By Grace Yeoh

Copyright channelnewsasia

Director Shinsuke Sato told CNA Lifestyle in Tokyo, through a Japanese interpreter, that the decision to keep the couple apart came from veering away from the original manga series to craft a fresh storyline.

To remain true to its essence, the team returned to the source: Lewis Carroll’s Alice In Wonderland.

In the 1865 classic, Alice follows a white rabbit down a rabbit hole, leading her to “Wonderland” – where, just like in Borderland, the rules of shared reality don’t apply.

Carroll’s text became their “bible”, said Sato.

“We had to really contemplate why the original author of Alice In Borderland (Haro Aso) had his work echo Alice In Wonderland – and that took us back to Lewis Carroll’s story and the idea of retrieving the lost rabbit, which is Usagi.”

Though Arisu and Usagi spend most of Season 3 apart, the emotional groundwork laid in the first two seasons kept their bond palpable on screen.

“Having done Season 1 and 2, my character’s emotions for Arisu are very solid. They never wavered, even if we were shooting separately, and I think that’s something you can see come across,” added Tao Tsuchiya in Japanese via an interpreter.