Liar Game

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Alternative Titles

Japanese: LIAR GAME

Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 19

Chapters: 203

Status: Finished

Published: Feb 17, 2005 to Jan 22, 2015

Genre: Drama

Themes: High Stakes Game, Psychological, Strategy Game

Demographic: Seinen

Serialization: Young Jump

Authors: Kaitani, Shinobu (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 8.28¹ (scored by 36,691 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #339²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #112

Members: 113,187

Favorites: 5,421

Resources

Wikipedia

8.28

Ranked #339Popularity #112Members 113,187

MangaYoung JumpKaitani, Shinobu (Story & Art)

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Volumes: /19

Chapters: /203

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Synopsis

College student Nao Kanzaki has always adhered to her name's meaning: "foolishly honest." However, after opening an unsolicited package containing one hundred million yen, she inadvertently accepts an invitation for the "Liar Game." In this tournament, contestants are encouraged to betray and deceive their opponents to gain a massive amount of cash; conversely, losing will incur a lifetime debt. With all hopes lost, her only option left is to seek help from a con artist.

On that same day, the infamous swindler Shinichi Akiyama is finally released from jail. This former psychology student is known for single-handedly bankrupting an entire company, and Nao believes he is her only chance at escaping her dire situation. At first, Shinichi is hesitant to commit another crime, ignoring Nao and her request. But after seeing her desperation and persistence, he agrees to assist her.

In this fraudulent world, Nao and Shinichi have their own motives. Yet, soon they see the true nature of not only the game, but also everyone involved.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Liar Game has been published in Chinese (Hong Kong) by Ever Glory Publishing Co., Ltd.; in Chinese (Taiwan) by Tianxia Publishing Co., Ltd.; in Dutch by Kana; in French by Tonkam; in German by Egmont Manga; and in Spanish by Planeta DeAgostini.

The series was adapted into a two-season Japanese television series, with the first season airing in 2007 and the second season from 2009 to 2010. It also received two live-action films: Liar Game: The Final Stage in 2010 and Liar Game: Reborn in 2012. It was also adapted into a Korean live-action drama that aired from October 20, 2014, to November 25, 2014.

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Related Manga

Prequel:

Liar Game: Roots of A, Liar Game: Roots of A #2

More characters
Characters

Akiyama, Shinichi

Main

Kanzaki, Nao

Main

Yokoya, Norihiko

Main

Fukunaga, Yuuji

Supporting

Leronira

Supporting

Akagi, Kouta

Supporting

Rabelais

Supporting

Kimura, Kei

Supporting

Abe, Yukiyo

Supporting

Mikamoto, Mika

Supporting

Reviews

Feb 19, 2024

Kinglink

Recommended

It's one of THOSE mangas. Main character is "Can't we all get along and live in peace. Let's just be friends".

But in this case the naive main character is placed in what is known as "Liar Game" where deception is the name of the game, yet our main character is so wonderfully naive... well this is the perfect synopsis for a weak manga that gets lots of love because people like the main character, but everything is setup so she can win.

And flat out I'll say... our main character doesn't win. At least not in the way these things ... go, where the pacifist fighter somehow always wins and no one dies. Instead she has to constantly fight against games specifically designed to make it impossible to co-exist with others. And even then... She's really not the star. And thank god for that.

The Liar Game really is the center character of this manga, along with out actual main character, and a con artist she gets involved with named Akiyama. However while the games start simple (who can hold on to 100 million yen, and get the most of the other teams). As the games go on, they take on a life of it's own and so many of them become multi level challenges, where players have no clue who is going to win or how. Even when the players come up with strategies, they tend not to always work because of interesting challenges, as well as much of the game is design to be a psychological deception based game, so player A might lie to player B, but player B may have already teamed up with Player C and shared information and so on.

This manga reminds me a lot of Gambling Apocalypse: Kaiji where the games have a wonderful depth to the point where a single game can remain for far longer than expected but remain engaging, and Liar game does this well through out the series, even keeping characters who should become a single note part of the melody it weaves because it constantly is changing their understanding of the situations they are placed in. The games themselves also are wonderful simplistic at first glance, but then much of the manga spends it's time unveiling how challenging each game's internal dynamics are.

However Liar game does have ONE issue, and it's not a major one but the final four chapters or so reveal what's been going on through the whole story. The good news is there's a solid and interesting explanation of it, but the bad part is that for a series that has revealed in this ability to weave the narrative, this feels like a simple exposition dump at times. There's even two characters that are like "I'm X's Y" and that's it. These aren't characters mysteries are really built up around, but just "Gotta give them a reason for being here."

What sucks is, the ending could have been a little more eloquent or interwoven with the rest of the story, but instead... it's done as a dump, with a quick semi-cliffhanger ending (though probably not intended to be that way). And then the manga is over, and it's time to go read something else.

