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Review: Alice in Borderland (今際の国のアリス) (2020)
This drama was interesting at first, but over time, it was easy to see that it suffered from adaptation issues, which I will detail under the cut.
In addition, this is actually an unfinished story, which took me off guard. I probably won't be watching the second season because of some of the issues that irked me in this season.
Spoilers.
Story
This drama tried to fit too long of a story in only eight episodes, and it showed, because we got barely any buildup to justify any of the emotional moments.
First of all, there was a disconnect between the first half and second half of the drama. I was quite interested in the first half, but after the setting moved to the Beach, I felt that the drama was focused way more on the politics of the Beach instead of the games that they had to clear.
So when it came to the "emotional" moments at the end of the drama, they didn't hit me because we only had episodes 5-7 to really bond with them. For instance, I didn't know the names of many of the characters at the Beach, because we were introduced to so many and it wasn't easy to discern what we were supposed to care about for each of them.
For example, we only met Kuina in episode 5, and near the end, we found out that she was transgender and hiding from a painful past. This did not move me at all, because there was no behaviour from Kuina that suggested to me that she had a troubled past, nor did I know her as anyone other than Chishiya's sidekick. In addition, I literally did not care about the tattooed man that Kuina was fighting. His only role up until that battle was to be rash and to carry his sword. So his entire backstory didn't really seemt o add value for me.
After the Beach burned up, Arisu and Yuzuha returned to the main task at hand, which was figuring out what these games were. So really the biggest takeaway from the whole Beach arc was Asahi's phone recordings.
At the very end, it was revealed to Arisu, Yuzuha, Chishiya, and Kuina, that Mira was behind the games. This reveal was not fun at all for me. For one, I didn't even know Mira's name. I only recognized her as one of the executive members at the Beach. Our characters barely interacted with her. So I felt nothing when she was revealed, not surprised, not relieved, nothing.
Another big thing that bothered me in the story was that Arisu had main character syndrome. He was treated as someone who was way more important than what we'd been shown. If he was such a good gamer, I felt that the show should've spent more time showing us Arisu's past experiences, and how they helped him solve the problems. Just seeing him look up and suddenly know is not interesting at all. In addition, I was so gobsmacked in the final episode when Yuzuha, Asahi, and the dude with the cap were literally just standing around Arisu, waiting for him to come up with a solution.
In the last episode, I felt dread because I realized that there was not enough time left in th episode to explain these games. In the first four episodes, when our characters were first plunged into the mysterious game, Karube, Chota, and Saori all brainstormed a lot of things they noticed, including how time passed differently for everybody, and the fact that these lasers were mysteriously coming from the sky. I guess the lasers can be explained by these blimps that showed themselves in the final episode. But there is still a lot to be explained for this game.
Having finished this drama, I see now that the Beach episodes were only meant to be one arc of a bigger story. But that still split apart our season so that it didn't feel like one cohesive season. It's like how the second half of Joy of Life was spent entirely in a different kingdom without the characters that we'd grown to love.
So as you can see, I wasn't really happy with the decisions that the adaptation team made. They tried to fit too much in too little time, and as a result, none of it resonated with me.
Production
I felt that the dialogue also ran into adaptation problems. We had a lot of overdramatic dialogue that would seem natural in a manga, but seemed very excessive and awkward in a live action. For example, when people say things like "really?" "no way!" they're usually showed as small bubbles in a manga panel to build the atmosphere. But in a live action drama, when these small bits of dialogue are getting camera time, then we see how unnecessary such dialogue is to the current medium.
Another thing that bothered me was the characters' clothes. This became a problem to me early on when we first met Saori. Saori's choice of high heels really bothered me. I understand that she might have been stranded and couldn't just go home and get another pair of more appropriate shoes. But during the wolf and lamb game, when she was trying to hide, she still did not take off her high heels. Such things would not have bothered me in a manga, but it bothered me here, when I could hear her heels clicking against the ground. But judging by the fact that our characters are always seen in clean clothes once in a while, I feel like this is just a manga trope that becomes glaringly impractical in a live action. By this, I mean how Yuzuha and Arisu will absolutely ruin their clothes but appear later in a set of new clothes. I understand that in manga, character design, including clothes, are very important to a character's identity, but I'm still allowed to say that it was distracting to me.
