LIAR GAME

My favourite manga of all time finally getting an anime after 20 years is already exciting, but reading all the impressions from people experiencing the story for the first time is even more exciting! So happy people are giving this a chance! This story get's better and better the further it goes (until it peaks at a certain point that I won't mention here) so it will be even better to see the reactions as we go\~!

Ootsuka Takeo playing another conman after Trillion Game.  It's sad how honest she is, the way she was relieved after Fujisawa took her money since she had been "guarding" the money by sleeping in front of it and not getting proper sleep, I'm glad for her that Akiyama agreed to help her. Fortunately for him, any theft isn't considered a crime.  I do wonder how they'll take the money since Fujisawa knows their faces. Akiyama is good at disguises so maybe pretending to be the bank clerk?  I am curious to see how Akiyama uses Nao's stupid honesty as a weapon for his cons, I think that's what I'm most looking forward to, other than satisfying cons in general.

Couldn't resist yelling, "*you bloody idiot*" at Nao when she handed the money over to Fujisawa for '*safekeeping*'. She truly was honest to a fault. Granted, I could see why she trusted him which made it even more heartbreaking when she saw him with his mask off. Akiyama was mentioned to be a con-artist but the only specific crime linked to him so far was taking down a corrupt executive. Could he be similar to Robin Hood but with conning instead of plain thievery? That's perhaps why he accepted to help Nao. The 50% fee was just a bonus, or perhaps he's lying about that and he's ready to help her for free due to his morals. Plot twist: Seeing as he's a con-artist, it'd be hilarious if he intended to nick all 200 million yen and leave both Nao and Fujisawa in debt. Sure, Nao seemed like a gullible dumbfuck but this looked to be a golden opportunity for her to grow. With Akiyama guiding her, I wonder how she'd be by the end of this series. PS: I get Aqua had gone through a lot in his life, but to think he'd end up in jail.

I am actually positively surprised. From the trailers I assumed this to be one of those series where they are thrown into a series of weird games where they have to lie to win, but this might be way more straight forward. Just get the money from a person who suspects they will be robbed in the two day time period. I assume this means there will be a lot of prep work for the final "heist" to go well. Of course, there is the chance that something goes wrong during the heist, Nao doesn't get the 100 Mio back and we do get the aforementioned series of games, but knowing Trillion Game, that would be a bit of a different take. So I do suspect some actual showcases of scamming like in Trillion Game, but keeping it somewhat based in reality (as much as that works with the setup that tbf, is a bit contrived).

100 mill yen is around 626K USD for those wondering. Nao is honestly the last person who should have gotten that money. She’s honest to a fault and too naive. Look how easily she got tricked by her dear old sensei. One thing in wondering is if they’re able to get the money “by any means necessary” then isn’t physical harm or even murder on the table? If that’s the case, old man could just have a fall… For the first ep, this was good. Haven’t seen or heard the name “Liar Game” since that J-Drama like 15-20 years ago so it was nice to catch this adaptation. Keen to see how it plays out.

3 minutes into the episode, and she already lied to her dying father... **HONEST, MY ASS!** Love how they thought bringing back 100 yen is so childish, they asked how old she was! So our girl is honest to a fault! I wonder if they were truly selected randomly... Or if they picked good candidates for a game! (Some scammers/conmen, some honest ones, etc..) This bit alone tells us a lot about the game/the organization... They're at least some levels of evil! If they only gave the players an opportunity it would be more debatable (or if they registered them soon as they spend any amount of this money), but she didn't even do anything just yet, and they still forced her in! Any means necessary... Violence? It's meant to be a game of deception, lies, schemes and all that, BUT if they don't say anything against violence...? Go back to the cops, tell them the 100 yen was yours after all; You'll need everything you can get! Being honest is a virtue, but being so hopelessly naive, is a flaw! It's sad how honest people are so often naive, because they think others should all be like them... The sleep will be good, but the 'waking up' will be quite brutal.. Wait, why did the cops play along with that? Alright, I'll headcanon this as "They agreed just to get the reporters away"! Well, you won't get arrested unless you're bad at this, right? Honestly, at this point she could just hire some thugs to steal it from the teacher... (Unless there's some smallprints we didn't see against violence). I guess the issue is to get them to only take 100 million, and not the whole 200m! Hah, that's what I was saying... Honest is fine; Stupid is not! I sure hope he has a plan beyond that, otherwise he's just as stupid hah. Interesting to see the different perspective on this 'opportunity'; Some think "I'm saved!" because they think of the prize money, others think "I'm cursed!" because they think of the debt! Wait, there's something else they didn't consider... If he does NOT withdraw the money from the bank in time, he's gonna 'lose' the game and be 100 million in debt... Right? ..But then he can just withdraw it a day later, pay back his 100m debt, and still pockets HER 100m? Why is this not a good strategy? He only needs to withdraw it in time if he cares more about "winning the game" than he cares about money, but if he's smart he'll take the loss and pocket 100m... I wonder if they'll address that 'loophole' (that could completely ruin their strategy) Our boy got himself a good deal at least! No risk, all reward; If they fail, 'sucks to be her!' If they win, he gets 50m! I suppose the only 'downside' for him could be that perhaps the organization will forcibly register him in the game given he's involved, but I'm sure he can handle it! Well, that was a promising start! Some scenes are a little silly at times (like the scene at the lawyer), but other than that, it's quite interesting!

