokyo victim of a blackout. Together with his best friends Chōta (Yūki Morinaga) and Karube (Keita Machida): the trio soon find themselves catapulted into a series of dangerous and sick games that they must win to survive. Over the course of season one, they didn’t make it, he did.

Together with him Usagi (Tao Tsuchiya), a lonely and sad girl whose father has just died, with whom she has decided to team up. We had left the protagonists at the end of the inaugural cycle with the Beach, a place where a large group of survivors led by the Hatter had gathered, who thought they could beat the Master Games at their own game. A fire had allowed Arisu and Usagi to get to the den of the Dealers, those who promoted the game by working for the Game Masters to survive. However, here they had discovered that in reality there was another level and another Master, a certain Mira (Riisa Naka), a young and mysterious figure, who had to be beaten to continue.

Alice in Borderland Season 2 Review and Analysis

With old acquaintances and new entries in the game, the second season of Alice in Borderland picks up from there, maintaining the video game and dystopian thriller atmosphere that characterized the first episodes. The deserted and desolate Shibuya district of the inaugural cycle, which paid homage to the western and the zombie stories mentioned by the protagonists at the beginning of the story, gives way to a devastated Shibuya covered in vegetation. A sort of ecological dystopia where Arisu and Usagi will try to reveal the mysteries of Borderland at all costs to return to their world. Is it possible to return? Is there still a real-world or is this the new normal for the surviving inhabitants of Tokyo? We are still in the Japanese metropolis, but it is as if we were gone. “We are not in Kansas anymore”, as it was said in another coming-of-age novel in an uncharted and fairy-tale land, namely The Wizard of Oz.

The characters have leveled up, they have collected the number of cards and now it’s the turn of the card games with the figures, which of course will be even more dangerous, sadistic and complicated. Only Arisu’s trained mind and Usagi’s instincts and heart will be able to get to the truth, risking losing more friends and new acquaintances along the way. Direction, cinematography, and scenography have evolved since the first season and never fail to surprise. The stakes are always higher and once the finals have arrived, the knots will come to a head and fans can expect many answers to the many questions that have harbored in their minds while watching the 16 episodes produced.

Alice In Borderland Season 2 once again alternates sequences of great violence and blood, which pay homage to the splatter and cinema of Takeshi Kitano, with more reflective scenes that recall adolescent anime with close-ups, expressions, and deliberately exaggerated acting by the performers, with the soundtrack sharpening this intent. As players we always want to win, find the solution, and even go and find the architects of that imaginative world-building to disassemble it, reveal it, dissect and disprove it. At the same time, the series brings to light the philosophical questions of who we are and whom we want to be.

Where are we going, the very meaning of human existence and mortality, the importance of choices and their consequences, of determinism in human relationships, and the dualism between free will and destiny? Mira will be the goal and the cause of the protagonists’ (mis)adventures this season… and the answer to all their (and our) questions. Perhaps. Mira will be the goal and the cause of the protagonists’ (mis)adventures this season… and the answer to all their (and our) questions. Perhaps. Mira will be the goal and the cause of the protagonists’ (mis)adventures this season… and the answer to all their (and our) questions. Perhaps.

This mainly affects the character of Arisu (Kento Yamazaki), the great protagonist of the show, being especially evident when he finds himself in very compromising situations, but here at least there are situations in which he almost seems to be playing with that impression he causes. I think, for example, of the way he ended up winning in one of the games when everything seemed against him. Luckily, that is something that goes less in other cases and even allows us to enjoy an exemplary game in which both human relationships and the growing distrust that arises in extreme situations are successfully explored. I was so satisfied during the third and fourth episodes that I even came to think that with that alone I would have been compensated by watching the whole series.

One of the great assets to achieving this is the greater importance of the character of Shuntaro Chishiya (Nijirō Murakami), by far the best of the entire show. His most enigmatic touch always helped to generate some interest, but something very difficult is achieved here, and it is to explain his way of being without this loss of mystery implying that he ceases to be special. In addition, the deadly games that the series proposes gain intensity and reinforce their position as the biggest hook in the entire series. Obviously, everyone will have their favorite I prefer the one I have already highlighted, but here also a greater variety compared to the first installment, always maintaining its more physical side, but giving it greater dramatic vigor to maintain that feeling of danger rather than fall into the dangerous terrain of feeling like a mere intermediate step before the final grand resolution. The first one gave the sensation of stumbling to gain time.

And yes, Alice in Borderland Season 2 solves the great mystery of this universe and clarifies how the characters got there and what exactly is that post-apocalyptic universe that defines the series. It is also an explanation that does not feel like a gratuitous coup -in this regard, there are a few minutes in which it flirts with other resolutions in a slightly humorous way- but rather as a convincing and consistent base with everything we have seen. In return, there are certain details that surround that outcome in which you have to be generous when it comes to getting carried away, but the epicenter of everything is very solid.

Alice in Borderland Season 2 Review: The Last Words

Alice In Borderland Season 2 continues the work set up with the first season, raises the bar and the stakes and proposes a new game that is even more reckless and risky to get to all the answers. Mira is a Mephistophelean new entry who contrasts well with Arisu and Usagi and the other characters, who once again will have to risk everything to survive. An overall successful mix between unheard-of violence and philosophical reflections, perhaps a little too exaggerated in staging and acting.