Also, not going to lie, I felt like the entire Beach arc was an excuse for the story to put everybody in a bathing suit, especially the women. If you think about it, Aguni and Niragi weren't even in swimsuits! And meanwhile, Kuina was in a full bikini every episode. Even when she left, she was wearing a bikini top T_T Very clearly a manga thing that carried over. Sigh.
Otherwise, the direction was okay. It wasn't the best, and I think it was because the script itself wasn't the best and the direction is just following it. Plus, I felt that the audio was a bit difficult to hear, though that might just be me.
So overall, production wasn't really great, and I think issues were stemming from the script quality.
Characters
Arisu Ryohei
Arisu was portrayed as a loser right from the get go. That is fine. We always have main characters that are losers. The problem here was that Arisu never had to earn anything for himself in this drama.
For some reason, Chota and Karube always put their trust into Arisu. I guess they saw his potential, but what had Arisu ever done to show that he had that potential? We never even got to see how godly he was at playing video games.
And that leads to my next point. I would have accepted that Arisu had untapped potential if we got to see more of how he had come to his conclusions, like how he did in the first episode. After that, we rarely got a look inside his head. Meanwhile, everybody was always looking to him for guidance. I can accept that the characters who had seem him in action would think he was clever. But they just kept giving him more and more responsibility based on that? It was so unbelievable to me when Chishiya had put Arisu in charge of sneaking into Aguni's room and trying to open the safe. Why wouldn't he ask someone he trusted more like Kuina? Of course, we later knew it was a set up, but Chishiya's plan was not convincing.
Even by the end of the drama, I never felt that Arisu was a hero. Yes, he went through anguish, and yes, he used his brain. But he has no charm. I don't care about this guy at all. He has no personality. His only will is to live right now, but where did that come from? Because he had to live for Chota and Karube? It's very much like how all shounen protagonists have a very generic goal of "wanting to protect their friends." It feels so meaningless, and it becomes apparent in live action because there's supposed to be a sense of realism here that we can suspend in manga.
So Arisu is a big reason for why I wasn't really into this show. With great power comes great responsibility, but he didn't earn great power. He was just given it.
Usagi Yuzuha
Yuzuha was a rock climber, a hobby she inherited from her father. As you can imagine, her athleticism was a very handy skill throughout the drama. It came in handy during games, but otherwise, she was mostly just a sidekick to Arisu.
Unfortunately, Yuzuha didn't have much of a personality except for being kind of serious, and caring towards Arisu. I thought the most interesting scene between Yuzuha and Arisu was when Arisu was surprised that Yuzuha didn't know how to ride a bike. It was these small things that gave me a better sense of what these people were like, rather than when they were faced with life or death.
Chishiya
I'm going to say it. Chishiya was the most interesting character to me. He's hardly an innovative character archetype, but he seemed to be the most well-adapted character in this drama. The first time I saw him I was like "this anime-ass boy," with his white hair and hood up. Meanwhile, there was an attempt by the writers to make all of the other characters look more realistic, while keeping their anime-ass personality traits.
I'm still not sure what exactly about Chishiya made him the most interesting to me. He was mysterious, but we had more to work with for him. We'd seen him in action in the game in the apartment building, so we knew that he was highly intelligent but also very relaxed. I think it's just the fact that we'd seen him in action. Like with the bike scene with Yuzuha and Arisu, we just got to see him do things more.
Though Chishiya seemed almost all-powerful sometimes with how smart he was, it was still interesting to watch him because we saw him talk out his thought process. For example, he explained why he framed Arisu and what information he got out of it.
So overall, favourite character of this drama.
Kuina
Kuina was Chishiya's friend at the Beach. Well, "friend" is a little generous considering the fact that Chishiya seemed to be working for himself first and foremost. But at the very least, Kuina and Chishiya had a mutual understanding.
We didn't really know much about Kuina. Through Kuina, we would learn what Chishiya was thinking, but she barely ever offered her own thoughts. And she would sometimes come and talk to Arisu and Yuzuha, but again, she never really offered much. All we knew was that her mother had cancer so she decided to quit smoking so she would be healthier and would be able to take care of her.
