Liar Game

"People SHOULD be doubted. Many people misunderstand this concept. Doubting people is just a part of getting to know them. What many people call 'trust' is really just giving up on trying to understand others, and that very act is far worse than doubting. It is actually 'apathy.'" – Akiyama Shinichi It is common knowledge that the world is for the most part controlled by money. It is what all humans need to be successful in life, and thus why we spend such a large portion of our lives doing slave work in order to acquire as much of it as possible. Money is the sourceof almost all greed and desire in this world... and thus also the most vicious means of unlocking the darkest secrets of the human heart. Imagine that one day, a letter was delivered to your doorstep. A letter telling you how you could win an astronomical sum of money for yourself by merely playing a little game with a few other people. By accepting, you would however also have to risk losing an equally vast sum of money of your own to the other players. In that scenario, would you do it? Would you be willing to put such a fortune, effectively your life on the line for the sake of perhaps getting to live the rest of your life in luxury? And perhaps most important of all... would you be able to live with yourself knowing that in order to win that fortune, you'd have to get it from another player... and thus essentially ruin their life in the process? These are some of the matters you have to come to terms with if you seek to participate in the Liar Game. The story of this manga primarily follows a college student named Kanzaki Nao who one day gets invited to just this type of game. She's given a box filled with 100 million yen and is told that her former homeroom teacher has been given the same amount. The two of them have 30 days to try to overcome any money they can from the other person. After the time has expired they must pay back the 100 million yen they were provided, but any excess money they were able to acquire from each other they're allowed to keep... but the person who in that case lost the money will instead go into heavy debt. Unfortunately for Nao however, she is an honest-to-god idiot. She is a person who wholeheartedly believes in the righteousness of human honesty, and thinks that it's a bad thing for people to lie to each other. She wants everyone to get along, trust each other and cooperate. Now this might be a noble mindset for sure, but in these circumstances it only results in her getting tricked, swindled, and completely outsmarted at every given turn. On top of that, she's mentally weak. Whenever she gets to a hard part, instead of fighting back she'll start crying, get down on her knees and beg for mercy. In other words she's the absolute least suitable kind of person imaginable for someone participating in the Liar Game. But luckily for Nao, she manages to make contact with someone who's willing to help her in the form of an ex-convict and genius swindler named Akiyama Shinichi. And I would just like to say that if every male lead character were as good as Akiyama is, there'd be so much less malice in this world. In my mind, he is one of the absolute best male characters I have ever seen and he's absolutely thrilling to witness. Following in the footsteps of famous characters such as Light and L from Death Note for example, Akiyama is one of those guys that will keep blowing your mind with just how far ahead he's thinking and the insane ideas he comes up with in order to get himself and Nao out of each and every possible situation. On top of being smart and charismatic however, he's also very friendly and loyal to those he cares about. Akiyama is the true driving force behind the Liar Game manga and the main reason you will want to keep reading. He is the type of character that is extremely cool and unpredictable, but at the same time has a very likable personality, and thus someone you really want to cheer for as a reader. The manga takes place over many smaller arcs, each spanning a different game session. The shorter games only cover a single volume, whereas the longer ones span around three or four. The Liar Game itself is designed as a single large tournament bracket where every round contains a new game. In addition there are also consolation rounds for the losers of every game, where they have a chance to redeem themselves in order to be allowed to continue playing in the competition. The number of players participating in a game varies drastically, sometimes only having a couple people and sometimes being in the mid-twenties. The games themselves are all very different from each other as well; there are games of teamwork, unity, trust, conquest, deceit, domination and many other sorts. The common factor of course being that they're all psychological mind games to some degree, and they all require a respectable amount of strategy, planning and intelligence in order to master. All the games are also some sort of simulation; they come with a setting and a backstory in order to represent something in real life. It can be about smuggling goods to a bank in a foreign country, or about the Japanese wars back in the Sengoku era, or maybe about the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. These games are far from mindless, and everything happens for a reason. This is also clearly used by the author in order to make certain points as real-life references and to send certain messages to the readers. Liar Game is one of the most thrilling and captivating manga I have ever read. Once you start it, there's basically no stopping it, and I personally did pretty much exactly that, namely to read it from start to finish in about 20 hours straight. The games are incredibly well researched, written and presented, all in one smooth package. It has this feeling of excitement where it keeps trying to one-up itself with endless layers of lies upon lies and game-changing moves taking place back and forth in a never-ending upwards spiral of tension. At the same time it also keeps the overarching story going slowly but surely and thus it never feels like any of the arcs are non-essential in the long-run. Of course there is no such thing as a perfectly flawless work of art and this is no exception. In Liar Game's case the main problem is actually quite blatantly obvious... and it goes under the name of Kanzaki Nao. As I mentioned before, at the start of the manga she's both an idiot and a weakling. Over time as the story goes on, she gradually becomes stronger and stronger mentally, and develops into a person you can wholeheartedly respect and look up to. However the fact that she's a dimwitted moron never changes at any point. Now it's not like you