Kazuya (カズヤ, Kazuya) is a supporting character in Season 3 of Alice in Borderland. He is part of Arisu's Team. He is portrayed by Hiroyuki Ikeuchi.
Appearance[]
Kazuya is a middle-aged man with short, curly dark hair and a closely trimmed mustache and goatee. He has olive-toned skin, sharp cheekbones, and a stern expression. He is dressed in a a black suit with a dark-gray shirt underneath. When he removes his clothes, his body is extensively tattooed, which is typical for his line of work.
Personality[]
Kazuya is a quiet yet observant and decisive individual. He does not hesitate to kill if it ensures his own survival but he protects the people he has grown close to.
History[]
Prior to his arrival at the Borderland, Kazuya was a gangster (ヤクザ, yakuza). He once had a near-death experience, which is when he saw Banda and received a Joker card from him. Same as the other participants of the Joker Tournament, Kazuya 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, Kazuya's earlier participation took place under different Citizens, resulting in a distinct set of challenges.
Story[]
As Arisu walks into the shrine's territory, he sees 20 other participants, including Kazuya.
Kazuya silently looks around before and after the rules of the "Sacred Fortunes" game are revealed. To the other players' joy about Tetsu having drawn a "Great Blessing", he rudely exclaims that they still do not know whether such a fortune is actually good or not.
Kazuya during the "Sacred Fortunes" game
Multiple questions with incorrect answers cause damage to the game arena and lead to casualties. Kazuya draws the seventh fortune and gets the answer wrong by 55, which sends 55 flaming arrows into the venue. He becomes annoyed and quickly leaves to find cover.
By the ninth round, Natsu draws another fortune and panics. Kazuya yells at her to give the answer quickly and guess the number if she does not know. The difference between her answer and the correct one is 448, and Kazuya gets frustrated because 450 liters of blood in a cow's body are required to produce just one liter of milk.
After Arisu draws the last fortune and answers incorrectly, he starts looking for an escape route and asks everyone for the unlucky directions they had on their slips. Eventually, the players figure out the safe zone of the venue and rush towards the exit, which ends up blocked by lasers. While the others panic, Kazuya and Masato help Arisu lift up a stone to unlock the way into an underground tunnel. Then they all jump down and reach a notice congratulating them on clearing the game. Another noticeboard they bump into when they are out instructs them to proceed 17 km northeast, because the next game starts the next day at sundown. Walking slightly further, they see multiple blimps holding a massive Joker card.
Having found a shelter and looking at their own Joker cards, everyone realizes that they received them from the same man. Masato first wants to ask Kazuya about his past but sees him with a bottle of alcohol and reconsiders.
On the way to the next game venue, the players discuss Arisu's decision to return to the Borderland in order to save his wife. Kazuya loudly states that they might all die in the next game. By sundown, they reach the National Institute of Virus Research and enter the game venue, where they see eight more participants. They listen to the rules, and the "Zombie Hunt" game begins.
Kazuya and Tetsu during the "Zombie Hunt" game
Kazuya after killing a zombie player
Kazuya teams up with Tetsu for the first few rounds of mini-games and wins at least one of them. After Arisu explains the rules of the Joker Tournament, Kazuya quickly realizes that the last standing players might end up having to kill each other. Arisu's decision to look for Vaccine cards to cure two unknown women irritates Kazuya, so he suggests simply eliminating them. Sachiko disagrees, and then Rei introduces her plan to survive without the need to kill anyone.
Kazuya and the others spread out and explain Rei's strategy to the other participants. By Round 11, some players decide to eliminate the zombies instead of trying to cure them, and Ikeno asks whether Kazuya can do it, promising him a Vaccine card priority. Kazuya proceeds to play against a trembling opponent who places a Zombie card on the table and then reveals his Shotgun card. The person sitting opposite him gets shot in the head by a laser from the special ball on the table, and his blood sprays onto Kazuya's face, making him remember how he killed his partner in the real world some time ago.
When he returns to the common room, Masato addresses him with fear, and Kazuya emotionlessly states that nothing could have been done because it is a game. Ikeno applauds and praises Kazuya along with the other players. Then he announces the need to get information from the zombies on other teams, and Kazuya enacts that decision by chasing a terrified man and repeatedly beating him. When the man is ready to give up, Kazuya asks for the location of the other zombies and promises him priority for a Vaccine card in exchange for the information.
