Imawa no Kuni no Alice 2 (2022)

An abomination of an adaptation.

The following review has spoilers on both the manga and both seasons of the JDrama:

As expected, there is the same cringe-awful acting. However, not without high production quality, great set designs, and even clearly articulated game rules.
In Season 1 they actually expanded on the source material and gave the bone some more meat.
In Season 2 they fucked up with the two best games in the entire series 💀💀

King of Clubs
Niragi becomes even more one-dimensional than he is in the manga. Instead of being the MVP of the game, his original 1st phase plan is changed to Arisu's plan instead. Despite his demeanor, his specialty is actually diamonds (intelligence). Here, he's just some dumbass rapist overstaying his welcome. The whole reason why he and Chishiya battled in the beach game is because they're meant to be parallels to each other, but here it's like comparing Einstein to Andrew Tate. Even his conflict against Arisu & assault on Usagi is dumbed down with little to no impact.
Kuina on other hand got it even worse, her opponent clowned on her completely. This is meant to be her peak in the entire series and she gets jack shit. Instead of being beat the fuck up, she gets a simple tackle. Instead of doing a hardcore counter kick where both her and her opponent take each other out for a distraction - she just easily gets swatted away. She is even presented as the one who failed to end the game early and thus eventually leading to Usagi's scuffle and Tatta having to sacrifice himself instead. Heck, instead of being the one to declare that she'll do anything she can to get the final 2500 point item, that speech is passed onto Usagi instead. She doesn't help at all and just waits pathetically for death. Character over lmfao. Epic trans rep Netflix!
Additionally, Arisu's final thank you speech falls flat and he doesn't even make up with Usagi in this game (he just hangs her up to dry until things boil over). Furthermore, the final 10 minutes were literally animanga logic timing, entire important events happening in the span of a single minute. You as a viewer can see the timer at the bottom and these characters have entire 5 minute dialogues and apparently only 2 minutes have passed.

Jack of Hearts
They condensed so fucking much lmfao. Half the characters are just disposable nobodies. Buildup & insight for Banda and Yaba are non-existent. Chishiya is for some reason incorporated into this game when he isn't in here in the manga (which tbh is welcomed as his actor is amazing). But it still feels like he's hamfisted in there because he's a fan favorite. The tough guy at the beginning is a 0-dimensional meathead and his victim doesn't get any agency in the slightest, the intimidation & conflict was even worse than your stereotypical animanga comically evil class of school kids. All the well-crafted backstabbing is dumbed down. Even the Jack himself gets character assassinated with little to no substance. But by far the most egregious is the "equality" speech from Yaba being cut almost entirely, thus falling flat on its face and ruining the keikakudoori moment.

Episode 7 Compilation of off-screened games:
- King of Hearts - ppl are for some reason running around in a tight maze away from unknown creature (lame as shit for a hearts game wtf)
- Queen of Clubs - orb throwing game on a tight platform (how is this any shape or form a team game, 90% of it is physical fitness AGAINST other groups of people.
- Jack of Clubs - a bunch of people climbing numerous amounts of rope (once again, what the fuck does this have to do with teamwork, 90% of this is physical and it even shows us ppl kicking each other off)
- Jack of Diamonds - unremarkable Mahjong game with Chishiya OMITTED
- Jack of Spades - martial arts battle royale with Kuina iirc...yeah that's it
- Queen of Spades - 2 team tag game in a massive parkour arena, barebones writing and minimal substance aside from set design. Only exists to give Arisu & Usagi another game together.
- Queen of Diamonds - Unclear; only the aftermath is shown where a huge number of injured people are seen running out of a car park.

