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.
Description
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.
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 at the 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
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.
