Imawa no Kuni no Alice

Ryouhei Arisu is a high school student with no ambitions and just wants to escape from what he feels is a meaningless reality. One night when he is with his two friends Daikichi Karube and Chouta Segawa, they see an abnormally large firework shoot into the sky, an event which signals a permanent change in their lives.

Blinded by the incredibly bright explosion, the three find themselves transported to what is known as the Borderland. The only inhabitants of this world are participants of a deadly game where specific tasks must be accomplished if they wish to survive. As the three begin playing to determine how they can get back home, Ryouhei finds himself feeling alive for the very first time in his life.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Arisu, Ryouhei Main

Hosoya, Yoshimasa Japanese

Chishiya, Shuntarou Supporting

Sakurai, Takahiro Japanese

Usagi, Yuzuha Supporting

Kotobuki, Minako Japanese

Karube, Daikichi Supporting

Suzuki, Tatsuhisa Japanese

Segawa, Chouta Supporting

Yonaga, Tsubasa Japanese

Shibuki, Saori Supporting

Sakamoto, Maaya Japanese

Horse Head Supporting

Nitobe Supporting

Arisu, Hajime Supporting

Ryouhei's Father Supporting

Ooyama, Ryou Producer

Iwase, Tomohiko Producer

Tachibana, Hideki Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Tsuchiya, Masanori Sound Director

Reviews

Jan 16, 2023

caseyxsharp

Recommended

I'm not going to be anything but frank about this. For an "OVA" this is a total package as far as OVA's go. I don't think the people that are strictly fullfilled by only reading the manga truly can appreciate anything else that may spawn out of it. Case and point, when people continuously read what they perceive as to be a good story in reality they wouldn't be reading it if it wasn't already good to them, so it tends to make them focus more towards the story and consequently ignoring everything else like the theme and genre they're reading into, and then they ... happen to see a second telling from the writers true perspective and all the sudden to them it feels completely alien to them.

I just watched Alice In Borderland. I never heard anything about it before today, although it sounded familiar. The idea is just this: yeah like I read from another reviewer the duration and characters could have been better, and that's just exactly the way I like it. It doesn't really matter what the theme is like, it's still a death and killing game and that's really all that you need to watch it. It's the fact the characters don't get a lot of dragged out screen time that makes the that idea better. An anime like this should make you question your own sense of morality, no one gives a care about what the characters are actually like, not knowing that is about the part where it actually does it makes you question your own sense of right and wrong if that was you put in that same situation with people.

I liked the part where arisu was the only one really using his head the whole time. Most of the time everyone is struggling to survive constantly, so by the end of the show as it turns out he's the only one still alive, well then it forces you to be reminded about the premise of the show in the first place that everyone wishes they can still be that guy that starts over living in another world, it's true everyone does, but also in the game of life and death, everyone has a side of them that, that believes they are the ones that need to play in order to live, that over anyone else as well no one ever thinks they want to be the ones to admit about themselves.
SO frankly, above besides all that, if you showed me this anime out of the blue and then told me that whether it was either the manga or the anime that the not even the main character is really the one who has difficultly contemplating over that right there, then you can honestly just don't even bother concerning yourself with showing it to me then even it really was just a death game like this one too... Because that sounds like the smelly end of a horse to my ears right there.. seriously just don't bother even.. I came to watch some people get their heads chopped off, not watch some melodramatic soap opera which anything else without that right there is only the equivalent to and that's the end of it.. Tadaahh.. Now you're all caught up, go watch the show.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Jan 30, 2024

niflh

Mixed Feelings

It starts strong, has an interesting premise, hooks you with a bit of mystery and plenty of suspense, but it being 3 short episodes doesn't allow much of anything. It's completely stunted, plot/character relationships and development feel incredibly rushed, and I truly hated the last episode's outcome - even moreso for how rushed it was. Precious moments are wasted throughout the ovas recollecting on stuff to attempt to flesh out characters/their backgrounds, but it really doesn't work what-so-ever given how little time there is to truly tell anything. They should have done more show than tell in those instances. I honestly can't see what the ... point of a 3 ep ova was for this, I can imagine the source material is probably great but this just left me dissatisfied and I can't say that ending made me want to watch more - it had me feeling disappointed and frustrated, if anything. Really poor execution of the limited time, this deserved a full fleshed out season for sure.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Sep 18, 2019

Nivo3041

Not Recommended

What a disappointment

Actually Alice in Borderlands is one or my favorite manga, I enjoy reading each chapter, it has been a while since I read the manga, so I wanted to see these 3 ovas to see how good they are, after all for my Alice in Bordelands it was a great and I knew that, despite being 3 ovas, it could be a good thing from there (well, I was wrong).