In Kuina's battle with the tattooed guy with the sword, we found out that she grew up a boy, and often disappointed her judoka father. We learned all of this as she revealed her power in judo. As I mentioned, none of this moved me. And that's because we never really got to know Kuina the character. All of this was dropped on me like factual information as opposed to a truly emotional moment. Was I supposed to guess that Kuina was hiding a painful past? Was I spposed to know that she was an expert fighter?
Anyway, Kuina was set up to be one of our four main characters for the next season.
Hatter
Hatter was the boss of the Beach. He'd created this utopia in the middle of a terrible world, and by doing that he gained power and was loved by everybody.
When we first met him, he was terrifying because his power was absolute. Through Aguni, we learned that he used to be a simpler man, and that in his reign at the Beach, he'd become a self-absorbed tyrant.
Hatter's theory was that everybody at the Beach would pool their cards and in order, the residents of the Beach would ascend to the real world. This was later revealed in a conversation between Hatter and Aguni to have been something he made up. He was just giving them hope in a desolate place.
When Hatter had to renew his visa, Aguni confronted him about his madness. Hatter pointed his gun at Aguni, who shot him back in self defense. He later found out that Hatter's gun as empty. My interpretation was that Hatter knew all along that his model was not sustainable. He was tired of games. He let Aguni kill him.
Aguni
We first met Aguni in the apartment building game, where he identified the tagger and got Karube to help him take him down. In that game, we saw Aguni let the tagger kill his sidekick, which was very freaky.
We later saw Aguni again at the Beach, where he was the head of the militia. It was revealed that he was actually close friends with Hatter, and the conflict between them was only for show, so that guys like Niragi would believe that Aguni was on their side and trust him.
In the last episode, Arisu deduced that Aguni was taking out his anger of having killed his friend on those at the Beach, believing it was those people who led his friend to madness. And Aguni was killed when trying to take down Niragi.
Segawa Chota
Chota was one of Arisu's childhood friends. He came from a religious family, and it was suggested that he'd seen his mother have a sexual relationship with the pastor/priest at the church. Anyway, he was mostly very integrated with modern society, working as an IT technician.
He'd hurt his foot in the first game and thus had to stay behind when Arisu and Karabe went to do the apartment building game. Then, Saori seduced him and took his virginity, presumably because Saori needed someone on her side. I question whether it worked, as I think Chota was still loyal with his buddies, and we saw that he took down Saori to protect his friends in the wolf and lamb game.
Chota died in the wolf and lamb game, sacrificing himself so that Arisu would live.
Karube Daikichi
Karube was the cool friend of the group. He worked as a bartender and was in love with the boss' girlfriend. At the beginning of the drama, he'd just gotten fired from his job, having been found out for having feelings for the boss' girlfriend.
I did feel that Karube's love for his boss' girlfriend was a bit suspect. They were technically having an affair and he was going to propose to her? I know the show wanted something to show his devotion to the woman, but that seemed a bit much. If they were really to the point of marriage, then she wouldn't have still been in a relationship with the boss, you feel me?
Karube was a little more headstrong, always standing up for the friends and protecting them. We saw this in the first game, when he got angry that Saori seemed to always want to sacrifice the guys instead of herself. In the apartment building game, Karube advised Arisu not to share too much information with others in order to protect themselves. And since Karube looked tough (I guess), Aguni had him come along with him to take down the tagger. In the wolf and lamb game, Karube was kind of angry with Arisu at first, but eventually, he realized that there was no way around it, thparticularly at only one of them could live. And there was no reason for it to be any of them.
Asahi
Asahi was a girl who'd been recruited to work for the game master. Her role was called a dealer/tagger. Sometimes she would help set up games, and sometimes she would participate in games as a player to confuse other players. Like the people who were playing, they were playing for visas as well.
When Arisu and Yuzuha went to the beach, Asahi and Momoka were always talking quietly with each other, which showed that they were suspicious people. They only came into the picture in episode 7, when Momoka was revealed dead.
Asahi joined Arisu, Yuzuha, and the dude in the hat. Asahi told them that she would distract everybody so that the others could carry Momoka to the fire (since she was the witch for having killed herself). She said she was the dealer and was shot dead by the laser, but we didn't really know what that meant, until Arisu and Yuzuha watched the video recording she'd left behind.
