49 Fun Facts About Alice in Borderland

Who wrote and illustrated the Alice in Borderland manga?

Haro Aso has said he built the aimless Arisu out of himself at about 20, when he had no idea what to do with his life.

Who directed every episode of Netflix's Alice in Borderland?

Shinsuke Sato directed all of it himself because Netflix asked him to treat the season as one very long film rather than a run of episodes.

Who plays Ryohei Arisu in Netflix's Alice in Borderland?

Kento Yamazaki plays Arisu, a jobless gamer whose obsession with games turns out to be exactly the skill the Borderland rewards.

Which actress plays the climber Usagi in Netflix's Alice in Borderland?

Tao Tsuchiya plays Usagi, who lands in the Borderland soon after the death of her mountaineer father and survives on a climber's strength and agility.

In Alice in Borderland, which card suit marks games of wits and logic?

Diamonds are battles of intellect, while spades test the body and clubs teamwork; hearts turn players on each other with games of trust and betrayal.

In Alice in Borderland, what happens to a player whose visa expires?

Lasers from the sky execute anyone whose visa runs out, so players must keep entering games: each win adds as many days as the number on its card.

In Alice in Borderland, what real-world disaster turns out to have sent the players to the Borderland?

A meteorite strike over Shibuya stopped the players' hearts, and the fireworks they remember seeing were the blast; the survivors wake in hospital with no memory of the games.

In Alice in Borderland's second season, what hangs in the sky over each face card's arena, showing its card?

A blimp carrying a giant card marks each face-card game; the King of Spades' one trails him instead, because his arena is the whole city.

Which game does the final face card make Arisu play, as Alice must in Lewis Carroll's book?

Croquet it is: the Queen asks only that Arisu finish three sets without quitting, then spends the game trying to talk him into giving up.

Which card, alone on a table, ends season 2 of Alice in Borderland?

The Joker stays put while the wind scatters every other card; season 3, a story the manga never told, sends Arisu back to face it.

Early reviews compared Alice in Borderland to which Japanese film and which Canadian one?

Battle Royale and Cube both came up: one makes a class of schoolchildren kill each other until one is left, the other traps strangers in a deadly maze of rooms.

Who turns out to be the 'witch' in the Witch Hunt game at the Beach?

Momoka stabbed herself. She and her best friend Asahi were dealers, players who stage games to extend their own visas, and she volunteered to be the witch.

In Alice in Borderland's deadly game of hide-and-seek, which role is the only one to survive when time runs out?

The wolf alone survives, and the role jumps to whoever meets the wolf's eye, so Arisu's friends hide from him to make sure he keeps it.

Where were Alice in Borderland's deserted Shibuya Crossing scenes mainly shot?

A green-screen studio replica was built in Ashikaga, about 100 km away: only the road, a ticket gate and a public toilet were real, and the rest was added by computer.

Which children's card game is played, with its goal reversed, at the deadly seminar in Alice in Borderland's third season?

Old Maid normally punishes whoever is left with the odd card; here that player wins a controlled near-death experience and the rest are electrocuted.

How was Arisu's walk from a station toilet into a suddenly empty city filmed?

In a four-minute continuous take: the camera follows the three friends from the crowded street into the station toilets and back out to a deserted city without a single cut.

In season 3 of Alice in Borderland, which landmark do players climb in a deadly game of bingo?

Tokyo Tower: every buzzer the climbers press to mark a square sends a volley of balls crashing down from above, and the free square's buzzer waits at the very top.

In the final game of Alice in Borderland's third season, who is registered as the tenth player?

Usagi's unborn baby counts as a separate player, so the game hands her a second bracelet with points of its own.

In Alice in Borderland's tunnel game Distance, where does the goal turn out to be?

The bus at the start has 'goal' written on it, so everyone who ran down the tunnel was heading the wrong way when the water came.

Which animal attacks the runners in Alice in Borderland's tunnel game, Distance?

A panther kills one of the runners; the effects team built it digitally after visiting zoos to study how a big cat's coat and body move.

Who plays the sly, quiet Chishiya in Netflix's Alice in Borderland?

Nijiro Murakami plays Chishiya, the detached loner who ends season 2 by shielding Usagi from a bullet with his own body.

What was Hikari Kuina's job before the Borderland?

Clothing shop clerk Kuina turns out to be a formidable fighter, and a flashback reveals she is transgender and was disowned by her father.

What was Rizuna Ann's profession before the Borderland?

Forensic scientist Ann worked for the Tokyo police, so while the Beach tears itself apart in the Witch Hunt she is quietly checking for fingerprints.

In Alice in Borderland, what kind of place is the Beach, where dozens of players live together?

A resort hotel: the Hatter founded the Beach with his best friend Aguni as a utopia where players could find safety between games.

What is the Hatter's goal for everyone living at the Beach?

