For an author in the modern age, there is perhaps no greater accomplishment than being able to craft a captivating story that no one has ever seen before, but there is something to be said about authors who are able to revisit old, overdone ideas while still managing to innovate them in new ways. Asou Haro’s **Imawa no Kuno no Alice** is an excellent representation of the latter, finding success in the Battle Royale subgenre normally tainted by mediocre writing.

The most immediate draw of **Imawa no Kuno no Alice** is simply how creative some of the individual games can be. Other titles such as **Kakegurui** or **Kamisama no Iutoori** often have games that, while unique, are either far too simple or complicated for their own good, while others are too fundamentally similar without much twist. While **Imawa no Kuno no Alice** does occasionally have moments like that, the majority of games presented are either completely unique or have an added twist to them to make them more interesting. Both the King of Diamonds and Jack of Hearts events are excellent examples, constructing unique games with simple rules but a wide room for story telling and strategy. The Six of Diamonds is a good example of a game where it completely borrows from another (Blackjack) but still manages to make it narratively interesting by exploring the many different ways the game can be approached. Asou Haro also seems to understand that the task doesn’t end at creating the game but seeing it to its completion; many games are well-thought out and crafted, but they also end in clever ways that don’t betray the entire concept of them to begin with. Even the Five of Spades uses a layer of strategy that could’ve easily be written as something far lazier such as the use of raw strength.

To reiterate, it’s impressive when authors can still come up with new ideas in previously explored subgenres, and even moreso when it’s done in an area where it isn’t required. In that regard, **Imawa no Kuno no Alice’s** card system should be considered as a stroke of genius. Upon sight, each card immediately conveys to the reader two vital pieces of information of what the implications of the game are. A higher number means a harder game, and the specific suite hints at what kind of game it’s going to be. A lot of titles that involve having different trials and events like **Gantz** and the aforementioned **Kamisama no Iutoori** either don’t offer the consistency or variety that there events have between them, nor arguably do they need to. Regardless, the suite provides that little knot that adds the sense of a greater systematic and nebulous theme to the wider picture while also grounding the games within some degree of reality without going too off the rails. It can even add a more psychological dimension to it as effectively demonstrated in the Four of Clubs side story. In addition, the difference in games allows characters to specialize in some games more than others, giving them uniquely individual flairs and specialties while at the same time giving them harsh weaknesses. Even simply revealing that the game is one of "Hearts" is enough to strike fear in both the characters and the reader. The overall point is that the card system is a brutally efficient idea that eloquently ties many of the elements of the story together while also providing an easy thrill and sense of understanding for the readers. Even the numbers on the card have a dual function as they also explain how many more days are added to a player’s visa.
The card system is only one example of how effective Asou Haro is at executing simple ideas to add to the narrative. The laser beams that come from the sky to eliminate players are fantastic; not only is the execution visually simple, but it also demonstrates an ability to reach the player no matter where they’re hiding, adding to the claustrophobic setting provided by the story. Not only that, but its visually simplistic design allows it to be drawn at a macro scale that immediately conveys to the reader what each laser implies without having to show what each individual one directly resulted in. It is a far more eloquent solution for **Imawa no Kuni no Alice’s** setting than the often used “brain bomb” trope.