My guess is that Asahi had access to a working phone because she was a tagger. And we saw through the videos that Momoka was taking things really tough, because they had to kill people to stay alive.
In the end, perhaps it was because Momoka was dead that Asahi decided that it was okay for her to die as well.
Themes
I felt that there was too big of a disconnect between the first and second half of the season for any themes to be explored to the point of satisfaction, but I'll still mention them anyway.
Survival was of course a huge theme, but I can't say that it was well-explored, because Arisu never really talked about why he needed to stay alive. Technically it was because his friends died for him to stay alive. Is that it? We know that he cared for his friends more than his father and his brother. But it just feels so weak. Yes, they cheered him up when he was down, they encouraged him. But Arisu never really acted on their trust. They were always encouraging him to go out and do things. Did it really take them dying for him to realize that he needed to...not die? I just don't get it.
As for the Beach, the writers wanted to explore the idea of the mob leading to Hatter's death, but it really wasn't explored enough either. We rarely saw the people of the Beach act as a mob, except when they were partying. We only knew that they were crazy for the Hatter and the Hatter in turn loved their attention. We'd only seen the traitors briefly in a dumpster bin when Arisu found the, but otherwise, we never knew how Hatter felt about them until we saw Aguni talking about how the Beach had driven Hatter to be this kind of man. Again, this theme was not explored enough.
In the final episode, there was a brief speech by Arisu about how our gripes with the dead should not be taken out on the living, basically that we should prioritize the well-being of the living since that's all we have. I actually liked that train of thought, but again, we did not have much to build on that.
I wondered if there was an environmentalist theme as well. It was definitely strange that all of these high density parts of Tokyo were suddenly completely empty. When the Beach was burning down and all of the survivors were watching from far away, Ann said that there was nowhere to hide and forget now. At that point, I wondered whether it was symbolism for environmental issues like global warming. When our world is burning, we can't just stay inside and forget it.
Overall
Overall, like serialized mangas, this drama had a interesting premise, but the story lost its way as it went on, partially due to lack of good planning. In addition, this drama suffered from issues of adaptation from manga to live action format and it made it difficult for me to take this show seriously.
In addition, this is actually an unfinished story, which took me off guard. I probably won't be watching the second season because of some of the issues that irked me in this season.
Spoilers.
Story
This drama tried to fit too long of a story in only eight episodes, and it showed, because we got barely any buildup to justify any of the emotional moments.
First of all, there was a disconnect between the first half and second half of the drama. I was quite interested in the first half, but after the setting moved to the Beach, I felt that the drama was focused way more on the politics of the Beach instead of the games that they had to clear.
So when it came to the "emotional" moments at the end of the drama, they didn't hit me because we only had episodes 5-7 to really bond with them. For instance, I didn't know the names of many of the characters at the Beach, because we were introduced to so many and it wasn't easy to discern what we were supposed to care about for each of them.
For example, we only met Kuina in episode 5, and near the end, we found out that she was transgender and hiding from a painful past. This did not move me at all, because there was no behaviour from Kuina that suggested to me that she had a troubled past, nor did I know her as anyone other than Chishiya's sidekick. In addition, I literally did not care about the tattooed man that Kuina was fighting. His only role up until that battle was to be rash and to carry his sword. So his entire backstory didn't really seemt o add value for me.
After the Beach burned up, Arisu and Yuzuha returned to the main task at hand, which was figuring out what these games were. So really the biggest takeaway from the whole Beach arc was Asahi's phone recordings.
At the very end, it was revealed to Arisu, Yuzuha, Chishiya, and Kuina, that Mira was behind the games. This reveal was not fun at all for me. For one, I didn't even know Mira's name. I only recognized her as one of the executive members at the Beach. Our characters barely interacted with her. So I felt nothing when she was revealed, not surprised, not relieved, nothing.
Another big thing that bothered me in the story was that Arisu had main character syndrome. He was treated as someone who was way more important than what we'd been shown. If he was such a good gamer, I felt that the show should've spent more time showing us Arisu's past experiences, and how they helped him solve the problems. Just seeing him look up and suddenly know is not interesting at all. In addition, I was so gobsmacked in the final episode when Yuzuha, Asahi, and the dude with the cap were literally just standing around Arisu, waiting for him to come up with a solution.
