Many people have been accusing me of giving up on 2D (nijigen) and moving on to 3D (sanjigen). Well that is just not true. There’s no reason why you can’t like both. Anyway, I’ve been watching Liar Game, a live action adaptation of the semi-popular somewhat-obscure manga series by the same name.
It’s a highly-flawed show that is nevertheless engaging enough to draw you back for another. Or maybe not. Read on…
Nao Kanzaki is a down-to-Earth honest-to-God girl who has probably never told a single lie in her life before, i.e. a super boring and fictitious person. One day, she finds a box containing a hundred million yen outside her door, along with an invitation to participate in the “Liar Game Tournament”, a game where, as its name implies, you are supposed to lie and cheat other contestants out of their money, i.e. the worst game a girl like her could possibly take part in.
“Hi, I am Nao. Please cheat me of my money.”
Now it may seem like no big deal to get cheated out of your gajillion yen since yen is worthless and the money was provided by the organizers in the first place. However, the catch is that at the end of the game all players must return a hundred million yen back to the organizers or they will own your sorry ass with a camel whip. So if you manage to steal/cheat/rob money from other players, you will earn a net profit after returning your original portion of the money, whereas those gullible fools who got cheated will become sex slaves for the organizers to repay their debts. Players are allowed to use any means of obtaining their opponents’ money within a time limit of 30 days with no risk of being prosecuted by law.
“Those whose names are written in this notebook will…” Ops wrong show.
All the above rules were explained by this clown-like creep, who is apparently the dealer of this game, in this video tape that came along with the invitation. That thing freaks me out. It spent the entire duration of the video oscillating back and forth in a vaguely menacing manner while its face is transfixed in a perpetual fusion of shock and joy. And just what kind of secret organization powerful enough to be immune from law uses VHS tapes in this day and age. It would have been much more apt if the introductory video was sent via YouTube.
Fear my shiny bald head!
Of course Nao, being the kind and honest girl that she is, got owned by her opponent before the first commercial break. Boohoo. Desperate for help, she turned to an expert conman, Shin’ichi Akiyama, who was coincidentally just released from prison. He agreed to help her on the condition that he receives half of her prize money, which works out to fifty million yen. (Two hundred million yen in total between the two contestants, one hundred million goes back to the organizers, therefore the maximum prize money is one hundred million and half of it is fifty. Wow I are smart!)
Ignorance is bliss.
If Nao is the stereotypical good girl with a heart of pure gold, then Shin’ichi is the cold and fierce-looking misunderstood guy with a sad angsty past. What am I talking about, they ARE exactly that. These people do not exist in real life. They both piss the hell out of me with their predictability and shallow characters. So anyway, he agrees to help out and together they pull off a somewhat clever plan and etcetera etcetera. You can guess the rest.
“I am bad!”
While it sounds like I hate the show to its core, that is absolutely not true. The premise is actually pretty interesting and creates enough suspense for the viewer to feel a sense of anticipation for the final revelation of each arc. Although you have to admit that the timing of this whole thing most definitely points to an attempt at cashing in on the whole hype over pseudo-intellectual psychological thrillers started by Death Note. (Erika Touda, the actress of Nao, played Misa Misa in the movies.)
Ooo… lanterns.
Speaking of Erika, she, along with Shouta Matsuda (Shin’ichi), are the two largest flaws in the entire series. They just can’t act. I think she did a lot better as Mariko in Nobuta wo Produce because she didn’t actually have much acting to do. The thing she does best, and about the only thing she does well, is looking cute. Shouta on the other hand makes me want to punch his face out with his forced “I don’t give a damn” look that is more like “I’m trying to look like I don’t give a damn but I have no idea what I am doing”.
So far three episodes of Liar Game have aired and it appears that every two episodes will be one round of the tournament, with one “introductory” episode and one “revelation” episode, though I have never read the manga so I am not sure.
Despite the weak acting and other imperfections, the series benefits a great deal from its story concept and thus manages to maintain a sufficient level of interest for me to recommend it. So, uh, go watch it…or something.
P.S. the best part of episode one was when Nao was chased away by this Chinese road sweeper lady who basically said the equivalent of “fuck off” in Mandarin because she was sleeping in front of a shop house in this Chinatown-y place. Cool stuff.
Looks good. I’ll try it if I get a chance.
Never heard of the manga before XD
A lot of people said that this show is predictable.
While I agree, it still doesn’t take away the enjoyment of this show for me.
The psychological attack seemed realistic, even I could fall for that attack =/. *waits for episode 3 to be subbed*
Wow,the “fuck off” in chinese is enough to make me download this lol.
You lie. You are no longer part of the otaku elite because you see real people.
Haha…I can acept real people’s acting too….Don’t forget the movie is based on a manga so it is still can consider as ….urr…. human-anime?
^.^
There’s a “fuck off” in Chinese? :O
Zou kai ba!
No, that’s too weak.
Wan ba dan!
That’s an insult.
Ni gai wo gun!
That’s so…ancient Chinese Emperor slapping down a subordinate.
What did the old woman say?!
Yeh, I don’t think Erika Toda is a good actor except in Nobuta wo Produce. Nothing can beat Nobuta wo Produce but.
I guess I’ll try this drama.
P.S It’s OK to like
Comment got eaten up.
PS It’s OK to like 3D and 2D as well :3
I disagree with your opinion on Toda Erika’s acting as I think she is a very versatile actress. Is her cutesy acting annoying in Liar Game? Definitely. However, I think she pulls off a range of characters like in NObuta like u mentioned or the tsundere in Gal Circle and even cheerful best friend in Tatta Hitotsu no Koi.
