Squid Game is not based on a true story, since no participants have been compelled to participate in lethal versions of kiddie games in real life.
Another reason why Squid Game has gained so much popularity is the easy access to audiences. The series has been filmed in Korean, but Netflix has dubbed the show in 34 languages, and even provides subtitles in 37 languages. Providing several language options is something that Netflix has mastered over the years.
Squid Game: 10 Main Characters, Ranked By Likability.
How many games are there in Squid Game? There are six games that the contestants have to compete in, which are all based on popular children's games. The first is Red Light Green Light, which is a popular kids' game in many countries. In Squid Game, those who are caught moving during 'red light' are shot.
A vicious group of rich elites stringing poverty-stricken and indebted individuals through familiar but twisted games of skill and chance, oftentimes with their lives on the line, isn't exclusive to Squid Game; it's also the exact plot of a lesser-known but brilliant anime known as Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor.
11 Intense Thriller Shows and Movies to Watch If You Like Squid...Park Hae-soo, Lee Jung-jae, and HoYeon Jung, Squid Game. Netflix.Olivia Scott Welch, Panic. Matt Lankes/Amazon Studios.Lee Yoo-mi, All of Us Are Dead. Netflix.Hellbound. ... Lee Sun-Kyun, Dr. ... Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor.Alice in Borderland. ... #Alive.More items...•
Liar Game is a Japanese TV drama that was also based on a manga series. Directed by Hiroaki Matsuyama, the show is quite close to Squid Game in the sense that Liar Game is also about people playing desperate games for a huge amount of money.
Yesterday, Netflix greenlit “Squid Game: The Challenge,” a reality competition series based on the popular South Korean drama that, luckily, doesn't have people killing each other “Hunger Games” style and will offer a cash prize of $4.56 million. (That's a lifetime of dalgona candies right there!)
Well, this movie is not similar to the Squid game. It involves racing, but yes, there is a huge cash price for the winner.
Tell me one thing: will you ever play a game where you can earn a lot of money? But if you miss or do something wrong, you’ll lose around 10 times more money than you earn. Will you play or you’ll let this opportunity go?
Do you want to be a hunter? Not just an ordinary hunter, a hunter who tracks secret treasures, creatures, and things like these. Well, there are a lot of people who want to be hunters, but their chances of becoming one are less than one percent.
The World Ends With You was originally a Japanese video game that later got an anime adaptation.
We all know about Sword Art Online and you might wonder how it is similar to a Squid Game. It’s because of its first season. SAO and Squid Game both had one thing in common, that people were stuck until they completed the game.
Gambling is so addictive, right? I’ve seen many people who started it as fun but now they are completely addicted. Gambling is risky as well; stakes are always high and people even put things on bets that are precious to them, sometimes even their life.
Being the strongest is okay, but proving that you are the strongest is a waste of time. Still, people love to waste their time proving that they are the strongest by participating in competitions.
In one of the best survival drama shows, Kaiji Itou is buried in debt. He is offered the chance to change his luck on board the Espoir cruise ship, where he will gamble for his life on games such as Rock, Paper, Scissors with other men who are (literally and figuratively) in the same boat.
As explained by Ryouta Suzui in the episode "A Woman Named Yumeko Jabami," the students of Hyakkaou Private Academy are not judged by athletic or academic ability, but by how good they are at gambling.
Though unreliable and struggling, it is clear from the start that Gi-hun is a kind man trying to do his best for the people he loves, especially his mother. Ryouta Sakamoto, however, loves nothing but the multiplayer online game Btooom!, which involves fighting with bombs and collecting chips.
While the players of Squid Game are familiar with their games, having played them as children, Akira Shiroyanagi has gameplay down to a science. Bored with the real world and preferring to focus on playing games, Akira is quite pleased to find himself abducted and forced to play in a survival game for the entertainment of its mysterious host, Mion.
In Death Parade, the stakes are even higher than the usual deadly game, as befits one of the best dark anime. Since the players are already dead, it isn't their lives they must play for, but the fate of their souls.
Speaking of higher-than-usual stakes, the players of Future Diary 's survival game have been summoned by God himself to compete, as he is dying and must find a replacement. Armed with personalized Diaries (cell phones that predict the future), twelve candidates must fight to the death, and the last one standing will become the new God.
Battle royales aren't the only kind of survival game. Gladiator games are a blood sport dating back centuries, and in the world of Kengan Ashura, they are how corporate deals are carried out and disputes are solved. Each CEO selects a fighter to represent them and lets them loose on each other in vicious one-on-one Kengan matches.
