The first season was released worldwide on 10 December 2020, with a second season released in December 2022. The show was picked up for a third season in September 2023, with no release date yet announced.
This show provides examples of:
- Adaptational Early Appearance: In the Netflix series, Tatta and Aguni first appear during the Tag game, with Aguni replacing one of the guys who thought of simply beating down the attacker. Unlike the guy in the manga, Aguni succeeds (though it helps that the attacker only had one gun instead of two, instead having a machete as a back up weapon.)
- Adaptational Angst Downgrade: In the manga, Arisu completely swears off the games after defeating the King of Clubs due to his guilt over his complicity in Tatta's death by crushing Tatta's hand, with Tatta's permission, so that his bracelet could be taken off (which allowed Arisu's team to win and survive). Arisu's guilt is so great that he doesn't play another game until the final game against the Queen of Hearts. Comparatively, in the show, Tatta crushes his hand without Arisu's help, so Arisu lacks the guilt he has in the manga. Because of this, he continues to help win games and is involved in both the King and Queen of Spades games, which he had zero involvement with in the manga.
- Adaptational Heroism: Heroism would be too strong a word, but Arisu's father in the Netflix series seems to be less abusive and more just tired of Arisu's utter lack of motivation to do anything. He still constantly compares Arisu to his more successful younger brother, but unlike the manga where he throws a party for Arisu's brother for getting into college while outright ignoring that Arisu is in the room, he celebrates with dessert that he even offers to Arisu, who silently ignores him. The bit where Arisu's father had a teacher Arisu really liked transferred to another school because he was teaching Arisu to play guitar which his father felt was a waste of time was also removed.
- Chishiya gets this in season 2. Compared to the manga where his backstory reveals he has always been a functioning sociopath, in the show he was once an idealist who was broken by his corrupt boss. Incidently, this changes his relation with the King of Diamonds. Instead of being polar opposites, they are instead very similar to the point that the King chooses to lose so Chishiya can live.
- Adaptational Intelligence: Though the Arisu in the manga was hardly unintelligent, we get more immediate examples of the show's Arisu being Brilliant, but Lazy with the variety of math books in his room and how he casually solves a digital 5X5 rubix cube on his phone while walking down the street. And the first game he has to play in the Borderland is much more of a Diamond game than a Club game, but it doesn't stop him from figuring it out rather quickly. He comes across as more of a Diamond expert than a Heart expert with the show's changes.
- Adaptational Villainy: It makes sense, but Saori Shibuki does not sacrifice herself willingly during the Hide and Seek game like she does in the manga. Considering the fact that she's only known the other 3 for a few days, and the bonding scenes between them were mostly left out, she doesn't have the same conflict as the guys do who have known each other their whole lives. Chouta instead forces her into hiding to let Arisu win. She does at least stop struggling at the end and accept that she's about to die. This change seems small, but has a major consequence going forward: Shibuki never appears in Arisu's mental visions with the other two, as she did in the manga.
- Advancing Wall of Doom: A watery version occurs at the end of the 4♣ game.
- Affably Evil: The game announcements are always unfailingly polite despite ushering so many participants to their deaths.
- Afterlife Antechamber: As in the manga, this is what the Borderlands turn out to be.
- Age Lift: Here, Arisu is a young adult instead of high school delinquent.
- All Your Base Are Belong to Us: In the final episodes of season 1, all of the remaining players are trapped inside The Beach and forced to play the 10♥ game, Witch Hunt.
- Anyone Can Die: With a dash of Decoy Protagonist. The first two episodes and the first bit of the third set you up for the expectation that the series' character focus is on Arisu, Karube, Chōta, and Shibuki. Only Arisu survives the events of episode 3, leading Usagi to become the true deuteragonist.
- Asshole Victim: The biker in the Jack♥ game is the first to die, and boy howdy does he deserve it.
- Awesomeness by Analysis:
- Displayed early on by Arisu in the 3♣ game and most of the succeeding games except tragically for 7♥.
- Chishiya later gets to show off his own intellect as well when he figures out where Hatter was keeping the cards (and manipulates Arisu into getting caught looking in a fake location so that he can go after the real location), and later when he figures out a seemingly random doodle was actually a map of the subway system.
- Big Damn Heroes: Arisu and the wounded man on the bus during the 4♣ game.
- Bilingual Bonus: At the beginning of the eighth episode of the Netflix series, during the boot sequence of Asahi's phone, the only word not translated into English is でぃらぁ. It's the word "dealer" written in Hiragana, which is a significant clue that Asahi may play a bigger role than she appears.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- The first episode begins by showing the books in Arisu's room, and a lot of the books' topics later become relevant in how Arisu solves the 3♣ Dead or Alive.
- The drawing Chishiya finds in the dead tagger's pocket. The season finale reveals it was a subway map leading to the dealers' room.
- Cliffhanger:
- Season 1 ends right after the end of the 10♥ game and the existence of the Citizens is revealed.