Speaking of efficient, **Imawa no Kuno no Alice’s** art deserves extremely high praise. It’s not impressive in the same way such titles like **Vagabond** and *One Punch-Man** are; while there are some aesthetically pleasing moments, there aren’t many moments where the reader is completely blown away by the art. Rather, the art is impressive not in depth but in breadth. Bluntly speaking, art in manga at the end of the day is just another tool, and a tool is only as useful as the skill of its user. Takehiko Inoue, the author **Vagabond**, didn’t even know how to draw a foot when going into one of his first works, the ever-popular **Slam Dunk**. The reason why this is relevant for Asou Haro in particular is that his style is incredibly flexible. The reason why games can have venues like exploding water geysers, courtrooms, traditional festivals, zoos, and more is because the mangaka is able to draw literally all of them. It isn’t easy at all to draw animals like leopards and crocodiles, nor is it easy to draw cities, much less in a dilapidated state, but Haro is able to do all of them effectively. To put it in another way, the story of **Imawa no Kuno no Alice** is only made possible because Haro is able to draw it. However, the most important result of Haro’s high breadth in his art is not that he’s able to draw so many different individual objects, but rather the character design’s themselves. Many authors fall victim in making their characters look too similar, and it can often be hard to remember characters because their designs are too redundant. In **Imawa no Kuni no Alice**, almost every single character in the manga is drawn in a different and unique way, whether it be through posture, structure, facial expression, or clothing. No two characters have very similar designs, even minor characters that don’t appear for very long. For a manga that pumps out side characters like it’s nothing, this is an extremely impressive accomplishment in the scale of the story.

I’ve been mostly talking about the more superficial dimensions of **Imawa no Kuni no Alice**, so you might be wondering what there is to say about its more central, thematic ideas that drive the story forward. Unfortunately, this is where the story falters a little bit since the main character and the end goal of the story is a little cliché. The main character fulfills his role as main character should quite well, in that he becomes the blank canvas that becomes more detailed the more he interacts with the world around him. Arguably however, the story paints on him a little too much, and the colors often muddle and overlap with each other. While a main character should go through development, his ideology changes a little too frequently and reactively based on what just happened. Thankfully, the author beautifully executes side stories, creating a healthy amount of different characters to distract readers from the main one. Not only does this provide somewhat of a fresh state and perspective while undermining plot armor, but it also allows the world to build more and not revolve solely around the actions of the main character. While all of this does serve another purpose, for better or worse they also serve as a band-aid for how frivolously the narrative addresses the main character’s perspective.

That being said, the important thing is consistency, and despite how cliché some of the narrative can sound, it’s impressive that the central theme of “What does it mean to live” is effectively addressed throughout the entirety of **Imawa no Kuni no Alice**. While the theme itself isn’t exactly original nor can I personally admit it’s particularly that evocative, Haro is fairly effective on addressing the different types of ways people can answer this question while also making sure it stays as a central focus for the main character. However, perhaps the biggest saving grace for **Imawa no Kuni no Alice**’s less original themes is how creatively Haro implements them as plot points. One of the biggest mystery’s in the entire manga is the explanation of why the world they’re in exists in the first place. The reader understands that to answer that question also inevitably explains how the characters can escape, which is the implicit end goal for the wider story. However, the story hints many times that there might not actually be an escape to their world, which fundamentally changes how the central theme is asked. Why did we play the games? Are our opponents just mirrors of our future selves? Will we still have the will to live? The condition that there might not be anything left even after everything’s all said and done is a harrowing thought that by itself already distills a sense of dread and wonder that allows the atmosphere to prosper. But if added with the overarching question of the meaning of life, the once cliché theme is given a level of tangibility that requires it be addressed before the story reaches its conclusion rather than allowing it to exist as a more fundamental idea. As stated before, consistency is key, and Haro does an impressive job in still tying everything together without superficially adding too many elements. In comparison, titles like **Gantz** and **Kamisama no Iutoori** have comparatively sloppier executions with very little or no consistency in what they want their overarching theme to be, which is often why titles like those have unsatisfying endings that don’t serve as proper conclusions.

Upon reading **Imawa no Kuni no Alice** for the first time, it’s easy to brush it off as just another generic title based on its first few chapters. After all, the beginning doesn’t really hint to anything that other titles haven’t already offered. However, most people who have read this story will tell you that the journey is worth it if you keep sticking with it until the end. As time goes on and more stories are created, truly original content will only become rarer and rarer, and it’ll all become that much more worth it once we all find that title that grants us that new perspective. But **Imawa no Kuno no Alice** is a fantastic example of how perfecting old ideas can be as equally as satisfying as the real thing and shows that the solution to stagnation doesn’t always have to involve relying on that unlikely chance.