The Tokyo Meteorite Disaster is a major event launching the Alice in Borderland storyline. It refers to a meteorite explosion in Shibuya that resulted in 2 000 deaths and 25 000 casualties.
Incident[]
The incident happened when people around the Shibuya area witnessed something coming from the sky. Those who remembered the event described it as big bright fireworks. The meteorite hit the city, affecting a large area and critically injuring the civilians. Those whose bodies were still functional, but whose hearts stopped, got their consciousness transferred to the Borderland. During the transportation, the victims were implanted with false memories. Those memories were the reason why the victims thought they saw fireworks, followed by everyone in Tokyo mysteriously disappearing.
Getting killed in the Borderland resulted in people's physical bodies in the real world, injured due to the explosion, dying as well.
After the players in the Borderland successfully cleared all the games, they were given a choice to accept or refuse citizenship. Those who accepted citizenship could not return to the real world, which meant their physical bodies died, and their hearts never restarted. Those who refused citizenship got their consciousness transferred back to the real world, where they woke up in the hospital and saw Shibuya in ruins. Injuries sustained in the Borderland were also transferred to the victims' bodies, but memories of being in the Borderland were erased. However, the victims have vague feelings about their experiences and the people they met while in between life and death.
Despite the scale of the event, the players' consciousness was lost only for about a minute, as their hearts stopped. Those who ended up closer to the epicenter entered the Borderland earlier, completed the Immigration Cycle, and became the Citizens hosting the next set of challenges meant for the next Immigration Cycle of the people who ended up slightly farther from the epicenter, and whose hearts stopped a few moments later.
Aftermath[]
Tokyo still suffers from the effects of the disaster even several years later. Shibuya is under reconstruction, and the victims of the disaster frequently visit therapists to talk about their nightmares, purpose in life, and future plans.
Manga and Netflix details[]
The event is portrayed mostly the same way. The key differences are:
- In the manga, the fireworks shine bright and make the players close their eyes, after which they end up in a different location in the overgrown Tokyo. In the Netflix live-action, the fireworks are rather small, and not everyone pays attention to them; the players remain in the same places, while the people around them suddenly disappear.
- In the manga, the aftermath of the event is highlighted by the news report six years later. In Season 3 of the live-action, only four years pass after the meteorite disaster, which is when the changes in everyone's lives are shown.