I love Alice in Borderland. I was hooked by the second episode of Season 1. I remember craving for more after Season 2 ended. So when Netflix greenlit Season 3, I was cautiously excited. Cautiously, because the one game the writers of the Netflix series invented that wasn’t from the manga, the Queen of Spades, was lacklustre. But when creator Haro Aso announced his involvement in the new season, I let myself hope.
I have now watched all of Season 3 and can sadly report that any hope I had is dead.
This third season begins after the Shibuya meteor disaster. Arisu has been adulting. He’s happily married to Usagi and works as a trauma counsellor for fellow Shibuya survivors. But the Borderland still wants them. Banda, the murderer who became a Borderland citizen, starts recruiting former players, including Usagi and Arisu, to return for more games. Season 3 had all the right cards to be thrilling and expansive. Instead, it dropped the ball in every way.
Let’s start with the new characters. Besides Arisu and Usagi, none of the returning players were familiar faces. Sure it was disappointing not seeing Kuina or Chishiya, but even that didn’t bother me. The series could always effortlessly make you love any character, so I was looking forward to knowing the newcomers. Sadly, this time around, everyone felt paper-thin. It was only during the final game that the writers started trying to humanise these new characters with backstories. Which was way too late for anyone to care.
I was gutted during Season 1 when Arisu’s friends, Chota and Karube, died after just three episodes. Their deaths felt visceral. Season 3’s characters were so superficially sketched they bordered on anime stereotypes. Worse, they acted like rookies. As these players cleared all previous games, they should’ve been like the Victors returning to the Quarter Quell in Catching Fire. They should have been formidable opponents for Arisu and Usagi. Instead, they bumbled like entry-level employees getting inducted into the Borderland.
The games themselves were also just dull. The fact that the writers recycled games from the manga that didn’t make the cut in Season 1 explains why they felt so basic. It’s like the writers forgot that this is the Joker stage. Everything should have been wildly insane and extreme. The only game that felt worthy of the Joker was Sacred Fortunes. Having 100 million flaming arrows shot at Arisu for getting an answer wrong made me laugh.
I love how the games during Seasons 1 and 2 were so exciting and absorbing. The stakes felt high. And once the citizens started playing during the Face Cards stage, they each brought their own unique worldview, and that made each game memorable. In contrast, Season 3’s games felt like inconveniences the writers were desperately rushing through so they could reach the ending and finally confront the true nature of the Joker.
Season 2’s epic finale/twist/reveal of the meteor strike opened the possibility that the Joker is life itself. The Borderland offered Arisu and the others caught by the blast the chance to play for their lives. The final card left on the table (literally) was the Joker because life, with all its unpredictability, is the hardest game to play. Although Alice in Borderland is just one story in a long tradition of Japanese pop-culture that revolves around disaster, it offered a profound meditation on finding your will to live.
Unfortunately, Season 3 completely eviscerates everything the previous seasons had: the thrill of the games, emotionally rich characters, a deep philosophical mythos. They had a golden opportunity to expand the mythology of the Borderland and Joker. Instead, we got a Squid Game knockoff. It’s like the Alice in Borderland writers had a checklist for everything they could copy: pregnant player? Check. A baby competing? Check. Hinting the game goes to America? Checkmate.
It’s understandable the Alice in Borderland team wanted to replicated Squid Game’s massive global success. The original series even premiered before Squid Game. So it can’t be easy coming second place to a competitor when you had the lead. Fans like me recognised the depth and excitement that made this one particularly special, superior even, to Squid Game. I’ve always told everyone and anyone who would listen that Alice in Borderland was the superior product. Now, thanks to Season 3, I can never say that again.
Maybe that’s what disappoints me so deeply. It’s clear Season 3 was largely a cash grab that would coast off Squid Game’s popularity. This completely unnecessary season was a betrayal of the story, the characters, and the fans.
But hey, since everyone who escapes the Borderland forgets their experiences there, maybe I’ll eventually forget that this joke of a season ever existed.
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