- Season 2 appears to be ending with The Reveal that everything the characters had been through was all just a Dying Dream, one that they've now woken up from...until the camera focuses on a stack of playing cards on an outdoor table, which blow away to reveal a joker card, seemingly hinting that this "reality" is an illusion and the players are still stuck in the games (though this could also refer on life itself is a game).
- Cute But Psycho: Urumi in the Jack♥ game. For all the friendly charm she exudes, she's quite eager to kill somebody in each round.
- Deadly Game: The main premise of the series. The suit of the cards that represent the game indicates the "genre": spades are primarily physical challenges, clubs are based on teamwork, diamonds are intelligence-based and heart games are based on betrayals and heartbreak. The card value represents the difficulty and the number of days added to the players' visa if they survive the game.
- Death by Irony: In 3♣ Dead or Alive, between "Life" and "Death", a schoolgirl goes through the door labelled "Life" and gets a laser to her head as the result.
- Decoy Protagonist: Karube, Chouta and Saori are introduced as the main supporting cast members beside Arisu, but all shockingly die at once in Episode 3.
- Drama-Preserving Handicap: Kurabe is physically one of the stronger characters but in 5♠ Tag Kurabe is stabbed in the side. This means that during 7♥ Hide and Seek Saori is able to exploit his injury to fight on much more even footing, and he is unable to catch up to Arisu when he runs away.
- The End... Or Is It?: The series ends with everyone waking up in the real world, having forgotten their time in the Borderlands, but still changed for the better. The final scene zooms in on a table with a bunch of cards scattered over it; the wind blows away every card but one as the camera focuses on the Joker card right in the middle...
- Explosive Leash: Used in lieu of the lasers to kill players who "lose" games, particularly games where players compete against one another.
- Failed a Spot Check: The solution to 4♣ Distance in the tunnel is written on the side of the bus they start the game in.
- Fanservice: One of the rules at the Beach is that everyone has to wear swimsuits at all times, on the logic that it leaves no room to hide weapons in. As such, there's plenty of eye candy for everyone.
- Fatal Family Photo: During 4♣ Distance, one of the participants has a picture of his wife, whom he talks about as his reason for surviving. He fails to outrun the flash flood before the game ends.
- Fighting Your Friend: Happens briefly during 7♥ Hide and Seek, before Karube and Chōta let Arisu win.
- Flawless Victory: Q♠ Checkmate, which Arisu and Usagi are able to successfully flip into a 19-1 clean sweep for the players (including the Queen's initial teammates), leading (with the exception of the Queen herself) to possibly the only Everybody Lives result in the entire Borderlands games.
- Friendly Enemy: Kyuma, the King of Clubs, treats Arisu like a friend even though they're in a competition to the death.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: The Last Boss, who is one of Aguni's top lackey, is revealed to have been a shut-in during his previous life.
- Gasoline Dousing: In episode 7, Last Boss douses a utility room with gasoline and lights it with a lighter to force people into the courtyard to get shot up by the militants.
- Graceful Loser: Almost all of the Face Cards take their losses with grace, complimenting their opponents on their victory, even though it means their death.
- Gratuitous English: Important words are often written in English rather than Japanese, making them stand out. Most notably, "Game" is always written in English on the otherwise entirely Japanese messages announcing the next game.
- Hell Is That Noise: The zeppelins of the face cards in the second round emanate a loud mechanical drone that adds a degree of dread to the more difficult series of games, particularly for the King of Spades, whose zeppelin serves as a looming Oh, Crap! button to every player in the Borderlands when it appears.
- Hell Seeker: After torturing a man who tried and failed to kill himself, Niragi limps away, stating that he has every intention dying very soon, and going straight to Hell.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Karube and Chōta hiding from Arisu so he can win the Seven of Hearts game.
- Tatta mangles his hand to remove his bracelet as a last ditch plan to help Arisu score the final points needed to achieve victory to save everyone in the closing minutes of the King of Clubs game before he bleeds out shortly after.
- Hero Killer: The King of Spades, a One-Man Army who tears through the named characters of the series, though everyone ends up living in the real world anyway.
- Hidden Badass:
- Kuina spends most of her first few appearances walking around in a bikini and trading snarks with Chishiya. Then she gets into a fight and reveals herself to be a skilled martial artist.
- One of Kyuma's bandmates looks like a dropout but turns out to be an even more talented martial artist than Kuina.
- Hikikomori: Takatora is revealed to have been one of these before the events of the series. He would stay isolated in his room, ignoring his mother and spending his time writing lengthy blog posts that no one else read. After being transported to the alternate version of Tokyo, participating in the deadly games transformed him, leading him to become a trained killer.
- Just a Flesh Wound:
- Aguni takes several gunshots from Nigari and is revealed later to have survived the encounter, none the worse for wear.
- Akane takes this to rather absurd levels when she absorbs half a magazine of assault rifle fire to the torso at point-blank range and yet manages to not only survive for several hours but crawl a block away to find Aguni.
- Le Parkour:
- This is Usagi's primary skill, as she used to be a mountain climber. She puts it to good effect in the 5♠, Queen of Clubs and King of Spades games.
