LIAR GAME

You could already see the difference between how Akiyama and Yokoya conduct the same plan. Akiyama plan to have a honest negotiation with a potential traitor for a (relatively) win-win situation, while Yokoya chooses deception. Well, them being such gullible idiots made that happen too, but still. At any rate, it's a strong showing of Yokoya's prowess. He came up with the same plan as Akiyama and even succeeded conducting it first. How will Akiyama turn around this situation handicapped with dumb teammates? We'll see.

You could already see the difference between how Akiyama and Yokoya conduct the same plan. Akiyama plan to have a honest negotiation with a potential traitor for a (relatively) win-win situation, while Yokoya chooses deception. Well, them being such gullible idiots made that happen too, but still. Akiyama? Honest negotiation? Well, given how in Round 2 he did indeed negotiate with No. 15 on the "enemy" team it's not impossible I suppose. But in this case, the decisive difference is that while Akiyama made his discoveries on Day 2 here, Yokoya already tricked Tsunoda and Eda into transferring 600 million near the end of Day 1. He already struck first, and that's a heavy blow.

Edit: and it felt kinda off that they don’t get a replacement if they lose it. Why did the anime specifically mention that. Makes me think that someone will lose their card next episode. If you think in banking terms it makes sense. In this game, you're allowed to get a card replaced if it doesn't work, but if you don't have the card then how do you prove it's not working? If your reason it's "not working" because you lost it (and some customers will be that dumb), how would you even prove you lost it in the first place and not just hiding it? For all they know, you might just want an excuse to have two working cards to abuse the system with. (Yes they have surveillance cameras but they're playing dumb) And that is why in this game, replacement is only allowed by presenting your malfunctioned card, to ensure only one of that operable card exists at a time.

I don't think calling them gullible idiots is fair. Were you able to come up with akiyama's plan before he explained it in this episode? Well those two guys were in the same situation. And after being told that they were going to lose and that they only had two chances to take the money they went for it. Especially because kikuzawa already told them that yokoya treated his school like a dictatorship. Ofcourse there were going to be some defectors. Are they intelligent? No. But from their perspective it was truly the best thing to do as self preservation.

I think their stupidest action was mainly for not conveying to their team mates what they just did. If they thought they're being helpful, they should just share it with the team rather than hiding it. The third guy's mistake (whch is the most impactful) can fully be avoided if the first or second guy just told the rest of the team of this "strategy". Someone just highlighted the 600 million transfer happened on day 1, so they even had the whole night to come clean.

They were gullible primarily in that this enemy team member tells them this idea, and convinces them that they only have one round to pull it off, which makes them hasty and unable to communicate to their team. The question to ask in that scenario is, why did this enemy team member set up this plan without knowing if they could pull it off. It's the classic "if this is too good to be true, maybe it's not true"

Yeah they are not gullible idiots, they are completely brain dead with nothing inside that skull. Why the fuck would you trust your enemy when you know yokoya rules them with fear, especially considering that guy was yapping so much. A blind begger could've seen that scam coming. Even putting that aside, how have these stupid mfs not at least realized that the key to winning this round and all of the game is to be honest with your teammates, ESPECIALLY akiyama who has already proved he's a genius.

to be fair, I could believe that there may have been discontent in the night team such that some may have wanted to knock Yokoya down a peg, just like there were mini-resistances that popped up in actual dictatorships. This feeling was what Akiyama was counting on to hook a traitor. It's true that most of the Liar Game NPCs aren't the sharpest tools in the shed, but it makes sense why they fell into the scam. To them, it felt like all upside and little risk since they didn't see the full scope of how that would possibly help Yokoya.

Your bank account is physically located in the opposite country . When the rounds end, money remaining in the ATM will be seized by the respective country and divided equally among the players. So you want to empty your bank account and place it in the other ATM (because you get to seize it later). What is 0 is the Night's bank accounts that is in Day's ATM. The money have been moved to Day's bank accounts, that will be seized by the Night when the rounds end.

I've been looking forward to the "you can actually smuggle" reveal, because in the manga it made me realize just how complicated the games can be. The Contraband Game is still one of my favorite arcs because of it. Also this episode highlights why I personally feel Nao is tolerable even early in the story. She's not gullible because she's greedy, she's gullible because until now she hasn't truly confronted the reality that her standards of trust and honesty aren't universal. Compare Eda etc, who literally hear 300 million and let all thinking go out the window, despite Akiyama telling them that an empty ATM was important the day before. They make me want to yell "you fucking idiots", while Nao makes me go "I know it's sad, but people can be liars".

