I really enjoyed this volume and this series as a whole. Emotionally gripping and full of incredible horror. Great for fans of Squid Game and the Saw franchise.

Haro Aso's work never dissapoints and Alice in Boderland is no exception. The series does a great job of establishing high stakes for the main cast, making it a gripping read from start to finish. I'd highly recommend this series to anyone that loves thriller or survival stories.

"Mystery, action, and high-stakes survival—Alice in Borderland, Volume 1 is bold enough to pull you in and has enough layers to keep you thinking about it even after the last body has hit the floor."

I thought this was a ripoff of Squid Game until I realized it was created a decade earlier. Three teenage boys make a wish for a more interesting life and get transported to an alternate version of Japan, where everything is falling apart and you must play deadly games hosted by some unseen force in order to extend your visa for life. By the time I got to the game of tag where the person who was chasing everyone wore a creepy horse mask and carried a semi-automatic, I was sold. Bloody and tense and more than a little bit crazy.

Loved the premise-the death game genre is darkly entertaining. No complaints on the illustrations. The pacing in between the games was a bit sluggish, but necessary for character development.

For Libraries: adult graphic collections

i just read the last panel of this manga, and my heart is still pounding.

last autumn, riding on the coattails of squid game, i watched the live netflix adaptation of alice in borderland on a whim - and was wholly riveted. when i saw that the english translation of the manga was available on netgalley, i immediately knew that i wanted to read it.

ryohei arisu is a listless high schooler in tokyo who "whimper[s] through life" without motivation or enjoyment or passion. the only bright spots in his life are his friendships with daikichi karube, a high school dropout who works at a bar and regularly gets into fistfights, and chota segawa, a classmate who is girl-obsessed and perpetually, excessively cheerful (or tearful). on the day that arisu wishes he could be anywhere but in his own life, where he is constantly compared - and found lesser - to his younger brother, the three friends witness strange fireworks in the sky. catching a glimpse of this strange phenomenon is all it takes to send arisu, karube, and chota careening into a world that resembles their own - but is eerily, dangerously, violently, different.

welcome to the borderland, where your lives are forfeit.

“In order to survive, we have to risk our lives in the games. A real catch-22.”

like with the show, i couldn't look away. alice in borderland, vol. 1 is a thrilling ride - a story of people trying to survive and make sense of horrific, senseless brutality and enigmatic, surreal circumstances. to live another day, arisu and his friends must be clever and quick and alive in a way they never were before the borderland.

i felt that arisu and his friends' ennui is better captured in the manga versus the tv show, because there's more space to flesh out the characters’ feelings prior to diving into the explosive alternate tokyo. the only part of the tv show that i preferred to this source material is chota's characterization - he's kind of a perv in the manga but more endearingly awkward and soft in the show?? LOL.

all of this to say: i can't wait to read the next installment, where we get to see more of usagi and the stakes will be ramped up ever higher!



many thanks to netgalley and viz media for this e-galley in exchange for an honest review.

ARC From Netgalley.
Hearing that this story is "good" is a complete understatement. This is AMAZING!
Ryohei Arisu and his friends Karube and Chota are kind of the "waste" of society. Slacking, goofing off, doing horrible in school... they are good friends and good people, but not "worth" much to the world around them. One night, while out roaming, they see a huge display of fireworks and are sucked into a world that at first seems carefree and then becomes more like a nightmare. Meeting Shibuki, a woman who has already entered Borderland, they learn that they must play dangerous games in order to survive. When they barely survive the first game, involving fortunes and flaming arrows, they know that this place will require them to be better than they ever were in life, or they will die.
And the second game is TAG. And the person who is IT, is a serial killer with a horse head and a submachine gun....

Finally being released in America, I have a feeling this will become very popular. Very much looking forward to reading Volume 2.
High recommend. Jump on this manga series now.

4.5/5 Stars!

Alice in Borderland opens with the mention of "peter pan syndrome" or "8th graders syndrome," and our protagonist Arisu who fits part of the definition: wanting to escape his current reality. To him, anywhere other than his everyday life filled with anxieties about the future and being the shadow of his over-achieving younger brother. His two friends are similar, as you find out they have their own reasons for wanting to imagine being somewhere different. Arisu mentions even taking a world filled with zombies or a virus over normalcy.