In the last episode, I felt dread because I realized that there was not enough time left in th episode to explain these games. In the first four episodes, when our characters were first plunged into the mysterious game, Karube, Chota, and Saori all brainstormed a lot of things they noticed, including how time passed differently for everybody, and the fact that these lasers were mysteriously coming from the sky. I guess the lasers can be explained by these blimps that showed themselves in the final episode. But there is still a lot to be explained for this game.
Having finished this drama, I see now that the Beach episodes were only meant to be one arc of a bigger story. But that still split apart our season so that it didn't feel like one cohesive season. It's like how the second half of Joy of Life was spent entirely in a different kingdom without the characters that we'd grown to love.
So as you can see, I wasn't really happy with the decisions that the adaptation team made. They tried to fit too much in too little time, and as a result, none of it resonated with me.
Production
I felt that the dialogue also ran into adaptation problems. We had a lot of overdramatic dialogue that would seem natural in a manga, but seemed very excessive and awkward in a live action. For example, when people say things like "really?" "no way!" they're usually showed as small bubbles in a manga panel to build the atmosphere. But in a live action drama, when these small bits of dialogue are getting camera time, then we see how unnecessary such dialogue is to the current medium.
Another thing that bothered me was the characters' clothes. This became a problem to me early on when we first met Saori. Saori's choice of high heels really bothered me. I understand that she might have been stranded and couldn't just go home and get another pair of more appropriate shoes. But during the wolf and lamb game, when she was trying to hide, she still did not take off her high heels. Such things would not have bothered me in a manga, but it bothered me here, when I could hear her heels clicking against the ground. But judging by the fact that our characters are always seen in clean clothes once in a while, I feel like this is just a manga trope that becomes glaringly impractical in a live action. By this, I mean how Yuzuha and Arisu will absolutely ruin their clothes but appear later in a set of new clothes. I understand that in manga, character design, including clothes, are very important to a character's identity, but I'm still allowed to say that it was distracting to me.
Also, not going to lie, I felt like the entire Beach arc was an excuse for the story to put everybody in a bathing suit, especially the women. If you think about it, Aguni and Niragi weren't even in swimsuits! And meanwhile, Kuina was in a full bikini every episode. Even when she left, she was wearing a bikini top T_T Very clearly a manga thing that carried over. Sigh.
Otherwise, the direction was okay. It wasn't the best, and I think it was because the script itself wasn't the best and the direction is just following it. Plus, I felt that the audio was a bit difficult to hear, though that might just be me.
So overall, production wasn't really great, and I think issues were stemming from the script quality.
Characters
Arisu Ryohei
Arisu was portrayed as a loser right from the get go. That is fine. We always have main characters that are losers. The problem here was that Arisu never had to earn anything for himself in this drama.
For some reason, Chota and Karube always put their trust into Arisu. I guess they saw his potential, but what had Arisu ever done to show that he had that potential? We never even got to see how godly he was at playing video games.
And that leads to my next point. I would have accepted that Arisu had untapped potential if we got to see more of how he had come to his conclusions, like how he did in the first episode. After that, we rarely got a look inside his head. Meanwhile, everybody was always looking to him for guidance. I can accept that the characters who had seem him in action would think he was clever. But they just kept giving him more and more responsibility based on that? It was so unbelievable to me when Chishiya had put Arisu in charge of sneaking into Aguni's room and trying to open the safe. Why wouldn't he ask someone he trusted more like Kuina? Of course, we later knew it was a set up, but Chishiya's plan was not convincing.
Even by the end of the drama, I never felt that Arisu was a hero. Yes, he went through anguish, and yes, he used his brain. But he has no charm. I don't care about this guy at all. He has no personality. His only will is to live right now, but where did that come from? Because he had to live for Chota and Karube? It's very much like how all shounen protagonists have a very generic goal of "wanting to protect their friends." It feels so meaningless, and it becomes apparent in live action because there's supposed to be a sense of realism here that we can suspend in manga.
So Arisu is a big reason for why I wasn't really into this show. With great power comes great responsibility, but he didn't earn great power. He was just given it.
