After an over two-year hiatus, the hit Japanese manga series Alice In Borderland returns to Netflix with new rules, new cards, and dangerous stakes.
Alice in Borderland Season 2 trailer
When we last saw Arisu and crew they’d just left the beach and tracked down the game masters HQ. However, they arrive to find a room full of blank screens and a pile of dead bodies. Before they can make hearts or spades of the mess, however, they’re joined by two beach escapees who betrayed them hoping to lift their cards.
Before things go south, Mira appears on screen and mocks them for allowing so many of their friends to die. After congratulating them for getting as far as they have, Mira reveals that the games are just getting started; we haven’t seen the face cards. The gang walks outside to find the sky filled with Zeppelins carrying banners that imply a more dangerous game is afoot.
What type of games will we see Arisu face tomorrow? Will he survive another round?
Alice in Borderland was a surprise hit
Within two months of its release, Alice in Borderland had reached nearly 20 million households. Critics praised the cinematography and graphics while noting the story and plot stumbled in terms of progression and stakes.
However, the audience cheered the Japanese Battle Royale.
“Alice in borderland was really good, the story was very well written and all the different level of emotions from each of the actors was very comforting and entertaining to watch.”
While Shah Shahid of Comic Years wrote, “Alice In Borderland is one of those very rare new shows, that isn’t based on a superhero or other franchise that I have genuinely enjoyed so much.”
Alice in Borderland 2 will exceed expectations
The surprisingly warm reception for Alice in Borderland has undoubtedly led to improvements for the showrunners. The big-budget franchise quickly became the most popular Japanese series on Netflix upon release, which prompted studio heads to renew it for a second season (the same month it was released).
Netflix likely has high expectations for Alice in Borderland season 2, and as such, we anticipate a bigger budget and more resources (we hope).
Unfortunately, that was less evident than we’d like to see in the trailer leading up to the second season release.
For example, there’s an explosion at the 1:39 mark of the promo (inserted above) where two cars collide in what looks like MacGruber part 2.
We still believe the show will move closer to a Stranger Things trajectory for the second season.
There is so much to be fleshed out, so many questions unanswered, and, besides, the trailer looks solid overall. We noted the special effects in our assessment of the trailer and the momentum of the stakeholders involved in the project.
Ultimately, we put the projected audience score for the second season of Alice in Borderland at 79, which, given that many sequels fail to capture the magic of the first, we believe will exceed expectations with fans. Of course, season 1 sits at 91 percent fresh with audiences; perhaps the series showrunners hold more cards than we think.
We’ll find out soon enough. The next stage starts tomorrow, after all.