I've been looking forward to the "you can actually smuggle" reveal, because in the manga it made me realize just how complicated the games can be. The Contraband Game is still one of my favorite arcs because of it. What's brilliant about the Contraband Game is that while the Dealers give you the "official" rules for how to play the game and make a big deal about the Inspection Room showdowns, looking back it was carefully orchestrated theatrics and misdirection. Very carefully worded so that the full extent of the banking system is lost to you, deliberately leaving out so many other details and gaps in the rules that players are fully permitted to exploit, if they can spot them. Able to withdraw AND deposit Able to use cards other than your own Sound as though 100 million is the withdrawal limit because "case can only carry 100 million" Play down the significance of the ATM balance, etc. This game effectively pulled off The Stanley Parable years before it was a thing: you can play the game following the developers' "intended narrative" via the Inspector-Smuggler duels that was presented upfront... or you can go off-script, find and discover exploits, ignore the narrator and forge your own strange story (and the developers let you anyway) And indeed, what seemed like a stiff, rigid, linear game has now veered into directions stranger than anyone could've predicted. A turn-based game is in fact a sandbox GTA This out-of-the-rules aspect is what makes Round 3 still so beloved to this day, and forever trained our expectations for future games going forward. Also this episode highlights why I personally feel Nao is tolerable even early in the story. She's not gullible because she's greedy, she's gullible because until now she hasn't truly confronted the reality that her standards of trust and honesty aren't universal. This part was when it really sank in that so many other players perform worse than Nao, in ability and now mentally too after all the growth she went through. (Admittedly I only got into Liar Game for real back when this series of chapters was happening, but going back to start from Ch 1 I still felt the impact) Compare Eda etc, who literally hear 300 million and let all thinking go out the window, despite Akiyama telling them that an empty ATM was important the day before. They make me want to yell "you fucking idiots", while Nao makes me go "I know it's sad, but people can be liars". Tsunoda and Eda got tricked before Akiyama explained "low ATM is good" (not that they're faultless). Kitamura though has no excuses, even if he hadn't heard the details to Akiyama's new plan (kind of an actual misplay on Akiyama's part)

Agreed with the Contraband Game, and it's part of why I love this micro-genre of "weird exploitable complex games played by people it debt". Kaitani and Fukumoto are the only two real authors in it IIRC, and I think that's because it's such a hard micro-genre to write for. You have to make the games layered in ways that leave the reader thinking "well, what else is there? maybe I can figure it out" without being so obtuse and deus ex machina that the reader rolls their eyes. The closest analogue is mystery fiction, but since they aren't tied to "how did this person die" it makes the possibilities for what happened even wider. Tsunoda and Eda got tricked before Akiyama explained "low ATM is good" (not that they're faultless). Kitamura though has no excuses, even if he hadn't heard the details to Akiyama's new plan (kind of an actual misplay on Akiyama's part) I missed that with Eda and Tsunoda, but oh boy, Kitamura... I will say that they were definitely idiots not telling Akiyama immediately, though, the moment he revealed the "success" (not "win") condition. And yeah, Akiyama's misstep here highlights why Nao is so important: he's not willing to rule by fear because he's still fundamentally a goodish person, so he relies on tricking people and carefully balanced greed. But sometimes, the only play for someone not willing to become a demon is honesty.

And yeah, Akiyama's misstep here highlights why Nao is so important: he's not willing to rule by fear because he's still fundamentally a goodish person, so he relies on tricking people and carefully balanced greed. But sometimes, the only play for someone not willing to become a demon is honesty. That's the thing, forget ruling by fear, one fascinating aspect of Akiyama is that if he doesn't have to, he doesn't want to lead. Specifically, Akiyama unquestioningly has leadership qualities, and in team settings all allies turn to him if strategic leadership is what they seek. But he himself always conducts as just another equal team member and not a leader, in stark contrast to Yokoya who likes sitting on top. Akiyama leaves his allies with more freedom and autonomy than intuitive in the Liar Game, and team/morale management is effectively left to Nao and Fukunaga. It all makes for some fascinating dichotomy. Agreed with the Contraband Game, and it's part of why I love this micro-genre of "weird exploitable complex games played by people it debt". Kaitani and Fukumoto are the only two real authors in it IIRC, and I think that's because it's such a hard micro-genre to write for. You have to make the games layered in ways that leave the reader thinking "well, what else is there? maybe I can figure it out" without being so obtuse and deus ex machina that the reader rolls their eyes. It's also their ability to incorporate logical mathematics and emotional psychology into their scenarios that make them so irreplaceable. Even now with Kamo no Negi ni wa Doku ga Aru / There is Poison in the Duck's Leek , about an economics professor counter-scamming scammers, it's as though Kaitani-sensei's well of genius could never run dry after so many works. And underpinning all the battles and manipulations of smart people, you can sense his philosophy that human weakness should be something treated with compassion and it's not right to trample them. I really like that.

