About “Alice in Borderland” in a few words:

This show throws people into a strange alternate Tokyo where survival means playing deadly games. Arisu, Usagi, Chishiya and others battle puzzles, trust issues, alliances, and raw fear to find their way back home. It’s dark, intense, emotional—and somehow addictive all at once.

Meet the characters from Alice in Borderland

Arisu

Arisu is that brilliant, anxious puzzle-solver who keeps recalculating the odds even when his hands are shaking — always thinking three moves ahead but somehow also forgetting where he left his keys. He’s quietly brave in this weird, brutal world, the kind of kid who’d analyze a map while muttering to himself and then sprint into danger because friends matter more than probabilities. He loves video games and logic problems but will suddenly get poetic about sunsets, which is confusing and adorable. Also, he’s inexplicably into collecting chipped mugs? Don’t ask me why, he just does.

Usagi

Usagi is pure kinetic energy with a tender core — nimble, optimistic, ferociously loyal, and somehow she can climb anything while singing under her breath (okay, maybe not singing, but she hums, definitely hums). She’s street-smart, practical, and has this stubborn streak where she refuses to let people be left behind, even if it’s stupid or reckless — and yes, that’s both inspiring and annoying depending on the moment. There’s a softness under the survivor exterior: she loves odd little comforts, like folding a perfect paper crane, then promptly stabbing a puzzle with a pocketknife when she needs to. She can be impossibly blunt and also strangely sentimental about tiny, pointless souvenirs.

An

An is low-key mysterious — the quiet type with a smile that doesn’t reach their eyes and a habit of observing everyone like they’re cataloging flavors. They’re calm in chaos, the person you want by your side because they make decisions with a weird, eerie certainty (or so it feels), but sometimes they’ll do something oddly impulsive, like buying snacks for strangers, which contradicts everything you thought. There’s a depth there, like an iceberg of backstory, and you get the sense they keep secrets like others keep change. Also, random note: they always seem to have gum. Maybe that’s symbolic?

Banda

Banda is big, loud, and heart-on-sleeve — the kind of guy who enters a room and the room knows it, but he’s also the one who makes terrible jokes to break tension and then wipes away someone else’s tears without thinking. He’s protective, a physical presence who uses his strength for good (or at least for the group) and will argue with you for an hour about ramen toppings because priorities. He’s impulsive — jumps first, asks questions later — but will write you the most surprising, extremely neat to-do list ever when he’s worried, which is hilariously out of character. Has a soft spot for stray animals and insists he’s allergic, which he absolutely is not.

Nobu

Nobu is this wonderfully earnest, borderline chaotic optimist who cheers like it’s an Olympic sport and believes in teamwork like it’s a religion. He’s compassionate to a fault — sometimes that’s his strength and sometimes it gets him into trouble — and he talks with his hands and eats canned peaches whenever he’s stressed (or hungry, which is always). He can be stubbornly naive but then does something unexpectedly cunning in a pinch, which ruins your assumptions about him every time. Also, he’ll probably get attached to a weird souvenir and carry it everywhere, and yes, he’ll insist it’s practical.

Rei Morikage

Rei Morikage gives aristocratic, composed vibes — cool, polished, and precise, like someone who alphabetizes emotions for fun, but don’t be fooled, there’s fire under that silk glove. He calculates risk like it’s an art and enjoys the chessboard of human behavior, which makes him dangerously effective and quietly intriguing. He also has weird little hobbies that don’t match the persona, like doodling tiny monsters in the margins of everything, which is not what a man like him should do, and yet here we are. Occasionally he’ll blurt an almost-kind thing that ruins his mysterious aura, which is oddly charming.

Kazuya

Kazuya is pragmatic survival-first material: sharp, adaptable, a real realist who sizes up situations like a mechanic checks a car — efficient and a little cold at times. He’s got instincts that kick in faster than his conscience, though he’ll surprise you by doing something unexpectedly protective (sometimes at huge personal cost, sometimes for reasons he won’t admit). He collects odd rules about life like someone collects stamps: strict, sensible, and then once in a while he’ll break one of his own rules because of some tiny, irrational loyalty. Oh, and he has a ridiculous fear of pigeons — or swears he does, which may or may not be true.