Remaining 4 episodes of season 2:
- Camera guy motivation cheapened and insight into dealers erased
- Doudou does not exist - good choice.
- Heiya's incredible backstory is a lot less substantial, visceral, and cathartic.
For some reason ended up powering through half a magazine close-range m16 rounds for several hours while crawling across cement and rubble instead...ok.
- Chishiya is not present in Jack of Diamonds
- Yuji Mahiru's story is assimilated entirely into Ann but any of that profoundness and nuance is lost to some random ass pretentious landscape shots of some mountains. Actual nothingburger of a character, both in manga and adaptation.
- King of Diamonds: They made the loan shark woman a complete dumbass for some reason, why did they characterize her like it's her first game or something. Aside from her college-level math skills - why in the fuck would this person join the king of intelligence game? And her fun little segment with Chishiya where they help each other is completely removed as well. We just completely off-screen how Chishiya won 2 rounds because they made her a dumbass. Also lmao, Chishiya omitted the 69 comment.
- Kuzuryu's character is also a lot less nuanced with both his and Chishiya's motivations, backstories, and character introspection made ambiguous and up to your interpretation.
This wasn't the producers expecting their fans to have reading comprehension skills in order to come to their own conclusions, this was them making it broad and muted so that it would sound philosophical & deep and the fans would just simply nod their heads to it.
- King of Spades - Wow, while they only slightly alluded to his "mercy kill/ending agony" motivation unlike in the manga where it's made blatantly clear, I actually like how he was handled here. Amazing fight choreography and an actual great culmination of character drama & climax. Mf actually soloed the entire cast and was killed off climatically by Arisu & Aguni. Good shit.
- Queen of Hearts - fucking near-perfect, so masterfully done. Actually got goosebumps even though I knew everything that was coming.

- Ending - R.I.P LMFAOOOOOO FINAL CHAPTER'S MESSAGING COMPLETELY OMITTED, THE BEST PART OF THE MANGA ERASED AND FELL TO NETFLIX CURSE ARE YOU KIDDING ME???
FUCKING "JOKER" CARD SEQUEL BAIT INSTEAD????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Lire davantage

Joker

First off the acting was good from both Yamazaki Kento and Tsuchiya Tao. I loved their relationship in the series and it felt natural. Also I loved how creative the games this season were. The first episode starts with a thrilling car chase sequence and I loved it. I also loved the character of Tatta. He dies a very meaningful death. That's the best thing about this series. No character is treated like a cannon fodder. Even characters like Niragi and Aguni. Also we even got to see Chishiya in action more than I thought I would. Loved his backstory. Kuzuryu's backstory and the game he created was very interesting. I would have loved to see an extension to it. But there are few issues I have with this season. We only got to see glimpses of the backstory of some characters. The other issues I have are with the last two episodes. First my thoughts on episode seven :- I loved them but why the hell do many characters besides Arisu gain plot Armor. Also the series expects you to believe that a character which was previously killed can be brought back. They did it once with Niragi and thrice with Aguni. As for episode eight. It was confusing. Apparently in episode 1 of season 1 Tokyo was hit by a meteorite in which Arisu, Chota and Karube were caught up along with other major characters; those who survived till the end in the Borderlands survived in the real world. But all of them forgot about it. So Karube and Chota died but Arisu survived. We also got to see the shot of the Joker card in the end. Don't know what that was about but maybe a tease for a potential season 3. I still loved the second season of Alice in Borderland though. I think it ended on a satisfying note. But if they make a season 3 and make it as good as this season I'll watch it.

Lire davantage

Perfect Adaptation!

starting this series by watching the first season, reading the manga (while waiting for s2 to drop) because i was curious about all the questions regarding borderland, and i would say that everything in s2 is up to my expectation (or better).
i noticed some differences compare to the original story such as;
- jack of hearts; chishiya wasn't on the list of players in the manga but they included him in the live adaptation which is GREAT!! because he is my favorite character and i appreciated the director for giving him more screen time. my man always slayed every game he is in ♡
- queen of hearts; in the manga, mira put some kind of drug in the tea to give a hallucination effect on arisu so that he won't be able to finish the last set of croquet game whereas in the live adaptation, arisu just started hallucinating due to mira's words & psychological attack, which is also GREAT!! because she has the 'queen' role, it would be lame if she was depending on some medicine to beat the challenger.

each game has its own uniqueness, but i personally think these three were the best; jack of hearts, king of diamond, king of spades. especially king of spades, this arc is so intense you could feel how each character desperately trying to survive + nice choreography for these girls fighting scene 👏👏

overall, this is what i called 'perfect adaptation' so i enjoyed every bit of it.

