Alice In Borderland Season 2 First Look Images: The Game Is On

"Squid Game" was a global phenomenon when it premiered on Netflix last year and quickly took the world by storm. But while everyone became obsessed with its deathly competition, it is far from the first TV show or movie to play with that premise.

Another similar show about a group of people playing death games is the vastly underrated "Alice in Borderland," a Japanese TV show based on a popular manga of the same name by Haro Aso. This show takes more of a sci-fi approach to its death games, as it follows a group of people somehow transported to a completely deserted Tokyo where they are forced to compete in randomized deadly games, all with the promise of eventually collecting enough reward cards from winning the games to earn their freedom. Now, Netflix has released the first images of the show to remind us of how much the characters will continue to suffer.

"Alice in Borderland" has more in common with "Battle Royale" than something like "Squid Game" in how anime it feels. From its extreme violence, to its cartoony game logic, to over-the-top characters with wild hairstyles. There are no children's games here, but instead, games where contestants have to find a room with a button that stops a bomb from exploding while also evading trained killers, run from a panther, and more wicked games.

Where last we left our gamers, they had found what they believed to be a safe zone, until it became a game arena and everyone started killing each other. We also discovered there were players who are actually double agents sabotaging the game. There is still a lot we do not know about the game, from how its vacant metropolis works, to what exactly the point of it all is — unlike "Squid Game," these are not desperate people who would sign up for this. The new images indicate that the future is not so bright for the gamers.

Netflix

Of course, the fun of the show is seeing what kind of depraved, twisted game they'll come up with next, and who the next person to be betrayed is. Even if it never quite reached the level of viral popularity of "Squid Game," the sheer cartoony fun and excitement of "Alice in Borderland" should make this a priority for fans of the Korean sensation, and also "Battle Royale" style games to the death, or simply Japanese guys with sleek white hair and shiny katanas.

We don't know when "Alice in Borderland" is coming back, but the new images hopefully mean we'll hear more soon.