Well, the boys do get their wish after an odd firework-shaped explosion knocks them out, and they wake up to a world that looks very much like their own, except covered in dust and overgrown weeds. What originally seems like a paradise with no parents, school, or expectations quickly comes crashing down once they accidentally stumble into an arena. It turns out this world is called the "Borderland," and everyone has to continue to compete in life-or-death strategy games in order to earn more days on their "visas" in order to survive. Running out of days results in the person's head being exploded by a laser from the sky.

In his panic, Arisu realizes that the one thing his old world provided him was safety--something he will lack from now on. Although he desperately wants to return, his instincts kick in and allow him to think clearly in the most high stakes situations. In a twisted way, his friend is right about him being the one who would survive everything in an apocalypse. Protagonists who can skillfully use everything at their disposal, and allies with their own varied areas of expertise, are what make strategy games interesting. The only character I actually disliked so far was Arisu's friend Chouta. His annoying, perverted antics/jokes are what made me drop this volume from 5 stars to 4.5.

Overall, this is a good opening volume with well-stated rules for the games, an interesting premise, a great friendship between Arisu and Karube, and some really great two-page spreads. There's an intriguing setup for volume two and its newer side characters such as Chishiya and Usagi. The expressions and atmosphere are also well-done. My favorite page has to be the spread where Arisu and co. are entering the Borderland, which is filled with funky, psychedelic imagery.

I've already put in an order for physical copies of volume one and two. I'm excited for others to read this series for the first time.

I’ve been curious about the manga ever since I watched the live action adaptation and interestingly there’s enough differences, some more substantial than the other, that even if you’ve watched the show you still don’t entirely know what’s going to happen so there’s still a level of suspense and tension to it. The art style is more realistic as is to be expected in this kind of genre and it’s got a couple of gruesome bits to it. The first volume is mostly focused on introducing the Borderlands and how it works as they play their first game and get to grips with everything, the way everything works is revealed slow enough to keep providing shocking revelations but not so slow that it’s dragged out. There’s a decent amount of background story to the characters that doesn’t negate from the overall pace and tension of the main plot.

Overall a solid first volume with a thread of intrigue at the end to keep you curious about the next one.

This was such a great read! I'm a big fan of thrillers, especially involving survival games, so this was right up my alley. I love the direction this story seems to be going in, and I will definitely be checking out the next volume!

An epic thrill ride bordering psychological horror, that’s Alice in Borderland. From the creative mind of Haro Aso comes a tale we all know well with a twist, some gloom, and a boom. This rabbit hole leads to a whole different experience for the protagonist. This is not some magical world with friendly creatures and friends laughing and singing. At, first glance this might seem slow but when the momentum picks up there is no stopping this train. Arisu will be leaving high school soon and the burden of what he will do with his future lies squarely on his shoulders, although he tries to forget about it. One night while he is with his friends Karube and Chota they see fireworks. After an exceptionally bright one, they wake up in an alternate reality/different world. What at first seems like paradise for the trio quickly turns into a wildly violent reality/world where the unfortunate people trapped there are forced to play violent games to survive. Catch, you get a visa after every successful game that prolongs the days you can spend there. If you do not play and your days run out you die. My final thoughts on Alice in Borderland, Volume 1 is that I am thankful. I am thankful Viz picked it up for English translation. This is an exceptional manga, a must-read. There are so many elements to this amazing story that I could possibly go and write a book about it, and it is only volume 1. This might feel sluggish at the start but when the wheels start turning this is a front-of-your-seat nail-biting masterclass. An absolute must.

I found this title too close to other survival game horror books, and ended up not finishing because it was wasn't holding my attention. The way the main female character was drawn was poorly done, and was clearly meant for a specific audience.

This was a very good start to an interesting series. The plotting moves along quickly and leaves readers looking for the next volume in the series. This is a series to give to people who enjoyed Squid Games (or who have actually watched Alice in Borderland) on Netflix. Although it is a great series for anyone looking for action, horror, science fiction, mystery, and good character development.

This is a solid title for fans of Battle Royale or Squid Game, if a little unimaginative. It didn't feel especially unique or stand-out in this genre but will satisfy people who are looking for more of a familiar story. I was a bit unsure about the main character, but once he got into his element when the games started, he really endeared himself to me. My main gripe is with the title, which suggests that it's going to have more of a thematic tie-in to Alice in Wonderland. There's only a small nod to the story at the end of the volume, which makes the title feel unearned. While this may not be my top-of-list reco, it's certainly a good one to have in your back pocket for specific readers.

