Netflix is heading back 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, while also unveiling the first teaser trailer, giving fans a glimpse at the high-stakes survival drama’s next twisted round.
Directed once again by Shinsuke Sato and based on Haro Aso’s cult manga of the same name, the new season continues the story of Arisu and Usagi as they’re drawn back into the perilous limbo world known as the Borderland — a twisted realm that blurs the boundaries between life and death. The show has become one of Netflix’s top-performing Japanese originals, with Season 2 debuting at No. 1 on the streamer’s Global Top 10 list for non-English-language TV upon launch in 2022.
Returning stars Kento Yamazaki and Tao Tsuchiya reprise their roles as Arisu and Usagi, now living a seemingly peaceful married life — until haunting visions and a mysterious disappearance force them back into the Borderland. Also returning are Hayato Isomura, Ayaka Miyoshi, and Katsuya Maiguma. Season 3 adds a sizable roster of new cast members, including Koji Ohkura, Risa Sudou, Hiroyuki Ikeuchi, Tina Tamashiro and Kotaro Daigo and Hyunri. Kento Kaku (House of Ninjas, Amazon’s Like a Dragon: Yakuza) also joins the key cast as Ryuji, a man researching the afterlife who becomes Usagi’s guide back into the deadly game world.
The show’s third installment is penned by Yasuko Kuramitsu and Sato, with a creative team that includes composer Yutaka Yamada, cinematographer Taro Kawazu, production designers Iwao Saito and Shin Nakayama, and VFX supervisor Atsushi Doi. The series is developed and produced by Robot, with production cooperation from Tokyo banner The Seven.
Alice in Borderland has emerged as a flagship title for Netflix’s Japanese content ambitions — a slick genre spectacle with philosophical undertones and a growing global fandom. The streamer is increasingly ramping up its investment in Japanese live-action originals, capitalizing on both strong domestic growth potential and the rising international appeal of all things Japanese. Earlier this year, the streamer scored a hit with Bullet Train Explosion, a high-octane action reboot directed by Shin Godzilla’s Shinji Higuchi. Expectations are also high for Last Samurai Standing, a bloody battle-royale drama set to debut in November, with Junichi Okada leading a cast of nearly 300 samurai warriors in a survival contest during the Meiji era. Other recent entries include the supernatural action series YuYu Hakusho and the ninja-family thriller House of Ninjas, both of which cracked Netflix’s global non-English Top 10.
The company’s aggressive local production push comes as Japan, long seen as slow to embrace the streaming era, begins to shift. With connected TV penetration widening and younger viewers migrating away from traditional broadcasters, the country has emerged as one of the most strategically vital — lucrative, accessible and still underdeveloped — premium video markets in Asia.
