Netflix announced on Thursday that production on a third live-action season based on Haro Aso‘s Alice in Borderland (Imawa no Kuni no Alice) manga has been green-lit. Lead cast members Kento Yamazaki (live-action Kingdom, Orange, Hyouka, Your Lie in April) and Tao Tsuchiya (Sing a Bit of Harmony, live-action Orange, Rurouni Kenshin), as well as director Shinsuke Satō (live-action Bleach, Kingdom films; Oblivion Island anime film), are all returning.
© 麻生羽呂・小学館/ROBOT
The art accompanying the new season’s announcement features a joker playing card. Satō teased that “a new journey, one that absolutely no one knows, begins.” He also teased the mysterious identity of the season’s antagonist.
Netflix‘s Kazutaka Sakamoto (Hero Mask, live-action Yū Yū Hakusho) is serving as executive producer of the new season, and Akira Morii and Daiju Takase are the producers. Robot is planning and producing the season in collaboration with The Seven.
The manga centers on Ryōhei Arisu (pronounced the same as “Alice” in Japanese), a male high school student who is irritated with his intolerable everyday life. One night, he tags along with his bad friends Karube and Chōta to hang out in town. However, the town is suddenly covered in giant fireworks. When he comes to his senses, Ryōhei notices that no one else is around. Finding themselves in a different world, Ryōhei, Karube, and Chōta are forced to participate in survival games or die right off the bat. The three fight to live, as well as to find a way back to their own world.
The first season debuted on Netflix in December 2020. It was the most viewed live-action series in Japan in 2020, and it ranked in Netflix‘s top 10 in 40 countries and territories worldwide.
The second season premiered on Netflix worldwide on December 22, 2022. New cast members included Yuri Tsunematsu as the high school student Heiya, Tomohisa Yamashita as “King of Clubs” Kyūma, Hayato Isomura as Banda, Kai Inowaki as Matsushita, Katsuya Maiguma as Yaba, and Honami Satō as Kotoko.
Netflix describes the story of the second season:
Arisu and Usagi must unravel the mysteries of the Borderland in order to return to their world.
Shifting from the shocking setting of an empty Shibuya in the first season, this season is set in a devastated Shibuya covered in plants. Don’t miss a second of this survival game packed with intense action and a thrilling story!
Aso began serializing the manga in Shogakukan‘s Weekly Shonen Sunday S (formerly Shōnen Sunday Chō) magazine in 2010. The series transferred to Weekly Shonen Sunday as it entered its final story arc in March 2015. The manga ended in March 2016, and Shogakukan published 18 compiled book volumes. The manga’s 12th, 13th, and 14th volumes shipped with original video anime (OVA) episodes. HIDIVE has streamed the OVAs.
A spinoff manga series titled Alice in Borderland: Chi no Kyokuchi – Daiya no King-hen ran from October 2014 to February 2015 in Weekly Shonen Sunday. Aso also launched a separate spinoff series titled Imawa no Michi no Alice in Shogakukan‘s Monthly Sunday GX magazine in August 2015, with art by Takayoshi Kuroda. The manga ended in February 2018, and Shogakukan published eight volumes for the series.
Aso launched a new spinoff manga series titled Imawa no Kuni no Alice Retry (Alice in Borderland Retry) in Shogakukan‘s Weekly Shonen Sunday magazine in October 2020, and ended it in January 2021.
Viz Media is releasing the original manga in English.
Source: Comic Natalie