I absolutely loved the Netflix TV show so I was excited to see the manga volume up on NetGalley. The storyline, characters, and manga art are incredible and I cannot wait to read the rest of the series.

I have been absolutely obsessed with getting my hands on anything related to Alice in Borderland since watching the Netflix show. Not going to lie I watch this show before Squid Game and still think it is top tier over Squid Game! I will say the art style and this took a tad bit to get used to but the story was awesome and I will be continuing to read this while waiting for Season 2 of the show!

Alice in Borderland Volume One is a two-in-one omnibus edition that combines the first two volumes of the manga together into one volume.

Alice in Borderland Volume One
Written by: Haro Aso
Publisher: Shogakukan
English Publisher: VIZ Media
Release Date: March 15, 2022

At the beginning of the story, the reader is introduced to Ryohei Arisu, an 18-year-old high school student who doesn’t care about school, is a slacker, and has no idea of what he’s going to do in his future. A lot of his antipathy is derived from the fact that his younger brother gets perfect grades and is favored by their parents. However, as we see later in the volume, Ryohei actually has good reasoning and deduction skills. His friend, Chota Segawa, is also a slacker, but is obviously dumber than Ryohei. Chota grew up in a family that was in debt and constantly hanging their heads down in front of others. Growing up in that kind of environment has shaped Chota’s personality. They have a mutual friend named Daikichi Karube, who was a middle school dropout and is now running a bar. In a flashback in this volume, it’s revealed that Daikichi came from a rough home life. In a lot of ways, it makes sense that these three characters who comes from these kinds of backgrounds would find each other and become friends.

One day, Ryohei, Chota, and Daikichi get together. Ryohei declares that he wishes something major would happen, like an earthquake or a virus that turns its victims into zombies, because he believes he’d be more cut out for a world like that. The three of them see some unusual fireworks, and they find themselves in a place that kind of looks like where they came from, but there’s more of a post-apocalyptic look to it. As they explore, they find a woman named Saori Shibuki and discover they are in a world where you survive by winning various games. When they find out, though, they’re already trapped in their first survival game. It’s during this first game where the reader learns about Ryohei’s reasoning and deduction skills, as well as getting to see how these skills help get him through the first two games that he participates in.

After managing to make it through the first game (although Chota is injured), Saori reveals what she knows about this world from what she had picked up from other players. They are in a world known as “Borderland,” and those who are brought here are granted a visa when they win their first game. Depending on the number on the playing card, that’s how many days they are granted on the visa. With each game they are able to win, more days are added to the visa depending on the number on the card. Later in the volume, another player explains that the suit of the playing card determines what kind of game they will be presented with.

Daikichi decides that they need to participate in another game rather quickly, otherwise they’ll become complacent and lose touch with the instincts they used during the first game when they thought their lives were in danger. For the second game, only Ryohei and Daikichi participate because Chota is injured and Saori decides to stay with him.

The second game is a game of “tag,” where a player who is determined to be “it” is wandering around an apartment complex. The participants have 30 minutes to locate the apartment with an unlocked front door and successfully touch the base. During this game, Ryohei and the reader are introduced to a character named Yuzuha Usagi, who ends up being an important part of winning the second game. Most of the second half of this volume focuses on the second game, and it allows the reader to get to know Ryohei and Daikichi a little bit better. Obviously, the reader knows that Ryohei has to somehow succeed in the game, since he’s the main character of the series. However, what keeps the reader interested in what’s going on is finding out how exactly Ryohei will be able to make it through to the end of the game. It appears at this point that the moral of this series is: “Be careful what you wish for.”

If you can’t guess from the description, Alice in Borderland is a series that pits a group of characters together into a kind of “survival game,” and that no one knows who is behind these games. The big difference here is that there isn’t an object like a phone involved, that allows whoever is behind the game to communicate with the players. Here, they seem to use intercoms or something to communicate information about the games. I’ll be the first to admit that these types of stories aren’t generally ones I go out of my way to read. However, after reading this first volume of Alice in Borderland, I got the feeling that there’s going to be some kind of potential for this series to make itself stand out from similar manga titles. I hope to have the opportunity in the future to read more of Alice in Borderland to find out whether or not my feeling on this is right.