One of the most popular survival game anime of all time, ‘ Sword Art Online ’ predominantly follows Kazuto Kirigaya, who ends up trapped inside the eponymous VRMMORPG and discovers the only way to get out of it by winning the game. All other alternatives will result in the player’s death.
In ‘ Hunter x Hunter ,’ Gon Freecss has grown up on Whale Island believing his father, Ging Freecss, to be dead. However, when he learns that Ging is alive and has garnered fame as a Hunter, Gon sets out to take the Hunter Exam to follow the older man’s footsteps.
In ‘Mirai Nikki’ or ‘The Future Diary,’ Yukiteru Amano is among the 12 people chosen to play a survival game by Deus Ex Machina, the god of time and space. The participants learn that the eventual winner will become Deus’ successor.
As with ‘Squid Game,’ gambling is a major theme in ‘ Kakegurui ,’ even though the latter glorifies the vice, while the former accentuates its destructive potential. ‘Kakegurui’ is set at a prestigious school called Hyakkaou Private Academy, where wealthy students put their fortune on the line to win fame, recognition, and power.
Based on a South Korean web manhwa series written and illustrated by SIU, ‘Kami no Tou’ or ‘Tower of God’ follows Twenty-Fifth Bam, who has lived his entire life in a dark cave. His only understanding of the world outside is a crack far above. One day, a girl named Rachel falls through the crack, changing his world.
There's a natural level of suspense that's built into anime that revolve around gambling, but the medium often finds ways to emphasize this tension. Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor begins with an unassuming entry into an underground gambling match on a cruise ship, but this quickly turns into a way of life for Kaiji before he knows what's going on.
Gantz is a death game-based survival series that's built an increasingly complex universe through various extensions, but just its central premise has an engaging hook to it.
The Future Diary is like if Death Note and Highlander had a baby and then told it to go play with Squid Game.
Eden of the East is another example of a death game series that benefits from putting the audience in a place of confused obliviousness that mirrors that of the protagonist. Akira has no idea why or how he got an app on his phone that says that he suddenly has lots of expendable wealth.
Sometimes death game series succeed because of how grounded they are in reality, minus the murderous mind games. However, anime has found ways to combine the death game concept with other genres in inspired ways.
Prisons are typically stressful environments, but the institution of incarceration in Deadman Wonderland is like if a prison were turned into a disturbing big box chain. Ganta Igarashi finds himself the lone survivor of his class' massacre and in hot water over a crime that he hasn't committed.
There's always been a strong relationship between anime series and video games, whether they're directly adapting a title or just turning to the medium for story inspiration. Darwin's Game is a tightly-paced cat and mouse game that plays out across 11 episodes.
Starting off with an easy one, No Game, No Life follows 2 siblings, Sora and Shiro, who are shut-in gamers of insane skills. The two of them go by the name ‘Blank’ and destroy competition even when facing cheats and hacks. Then, one day, they meet Tet, the God of Games, and are transported to another world – Disboard.
The next one is more gruesome, but doesn’t have as many games. Btooom! follows Ryōta Sakamoto, the number 1 Japanese player of the video game called Btooom!, and rank 10 worldwide.
Moving on, Danganronpa is an anime adaptation of a game developed by Kazutaka Kodaka and Spike Chunsoft. It follows a a group of high school students who are locked together, and they have to kill each other to survive. Sounds familiar? The conditions are kinda similar, only they don’t really get games to play.
In Mirai Nikki, there’s a supernatural element added to the setting, as well as a more clear horror aspect than in the previous 3 shows. There are 12 ‘players’, who each get a sort of a Future Diary (Mirai Nikki), which tells them something about the future.
While it might not seem much like Squid Game at first, the Death Parade anime does have several things in common. For one, it questions the very nature of humans, though on a much deeper level than the live-action series.
A prison that simultaneously serves as a theme park for the public. That’s what Deadman Wonderland is about, and Igarashi Ganta quickly stumbles inside of it.
Now for an anime that has the players as the gamblers rather than others betting on them. Kakegurui is set in a prestigious high school where money is everything, and the hierarchy is determined by gambling.
If you watched the Netflix live-action series, you know what Alice in Borderland is about. People are transported in what seems to be a parallel world, and they are forced to play games to survive.
Finally, the number 1 anime like Squid Game, and one anyone who watched it would think of, Kaiji. This show has so many things in common that at times it seems like it was used as the inspiration. Seemingly simple games? Check. Desperate participants who have no choice but to do it in hope of repaying their debts? Check.