That's the thing, forget ruling by fear, one fascinating aspect of Akiyama is that if he doesn't have to, he doesn't want to lead. Definitely harkens back to when he was a kid with his mom. He got the "lone wolf working hard" mentality and has never fully escaped it. Nao challenges him to not only helping people in a broad, altruistic sense (taking down a giant scam), but actually helping people personally. That requires leadership. It's also their ability to incorporate logical mathematics and emotional psychology into their scenarios that make them so irreplaceable. The math is definitely a big one. There needs to be proper consistency to make a game really click. It reminds me of solving recreational math puzzles, actually, in how you suddenly look past the obvious path and see the real mathematical interaction the problem's designer wanted you to see. And underpinning all the battles and manipulations of smart people, you can sense his philosophy that human weakness should be something treated with compassion and it's not right to trample them. I really like that. I recall that one of the fan translators for Fukumoto's work gave up because as a Christian, he thought it was getting too negative about human nature during Kaiji 's Salvation Game arc. But I feel like a genre like this only works when the author stubbornly insists humans can be good despite it all, and that neither Fukumoto nor Kaitani have lost that.

Agreed with the Contraband Game, and it's part of why I love this micro-genre of "weird exploitable complex games played by people it debt". Kaitani and Fukumoto are the only two real authors in it IIRC, and I think that's because it's such a hard micro-genre to write for. I'd also throw in Sako Toshio, the mangaka behind Usogui, with the caveat that about half the manga is dedicated to fights based around the fact that the only ones enforcing the rules are a league of elite martial artists employed by a secret society dedicated to upholding political and business elites making deals through these sorts of games. There are a few individual beats there that veer into science fiction territory, but it generally stays focused on these sorts of clever exploitations of specific rules.

That’s a completely out-of-the-box thinking. Who’d thought that the key to winning the smuggling game is to actually smuggle the money, beyond the scope of the game itself? If even Akiyama readily admitted that Yokoya frightened him, then he’s clearly something and he just proved it. Not only did Yokoya execute the plan before Akiyama could, he did one better by not using a turncoat, but unwilling pawns instead. There’s no need to feel the candidates. The country of day’s in deep shit. Clearly there’s no way they could use the plan now. Currently, he’s outwitted by Yokoya. He needed to find another way if he wanted to turn the table around.

If even Akiyama readily admitted that Yokoya frightened him, then he’s clearly something and he just proved it. Not only did Yokoya execute the plan before Akiyama could, he did one better by not using a turncoat, but unwilling pawns instead. There’s no need to feel the candidates. They don't say it out, but Yokoya actually did feel the candidates... while serving as the "clairvoyant" Inspector he got to feel out most if not all of Dayside. If you trace back to the post-clairvoyant turns of the game from the previous Ep 14 to Ep 15 today, among the suckers from Dayside Yokoya opted to avoid Fukunaga, Akiyama and Kanzaki for his plan. I repeat, Yokoya opted to avoid Kanzaki Nao for his plan, deeming her too strong-willed to fall victim . That is some high implicit praise for our girl, how far she's come. The crazy thing is, Nao started off looking weak because of her personality and because she draws aggro easily; but in terms of ability she might actually be better than many other players in the Liar Game...

I think it's just because Nao is too honest. She would fall for the plan because she would think she's helping the team, but unlike the greedy dummies, she will instantly tell everyone what she did. If Nightside tried tricking her, it won't even get that far: the trick involved (1) explaining the deposit idea to the Dayside victim while they're serving as Inspector and (2) let them complete the deposit when they serve as Smuggler the very next turn per their current rotation, so Nao would've absolutely informed her team in-between (1) and (2) and decide "no, I won't deposit". But even before that, Nao has learnt to doubt people and is always shown to be good with maths, so she'll likely sense that depositing would be a bad idea somehow. All in all, no point bothering with Nao when there're other confirmed easier fish to fry.

Thinking of putting this on hold until the arc is complete. I just can't be patient with this 5 minutes episode. The suspense is killing me! I guessed correctly that the sure win plan wouldn't work. This is the type of story where they love to surprise us on last minute, so Akiyama laying his plan fully means it would not work narrative-wise. However, I didn't expect for Yokoya to did the same thing first with a more sleazy way!

Akiyama laid out a lot of rules that felt like it's important to note: ATMS can be used to both withdraw and deposit at any amount There is no limit to both withdrawing and depositing You do not have to be the owner to use the card Depositing using the card's owner will go into the owner's third-country account You can replace a broken card, but not a lost one You can't receive your prize money if you don't have your card I do feel there's a reason why this information was laid out like that and about half of those were utilized this episode outside testing. I'm looking forward to see what mostly Akiyama and Nao will do with such a big ATM discrepancy.