As for the dude, well ofcourse he’s going to give that “i don’t care cuz im so cool” look, they have to milk the fact that he was in the F4.
Ok, so maybe I was exaggerating about the “fuck off” part.
Lol all I heard the old lady say was zou kai ah or qi lai ah.
The show is awesome,it made me call up all my friends and tell them the story right after the 3rd episode,perfect psychological thriller!
Wow, I just finished watching the second episode and went to surf anime blogs and I see this. XD レãƒãƒ‹ãƒ© (the masked dude or whatever) scares the shit out of me, and I was watching this at night even though it isn’t supposed to be scary…
I want to read the manga but the only language I can find it in is Chinese, which I can’t read even though I’m Singaporean. For fail. D:
http://www.darkmirage.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/02_lg4.jpg
Is this suppose to be a parody of SAW?
Hello Nao, i like to play a game…(LOL~)
well i’ve watched the first 3 episodes and its quite good hmmm i dont know if whats going to happen to nao if shin’ichi is not around well i still want to know more about shin’ichi and the policeman that recommended shin’ichi to be nao’s accomplice in the first round well liar game is a good series and i will be waiting for the next episodes
sounds interesting. What happened to MF by the way?
the old woman only said :zou kai!!
which only means :go away or get lost…not even fuck off
I like the show is exting and predible too i agree. but in intersing to watch
The video looks similar to the one in The Saw …
opps late reply… now i know why that girl and the name of the show looked so darn familiar… coz it was featured in one of the japanese movie megazines that had a death note last name review… =.=””
I think Shota did a good job in this series. I’ve always noticed that out of the F4 actors in HYD, he’s the only one that could act and could actually show the sophisticated life he leads (the other 3 were just horrible.)
And I have to say that he s been doing well in this series. I felt like his acting has improved a lot and definitely better than most japanese actors out there that i’ve seen.
so I dont know what could you be possibly hoping for?
Your post sounds more like you think dissing actors/actresses will make you sound more smart and more like you actually know something about their acting? (and this is basically what all those critics out there do hah)
Anyway its ur opinion so w/e :)
@sunmoon: To be honest, there isn’t really too much acting involved in Liar Game. Possibly due to the lack of any character development so far.
I’m not at all impressed with Toda Erika and Matsuda Shota. In fact, I think Toda Erika is just plain overrated, still riding on her “Death Note” fame. Give me other young actresses like Nagasawa Masami, Miyazaki Aoi, Inoue Mao and Ueno Juri any day.
I haven’t seen Shota in HYD, but here in Liar Game, all he did was just basically acting cool and confident. He needs more challenging roles to develop a great range in his acting.
For the time being, I’m sticking with young actors like Yamada Takayuki, Ninomiya Kazunari, Tsumabuki Satoshi and veterans like Abe Hiroshi, Oda Yuji and Kimura Takuya.
predictable, drawn-out, and Toda Erika’s character is unintelligent to the extremes. aside from those aspects, the series is alright so far.
I just watch because the guy is so hot!
…kidding. ^ ^
IT’S TOO GOOD FOR ME,,,SHOTA MATSUDA IS TOO VERY HANDSOME
shota is very handsome,,,and jun matsumoto,,,shun oguri,,,jin akanishi,,,teppei koike and kazuya kanenashi,,,their talent is very impresive,,,i want to go to japan,,,to see them,,,yuki in hanayori dango and shota are very good couples,,,shota matsuda please read this,,,jejeje,,,
just finished watching episode 7 >_
T_T my message got eaten
anywayz, I was wondering: does anyone know where I can read the manga? Chinese is fine too
Thanks for the post. I was looking for some info on this series and you’ve provided just that. I’m gonna check it out and hope the acting isn’t as bad as you’ve mentioned…
^_^ And even if it is, the SAW imitation video and the interesting idea of the liar game should keep me going, right?
Thanks! XD
I must say that I am not pleased with Erika Toda-san’s acting skills at all. She was okay in Nobuta wo produce, but then again, her character didn’t have that many scenes to begin with. She definitely needs to work on her expressions and range more. ^^;; (I apologize to any fans of Toda-san)
As for Shota Mutsuda-san…he was great in HYD, but I can’t say the same for his role as Akiyama-san. Some of his “wicked cool” expressions here seem a bit forced here. It’s almost a reflection of his Soujiroh character in HYD. However, he does a better job in his performance when compared to Erika Toda.
As for the story plot in “Liar Game” — interesting concept….weakly developed — But don’t let this stop you from checking this series out. It does present enough bits of enticing brain-teasing moments of fun to keep you interested till the end. If you like “Kurosagi” or the “Trick’ series, spare a few moments of your free time to check “Liar Game” out.
it’s predictable, alright, but the sound effects and all those imagings make the story interesting. the riyuu of the game sounds a bit cliche but it’s still worth watching.
I would love it if anyone could tell me who number 15 is !!! i wanna knowT_T arigatou gozaimasu
talk about dramatic. although i agree. the show is interesting and exiting.
how many episodes of this are there total? i found 10 episodes here: http://www.mysoju.com/liar-game/… are there any more? i searched for the manga but only found one chapter here: http://www.onemanga.com/Liar_Game/.. i love this show! someone help me find the rest :(
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She was hot but pretty stupid… I should have known better.
However, the pure size and variety of coupons in the Weekend document
can a lot more than offset the price of the membership.
Are you sure about the sexual enslavement?