Collect all the playing cards: the Hatter preaches that a complete deck will let someone leave, and when Arisu arrives only the Ten of Hearts is missing.

What is the violent Beach faction led by Aguni called?

The Militants answer to Aguni and hold all of the Beach's guns, which is how they seize control the moment the Hatter turns up dead.

Which face card does Mira Kano turn out to be in Alice in Borderland?

Queen of Hearts Mira spends season 1 posing as an ordinary Beach executive, then appears on screens across the city to announce the face-card games.

Keiichi Kuzuryu, a former lawyer, turns out to be which face card?

King of Diamonds Kuzuryu sat among the Beach's executives all through season 1 before facing Chishiya across his own game table in season 2.

Who plays Kyuma, the band frontman and King of Clubs, in Alice in Borderland?

Tomohisa Yamashita's Kyuma fronts a band whose members became his teammates, and he meets his opponents wearing nothing at all.

In Alice in Borderland, what is the King of Clubs' game of points and shipping containers called?

Osmosis ends with Arisu's team ahead only because Tatta wrecks his own hand to pull off his bracelet and pass his points on, an injury that kills him.

What was the King of Spades, Isao Shirabi, before the Borderland?

A mercenary by trade, Shirabi hunts players across the whole city until an explosive trap and Aguni's gunfire finally bring him down.

The archer Heiya lost part of her leg in which Alice in Borderland game?

Seven of Spades was Boiling Death, a stadium game that only Heiya survived; she fights on with a running blade where her lower leg was.

What is Karube's job in Netflix's Alice in Borderland?

Bartender Karube had bought a ring for a colleague who was also his boss's lover, and was fired just before the city emptied.

In which Alice in Borderland game does Chota badly burn his leg?

Dead or Alive is the trio's first game, a timed race through rooms where one door leads on and the other to certain death; all three get out, but Chota is badly burned.

Who plays the Watchman, the intermediator who oversees the Borderland, in season 3?

Ken Watanabe appears only in the last episode, as an old gentleman guarding the space between life and death who makes Arisu choose between them.

In season 3, which death-obsessed professor persuades Usagi to return to the Borderland with him?

Ryuji Matsuyama, played by Kento Kaku, lures her back under a deal with Banda, then cannot bring himself to shoot her in the final game.

By season 3 of Alice in Borderland, what is the once-jobless Arisu training to become?

Therapist: by season 3 Arisu is interning at a counselling centre and expecting to be hired, a long way from the jobless gamer of episode one.

What is Arisu in the original Alice in Borderland manga, rather than the Netflix show's jobless adult?

A high school student in his final year, like his friend Chota; the Netflix series made the trio adults who have been friends since their school days.

Which two-volume sequel manga was launched in 2020 to celebrate the Netflix adaptation of Alice in Borderland?

Alice in Borderland Retry exists because of the show: its creator had meant to stop drawing manga altogether, then returned to celebrate the adaptation.

Which martial art does Kuina use in Alice in Borderland, having learned to fight at her father's dojo?

Karate is what Kuina's father drilled into her as a child, and she uses it to beat the sword-wielding Last Boss during the Witch Hunt.

In Alice in Borderland's season 3 infection game, what has Arisu secretly been from the start?

One of the zombies: in Zombie Hunt Arisu quietly infects his own allies, so the zombie side ends as the majority and wins.

Which other manga written by Alice in Borderland's creator did Netflix also adapt in live action?

Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead follows an office worker so worn down by his job that a zombie outbreak feels like freedom; the Netflix film arrived in 2023.

In Alice in Borderland's Balance Scale game, what fills the scales hanging over the players' heads?

Sulphuric acid collects in a scale above each seat as that player's points fall, and at minus ten it tips over them.

Which card is the first game Arisu and his friends face in the Alice in Borderland manga?

Three of Clubs in the manga is a festival game of fortune slips where wrong answers bring flaming arrows; the show saved that game for season 3.

Which major character from the Alice in Borderland manga never appears in the Netflix series?

Hayato Dodo is a middle-schooler who teams up with Aguni and Heiya in the manga; the show gives his part in the hunt for the King of Spades to Arisu.

In Alice in Borderland's prison game, what must each player work out every round to avoid execution?

The suit on their collar sits at the back of the neck where they cannot see it, so each prisoner must trust what others tell them, and one of them is the Jack of Hearts.

In Alice in Borderland, what are surviving players offered once every face card is beaten?

Permanent residency in the Borderland is the offer, and it explains the face cards: they were earlier winners who said yes and stayed to run the games.

Which publisher licensed the Alice in Borderland manga for English release in 2021?

Viz Media picked the series up only after the Netflix show had aired, and sells its nine two-in-one volumes on the strength of the hit drama.

In which Alice in Borderland game do Karube and Chota give their lives so that Arisu survives?

Seven of Hearts lets only one of its four players live, so Karube and Chota keep out of Arisu's sight until the clock runs out rather than take his place.