Definitely one of my favorite moments of the story. Akiyama experimenting with the card mechanics feels very realistic, he really challenges everyone's assumptions about the rules of the game. Then seeing Akiyama came up with a crazy complex plan, only to realize Yokoya already thought of it and used it against him in a better way (since he doesn't have to pay the traitors) was mindblowing the first time I read.

Two options exist: 1) counter smuggle the money back into the country of night's atm. 2) successfully deposit over half of the total money in the game into their third party account via smuggling through the interrogation room. 2 seems crazy difficult at this point, but 1 is the thing yokoya would be most on guard against. My guess is akiyama subverts the rules in a way to make 2 happen, but makes it look like he's aiming for 1

If we go by Akiyama's statement that people can be controlled through either fear or greed, all that's really changed is how much they need to appeal to someone's greed for them to overcome their fear of losing. Also, since there's no limit to how much money can be transferred between ATMs, their balance doesn't actually matter until the last person to smuggle takes their turn since they can irreversibly change the balances to whatever they want.

Nothing in the rules say that the money has to be in the ATM, it just has to be on the country's side, which is clearly shown by the split floor areas. So if you hide it, whichever country the money is sitting in at the end is probably the team the money goes to. That being the case though, only the smuggler is allowed to move that money around but there aren't that many places to hide the physical money from what is shown so far of the game's location setting. So you would have to do something about that somehow to avoid the money being easily spotted.

Damn. Yokoya beat Akiyama this series of rounds. Nao being called a series of adjectives by Akliyama still hurt me, but he wrapped it up saying that it could be their strongest asset. Except that none of the Country of Night people are trustworthy. They are playing it up that they all fear Yokoya, and their little side offerings are all part of Yokoya's greater plan. I don't know how much observation in the inspection room, or staring through the glass across the airport lounges is going to determine whether any of the Night players will defect. All of the Day players, save 3 are stupidly selfish and greedy. How do you get them to all be in line like working in a company? You can't force them like it appears Yokoya is doing. I think they all deserve a good old fashioned beat up by Fukunaga. I feel like with the card experiments Akiyama explained, breaking the cards at some point might come into play. Either that or someone will have possession of the cards to restrict or control how they are used.

It's the second day of the Contraband Game, and Akiyama is making his move. Akiyama was able to get 50 million yen out of cool glasses guy, but that wasn't the point of this round. It was to experiment and prove various things: A. they can take and deposite more than the 100 million they can "smuggle" over and B. they can replace their cards if they're destroyed (RIP Nao's first card). Now the key is that they need to start smuggling money directly from THEIR ATM into the Country of Day's ATM! Akiyama is aware of all of Nao's character flaws, but he's also aware that she's very disarming, cute, and able to get people to let down their guards and be more open with her than they would be otherwise. She has great empathy and ability to understand people, which makes her the perfect person to feel out a possible collaborator among the Country of Day. Once they have that collaborator, they'll help them smuggle the money they need! It's just a matter of figuring out who they can trust, convincing them, and pulling a fast one on Yokoya. And it's telling that Akiyama is, for once, slightly intimidated facing down Yokoya. Tsunoda, Eda, what did you do!? Oh yeah, how convenient that this Tatsuji guy would be willing to betray Yokoya and screw him over by stealing conveniently placed money in their ATM why not take all that money and put it in YOUR ATM and ruin his "plan?" It's foolproof. It's rare for Nao to be on the other side of seeing someone get tricked and be stupid, though Eda gets a Fukunaga kick to the face for his trouble. Nao must be surprisingly strong to be able to hold off Fukunaga from beating the guys up even more. Kitamura, not you too!? Now they've totally drained the Country of Day's ATM into THEIR ATM, meaning they got their own plan used against them before they could even use it as Akiyama and Yokoya stare at each other from their respective "nation."

Akiyama is aware of all of Nao's character flaws, but he's also aware that she's very disarming, cute, and able to get people to let down their guards and be more open with her than they would be otherwise. She has great empathy and ability to understand people, which makes her the perfect person to feel out a possible collaborator among the Country of Day. Fun fact, there is an actual psychology term for Nao's "passive": Tension Reduction . I've come to love this trait of hers, and how it compliments Akiyama. He is too intimidating and people will be less inclined to talk in front of him since he could always be up to something, so having her around to relax people makes it easier for allies and enemies to chatter. (One can further speculate that Akiyama is no exception and is self-aware at that: he wouldn't be as open to anyone else outside of Nao, and thus wouldn't be as cooperative with whoever other prospective allies he'd encounter) In a sense, Nao has the disposition to be a great scout, and in the Liar Game making wary people talk is very useful.