Lire davantage

I don’t want a third season

I just have to say that I hated seeing Chishiya on screen this season. All of his games were stressful to watch and almost always relied on luck at the end of it. I suppose it was only right that he got split from the group, and I can’t see any of the other characters playing the games he was in. I think the Supreme Court game also featured one of the worst ways to die. I wish the character could have developed a bit more, though he did seem ‘mellower’ as Arisu said, and I found his dialogue during the Niragi/Usagi bullet moment amusing.

As for the rest of the characters, I grew very fond of all of them. The stakes very certainly raised this season and I came away from some episodes feeling depressed. I think that’s why I didn’t mind the ending. I felt a great deal of relief. Honestly, I’d love to see the characters work together again and see how their lives have changed, but I also don’t think there needs to be a season 3, despite the Joker at the end.

My favourite moments had to be:
- Arisu/Usagi hunting rabbits and going shopping
- Kuina at the hospital in the last episode
- Ann driving in Ep1

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There are spoiler warnings for when i give spoilers so dont be afraid to read the rest.

Before i start complaining i have to say that it was beautiful. All the gamemasters were a nice part of the story. The cinematography is amazinggg. Special effects really pulled through. I loved all the characters. Especially the complicated ones.

Im gonna keep it short and simple and give a list of things that could´ve been different in my opinion:

-Plot armor was too much during the king of spades and ESPECIALLY on episode 7. I was convinced things wouldnt end well for a lot of them and started laughing out of trauma response since it was all so shocking.

-My girls Kuina and Ann deserved a longer scene during the games. Cheshiya, love him, but he got two whole games worth of screentime. Kuina and Ann were cut short which was dissapointing. I wouldve especially loved to see Kuina's game of queen of spades. Woulda been a sickass fighting scene

-*spoiler skip forward* I was relieved when my girl Ann suddenly woke up. Who knows how? Was she somehow still alive? Or did Kuina's will to bring her back to the real world save Ann? Either way im still upset that they lost all of those momories.

-Started getting funny when the game masters started giving long dialogues after the game was over. *skip to next point if u dont want to know how players die after u losing a game. minor'?' spoiler* The lasers rly waited on them to finish their story lmao. Some would take long to die and others short. The laser was also perfectly timed for the queen of clubs which was funny considering how she decided to go out cuz that couldve gone wrong if it wasnt for the timing of the laser.

-NIRAGI GOT ON MY NEEERVES simple as that altho a part of me still liked him. Would've liked him a lot more if it wasn't for the king of clubs. He scratched out his redemption arc real fast lmao.

-*huge spoiler not recommended to read* The one time i sobbed was at the end. Nobody remembered eachother. All they had left of eachother was a feeling of recognition and a connection which they didnt understand why. After all of that. The risks they took for eachother. The battles they fought together. After all of that we swap back to our real world. The plot twist starts making sense. And you realise no memories are left of the borderlands. That broke my heart. I couldnt stand the scene of Arisu and Usagi at the vending machine. Altho at the same time it doesn't feel right for the borderlands to be remembered. But i still like to imagine a world where they do remember eachother and get to be friends.

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Second part

Let's continue our journey with this second part... Yeah this part a lot more dark, gore & sadistic than the first part. In this part we meet all the face card in their own game. And turn out some of them we actually already met in the first part. Yeah so just like Risa that we found out at the end of part one is someone that have important role, in here we also meet some hidden characters in the first part that turn out also has more important role...

In this part we also learn that almost every game play big physiological & mental more than just physical. And that's in my opinion that make this part more interesting than the first part. Especially the last game with Risa that we finally known her as the "Queen of Spades". That's really one big mental game that we really can't think lightly...

In this part we also learn many of the main cast past life or their life outside this world. And that's quite interesting to watch. Although yeah this part also much more talking than the first part where action in most of the time...

