Manga Review: Imawa No Kuni No Alice (Alice In Borderlands)

Title: Imawa No Kuni No Alice (Alice in Borderlands) 
Author: Haro Aso 
Volumes: 18
Chapters: 87
Status: Completed 
Tags: Action, Shonen, Horror 

Summary:

"To be released from the dull routine, escapism, 8th grade disease, peter pan syndrome, it doesn't matter what you call it...It doesn't mater where. Have you ever wanted to go somewhere else? An unknown place" 

And so begins the story of Arisu Ryouhei who, while hanging out with his friends Chota and Karube, notices a flash of light that transports him into the "borderlands." A barren land whose citizens are forced into life or death games based on strength, brains and just a pinch of luck. 

Wdebo's Review: As I have noted numerous times before on this blog I am a sucker for the a good horror story so when I saw the Alice in Borderlands Netflix series I voraciously engulfed it in a few days. Unfortunately, the series ended on a large cliff ending. However, as an impatient person who noticed there was a completed manga it was based on, I knew I had to finish the manga to fill in all of the holes from the show. 

For those (like me) who were scouring the internet trying to figure out where to start in the manga after finishing the Netflix series, I would highly suggest just starting from the first chapter. There are some scenes that are shown in the show as well as many series of events, character utilization and games that are different so you would just get the best understanding of the story by starting from the very beginning. 

I love a good survival game story which we can just blame on my old Battle Royale obsession. Alice in Borderlands thoroughly fulfills that quota. It presents many games and deaths which is sometimes all you need to read after a long hard day of work. I loved the set up of every single game. There were so many loopholes and twists to guess and work out strategies for. Arisu's logic thorough every game was very interesting to see laid out and I just throughly enjoyed reading how he figures out all of the games. 

The characters are interesting as well. You really start cheering for all of them. Additionally, certain situations really surprised me when I realized how expendable some of the characters were. I definitely thought some people would not have been killed off that quickly. 

I also feel like the story helped to tie up all of its strings with a very satisfying conclusion. 

All in all, a highly enjoyable manga for those who love a good survival game story with highly colorful characters to both hate and cheer on. 

Grade: A-

Wdebo :)