Personal Experience/Introduction Alice in Borderland is a series that surprised me a lot. The death game genre has a long history attached to it of being what many would classify as edgy being prone to gratuitous gore and irregular psychotic behavior for the sake of it. Not that I dont occassionally enjoy that but I would struggle to call that kind of writing good. Haro Aso has put a focus here on not only depicting people as realistically as he can within the setting but in painting things in shades of grey through the dialogue world and plot structure themselves. People are not deranged serial killers after seeing a body for the first time and I think there is only one character in this manga who actively enjoys death and killing and he was a death row inmate prior to the main plot so its not surprising. This review will contain spoilers though Ill try to keep them light especially regarding the ending. Overall Plot The central storyline of Alice in Borderland focuses on our main character Ryouhei Arisu and his struggle for survival within the Borderlands. What are the Borderlands? This is a question repeated throughout the story and focused on most prominently at the end. Seeking this answer is in many ways what drives him and others to push against death so hard. The Borderlands at a surface glance are a copy of a section of Japan but have seemingly been aged by potentially hundreds of years into the future. There is no running water or electricity in the general areas but farming and hunting can be done so survival is possible. All of the players within the Borderlands including our main character found themselves transported there after seeing a large fireworks display. Many of them wandered until they saw locations with electricity. These buildings are appealing at a glance and lure in new players. These are the game venues. Here the players must engage in games that risk both life and limb in exchange for prizes and extensions for their visas. These visas allow the players to maintain residence in the Borderlands for a given number of days the amount of days gained depends on the difficulty of the completed game. When the visa expires a laser will be shot down to pierce your brain. So all of the players have a legitimate understandable reason to play the games beyond curiosity or bloodlust. I think this was a smart move as far as plot devices go because it keeps the plot moving in a way that makes sense and creates a feeling of constant tension among the characters. The story was engaging from start to finish with mysteries being introduced and solved gradually as it went. There was never a lull in the action and even the side stories that focused on side characters were critical to not only building out their characters but to shedding light on events that were alluded to during the main narrative. After the ending I felt nothing but satisfaction and I think the author was successful in addressing everything that was brought up to the degree that the story felt complete. Characters While I do love some of the side characters like Agni and Chishiya the star of the show here is definitely Arisu. He is a textbook example of a dynamic character and his growth is constant throughout the story. Following the death of his friends during a game where they chose for him to survive he is racked by survivors guilt. He cannot cope with their deaths and blames it all on himself to the point of apologizing for living. His mindset is flawed due to growing up without love from his family and with constantly being compared to his brother. He does not understand what it means to recieve and what it means to give. But as he remembers the lives of those he has lost he finds the will to survive if not just to honor their memory 400https://i.ur.com/28UozS8.jpeg 400https://i.ur.com/M4GoEGj.jpeg The answer he seeks is actually not that of the Borderlands true form...but an explanation for what purpose his life has Arisu has been searching for his reason to live long before the Borderlands. How he sees life and what value he puts on it constantly evolves throughout the story. He says hell live for his friends he says hell live for Usagi he says hell live for revenge. But none of these reasons give him enough motivation to continuously move forward. In the end his simple desire to live and to live with others is what pushes him to his goal. He no longer needs a reason or an answer. He simply lives his life. I love how this was shown with the final chapter. A reporter asks a variety of people why they are alive and when she gets to Arisu this is all we see 500https://i.ur.com/UlidJhw.jpeg The side characters undergo similar developments since the purpose of living is the key grounding theme of the story. But since Arisu got the most time and development of all of them I think his was more moving and clear than the others. Besides maybe Chishiya who kind of acted as a mirror of Arisu during the story. He was someone who didnt care about the purpose of life. Not because he wanted to die but because he simply had no interest in life itself to begin with. His family situation was not too different from Arisus in many ways so it was nice to see him reach a similar point to Arisu by the end. Artwork Its nothing spectacular but it does express certain emotions and scenes really well. Some specific panels are amazing but its inconsistent in terms of quality. This is probably the weakest part of the manga but Im inclined to say its still good enough to not affect my opinion on the series as a whole much. The best scenes in terms of artwork are usually the ones involving Arisus inner mind or large climatic scenes. I especially like how screams are drawn as you can really feel the pain and desparation behind them 400https://i.ur.com/V0nPXJc.jpeg 400https://i.ur.com/Gq7Msqz.jpeg 400https://i.ur.com/ByDPRfs.jpeg Summary As an overall piece Im happy to say that Alice in Borderland is a new favorite for me. Id say its a strong recommendation for anyone who enjoys character driven stories with spread out development rather than concrete character arcs. As someone who generally does not like the death game genre I think you should check this out even if you dislike death games as the worst aspects of most titles in the genre are not present here. 400https://i.ur.com/5eJSqSW.jpeg