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Alice in Borderlands- Episode 3 Review below

Usagi^^

I just got finished watching episode 4 of Alice in Borderlands, and I was not very happy coming off the previous episode. This was because a lot of the emotional beats and plot points fell flat and the game was rather lackluster. That being said, go watch the episode and or show if you have not seen it already as there will be spoilers past this point for episode three and four. We start the episode with Yuzuha Usagi, a mountain climber introduced in episode two, walking this new world alone. Due to the silence in the background, you get the impression she is used to being alone and thrives in the environment. While walking, Usagi finds Arisu lying in the street after watching all of his friends die from the previous episode. After seeing him in such a state, she is reminded of her past when her father, the only person in her life, committed suicide, and how she reacted after learning of his death. Going against her isolated ways, she decides to save Arisu so he can find the courage to live on like his friends wanted him to. Later in the episode Arisu and Usagi travel to a bus under an overpass. We are then introduced to the game of this episode titled “Distance” as well as the other people taking part in this game. In this game, the contestants are given a phone with a timer of two hours and a place displaying the distance traveled; implying that they must run a certain distance to survive. This causes a problem for one of the other contestants because he has a sprained ankle, and can't really walk. He decides to sit on the bus and accept his fate. The other characters start running and along the way they find a motorcycle with gas still in the engine. After a horrible exchange of dialogue, Arisu decides to run all the way back with the motorcycle, and save the injured person by using the gas to drive the bus to safety. As Arisu is running back, the others reach the end of the tunnel and decide to wait for Arisu to return. Not too long after they get there, they hear the wall behind them start to make noises. They then run as fast as they can, and water starts to gush through the wall behind them. While they are running, Arisu is driving the bus back to the others, but now he knows the secret of the game. In the chaos the two people with Usagi are killed by a massive wave of water. As the water is about to engulf Usagi, Arisu catches up to her and pulls her into the bus. Once the water hits the bus the load score suddenly goes silent leaving the question in the viewers mind “did one of the characters just die?”. After it's all over, the camera zooms out to show that the bus was the goal all along and the distance traveled was how far you were from the goal. At the very end of the episode Arisu and Usagi ride a bike into the distance while string music plays in the background. This music gives hopes to the watchers that the characters will find a way to live through all of these games.

    OK, I'm gonna get this out of the way. The biggest problem I had that kept taking me out of the show was how tired Usagi was while running. This is because we are shown in her routine from the beginning that she runs every day. However, she is struggling to run even half a mile at a ten minute pace. Now my nitpicking is over, let's talk about the game itself as it was the weakest one so far. First, how did the characters miss the giant graffiti words goal on both sides of the bus? The characters are going to be taking in everything in their surroundings as they walk up to the bus as they know it is a life and death game. The second problem started when they found the motorcycle. It raised a lot of questions like “Why didn't they check all the other cars before this one”, “Why do the characters know so much about this model of bike but nothing about other cars”, and “How does he plan on moving the gas from the bike to the bus”. That's just the start of them, but either way this is the point that took me out of the show and started asking questions other than this instance. Then the final I had with this episode was the score was really forgettable. Don't get me wrong, the show itself does not have masterful score in general, but it has aspects to it that make it stand out at times. In all, this episode wasn’t very good, but it hasn’t completely ruined the show for me, and I am excited to see where it leads to next.

Since the videos in my last post were taken down the times are given below for when they happened during the episode.

Clip 1: 0:40-1:50

Clip 2: 38:40 - 39:10

Clip 3: 43:20 - 44:00

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Alice in Borderlands- Episode 3 Review below

(Pictured above- Chota, Arisu, and Karube in order from left to right)

(Second Picture - Shibuki)

Episode three of Alice in Borderlands is the big turning point in the series. Without spoiling too much, I can honestly say it was a bold move on the writers part. This review will have major spoilers in it, so if you had any interest in watching this, I would avoid this review.

That being said, everyone dies in the third episode. Like, everyone but our main character. How can they do that? I’ll explain… The episode starts off with the group discussing when they’re going to complete the next challenge, as Chota and Shibuki are reaching the end of their visas. They decide to go out the next day, the last day of the visas. Leading up to the game, we are shown how Shibuki slept with her boss to get promoted, so she doesn't want to die because that would mean that her actions were meaningless. After this scene, Karube is shown returning to his old bar to retrieve the ring he was going to use to propose to his old coworker.

Almost missing the check in because Karube was late, they arrived at a terrarium. Inside,they are told to put on goggles attached to a neck brace. A recording then informs the group that they are playing a form of hide and seek where a wolf hunts while the sheep hide. However, they find out that only the wolf will survive, so it is the wolf that must run and hide. In the confusion, Shibuki runs away in hopes to survive until the end. This causes different reactions amongst the other members of the group. Karube chases after her so he can either get the title of “wolf” and then run or kill her, whichever is easier. Then Arisu runs, trying to figure out how everyone can survive this situation. This leaves Chota to break down out of fear.

After receiving the title of Wolf from a battle with Shibuki, Arisu runs in hopes that some of the tools provided can remove the goggles so everyone can live. While this is happening, Karube is hunting him down to kill him until they start to discuss past memories with each other. This brings Karube back to a calm state and everyone decides that Arisu should be the survivor. They then go quiet to protect their life long friend. While Arisu is trying to find someone, the words of sheep hiding from the beginning are cut in between the scenes to give them new meaning. In the last seconds of the trial, Arisu finds Karube with his last words he says “thank you”. He then dies in front of Arisu’s eyes, the collar shooting a laser that ends him in a brutal fashion.

