You have finished watching Squid Game and now you want more? Can’t quite satisfy that craving for dangerous games and suspense that made you binge watch all nine episodes? Waiting for a season 2, here is a list of seven entirely Japanese works, which you can recover to somehow fill this gap, divided between anime and live action series.
Danganronpa: The Animation
Available in both animated form thanks to Danganronpa: The Animation, both in video game (the original work) thanks to the mind of Kazutaka Kodaka, Danganronpa is somewhat similar to Squid Game. Set in Hope’s Peak Academy, which is an elite high school that accepts only the most talented students. Individuals who sign up successfully receive their own unique qualifications, which adequately reflect their abilities and characteristics. Of the fifteen candidates admitted to the school, Makoto Naegi is a completely normal individual who was accepted by pure chance, receiving the title of Super High School-Level Luck.
Naegi and her classmates are initially thrilled to be chosen to study at this prestigious institution, but these feelings of happiness are short-lived. They are soon confronted by Monokuma, the creepy bear principal of the school, who traps them inside the building. Pupils will only be able to escape if one of them manages to kill a peer without being discovered. However, if the killer is caught, he will be executed and the other survivors will continue to fight until there is only one winner left.
Battle Royale
He is the forerunner, Battle Royale: not only many subsequent series but also films, and the entire videogame genre of battle royale (PUBG, Fortnite, etc.) owes in some way the birthplace of this Japanese film of 2000. Forty-two students are transported for three days to a desert island: the students, under the Battle Royale Act that makes such a thing legal in a hypothetical future Japan, they are sent to kill each other in a no holds barred game, until there is only one survivor left who becomes the winner. Some decide to join the battle royal, like the psychotic Kiriyama or the sensual Mitsuko, while others are trying to find a way to leave the island without violence. However, as the numbers of remaining students dwindle, the protagonist will succeed Shuya and his pacifist classmates to survive?
Assassination Classroom
In Assassination Classroom the Earth is threatened by a powerful creature that has destroyed 70% of the Moon with its power. The same creature claims that within a year the Earth will also be destroyed by him, but offers humanity the chance to avoid this sad fate by agreeing to play a game with him. In class 3-E of the Kunugigaoka Junior High School, he begins to work as a teacher: he teaches his students not only the normal subjects, but also the ways of murder. The Japanese government promises a reward of 10 billion yen (100 million dollars) to anyone among the students who manages to kill their teacher, whom they nicknamed “Korosensei“. However, this will prove to be a far more daunting task than expected, as Korosensei has several inhuman abilities at his disposal.
Alice in Borderland
Based on the manga Alice in Borderland from Haro Aso, released in 2011, this live action series directed by Shinsuke Sato was produced by Netflix and so available in streaming only on the platform. Currently available with a first season, it has already been renewed for a second one thanks to the “reflected” success that came after the airing of Squid Game. Arisu, an unemployed former college student and video game enthusiast, suddenly finds himself in a desolate Tokyo where he and his friends must compete in dangerous games to survive. In this dystopia, Arisu meets Usagi, a young woman who faces them alone and together they decide to understand the mechanisms to get closer and closer to the architects and game masters creators of dystopian Tokyo.
Mirai Nikki – Future Diary
The loner Yukiteru Amano he spends his days writing a diary on his cell phone, while conversing with his two seemingly imaginary friends: Deus Ex Machina, who is the god of time and space, and Murmur, the servant of god. Revealing instead that he is a real entity, Deus grants Yukiteru a Diary special, which allows him to predict the future, and forces him into a bloody battle royal with 11 other holders of Future Diaries equally powerful. The winner will become the new god of time and space, Yukiteru will then have to find and kill the other 11 to survive. Reluctantly allies himself with Yuno Gasai (who owns such a diary), his stalker who also takes responsibility for ensuring the boy’s safety. Mirai Nikki – Future Diary And available on Netflix, but is also available for use as a manga and visual novel.
High-Rise Invasion
High-Rise Invasion received a second life when it was announced as an anime exclusive streaming on Netflix. Based on a manga published from 2013 to 2019 by Tsuina Miura And Takahiro Oba, also arrived here in Italy published by sandwiches with the title of Sky Violation, the level of especially psychological violence is certainly reminiscent of Squid Game. After seeing a man’s head split with an ax, the sixteen year old Yuri Honjou she trembles with fear and confusion as she escapes from the masked assailant, only to discover that she is trapped in an abandoned building where every door is mysteriously closed. Desperate for a way out, Yuri runs to the roof, but in front of her there is a world with no signs of life, where you can see only skyscrapers connected to each other with suspended rope bridges. Though full of desperation, once she finds out that her brother is also in this strange place, Yuri is determined to find him and escape.
Kaiji – Ultimate Survivor
Originally written in 1995, this manga by Nobuyuki Fukumoto returned to prominence after the release of Squid Game due to the similarity between Kaiji and the protagonist of the Korean series, Seong Gi-Hun. Kaiji Itou he is a good-for-nothing tramp who spends his days drinking beer and stealing hubcaps, until he is tricked by his former colleague. Unable to suddenly pay off his friend’s huge debt alone, Kaiji is offered a shady deal: participating in a series of illegal clandestine bets on a cruise ship. Based on the first chapter of Nobuyuki Fukumoto’s popular gambling manga series, Gyakkyou Burai Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor follows our hapless protagonist as he is forced to battle not only other people, but also the mysteries of their psyche. Kaiji discovers to his own expense that the worst sides of human nature emerge when people are cornered and that the greatest dangers of all are greed, paranoia, and the human survival instinct itself.
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