Usagi Yuzuha
Yuzuha was a rock climber, a hobby she inherited from her father. As you can imagine, her athleticism was a very handy skill throughout the drama. It came in handy during games, but otherwise, she was mostly just a sidekick to Arisu.
Unfortunately, Yuzuha didn't have much of a personality except for being kind of serious, and caring towards Arisu. I thought the most interesting scene between Yuzuha and Arisu was when Arisu was surprised that Yuzuha didn't know how to ride a bike. It was these small things that gave me a better sense of what these people were like, rather than when they were faced with life or death.
Chishiya
I'm going to say it. Chishiya was the most interesting character to me. He's hardly an innovative character archetype, but he seemed to be the most well-adapted character in this drama. The first time I saw him I was like "this anime-ass boy," with his white hair and hood up. Meanwhile, there was an attempt by the writers to make all of the other characters look more realistic, while keeping their anime-ass personality traits.
I'm still not sure what exactly about Chishiya made him the most interesting to me. He was mysterious, but we had more to work with for him. We'd seen him in action in the game in the apartment building, so we knew that he was highly intelligent but also very relaxed. I think it's just the fact that we'd seen him in action. Like with the bike scene with Yuzuha and Arisu, we just got to see him do things more.
Though Chishiya seemed almost all-powerful sometimes with how smart he was, it was still interesting to watch him because we saw him talk out his thought process. For example, he explained why he framed Arisu and what information he got out of it.
So overall, favourite character of this drama.
Kuina
Kuina was Chishiya's friend at the Beach. Well, "friend" is a little generous considering the fact that Chishiya seemed to be working for himself first and foremost. But at the very least, Kuina and Chishiya had a mutual understanding.
We didn't really know much about Kuina. Through Kuina, we would learn what Chishiya was thinking, but she barely ever offered her own thoughts. And she would sometimes come and talk to Arisu and Yuzuha, but again, she never really offered much. All we knew was that her mother had cancer so she decided to quit smoking so she would be healthier and would be able to take care of her.
In Kuina's battle with the tattooed guy with the sword, we found out that she grew up a boy, and often disappointed her judoka father. We learned all of this as she revealed her power in judo. As I mentioned, none of this moved me. And that's because we never really got to know Kuina the character. All of this was dropped on me like factual information as opposed to a truly emotional moment. Was I supposed to guess that Kuina was hiding a painful past? Was I spposed to know that she was an expert fighter?
Anyway, Kuina was set up to be one of our four main characters for the next season.
Hatter
Hatter was the boss of the Beach. He'd created this utopia in the middle of a terrible world, and by doing that he gained power and was loved by everybody.
When we first met him, he was terrifying because his power was absolute. Through Aguni, we learned that he used to be a simpler man, and that in his reign at the Beach, he'd become a self-absorbed tyrant.
Hatter's theory was that everybody at the Beach would pool their cards and in order, the residents of the Beach would ascend to the real world. This was later revealed in a conversation between Hatter and Aguni to have been something he made up. He was just giving them hope in a desolate place.
When Hatter had to renew his visa, Aguni confronted him about his madness. Hatter pointed his gun at Aguni, who shot him back in self defense. He later found out that Hatter's gun as empty. My interpretation was that Hatter knew all along that his model was not sustainable. He was tired of games. He let Aguni kill him.
Aguni
We first met Aguni in the apartment building game, where he identified the tagger and got Karube to help him take him down. In that game, we saw Aguni let the tagger kill his sidekick, which was very freaky.
We later saw Aguni again at the Beach, where he was the head of the militia. It was revealed that he was actually close friends with Hatter, and the conflict between them was only for show, so that guys like Niragi would believe that Aguni was on their side and trust him.
In the last episode, Arisu deduced that Aguni was taking out his anger of having killed his friend on those at the Beach, believing it was those people who led his friend to madness. And Aguni was killed when trying to take down Niragi.
Segawa Chota
Chota was one of Arisu's childhood friends. He came from a religious family, and it was suggested that he'd seen his mother have a sexual relationship with the pastor/priest at the church. Anyway, he was mostly very integrated with modern society, working as an IT technician.
