Alice in Borderland - Episode 8

 

In the Season 1 finale, the show moves back and forth between the past and the present. In the opening scenes, we see Momoka (the young woman whose murder everyone was trying to solve in Episode 7) as a schoolgirl walking around an empty city. She is with her friend Asahi. They are filming themselves as they try to understand what’s going on. We then return to the present where everything is still chaotic at the hotel. After Arisu is escorted down to the lobby, he faces off against Aguni who beats him very badly. But Aguni finally admits to murdering his best friend “The Hatter” out of self-defense. The Hatter was growing increasingly violent and power-hungry. But in regard to the murder of Momoka, it is revealed that she committed suicide. So they throw her body on the flames to win the game.

After everyone stumbles out of the hotel, shocked by what has occurred, Usagi and Arisu watch the videos shot by Momoka and her friend Asahi. From the video, we learn that those two characters had a very special role in the game. They were “dealers” who helped to organize the game itself. They worked for a shadowy group of people called the Gamemasters. But in another surprising turn of events, when they finally track down these people in their underground bunker, Usagi and Arisu are shocked to see that for some reason they have all been executed. Chishiya and Kuina also find their way to the same place. Together they watch as a woman appears on a TV screen in the room to describe a new set of games. They walk out onto the empty streets and see large airships floating over the city skyline carrying huge playing cards. Then the episode ends on this dramatic note.

In this episode, I watched it with Japanese subtitles and picked up on a lot of Katakana. For example, when Asahi admitted to everyone she was a dealer she made a statement that I understood entirely: “私は　このゲームのデイーラー！”

Alice in Borderland - Episode 7

 

Episode seven is the penultimate episode of the series and in this episode the occupants of the hotel have to undertake an investigation to find out who murdered a young woman named Momoka and then burn that person alive in a fire pit which is called “The Fire of Judgement”. It’s really quite a gruesome murder, because she was stabbed to death. Also, for most of the episode her body is splayed out in the hotel lobby while everyone moves around her. While I like the show overall, sometimes it’s moments such as these which remind me of just how grisly it is.

The rules are that the players have to work together to find “the witch”. They have only two hours to do so. Aguni, the new leader, and his henchmen build the fire, but then they go crazy with bloodlust and start throwing just about everyone into the fire in order to catch the killer and get the final card. Many of the occupants of the hotel are arbitrarily and viciously murdered. While all of this is going on, Usagi finds a way to rescue Arisu from his confinement in the hotel room, Ann discovers that the Hatter was actually murdered and not really killed in a game and Kuina and Chishiya get into fights with other players. But as always, in the end, it is Arisu who figures out the identity of the real killer…..

Words/phrases that I recognized:  ここまでして: said by Chishiya to Kuina as they hide out in the security room, so that they won’t get killed |  でも、うちは：said by Kuina while taunting the person she’s about the fight

Alice in Borderland - Episode 6

 

Episode six is a very exciting episode because of the many surprises that occur. Arisu and Usagi sneak around “The Beach” complex to learn more about the place. However, they make a grisly discovery by finding a large container full of dead and rotting bodies. It is a shocking sight. Apparently, on “The Beach” traitors are killed and dumped. Fellow players Chishiya and Kuina notice Arisu’s disgust at this discovery and leverages his hatred and fear of The Beach to convince him to work with them to steal the Hatter’s (the leader of the Beach) deck of cards. 

Things get a lot more complicated when it’s revealed that the Hatter has been killed. According to his followers, he went to play in a game to extend his time and ended up dying. The captain of the violent gang who polices The Beach is voted in as leader. The vote is not fair, because he threatens everyone and forces them to vote for him. Arisu, Kuina and Chishiya have an even greater incentive to steal the deck of cards from the new volatile new leader.

While Aguni holds a general meeting in the hotel lobby to announce his new regime, Arisu tries to steal the deck of cards. However, it turns out the Kuina and Chishiya were just using him as a decoy, and he is eventually captured, assaulted, and tied up in a hotel room. He is in grave danger of dying because the time on his visa runs out a midnight, in which case, his captors don’t actually have to kill him they can just wait for the game to kill Arisu due to his visa being expired because he can’t play in new games. 

However, everyone’s plans fall into disarray when the entire hotel complex itself becomes a game arena. They all now will be forced to play in a game called “Witch Hunt” in the next episode.

Words/phrases that I recognized:  じゃあ、: when Kuina and Chihiya are talking to each other over walkie talkiesどこにあるん？ : When they are asking about the location of the deck of cards.

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