What if Constance Grail was paired up with Aqua Hoshino? Nao Kanzaki is a cute girl who is honest and sincere to a fault! The type of person who would turn in a coin at a police box at age 18 because it's the right thing to do. So of course one day she gets roped into the mysterious "Liar Game," where she ends up with tons of money and gets pitted against others to either keep, gain or be wracked in debt with the money. Nao isn't looking to get rich, all she cares about is taking care of her terminally ill father dealing with cancer. Her lawyer isn't really much help because he can't see much he can do with the situation she's in...though imagine having a lawyer whose best advice for a sketchy situation is to call in a "con man" for help. Thankfully for Nao her first opponent in the Liar Game...is none other than her middle school teacher Fujisawa! He was really there for her when he taught her, and she knows she can trust him, his advice, and with her money when he talks her into giving it to him. Of course, Nao is so honest to a fault, that when she even suspects Fujisawa for a second she feels guilty enough to visit his home to personally apologize...and overhear him raving about how he swindled her. Say it ain't so, Fujisawa-sensei! Left with no other option, Nao seeks the assistance of a con man...and a "genius con man," at that. Shinichi Akiyama (Takeo Ohtsuka!) exposed a corrupt company and has just finished his prison sentence, even if he's already conning people by tricking the newshounds into following someone else. It shows the kind of guy he is that he can be on good enough terms with the guards to get a uniform to help put on a show. He also has no interest of returning to life of crime or getting involved in Nao's situation, even if she won't give up on recruiting him. And as someone who is willing to stand around and wait hours for him when he tricks her to ditch her, the least he can do is remove some pick-up artists and here her out. Turns out Fujisawa was always kind of scummy when he received kickbacks for the class trips he would take students on, and how eventually getting reported ruined his life and drove his family away. He can't believe in anyone and he can't rely on anyone. It breaks Nao's heart, but Akiyama figures out the best chance for them to steal back her money. Now it's heist time.

Not a huge fan of this first episode. The setup felt too contrived for me to get absorbed into the story. The visuals are lacking but serviceable. Music and sfx didn't seem to be given much thought, but I did watch on my TV instead of with headphones, so I could just be wrong. The episode got more interesting as it went on, and I'm hoping it'll continue to get more interesting. The source material is legendary, so I'm still going to give it a try, but this wasn't a great intro for me.

Nao is stupidly honestly but what's wrong with that? though in her case it's not just being honest it's being insanely naive. Like not lying is good but that doesn't mean you gotta just listen and trust everything other people say. Like someone says if you stand in the rain for 5 days straight you'll cure your dads cancer and she'll actually do that. Being honestly etc is fine but you still gotta some logic and think you know? Still I really do hope we get to see her development. It's probably going to slow but still I want to see it. Overall not bad first ep. The art style probably going to put a lot of people off, and the animation quality is nothing to write home about but for this typeof show you don't really need to have crazy Sakuga or anything right so it should be fine? It's not like it's horribly animated either ngl better than I thought or maybe my expectations were just too low? I'm excited to watch more of this.