Netflix is heading again to the Borderland. The streamer revealed Tuesday that it has set a Sept. 25 launch for the third season of the Japanese live-action hit Alice in Borderland, whereas additionally unveiling the first teaser trailer, giving followers a glimpse on the high-stakes survival drama’s subsequent twisted spherical.
Directed as soon as once more by Shinsuke Sato and primarily based on Haro Aso’s cult manga of the identical title, the brand new season continues the story of Arisu and Usagi as they’re drawn again into the perilous limbo world often called the Borderland — a twisted realm that blurs the boundaries between life and dying. The present has grow to be considered one of Netflix’s top-performing Japanese originals, with Season 2 debuting at No. 1 on the streamer’s International Prime 10 record for non-English-language TV upon launch in 2022.
Returning stars Kento Yamazaki and Tao Tsuchiya reprise their roles as Arisu and Usagi, now residing a seemingly peaceable married life — till haunting visions and a mysterious disappearance pressure them again into the Borderland. Additionally returning are Hayato Isomura, Ayaka Miyoshi, and Katsuya Maiguma. Season 3 provides a large roster of latest solid members, together with Koji Ohkura, Risa Sudou, Hiroyuki Ikeuchi, Tina Tamashiro and Kotaro Daigo and Hyunri. Kento Kaku (Home of Ninjas, Amazon’s Like a Dragon: Yakuza) additionally joins the important thing solid as Ryuji, a person researching the afterlife who turns into Usagi’s information again into the lethal recreation world.
The present’s third installment is penned by Yasuko Kuramitsu and Sato, with a artistic crew that features composer Yutaka Yamada, cinematographer Taro Kawazu, manufacturing designers Iwao Saito and Shin Nakayama, and VFX supervisor Atsushi Doi. The collection is developed and produced by Robotic, with manufacturing cooperation from Tokyo banner The Seven.
Alice in Borderland has emerged as a flagship title for Netflix’s Japanese content material ambitions — a slick style spectacle with philosophical undertones and a rising world fandom. The streamer is more and more ramping up its funding in Japanese live-action originals, capitalizing on each sturdy home development potential and the rising worldwide enchantment of all issues Japanese. Earlier this yr, the streamer scored successful with Bullet Prepare Explosion, a high-octane motion reboot directed by Shin Godzilla’s Shinji Higuchi. Expectations are additionally excessive for Final Samurai Standing, a bloody battle-royale drama set to debut in November, with Junichi Okada main a solid of practically 300 samurai warriors in a survival contest in the course of the Meiji period. Different latest entries embrace the supernatural motion collection YuYu Hakusho and the ninja-family thriller Home of Ninjas, each of which cracked Netflix’s world non-English Prime 10.
The corporate’s aggressive native manufacturing push comes as Japan, lengthy seen as sluggish to embrace the streaming period, begins to shift. With related TV penetration widening and youthful viewers migrating away from conventional broadcasters, the nation has emerged as one of the strategically very important — profitable, accessible and nonetheless underdeveloped — premium video markets in Asia.