Ikeno (イケノ, Ikeno) is a minor antagonist in Alice in Borderland, who participates in the "Zombie Hunt" game. He is portrayed by Motoki Ochiai.
Appearance[]
Ikeno is a young man with a slim build and medium-length curly black hair that frames his face in loose waves. He has a youthful, expressive face with sharp eyes and a slightly angular jawline. He is depicted wearing a checked blue shirt layered over a white T-shirt printed with a large, abstract yellow smiley face design and baggy jeans. He accessorizes his outfit with a silver chain necklace.
Personality[]
Ikeno is a nonchalant and laid-back individual who generally prefers not to get his hands dirty. He manipulates other participants into doing his bidding, which includes killing their opponents. Ikeno's cruel and arrogant personality earns him the respect of like-minded players, and he quickly becomes the leader of the "human" side, which is trying to get rid of the "zombies". However, he is easily tricked by Rei, who uses his blind hatred of the zombies against him.
History[]
Same as the other participants of the Joker Tournament, Ikeno had played the games before, making his Sojourn in Season 3 a return to the Borderland rather than his first visit. However, the games he experienced in the past were not the same ones faced by Arisu and his group. Since Borderland games are created and overseen by individual Citizens, their scale, rules, and format vary depending on who hosts them. Therefore, Ikeno's earlier participation took place under different Citizens, resulting in a distinct set of challenges.
Story[]
Ikeno telling the others to threaten zombies with a Shotgun card
Ikeno is first shown at the beginning of the "Zombie Hunt" game, listening to the rules. A few rounds later, he proposes moving to a lower floor, where the players locate a large, spacious hall.
After hearing Arisu's explanation of Rei's strategy, Ikeno supports the idea of teaming up and curing the participants who turn into zombies, so he echoes the plan to other players on different floors.
Since there are not enough Vaccine cards, one of Ikeno's teammates, Mano, plants a new idea in his head: instead of threatening to kill zombies, they should simply reduce their population. Ikeno likes the plan and asks one of the newly infected people to point at the player who dealt him a Zombie card. Then he encourages Kazuya to use his Shotgun card, promising to give him vaccine priority. After the job is done, he praises Kazuya and applauds him, announcing that this is going to be an update to their strategy:
"The people who were turned into zombies have information about the other zombies. It's time to get that information from the other groups. Threaten them with Shotgun cards and they will talk."
— Ikeno urging the others to search for zombies.
Ikeno playing against Rei
Ikeno guesses that Masato's anxiety comes from him having become a zombie. He orders Nobu to kill the player who infected him, but Arisu and Tetsu protest. Arisu tries to make Ikeno see reason, and Ikeno challenges his logic by claiming that Arisu himself must have caused someone's death in previous games, so nobody should be exempt from having to eliminate the zombies. He punches Arisu in the stomach and threatens to shoot Masato if Nobu does not get rid of the one who infected him.
Nobu complies, and when he returns, Ikeno makes everyone applaud him.
Later, Ikeno's allies catch the zombie who infected Nobu, so Ikeno orders them to bring Nobu back. Mano also points out that other people might be hiding their zombie status, including Rei, who started the initial plan. Ikeno decides to hunt down the zombies from that moment on instead of trying to quarantine them, and then he and the others go after Masato and Rei.
When they find them, Ikeno decides to play against Rei to eliminate her. She gives him a speech about becoming a zombie as a better solution for survival, but Ikeno declines her offer and reveals a Shotgun card. After he returns to the common room with a shocked expression, he states that she deceived him, and it is later revealed that Rei was never a zombie, and Ikeno wasted his Shotgun card on her.
The game ends, and the zombies win. All the humans, including Ikeno, are lasered down.
Games Played[]
Unknown games
Trivia[]
- The surname Ikeno commonly consists of "池" (ike) (pond) and "野" (no) (field). The exact kanji depend on the official spelling, which is not provided in the show, as the name is written in katakana.
- Ikeno is a new character who did not appear in the original manga series.