- One of Kyuma's bandmates turns out to be a surprisingly talented parkour runner, fully able to keep up with Usagi.
- Map All Along: The scrap of paper found on one of the gunmen in the Tag game, which just looks like a lot of overlapping lines, turns out to be a map to one of the dealers' bases in the subway.
- Mercy Kill: In the end, the King of Spades offers his gun to Aguni to mercy kill him, flashing back to wartime when he gave his comrade the same courtesy. He also reveals to Aguni that all of the deaths he inflicted in the Borderlands were mercy kills in his eyes, sparing the inhabitants of further torment from the games.
- One-Man Army: The King of Spades. Unlike the other face cards, there's no "game" to him other than defeating him in combat, which certainly takes a village.
- Put Them All Out of My Misery: During 10♥ Witch Hunt, Aguni encourages everyone to kill each other, because he both has a death wish for having killed Hatter, and blames everyone else for feeding his egomania to the point that Aguni had to kill him. As Arisu puts it, he wants to take everyone down with him.
- Red Herring: Used frequently across the games.
- In 3♣ Dead or Alive, the doors marked either "Live" or "Die" don't really tell the players which one to go through. The true key to the game is Arisu figuring out where they are in the building and how the rooms are arranged.
- The goal of 4♣ Distance is not to achieve the highest value. The bus they started at was literally tagged "GOAL" the whole time, and it's the only refuge from an incoming flash flood on the other side.
- In 10♥ Witch Hunt a girl Momoka is found dead with a knife in her chest, with the whole Beach cordoned off and everyone inside having two hours to find the "Witch" responsible. In truth there's no killer, Momaka committed suicide and is herself the "Witch" so with enough calm analysis and thought absolutely no one had to die, but with the recent regime change putting the likes of the bitterly destructive Aguni in charge violence was largely inevitable. In retrospect, the game being called "Witch Hunt" should have been a clue.
- In J♥ Solidary Confinement, three contestants are teased as the Jack: the candy-chomping lolita girl, the male conman, and the serial killer. None of them turn out to be the culprit.
- Scenery Censor: Used in season 2, as the leader of the King♣ game is a nudist, blocking the view of his junk with camera angles and objects in the foreground.
- Sequel Hook: Season 1 ends with the mysterious game leader (possibly a representative) announcing the introduction of new games. The next day, blimps carrying huge banners of face cards fly in over Tokyo, suggesting that the new games will be even harder than the hardest encountered up until now. Season 2 ends with all of the main characters in Shibuya on the day they were sent to the borderlands with no memory of each other or the games. The fireworks were revealed to be a meteor strike that caused major damage to the town, but the characters are shown to survive it, aside from the wounds they had in the borderlands. The final shot shows the Joker card, implying that the games are still not complete.
- Sexual Extortion: Implied in Akane Heiya's flashback. After injuring her leg, she ran into a doctor who proposed to safely amputate it in exchange for an unspecific payment that isn't money.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: The King of Spades is revealed to be a war veteran who was faced with mercy killing his comrade after a botched mission.
- Suicide, Not Murder: The murder victim in 10♥ Witch Hunt turns out to have been a dealer who stuck the knife into her own chest and the solution to the game is to throw her on the fire.
- The Main Characters Do Everything: Played straighter than the manga. While not involved in EVERY game, Arisu is involved in almost every game to fully play out onscreen, including the marathon game in the tunnel and the lightbulb game. This is semi-downplayed in season 2. Arisu does take part in games he was uninvolved with in the manga, specifically the King and Queen of Spades games, but doesn't take part in every game onscreen. However, instead Chishiya takes part in a game that in the manga was something of a one-off involving no recurring characters.
- Too Dumb to Live: 4♦ Light Bulb takes place in a room being filled with water with live wire hanging from the ceiling. A girl touches a metal conductor and gets zapped to death as the result.
- Wham Episode:
- Season 1, episode 3 for demonstrating that Anyone Can Die when three protagonist characters — out of only four the audience knew well at all die.
- Zigzagged in season 2. In episode 7, seven longstanding characters, six of them at least somewhat sympathetic, appear to suffer grievous if not mortal injury. Chishiya and Niragi are both shot as a result of a Mexican Standoff also involving Arisu, while five others are hurt badly battling the King of Spades — Ann and Heiya appear to actually expire from their wounds, while Kuina clings to life saying she can't move. Usagi and Aguni are definitely alive, but suffer serious injuries too. (Arisu gets some cuts and bruises, but nothing worse than he sustains throughout most of the series. In the next episode, once the Queen of Hearts game, and consequently all games, are cleared, all of these characters return to the real world and though they sustain injuries comparable to what they sustained in Borderland (notably, Heiya loses her foot), they're all alive and well. It's a zigzag because though briefly resurrected, Chōta and Karube are still killed in the real world.
- Wham Shot: After the discovery of the murder at the Beach, the screen in the lobby gleefully lights up with the message for the residents: "Difficulty: Ten of Hearts"