Aside from all the good thing this series can offer us, like ApolloDipity I also have 1 problem with the whole series. Quote ApolloDipity write: "The characters were beaten, stabbed, shot and even burned alive and still got the chance to look at the beautiful sky full of fireworks." Why it's always like this in most of superheros series, where all the main cast seem like immortal... And until the end the writer just don't ever kill the main cast... Haha...

Overall this just another drama to watch. Good enough, but still like i wrote in first part. Not too memorable for it's genre....

Lire davantage

Charm of Season 1 with Added Complexity

TL;DR: Riveting plot with a satisfying conclusion and an overall good message? Damn, what a great show.

The games were just as interesting as the previous season but this time with even more complexity since we got to learn more about the psychology of the game makers.

Every character has fairly fleshed out motives or views. These played directly into their actions during the games. Even antagonists are multi-layered.

The treatment of women in this show is once again questionable. The male gaze is definitely present and there is more than one panty shot lol. I guess you just have to roll your eyes and ignore it. Also, a seriously questionable relationship between a high schooler and a much older man. A little less ignorable…

Regardless, the characters were interesting.

That ending was crazy and I’m about to get into major spoilers, so be warned.

They fake you out like 5 times with what the true essence of what the games are. For a minute they really did nearly trick me with the psych ward thing and I was so annoyed because it was so cliched lol. Clearly, they knew that and the aha moment when you recall that this was the Queen of Hearts game was pretty solid.

The true reason behind the games has been done before, but honestly it was probably the most satisfying conclusion they could make with the circumstances. Any other ending would have made the decisions throughout the entirety of the show feel pointless. This made sense, while also proving that their choices had consequences.

Anyway, would I recommend? Yes, it was super entertaining and somehow also managed to be a little thoughtful along the way

Lire davantage

Una continuación que mantuvo el nivel.

¡Hola, gente! Hoy me paso por acá para hablarles de la tan esperada segunda temporada de "Alice in Borderland".

Arisu y Usagi han estado intentando resolver el misterio de cómo volver al “mundo real”, sobreviviendo a lo que tal vez sea la última ronda de los juegos mortales en los que se vieron forzados a participar.

El final de la primera temporada me dejó lo que le sigue a manija bajo la promesa de peligros aún más grandes y de juegos muchísimo más épicos y complejos, cosa que no siento que se haya cumplido. Literal las expectativas me jugaron en contra, porque en sí esta continuación no estuvo mal, solo que se sintió como "más de lo mismo". Lo único que posta me jodió un poco es que sentí que la producción por momentos perdió un poco de calidad, sobre todo en los efectos especiales.

El hecho de que los capítulos fueran considerablemente más extensos tampoco me terminó de gustar (hablando de forma súper subjetiva, obvio). Lo curioso es que no sentí que los alargaran innecesariamente, simplemente los sentí largos y eso hizo que me diera un poquito de fiaca mirar más de uno por día. O sea, el factor "maratoneable" se perdió, al menos para mí.

Otro aspecto que hizo que esta secuela no superara a su antecesora es que en ningún momento temí por la vida de los protagonistas. No sé por qué, pero en todo momento tuve la absoluta seguridad de que no les pasaría nada (al menos no antes de llegar al final), cosa que no me pasó en la temporada anterior, donde tenía la impresión de que todos, menos Arisu, podían morir en cualquier momento.

¿Esta segunda temporada es mala entonces? No, para nada, solo que no siento que la promesa de "más epicidad" se haya cumplido. Eso sí, el final me dejó extremadamente conforme y hizo que mi opinión mejorara de forma casi inmediata, cosa que no es fácil de lograr.

Hubo juegos que obvio me gustaron mucho (a pesar de que la dificultad en sí no me pareciera tan elevada), los actores son todos buenísimos, a los personajes ya les tenía mucho cariño y tampoco siento que la espera no haya valido la pena, solo les recomiendo bajar sus expectativas un poco a la hora de sentarse a verla para disfrutarla mucho más.

•IG DE RESEÑAS CORTAS: @altoplottwist

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