The author of Alice in Borderland is also the author of Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead. Knowing this, it makes Ryohei’s line about a virus that turns its victims into zombies even more amusing, since that’s the basic premise of Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead. Even though I can see some minor stylistic similarities in the art between the two series, Alice in Borderland still has its own distinct style. If you didn’t know that the two series were by the same mangaka, you might not pick up on those minor stylistic similarities. Also, the tone of the storytelling is a little different between the two series. While Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead tends to be more light-hearted in tone with hints of drama, Alice in Borderland seems to be a little more serious in nature with some light-hearted moments.

So far, Alice in Borderland seems to be off to a good start. This series should appeal to manga readers who enjoy survival game stories and by readers who are already familiar with other works by Haro Aso.

I requested this book because a co-worker mentioned that it was similar to Squid Game. The comparison is spot on and I really liked this manga.
Ryohei is struggling. He hates school, has no love life, and is terrified of the future. When a strange event causes him and his friends to appear in a strange place where he has to play games to stay alive.
This is a great start to the series. It set up the conflict for the rest of the series and introduced enough characters and their backstories to keep me interested in the ongoing story.

Finally, we're getting Alice in Borderland with a proper translation and treatment. I'm so happy to finally be able to read this, and I look forward to the rest of the series getting localized!

I first learned about Alice in Borderland from the Netflix original series. Pulled in by the death game premise and the way the series dealt with relationships, I was excited to see the manga officially released in English—even more so when I realized the mangaka behind my favorite seinen title Zom 100 Bucketlist of the Dead is also the mangaka who created this story. Created, written, and illustrated by Haro Aso, Alice In Borderland Volume 1 is published and localized in English by VIZ Media through its VIZ Signature imprint. The English translation and adaptation comes from Jonah Mayahara-Miller and features touch-up art and lettering by Joanna Estep.

Originally released in 2011 by Shogakukan, the Alice In Borderland manga isn’t exactly what the Netflix series brought to audiences. In Volume 1, readers are introduced to 18-year-old Ryohei Arisu who is sick of his life. School sucks, his love life is a joke, and his future feels like impending doom left in his kid brother’s shadow. His friends Chota and Karube are no different. With what feels like a world closing in on him as he approaches adulthood, he wants desperately for a zombie apocalypse or some other natural world-ending disaster to hit Japan. Then, maybe he can have a chance at life. But wishes are dangerous, and when a strange fireworks show transports him and his friends to a parallel world Ryohei realizes the danger that comes with going down the rabbit hole.

A city that nature has started reclaiming, empty streets, and games await. What starts off as something interesting and exciting to the trio, quickly becomes dangerous. The first game starts with a bang, but Ryohei manages to beat the clock and save his friends. It’s a short-lived victory, however, as they discover that winning only earns them a few days’ grace period. With a pace that fits the dire circumstances, the death game the friends find themselves in becomes even more dangerous as the cards are dealt.

If you’re coming into the manga after watching the series like me, this massive volume with 344 pages offers up the first two challenges we see in the series—only very different (well, at least the first one). The ages of the characters in the manga are younger, making Arisu a very different character than what the television series showed us. He’s even more insecure and worried, but that works by the volume’s end when we see him figure out the games. Additionally, the entire first game is different than that in the show, though some events are the same within it.

Why am I mentioning this? Well, I’m mentioning it because even though you may know all the twists of Alice In Borderland, opening up the manga that started it all gives you more story, different games, and characters with slightly different motives. While I was worried that the shocks that the series delivered on Netflix would spoil reading the manga, that didn’t happen. Instead, it built up a tension that only grew as the story revealed all the liberties taken in the adaptation.

Now, Aso’s story is what keeps me set on returning to Alice In Borderland, but their art is what seals the deal. While some hyper-stylized characters like Chota are hard to like design-wise, the games, the violence, and the danger are all expertly illustrated. Each moment of dreams it brought to life with the illustration, and the horse-masked tag-game and barrage of bullets feel even tenser and fear-inducing than I thought it could be.

Overall, Alive In Borderland Volume 1 is amazing. It’s a thick volume that does a lot of work by showcasing two games. But every bit of it leaves me craving more. Death games are great, but they’re only as good as the characters playing them. Haro Aso’s characters, particularly Arisu, are all the reason you’ll need to stay with the series.