He'd hurt his foot in the first game and thus had to stay behind when Arisu and Karabe went to do the apartment building game. Then, Saori seduced him and took his virginity, presumably because Saori needed someone on her side. I question whether it worked, as I think Chota was still loyal with his buddies, and we saw that he took down Saori to protect his friends in the wolf and lamb game.
Chota died in the wolf and lamb game, sacrificing himself so that Arisu would live.
Karube Daikichi
Karube was the cool friend of the group. He worked as a bartender and was in love with the boss' girlfriend. At the beginning of the drama, he'd just gotten fired from his job, having been found out for having feelings for the boss' girlfriend.
I did feel that Karube's love for his boss' girlfriend was a bit suspect. They were technically having an affair and he was going to propose to her? I know the show wanted something to show his devotion to the woman, but that seemed a bit much. If they were really to the point of marriage, then she wouldn't have still been in a relationship with the boss, you feel me?
Karube was a little more headstrong, always standing up for the friends and protecting them. We saw this in the first game, when he got angry that Saori seemed to always want to sacrifice the guys instead of herself. In the apartment building game, Karube advised Arisu not to share too much information with others in order to protect themselves. And since Karube looked tough (I guess), Aguni had him come along with him to take down the tagger. In the wolf and lamb game, Karube was kind of angry with Arisu at first, but eventually, he realized that there was no way around it, thparticularly at only one of them could live. And there was no reason for it to be any of them.
Asahi
Asahi was a girl who'd been recruited to work for the game master. Her role was called a dealer/tagger. Sometimes she would help set up games, and sometimes she would participate in games as a player to confuse other players. Like the people who were playing, they were playing for visas as well.
When Arisu and Yuzuha went to the beach, Asahi and Momoka were always talking quietly with each other, which showed that they were suspicious people. They only came into the picture in episode 7, when Momoka was revealed dead.
Asahi joined Arisu, Yuzuha, and the dude in the hat. Asahi told them that she would distract everybody so that the others could carry Momoka to the fire (since she was the witch for having killed herself). She said she was the dealer and was shot dead by the laser, but we didn't really know what that meant, until Arisu and Yuzuha watched the video recording she'd left behind.
My guess is that Asahi had access to a working phone because she was a tagger. And we saw through the videos that Momoka was taking things really tough, because they had to kill people to stay alive.
In the end, perhaps it was because Momoka was dead that Asahi decided that it was okay for her to die as well.
Themes
I felt that there was too big of a disconnect between the first and second half of the season for any themes to be explored to the point of satisfaction, but I'll still mention them anyway.
Survival was of course a huge theme, but I can't say that it was well-explored, because Arisu never really talked about why he needed to stay alive. Technically it was because his friends died for him to stay alive. Is that it? We know that he cared for his friends more than his father and his brother. But it just feels so weak. Yes, they cheered him up when he was down, they encouraged him. But Arisu never really acted on their trust. They were always encouraging him to go out and do things. Did it really take them dying for him to realize that he needed to...not die? I just don't get it.
As for the Beach, the writers wanted to explore the idea of the mob leading to Hatter's death, but it really wasn't explored enough either. We rarely saw the people of the Beach act as a mob, except when they were partying. We only knew that they were crazy for the Hatter and the Hatter in turn loved their attention. We'd only seen the traitors briefly in a dumpster bin when Arisu found the, but otherwise, we never knew how Hatter felt about them until we saw Aguni talking about how the Beach had driven Hatter to be this kind of man. Again, this theme was not explored enough.
In the final episode, there was a brief speech by Arisu about how our gripes with the dead should not be taken out on the living, basically that we should prioritize the well-being of the living since that's all we have. I actually liked that train of thought, but again, we did not have much to build on that.
I wondered if there was an environmentalist theme as well. It was definitely strange that all of these high density parts of Tokyo were suddenly completely empty. When the Beach was burning down and all of the survivors were watching from far away, Ann said that there was nowhere to hide and forget now. At that point, I wondered whether it was symbolism for environmental issues like global warming. When our world is burning, we can't just stay inside and forget it.
Overall
Overall, like serialized mangas, this drama had a interesting premise, but the story lost its way as it went on, partially due to lack of good planning. In addition, this drama suffered from issues of adaptation from manga to live action format and it made it difficult for me to take this show seriously.