The story does not change much, Arisu Ryohei, tired of his life and with an inferiority complex by his brother, appears in another world with his 2 friends after seeing some fireworks, in the ... "new world" (which is equal to the Earth, but without many people) there are some survival games in which Arisu will have to participate to survive, the plot is simple, but it can unleash many possibilities, but the pacing is terrible, the plot rushes so much that we can not get to Psychologically understand the characters or their actions, the ovas only take advantage that they are a game of death to play great and develop them well (that is a good point that the ova have at least) and then forget everything else, it shows due to the emphasis to make each game fit a game and making their preparations, which does not work because the grace that the games had was to see how the protagonists faced the games in a psychological way and in a way Inamica, while here they only focused on making the game great, leaving a kind of "style over substance", since the reflections and deductions of the characters completely dislodge due to the inconsistency that the ovas had to prioritize and retract the games ( it takes very little time to explain correctly and dynamically).

The last game was the one I gave the most hope, but the flask forward (as opposed to flask back) that were recurrent in the chapter made the majority of the chapter's dialogue meaningless and explicitly let you understand that something wrong It was going to happen (which is a simple way to put tension although with everything, this game was the one that best treated the tension), without the need to resort to psychological immersion, which generates, although all the games are raised in a way correct, the latter in particular could have developed in a great way, but the little immersion with the characters and the fact that we could not get into their mentality makes their deaths do not feel like something emotional or that has weight (although the soundtrack did a good job in general), so, despite the good approach, the development was mediocre.

The characters are where the ovas weakest, in the manga the characters are undoubtedly their best element (especially Arisu), due to the duration of the ovas the characters are very poor, you can not get to emphasize with any due to the emphasis that is only given to the games and in the ingenious way to solve them, it is not at the end of the third game where you can get to understand the feelings of the characters, but that only serves to generate an emotional scene where friends of Arisu die, if not for that reason the characters never managed to express themselves correctly, the exposition of deep themes is very superficial and pretentious (we never really get to know much about Arisu's past or why Chouta feels a loading, they are only vague themes presented in a superficial way), so the exposition of themes is superficial and does not complement the characters due to their poor presentation in the chapters (although I always I talk about character designs in other reviews, here I have nothing to say, it is normal), the characters besides being poor do not get to express their personality well nor can we see great relationships with each other (which is a contradiction taking in mind that they are best friends), so outside the protagonist the other characters become very boring due to their little time on screen (it provides very badly the exhibition of characters, something that did not happen in the manga).

The animation is normal, although the scenarios are very muted and low in color that they use to express more the dark tone of the ovas themselves, outside of that the transitions are mediocre and the facial gestures too, the animation does not help to focus the viewer on certain aspects, at least the animation is not as bad as you might think at the beginning, it just does not meet decent standards.

The end of the ovas only leaves the viewer anxious, forcing him to read the manga, which makes it a concise ending, but with clear intentions, I really find that these ovas were totally wasted, the manga being a work that gives much emphasis to psychological aspects and the ingenuity of the games, the anime only gave emphasis to the "ingenuity" of the games (since the few that appear are not the big deal), well, a short review, if I don't talk about other aspects of the ovas it is because it is irrelevant, I really would not recommend these ovas to anyone, or to someone who would like an anime about people in a survival game because in the end and seeing it in retrospect it is likely that there are not many things either good to get out of this animation

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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	Opinion on the Korean drama of this? Euphorian_ - Jun 23, 2021	8 replies	by Lanarde »» Sep 28, 6:05 AM
	Poll: Imawa no Kuni no Alice Episode 3 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Mar 17, 2015	79 replies	by kqrt »» Jul 13, 9:57 PM
	I'd like to have a full series to the end of this AnimeLayer - Jul 17, 2021	9 replies	by Yuno »» Sep 19, 2024 6:18 AM
	Where does the ova leave off in the manga mommymeowhito - Jul 12, 2023	5 replies	by Yuno »» Sep 19, 2024 6:15 AM
	Poll: Imawa no Kuni no Alice Episode 2 Discussion busan - Dec 22, 2014	37 replies	by RGreatDanton »» Nov 23, 2023 6:26 AM