In all, I really enjoyed this episode; if anything, I would say this is my favorite episode of the series. It had it’s problems, i.e. trying to put a bunch of character development in one episode, but the gut punch at the end made up for it. Like Arisu, I found myself trying to find a way to save everyone, but when it came down to it, there was no answer that saved them, and that hurt.

At the end of the episode, the music ended right when the countdown ended leaving nothing but the sound effects of the garden around the main character; allowing the audience to comprehend what they just witnessed. The last shot of the scene was of the ring, reminding the audience that his love for his friend and desire for him to live was stronger than his ambition to marry the person he loved. This acted as a small story arc for the character as it started with him wanting to retrieve the ring even though his friends were running out of time. This action of selfishness was a form of foreshadowing to the barbaric nature he showed while he was fearing for his life over his friends during the game. However, Karube learned to let go and let his best friend live instead of him. (First link).

On a lighter note, I also liked the scene before the trial started when Karube was in the bar he used to work at retrieving the ring. With the light shining in and the flute in the background, it gives the audience hope that he can actually give it to the woman after all this confusion is over. Going back to the end, I loved the way the sound directors used violins in the score as Arisu searched for anyone to save and the text was flashing. The strings seemed to give more weight to the scene and helped the audience in the mood of sadness, and also the challenge of finding someone he could save. After the silence, the end credits kick in loud and proud. This almost reminds the audience that despite the sacrifice of his friends he must continue to participate in these cruel games. (Second link).

( Karube in the bar) https://youtu.be/ZTMLoJee1ak

(Arisu running and the death of Karube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVKSOWR2xj8

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Alice in Borderland Episode 1 Review

Over the pandemic, I have started to watch series on how to survive a variety shows and movies. One I watched titled Alice in Borderlands caught my eye because it reminded me of one of my series, Saw. This series is a live action Netflix adaptation of the manga with the same name. The show begins with one of the lead characters, Arisu, we are able to understand a lot about his character without much dialog; he’s a creative gamer as well as a burden to his family.From a forced dialogue exchange, we learn that he acts this way because he is still grieving over his dead mother. His only escape from his trauma is the connection he has with his friends Karube and Chota. The group meet up outside the bustling Shibuya station. 

    Through flashbacks, we see that all the characters had a rough day. To let go of some of their frustration they decided to mess around in an intervention; in return causes the authorities. Still enjoying themselves they all hid in the restroom stall. While hiding, the power of the restroom goes out and their phones die. Questioning what may have happened, they leave the bathroom only to see that the once bustling street is now empty. In the distance, they see a building shining in the darkness. Once there, the group finds phones indicating that they are about to participate in a game, and a countdown begins. While the group waits, two strangers join; one who is new to these games and one that is new like the group of friends. The game consenes, and they need to choose to walk through one that says life and another that says death. A timer for two minutes starts on their phones, and Chota begins to record in the room on his phone thinking it was a form of escape room. The stranger with experience in this game convinces the other stranger to open the door title “life”, and she is shot in the head with a laser; killing her if you didn't infer that. The group runs into the other door as the timer reaches zero and flames shoot out of the floor in the previous room. In the next room, Arisu shows his creativity by creating a map of the building based off of his memory. They use this map until the last room. Based on the map, one door, “Death” leads outside to nowhere and the other,”life” leads to the room where the stranger died. Running out of time Arisu remembers the recording Chota of the room and notices there is no door in the recording. In the last second they rush into the “life” door, but Chota receives major burns on his leg. Walking out of the building, they receive a message on their phones indicating they have a pass for three days where they do not have to pay another game. At the same time this happens, a random individual appears yelling that he is about to run out of time, but he does not care because he is done playing these games set up by someone or a group of people presumably for their own enjoyment. He then is shot by a laser indicating that the group of friends are not safe even outside of the games. The final shot of the episode is of all the lasers killing people all round the city.

Within the first episode many of the dialogue scenes felt forced and cliche. An example of this is the very first scene in the episode. Arisu’s brother barges in, badgering Arisu about missing a job interview, showing the protagonist does not get along with his family, and that their mom died without any justification to bring it up. I know people may disagree with that statement, but one of my biggest pet pieces in film is when a character yells “You’re only like this because Mom died” or another form of that statement. Towards the end of the episode, my suspension of disbelief was shattered because the second the characters learned about having a countdown until their next game coincidentally, a random individual turns the corner yelling about the timer and then dies. I felt that this scene could have held off towards a different episode and give the audience time to breathe after the high stakes that just took place. There were a few more scenes like these stated, but I feel they were not large enough grievances to discredit the entire show. 

An aspect of the show I enjoyed was that of the music. The first scene I noticed the music was when the friends were playing the intersection. A violin can be heard amongst the busy intersection indicating growing louder and louder until it is all the audience can hear besides the characters only to be cut short as a car horn bring the characters and audience back to the world; showing that the characters won't let their previous experiences of they day engulf them in sorrow for the rest of the day. Another scene is right after this. Once the power goes out everything but the characters goes silent. The director used this silence to help build suspense to what has happened. This decision works better than if there was a piano or soft instrument playing as the transition is jarring and will catch the attention of the viewer. The final scene I want to talk about is when the timer starts for the death game. Like in many media, drums are used to create a sense of urgency in the audience, but unlike the others, the drums sound like a distorted clock ticking. A large portion of fear delves from objects or sounds resembling something similar, but changing it enough so it can not be recognized easily. The sound director uses this idea to craft a beautiful scene that grants unease to the audience.