can really blame someone for being stupid, I mean it's not like she can help it. But when the same girl keeps falling for the exact same tricks time after time after time when literally everyone else can see just how blatantly obvious it is that she's getting cheated, it reeeaaaally starts to get on your nerves awfully quickly. As someone said, "If Nao lost 1 yen for every time she got tricked, she'd have lost 100 million yen by now." Like can the girl at least learn from her mistakes or what people try to tell her just once? Please? That being said, Nao's role is actually very intentional for the sake of the overall story and the quite drastic effect she has on the other characters. I'd like to call her a necessary evil... or maybe necessary good would be a better phrasing as her mindboggling softness has a quite significant impact on how the other characters think and act. Nao functions sort of like the moral compass of Liar Game; like a holy saint willing to take on the sins of others in order to try to save their souls. She doesn't worry about herself, all she wants is for no one else to fall into heavy debt, and instead proclaims that it is the company responsible for the whole Liar Game that is the real enemy, not the other players. In the same way, if Nao is the heart of the story then Akiyama is the brain. While Nao takes care of the humanitarian issues, Akiyama is the one who's actually resolving all the practical problems and the one coming up with the plans for how to win the games to begin with. Of course no genius protagonist could ever truly show off his skills if he didn't have any sufficiently competent opposition, and this manga naturally has one as well. The main rival of the story is a rich, sneaky bastard named Yokoya who is willing to go to pretty much any lengths in order to prove his superiority. I say any lengths, but it should be noted that all forms of violence is completely forbidden in the Liar Game. There are no darker elements like people being forced to bet their limbs or anything crazy like that in this story; money is the only thing on the line in here. Anyway, Yokoya is really the only one capable of facing off against Akiyama head-to-head, and the battle of wits between them never fail to utterly amaze you with how far they go. Since I mentioned them earlier, think of it as Light vs L again, though with a bit different motives of course. Regardless, every time they play against each other it's absolutely thrilling to witness. As far as the artwork goes, it's definitely not displeasing for the eyes but it's nothing amazing either. However because of the type of manga that Liar Game is, it really doesn't feel like it matters very much. Essentially all the quality is in the text, and that's what really matters. You'll be fully absorbed trying to take every word into account in order to properly grasp the current situation to the best of your ability. Trying to objectively criticize the artwork will be the last thing on your mind while you're reading it. For the same reason, many of the images in Liar Game do not actually portray characters or backgrounds themselves, but rather consist of tactical displays and graphs in order to try to help the reader get a better understanding of the game itself, and what the players are thinking and planning. It has maps, game boards, cards, arrows and other helpful things along those lines, all in order to make it easier to follow along the crazy train of thoughts that the manga ever so often presents to you. For the same reason, Liar Game is probably not really a manga for kids (hence the Seinen tag) as it takes a considerable amount of focus and attention in order to really keep up with the plot. However if you can appreciate complicated stories packed to the brim with crazy twists and turns then Liar Game is about as good as it gets. While some arcs are undoubtedly better than others, I still loved all of them and without a shadow of a doubt I consider this as one of the absolute best manga I have ever read. Reading Liar Game brought back emotions from me that I haven't felt from a manga in the last 2.5 years, that's how long it's been since I could effortlessly keep reading the same manga hour after hour completely undistracted and fully absorbed in it, and had the series been any longer I'm sure I would have kept up that same pacing for the rest of it as well. It's just that addictive. It's just that good. And therefore I wholeheartedly encourage you to try it out as well if you like psychological stories, and I can only hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did.

This is an epic story that I have been following for years now, and I can't believe it has finally ended. *cries* The story is a very VERY intense chess match that isn't filled with cheesy stuff like the power of friendship, but is more on actual logic. It's really unique, and it feels like every move, action, and reaction of the characters has been researched beforehand to make everything that more realistic. The games are probably the best part, and it's probably because of them that I finished this manga. The art is not that pretty, and the reactions seem very exaggerated, but the story definitelymakes up for it. Don't give up on this manga just because you can't stand the art. The characters are very diverse, with each and every character having a reason for being there. Even the minor characters feel important enough to take note of, which is quite a feat for a manga that has A LOT of minor characters. The character development is also very well done, especially in the main character, Kanzaki Nao. She is very annoying at the beginning, but just bare with her for a while. She gets better as the story progresses. The other main character, Akiyama Shinichi, is somehow the opposite. As Kanzaki improves herself, Akiyama starts to step back from the spotlight to let her get in on the action. They balance each other out, not overshadowing one another. Now for a *spoiler* that isn't really a spoiler. (Just skip this paragraph if you want to go in completely in the black): The ending is very rushed, making it quite disappointing. It leaves too many loose ends for me to completely accept it. I personally suggest reading only up to the second to the last game, unless this manga comes with a sequel or an epilogue. I honestly changed my rating from 9 to 8 just because of the ending. Again, that is just my opinion, but consider yourself warned. -end of pseudo spoiler- Overall, this manga is an amazing read, and I don't regret rereading it while I was waiting for updates. Very enjoyable read that makes you want to jump in and join in the games (if it wasn't for the incredible risks you would have to take).

