# Alice in Borderland (2020)

> A video-game-obsessed young man and his two friends are trapped in a strange, deserted Tokyo where they must survive deadly games to escape.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/92064

## Facts

- Seasons: 3
- Episodes: 22
- Episode runtime: 49 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: science fiction, thriller, drama
- Network: Netflix
- Cast: Kento Yamazaki, Tao Tsuchiya, Ayaka Miyoshi, Seiya Goto, Yuzuru Yuyama, Takanobu Shiohara, Jun Matsuo, Nijiro Murakami
- TMDB rating: 7.8/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10795658/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: graphic
- Tone: tense, suspenseful, bleak, cold, claustrophobic

## What critics say

Audiences rate the series positively, praising its high-stakes death games and the lead cast, while some find the dialogue and plot logic weak.

## Synopsis

Alice in Borderland (2020-2025) is a Japanese survival thriller series created for Netflix, adapted from a manga. Gamer Arisu Ryohei (Kento Yamazaki) and his two friends find themselves in a deserted, eerily emptied version of Tokyo where the only way out is to win a series of lethal games. Tao Tsuchiya plays Usagi Yuzuha, a resourceful companion, and Nijiro Murakami plays the enigmatic Chishiya Shuntaro, whose cool calculations make him both ally and threat. Each episode is built around a rule-bound game with its own puzzle logic, so the engine of the series is the pressure of decoding a challenge before it kills someone, while the group slowly learns whom to trust. The show runs across three seasons and twenty-two episodes, with the games growing more elaborate as the stakes rise. Its tone is tense and suspenseful, with moments of cold dread and gallows humor, and its themes revolve around survival, desperation, and what people become when life is treated as a game. Fans of Squid Game and Btooom! will find a similar mix of lethal competition and human fragility, delivered with the polish of a Netflix production and the stylish visual sensibility of Japanese genre television.

## Shows like Alice in Borderland

- [LIAR GAME (2026)](https://ember.film/tv/1105065)
- [Terror in Resonance (2014)](https://ember.film/tv/54762)
- [Tomodachi Game (2022)](https://ember.film/tv/113760)
- [JAPAN SINKS: People of Hope (2021)](https://ember.film/tv/111620)
- [Mr. Hiiragi's Homeroom (2019)](https://ember.film/tv/72668)
- [Squid Game (2021)](https://ember.film/tv/79002)
- [Kakegurui (2017)](https://ember.film/tv/63052)
- [Death Parade (2015)](https://ember.film/tv/55134)
- [The Promised Neverland (2019)](https://ember.film/tv/70921)
- [Your Turn To Kill (2019)](https://ember.film/tv/75185)

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