DESCRIPTION

CAST

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MANGA DramaLIAR GAME
ANIME DramaLIAR GAME 2nd Season

REVIEWS

• 

  IsNotAChar

  73/100
  Award for most improved goes to...

  The bad beginning

  If there's one thing holding back Liar Game, it's that the start is... not the best. It also takes a while to actually "get good" after this rough start as well, so I'm not surprised that a lot of people were quite negative (especially considering there was some hype as the manga is relatively well known and regarded).

  I think the problems with the early episodes can be attributed to 4 factors:

  1. Worst game first. The first game is just not very interesting. The second game, while better, is still not particularly amazing.
  2. Pacing. As mentioned, the first game wasn't very interesting. It did not need 3 entire episodes devoted to it. Simply put, the early games are too simple for the amount of screentime they're given. It feels a bit like the anime doesn't respect the time or intelligence of the viewer. All the twists and turns in these early games are very obvious, so the reveals feel drawn out and unearned.
  3. Nao Kanzaki. I actually like Nao as a protagonist, but I can definitely see why she could repel some viewers.
  4. The teacher. The first game is a competition between Nao and some teacher guy. The teacher guy is just too comically selfish to take seriously at all.
     The teacher being so over the top selfish also contributed to making Nao's decision to give him back the money somewhat divisive. I definitely saw some people nope out over that at least.

  It gets better

  As the anime goes on, it gradually improves. If the 1st game kinda took me out of it, the 3rd game pulled me back in, and by the 4th I was hooked. Some of this can be attributed to an increasing complexity of the games (maybe too complex in the 4th game tbh, it hooked me but also left me a little overwhelmed/confused at moments), and a stronger supporting cast.

  I'd say episode 8/9 is the tipping point for the show, where it really starts to "get good". If liar game up to episode 9 was a 6/10 show, then liar game after episode 9 was possibly an 8/10. I generally found the 4th game (the airport smuggling game) to be the peak of my engagement in the show, although I also thoroughly enjoyed the following game as well.

  Some spoiler commentary on the games:
  
  The airport game had basically the perfect ingredients for an entertaining deception game. There was an entertaining and threatening rival with Yokoya. There was enough complexity and leeway in the rules to allow for shenanigans. And there was an actual supporting cast that had already been somewhat established and a lot of them actually ended up contributing in some way. I also love that the solution to the smuggling game was actually smuggling.

  I liked the following losers revival game as well. It was a good way to show off the various strengths and play-styles of our main 3. It also basically cemented Fukunaga as one of that main 3 (instead of it just being a duo of Akiyama and Nao).
  

  Nao Kanzaki

  There's no other way of saying this, watching Nao was absolutely infuriating early on. She's described as "foolishly honest" in the description and I would say that's almost false. She comes off more as super gullible (and kinda stupid) than merely honest. Watching her so easily be deceived (often times by people who've previously betrayed/deceived her!) is frustrating and i saw a lot of people nope out after some of her particularly egregious moments of being deceived (episode 8).

  
  That moment where fukugana tricks Nao in the 3rd game was so obvious it was almost painful to watch.
  

  So much like the show, our protagonist starts...not great. However, I actually quite like Nao as a protagonist. I'd go so far as to award her the first annual IsNotAChar Review Award for "Most Improved". Without going into spoilers, I'll just say that she goes from being basically incapable of existing without being scammed for everything she owns into (eventually) being able to successfully pull off her own ploy.

  Now, with spoilers:
  
  Nao is basically the heart of the show and the perfect representation of it. As the show starts of rough and improves, so does she. It was nice to see her improve so much throughout the show, but it's more than that. She doesn't improve in deception by abandoning her morals and losing that foolishly honest personality, she improves in deception by upholding those values that made her so bad at lying initially.

  Her whole philosophy is one that believes in some innate goodness to human nature and places the blame for all the lying and cheating of the liar game's competitors on the pressures and mechanisms of the liar game itself. (essentially, it's the system itself that molds these people into selfishness, greed, and deception. I'm sure you could extrapolate this message onto a system beyond the liar game, but I'll leave that as an exercise for the reader).

  And so it's by reframing her deception of others as part of a plan to save them, she finally becomes able to actually improve at it (Kinda like she was never actually inherently bad at deception, just too good a person to cheat others for her own gain). And she does improve. Considering she starts from rock bottom, it takes her a while (and as of the end of the season she's still far from perfect at it), but it's a journey that's really satisfying to watch.
  

  Conclusion

  Liar game is not for everyone, I do recommend it though. Especially for people who like games and puzzles and watching characters find exploits and do mind games. I'm definitely looking forward to that second season.

  Continue on AniList
• 

  Anonymous990

  30/100
  A sharp premise let down by a protagonist who never learns and twists you solve before the cast does.

  ---

  Liar Game: Great Premise, Wasted by Its Own Cast

  Based on the first 8 episodes, read with the manga in mind.

  Liar Game promises high-stakes mind games, where deception, psychology, and nerve decide who walks away with the money. The genre lives or dies on tension, cleverness, and payoff. After eight episodes, the show delivers very little of any of them.

  ---

  Story

  The biggest problem is predictability. Most solutions are clear well before the reveal, so the payoff lands flat. You end up working out the answer yourself, then waiting while the characters spend another twenty minutes reaching the same conclusion as if it were a stroke of genius. Several of the solutions also depend on so many convenient variables that they wouldn't hold up in practice.

  Pacing is the second problem. Episodes pass with very little happening, then everything is crammed into a "big reveal" episode that isn't handled well enough to justify the wait. The central idea of a con artist paired with a painfully honest person is interesting and raises real questions about trust and morality. The show rarely gives it room to develop.

  ---

  Characters

  Nao Kanzaki is written as "foolishly honest," but the show treats honesty and gullibility as the same thing. A person can be honest without believing everyone who lies to their face. She's endearing for the first couple of episodes, then the cycle sets in: she falls for an obvious scam, breaks down, runs to Akiyama, gets rescued, and resets. Eight episodes in, she hasn't learned or changed, and her role is mostly to react to what Akiyama does.

  Shinichi Akiyama is confident, selfless, and smart, and that's most of his personality. With no meaningful backstory or development, he feels like a watered-down Light Yagami. The two leads are predictable in their own ways, so their dynamic never becomes the engine the show needs.

  The antagonists are exaggerated to the point of self-parody. Because the scams are so easy to spot, the "cunning" opponents never feel threatening, which drains the stakes from every game.

  ---

  Animation and Art

  Madhouse's name raises expectations that the final product doesn't meet. Characters barely move beyond their mouths, scene transitions are abrupt, and the framing often feels designed to avoid animating anything. The character designs are realistic and believable but bland, and they lack the distinct style of the manga. There's no strong visual identity to make up for the weak writing.

  Sound

  The standout is the opening, Yorushika's Bubble (あぶく), which is better than most of what follows it.

  ---

  Verdict

  The premise could support a great psychological thriller. The execution feels like an ordinary writer trying to write a genius: the opponents aren't cunning, the protagonist doesn't grow, and the twists don't surprise.

  Pros

  • Strong core concept
  • Memorable opening song
  • Believable, grounded character designs

  Cons

  • Predictable twists and solutions
  • A protagonist who never learns
  • Cartoonishly evil villains
  • Limited animation
  • Slow pacing, with big reveals compressed into single episodes

  If you want a mind-game series that actually delivers, Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor is the better pick.

  Score: 30/100

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COMMENTS

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