Liar Game is the epitome of psychological genre of manga. This manga will get you hooked right from the first chapter and keep you asking yourself "What will happen next ?? " This manga is the story of an honest but really naive girl Nao Kanzaki who gets trapped in a game called "Liar Game" which is a game of intelligence and the only way to save yourself in this game is to outsmart everyone else. Nao being a the height of naive people gets swindled right at the beginning. To save herself, she asks help from an ex-con Akiyama Shinichi who helps her clearthe game by his intellect and sharp wit. Liar Game is different from the majority of psychological manga out there. This manga executes each chapter perfectly and gives a detailed explanation to every strategy adopted by the players against each other. This manga will keep you at the edge of your seat because the battle of wits between the protagonist and antagonist is on a league of its own. For all the people who enjoy reading manga having psychological battles and mind games, Liar Game is highly recommended

TL:DR Tensionless plot with bland characters and an ending that makes it all worse. Clever schemes but you know nothing will ever go wrong. Don't recommend. Story: 4/10 There is zero tension in this manga at all. No matter what happens, Akiyama will invariably either effortlessly destroy his opponent(s) or will reveal that the fact that he seems to be losing is actually all part of his secret plan and then win anyway. The unfortunate fact is that the author has written themselves into a corner where the characters cannot afford to ever fail and therefore they never do. Now, I understand that the protagonists will win atthe very end but usually there are stumbling blocks, unforeseen situations that the characters must work their way out of. In an action story for example the main character will lose a few fights to show their not invincible, even if they win in the end. But this just doesn't happen in “Liar Game”. The main characters just win every time and it's just so boring. What's the point of reading about something going perfectly? The ending is nonsense. It comes entirely out of nowhere. It's so bloody stupid. I just can't understand what the author was thinking, I guess it had a message but there is no foreshadowing about this, it has a one chapter long backstory about something completely irrelevant and the epilogue was just dumb. I can't explain exactly why it crashes and burns so hard without spoiling it but I assure you, it makes no sense logically or narratively. The pacing is also abysmal. I understand this is a very cerebral manga but do we need to have the ‘action’ interrupted every other chapter to have every detail spelled out to the reader? Is there really no better method the author could think of? Despite my complaints though, the manga really is clever. When the plans are revealed, their boring yes but they don't feel bullshit. They plans are always something a very clever person really could pull off. This is frankly the only thing that kept me reading, seeing what the neat trick, what crafty ploy the protagonists come up with. Character: 3/10 Akiyama is boring but at least it's entertaining to see his scheming. Kanazaki is really annoying, she constantly makes the same mistakes over and over and is generally just “why don't we all just get along!” the entire time. There is nothing in this woman's skull and it's bad. Our two priciple characters are never actually developed in anyway. What are they're personalities? What do they like and dislike? I don't know, the author never bothers to make them anything other than ‘the clever one’ or ‘the nice one’. It's so dull. Yokoya is somewhat interesting in that he's a decent villain. Hateable enough and pretty intelligent. His motivations are revealed later and it's frankly really weak. The Masked men are… weird? Initially they're non-characters that just advance the plot but half way through, they're introduced as spectators and commentators of the games. They have personalities, though simple, but their real purpose is to exposit what's happening for the readers benefit. It's pretty strange, firstly that they're just suddenly important to the manga and also the fact that they have SO MUCH DIALOGUE. Holy crud, the author makes them explain all the plans like narrators or they say ominous things like “ah they fell for his trap, no I will not explain, just watch” and it's such a bizarre decision to do this. I swear that the dealers get more dialogue than the actual characters! It's such a lazy way of building tension and so boring to have it interrupt the flow of the games. There are some other interesting characters (Fukunaga, Abe, etc) but they're never properly developed and they're ejected from the manga nearly as soon as they're introduced. Art Pretty basic artwork but it's got a good art-style and it isn't anything worth talking about. Overall: 4/10 No tension, no likeable characters, no satisfying ending. Yes the scheming is entertaining but it's not worth the rest of the manga. Don't read this.