This Week in Anime

Is the Alice in Borderland Death Game Anime Any Good?

Steve
Sounds good to me! We might as well avoid that deep dark rabbit hole while we can, before the summer season is in full swing and there's no escape for any of us. But here in the anime borderlands, sometimes you gotta be careful what you wish for.

Look, at the end of the day, some milquetoast anime boy is always going to magically transported to some kind of parallel world. There's no stopping that. It's coded into the elementary particles that make up our universe. And given that inevitability, I'd much rather watch the option with more exploding heads. So without further ado, here we are with Alice in Borderland!

Yeah I'd only heard of it thanks to Netflix showing me the live-action banner every time I log on, because thanks to this column, their recommendation algorithm for me is screwed beyond all hope.

I'd say that probably tracks. These OVA episodes were originally bundled with the manga, and they definitely have the look and feel of something workmanlike slapped together to throw the fans a little anime bone.

He's our titular Alice—or more accurately, Arisu—and the closest the narrative gets to developing a coherent theme is through the lens of his escapist fantasies. As an admitted "loser" in the real world, he longs for the chance at a do-over in another world.

You'll also recognize this as the impetus behind every isekai series ever, so there really is no escape for us.

Yeah, even after the first couple brushes with death, Arisu still feels surprisingly gung-ho about the whole situation. And, like, there's something to be said about modernity being so bleak and oppressive that just the opportunity to exercise your own agency is its own reward.

Of course, he also has his designated dad-friend Karube to keep his boyish aspirations in check.

Same! I found myself wishing he was the main character instead. There's a great moment in the first episode where, under the threat of a volley of flaming arrows, he's just calmly helping their companion work out how much blood it takes for a cow to produce milk. That's protagonist material right there.

I don't think this opening arc of Alice in Borderland really knows what to do with Arisu besides prop him up as the protagonist. Like, he goes from being the above weenie to being the only guy to figure out the very obvious clue in the first death game, despite the fact that Karube had already been established as the "brains" of the operation. His personality fluctuates all over the place in the subsequent episodes too. I understand he's under a lot of stress, but the anime doesn't do a very good job of giving those swings the space they need.

It's bizarre. It's like the writing thinks he has to be a super genius in order to be the hero, but in actuality, he's really only endearing when he's just talking about how much he loves his bros.

To be fair, it does result in this scene, which is very funny.

Well thankfully the second game is a little more their speed.

Goodbye Uma Musume. Hello, Uma Murderer.

It's fine, they're having plenty of fun on their own.

Also that's not me being coy, they literally bang out of NOWHERE.

And most of them proceed to immediately get horse-stomped, so don't get too attached.

I love him. I was really disappointed by how aesthetically bland the first episode and death game were. There was just so little imagination to it. But then there he was in episode 2, walking around that corner with the dumb meme horse mask. Such a breath of fresh air. Fresh, stupid air.

Hey now let's not besmirch the good name of High-Rise Invasion. And actually, watching this OVA cemented for me that High-Rise Invasion really was a good example of what I'm looking for in a braindead death game anime. By comparison, Alice in Borderland is just nowhere near campy enough to take advantage of whatever promise its premise might have.

I mean, on one hand, Arisu's powerfully undercooked character development is definitely a consequence of us having only three half-hour episodes to work with here. But on the other hand, yeah, I don't know how many more stories I need about This Guy.

Heavy is the yoke of the horse mask.

Right? Like the showrunners here seem to be very big sticklers about their rules, but I guess having your own gun is cool with them. I'm not a professional death game civil engineer, though, so what do I know.

And the other new character is a girl who will definitely not be smooching Arisu in the new future, why would you even suggest that?

And that's why he wins Game 3, the most Gaming of Games yet, complete with a Gamer headset for everyone.

This is the most melodramatic part of the OVA and everyone spends it wearing this stupid headgear. Exquisite.

Pontificating on the hard limits of friendship while my AR visor displays a sick decal of my fursona.

They all deadass walk past a table chock full of various sharp instruments and go "Gee, I wonder what THIS is for?" Like, bros???? Where have you been the past three days?

Okay I'll allow him that. And I guess Karube was also distracted after using a taxi radio to communicate with Norio Wakamoto. Also Norio Wakamoto is in this OVA somehow?

This episode also wields flash-forwards in an impressively clumsy way that interrupts any tension the game might have had. Maybe it worked better in the manga, but the runtime is short enough that they really should have just done it linearly.

Like I said earlier, I think their genuine bro bond is the most legitimately endearing part of the show, but this just exploits it in the laziest, quickest, and most slapdash way possible. Even though it is kinda funny to hear Arisu just mercilessly dunk on everyone out of the blue.

I actually love that this immediately defuses the situation. Chota saves their friendship by being the most awkward dude ever. Now that's a real tale of inspiration.

Ah, the exploding collar. An anime death game classic. And to some degree, you gotta respect a series willing to follow through on the threat. Multiple times even!

So yeah, I guess these OVAs more or less cover the story's prologue, and the main thrust of Alice in Borderland is Arisu's quest for revenge. Which I can't say I'm too enthused by, since he's not a terribly interesting character, for reasons we've already covered.

I might give it a whirl! And if you're on Netflix and chomping at the bit specifically for some anime death game flavor, I will once again recommend High-Rise Invasion as my recent gold star example of dumb campy fun.

Yeah, I'll be kicking this Alice back down the hole he hopped out of.