Kazuya turned into a zombie by Nobu
The player beaten by Kazuya deals Masato a Zombie card. Ikeno and the others start suspecting that multiple players might secretly be zombies, so they decide to hunt them down. Kazuya takes the task seriously and chases after Masato, who attempts to escape and get help from Rei. Then he resumes his pursuit of Nobu, punching him in the gut and yelling out his location. Nobu escapes at first, but Kazuya finds him again, and Nobu forces him into a mini-game. After a Zombie card is placed on the table, Kazuya screams in frustration, almost crying, but Nobu explains that it is the only way to save him.
The game ends, and the zombies survive. Kazuya and the others leave the venue and see another noticeboard with directions to a new game two days later. They find a safe place and get some rest. Kazuya advises Nobu not to blame himself for what happened, and Nobu pretends to have no feelings about it, but Kazuya looks troubled and overcome with guilt.
Kazuya and the other members of Arisu's team participate in the "Runaway Train". Their train approaches the end of the line, and an announcement instructs the players to stop it. Kazuya yells that something has to be done urgently, and Arisu decides to pull a lever. It turns out to be an accelerator, so he pulls another one, but it is too late, and the train crashes, leaving everyone with injuries of varying severity.
Kazuya and Nobu carry Arisu through the tunnel, as he is mortally wounded and unconscious. They watch Tetsu's attempts to stitch up Arisu's wounds, but they are unable to help.
When Arisu wakes up the next morning, everyone rushes towards him to see how he is feeling. Learning that the next game starts soon, Arisu asks his teammates to go without him, but Kazuya and the others refuse to leave him behind because he has saved them more than once in previous games.
Kazuya preparing to kick the can
The next game they join, a semi-final challenge, is called "Kick the Can". Kazuya takes it upon himself to be the initial kicker, launching cans into the air where they move on their own using a small flying mechanism. After Round 1 begins, Kazuya and Rei run together and discover that the escalators have been shut down, and the entrance to them is banned via a noticeboard. One of the players, who has picked up the can first, decides to ignore the noticeboard and gets lasered through the head. Kazuya witnesses his elimination and picks up the can he was holding, only to realize that when the can changes its owner, the time limit on the bomb reduces by five seconds. Kazuya sees that time is running out, so he finds Sachiko and gives her the can, urging her to run. Other players chase after her and retrieve the can but fail to bring it to the base and blow up. Kazuya watches them as he walks down the stairs alongside Nobu.
During Round 3, Kazuya fights the other players to ensure that some of his team members grab the can, because someone will have to die no matter what, so it is either the friends or the opponents. Then he helps during the next few rounds, so Rei, Tetsu, and Nobu clear the game. Natsu explodes, and there are only two cans left, so Kazuya is determined to ensure that he and Arisu survive.
He helps Arisu retrieve the ninth can and instructs him to leave the game first. Then Kazuya pins down multiple players to allow Arisu to crawl towards the base while suffering from his injuries.
"With this, the debt is repaid. Don't worry. There is one more can left. We will definitely win."
— Kazuya to Arisu before the final round
Kazuya reveals his tattoos
Round 10 begins, and Kazuya kicks the last can. It flies up and lands in the same room further away. The players start fighting, and Kazuya uses his martial arts skills to push everyone away and grab the can first. His teammates in the elevator cheer for him. Just as he is about to reach the base, he gets jumped, pinned down, and thrown off the platform while multiple opponents try to rip the can out of his hands. One of them repeatedly punches him in the face while another grabs a glass shard and stabs him in the leg. After the can is in someone else's hands, Kazuya slowly gets up with blood pouring from his mouth, removes his clothes, revealing his yakuza tattoos, and yells. Then he starts beating up his opponents one by one until one of them stabs him in the neck with a glass shard. The struggle continues, and Kazuya realizes that there are only a few seconds left as he pins down the remaining players, so he looks at his friends one last time, and chuckles just before the can explodes, killing all the remaining players.
Games Played[]
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The forename Kazuya can be written in various ways, such as "一也" (one, to be) or "和也" (harmony, to be), depending on the official kanji, which is not provided in the show, as the name is written in katakana.
- Kazuya is a new character that did not appear in the original manga source.
- In English, the name "Kazuya" sounds similar to the word "Yakuza", as it consists of the same letters.