Overall though, I really did enjoy this series, I'd probably consider reading it again in a few years once I forget a lot of the smaller pieces of the manga, because it's so engaging, but a big part of me just wishes it could have nailed the landing because out of a 200 chapter manga, almost every chapter was interesting unique and kept me turning the page. And that's not always the way mangas go.

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Mar 11, 2023

bergars

Mixed Feelings

It's hard to approach writing about such a behemoth of a manga. Sporting 203 chapters, “Liar Game” is all about Trust. A story that puts the most honest person to ever exist on earth, in a game about becoming the best liar. She teams up with one of the smartest characters ever put to ink. The premise is quite engrossing, endearing even. Probably what hooked so many into such a series.

Story: 6/10
For starters, the story's great. It gives off a sense of true anguish and pain when the games are so high stakes and our protagonist can't do anything against the people lying to ... her. The conflicts are divided in long (at least it felt like it) arcs of each game. Every single one tries to employ a different conflict and meaning to be reached. Characters fight, deceive, scheme, play extreme mind games to reach the winning line. Information is constantly obscured or revealed with a selective nature to make scenes as interesting as possible. High risk story that can end in a hard loss and terrible consequences. The big problem comes with formula. Every game starts to get repetitive in how it's won. It's just a little game for the reader to figure out how will this be won out of nowhere.

Now why a 6 then? No spoilers, I just wanted to warn. The ending is one of the most terrible ones I've seen for such a long series. Rushed to hell, inconsistent and nonsensical. Many reasons could be responsible. Cancelation notice, being bored at the story, maybe that was the intended end. I can't vouch for it as much, though. The characters shift, out of nowhere. The story comes to an abrupt happy ending, oh but wait it isn't happy anymore, “The End”, “Bye bye”. Go in with caution, since a bad ending like this can very much sour the experience.

Characters: 7/10
I don't like the formulaic way they worked around the plot, even if some were pretty good. I enjoyed Nao, the protagonist, a lot. Her journey towards doubting people, to understand how humans actually work, while looking inward. The other ones range from “part of an arc” to “interesting”. They work, and don't intrude in the story. I did like how there were times of big changes with very meaningful scenes of realizing your place in the world. Personal stances against those who obligate people to be horrible to each other. It's powerful at times.

Art: 8/10
It specializes in extreme expression. Mouths dislocate to show how much anguish, happiness, or hatred people feel. Eyes sometimes look in different directions to show extreme confusion. Shadows are used for threatening effect. I love the realistic framing of each of the character beyond the extreme moments. It feels like a very realistic version of what death games or battle royales normally show. I enjoyed it very much, even if sometimes, it's just talking heads. There's fun with perspectives, and some panels have so much personality packed into them. I just wish I didn't see speech bubbles covering a whole page, like a novel with some drawings.

Enjoyment: 6/10
I forced myself to continue at times. By the halfway mark, I felt like dropping out. What kept me there was to see the protagonist grow more, and become smarter, or more interesting. I won't say much, but I did finish it, let that tell you as much as you want.

Overall: 6.8/10
“Liar Game” is much more like a very well drawn novel, with pages that take pretty long to understand and dissect. I did have a blast following some games and their logic, while others are atrocious to get, or too simple for their own good. It stands as a very good psychological manga that's held back by a terrible ending. Really long, fascinating for some people, but for me, it took me too long to commit and finish.

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Oct 27, 2018

AestheticLaifu

Not Recommended

Inglish

I had dropped it months ago and one day two weeks ago I woke up wanting to finish it a good time

History (4/10):
Let's make it very clear, the manga has a null tension thanks to Akiyama (Gary stu)What the mangaka should have done is take the route of the showtime and the momentum as the other manga of the same author "One Outs" where the protagonist is equal a Gary stu but in that work if It has its sense of the show, here on the other side Akiyama more than anything is a very boring character, doesnt awaken any charisma and is just like ...

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Poll: Liar Game Chapter 203 Discussion (Newly Written Chapter 202) Mana - Aug 15, 2016	4 replies	by DebiPS »» Apr 14, 12:48 PM
Poll: Liar Game Chapter 105 Discussion en_____ - Mar 6, 2010	15 replies	by DebiPS »» Apr 4, 6:24 PM
Poll: Liar Game Chapter 22 Discussion Darkreaper70 - Jul 6, 2008	13 replies	by DebiPS »» Mar 21, 5:49 PM
Poll: Liar Game Chapter 138 Discussion belatkuro - Jul 21, 2010	18 replies	by jeffu »» Mar 13, 6:15 AM
Poll: Liar Game Chapter 1 Discussion supersayen - Sep 21, 2010	22 replies	by TheGeno42 »» Feb 22, 7:46 PM

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