LIAR GAME

It would be hard for even geniuses to come up with these plans from the start. Many of Akiyama's and Yokoya's strategies are not only dependent on the ruleset, but also on the psychology of the players and in context of a certain game state. So they initially had to feel out the other team members/structure/strategy as well as experiment to test the limits of the game rules. A very impressive display of intelligence from both of them to be able to devise mind-blowing plans and tricks on the fly.

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Calling Nao the leader of the Country of Day is a bold move! I suspected Akiyama was going to bait out more than one traitor. The first traitor spilled out all the details of how Yokoya got his reins over the Country of Night people. What we can learn is, money buys people for things because of personal greed. That is really all there is to Yokoya, his vast supply of money to give him the leg up in negotiations. Akiyama deliberately losing 50 million to start off the new plan sent Fukunaga in a fit of rage. I wonder if Nao is secretly strong, strong enough to hold the violent Fukunaga from punching Akiyama in the face! Looks like Yokoya has caught on, because the 3 stooges can't act to save their lives...

Not specific amount, but within a necessary margin. We can math out that if the objective is to get all 9 Day players and the 3 Night players to exit the game with no debt left: Dayside Round 3 debt: 9 players x 400 million = 3600 million Dayside Round 2 debt: 7 players x 100 million = 700 million (since Akiyama and Nao have none) Nightside Round 3 debt: 3 players x 400 million = 1200 million Nightside Round 2 debt: 3 players x 100 million = 300 million Nightside Revival Round debt: 3 players x 100 million = 300 million So with this objective, the total for all 12 players, across all their internal and 3rd country accounts, has to come to 6100 million / 6.1 billion

Akiyama is so good. Out of a dire situation, he was able to exploit asymmetric information to make a convincing bluff and heavily pressure the bandana guy's sense of security, before offering salvation, a way out, with Nao's presence making it credible. Who wouldn't be tempted by that? But Yokoya said that whoever is disloyal to him, he will bring hell... we'll see if Nao and Akiyama can keep their promise of protection.

That’s an impressive feat to save the Day country out of a certain defeat. The Night countryfolks (rightly) suspected Akiyama of bluffing, but couldn’t verify it. They’d be in deep shit should he turn out to be telljng the truth. Yokoya’s beginning to sense something’s odd but hadn’t caught onto the plan yet. I reckon he’d eventually get there once Akiyama met the final trickster. There’s no way it’s a coincidence that Akiyama happened to be the inspector in all three cases. Love how Akiyama told bandana man the contrast between Yokoya and Nao. While the former ruled through iron fist, the latter showed nothing but compassion. It’s far more challenging to turn the Day countryfolk than the Night, which was why Yokoya had to use the unwilling pawn method instead.

Yokoya's been 10 steps ahead of the Country of Day before they even really knew what game they were playing. Is there any way they can come back from this!? The three idiots acted selfishly, they didn't think about the team at all when it came to making more money for themselves...but they at least have enough of a conscience to come clean and be honest about it, which means they're not hopeless! Nor is the Country of Day's chances. All it took was getting Akiyama in front of Bandana and making him think that 1.91 million yen they took...was never deposited in their ATM. Meaning it's still in play and will come back to bite the Country of Night by the end of the game. And that means getting on Yokoya's bad side as we see just how much fear his team has for him. Imagine if you're in the revival game, downsizing, just like Nao and co. did...only Yokoya appears out of nowhere and starts bribing you to betray everyone else so he comes out on top and can sell votes until you're fully dominated by him. Sure you'll be lucky to end up in the black as he shows mercy, but that's just to emphasize how much you need to play ball and be loyal to him. Also, the dude can really slide up to you when you least expect...like when you're taking a leak. But the Country of Day is different! They've got Nao who doesn't have a greedy bone in her body! I wouldn't call her the "leader" but if it helps sell the pitch and that her team is the salvation Bandana is looking for, all the better! Welcome to the Country of Day, Bandana-san! I feel like Nao's new job is keeping Fukunaga from punching people. So at this point the Country of Day needs to start losing money and having Bandana move money over for them...but can they pull this off, grab more turncoats, before Yokoya catches on? He already seems to realize something was off. Maybe don't celebrate like you're turning things around and he can see you, guys.

i know Akiyama can only do the convincing a traitor part but it feels so obvious that he plans to do something. Akiyama only involved himself to just the people that tricked 3 of the country of day members. Yokoya can just make the other people look out to those 3 if they try to do something fishy. Or hell he is a dictator he can just outright tell it to them directly that they are traitors, intimidate them or make an example of one of them and just like that they wont ever think of betraying Yokoya.

Polite way of saying "He targetted the 3 he thought were dumbest in the team"! (But hey, he didn't pick Nao; That's a good sign for her gamer progression!) Going for the reverse jinx, good strat! That opportunity may have passed... The fact that it's the same plan (like Fukunaga said) isn't even the main problem, the main problem is that they think they're winning. Why risk that for a dubious betrayal plan? So there was 2 ways to go about it; 1) Make it personal (your team will lose but YOU personally will win, we'll make sure of that), and 2) Try to make them believe they are NOT winning. Akiyama chose the latter! The fact that they admitted they did it for themselves was good, at least; OBVIOUSLY they did it for themselves, so if they said they did it for the team it'd mean even after being caught they have no intention of being honest, so they'd be a lost cause. No, but it could be cathartic! Plus, it's not just about winning this one game, it's about the long run... If they keep letting them betray everyone and they don't suffer for it, they'll just keep doing it. Of course, you don't want to turn into a ruthless tyrant either, but... You don't want to be weak (and let them exploit you). Fine line to deal with! That's a good plan/bluff! Akiyama has a reputation as well, so maybe they'll believe that... The problem is that they should tell Yokoya, and then he'll try to guess whether it's real or a bluff... Damn, these teams/alliances need to watch the outcast better hah. They all joined together against him to cast him out, yet they let him talk to them 1 on 1, the whole group, to offer them money? They should not let him speak to any of them for a SECOND without the others being present. It's interesting, he did do him a solid in the end... He's kinda like Nao (same sort of plan to get people to stick with him)... Only (to use the ruler dichotomy) he's mostly about fear and she's mostly about love! Well, technically they could make them move this much, THEN they reveal the truth, and make the move the rest (too late for a change of heart, they moved the bulk of it)! But I suppose it'd be a gamble, you'd never know in advance if they go for it, given you just lied to them.. (But there's a risk either way, they could do what you LIED about having done, and just hide the money). Finally Fukunaga's acting smart hah. But it might be too little too late, Yokoya is always watching... I find it intriguing that Akiyama did not coach them on acting though; He knows Yokoya is studying them, so.. Does he WANT Yokoya to know they have a sure-win plan? So he can force him to make a move, and deal with that?

As the episodes progress, it's really getting hard to keep track of what's happening. The contraband game makes sense and at times seems confusing just as what the manga readers described. I guess I should have binged this show instead of watching weekly since I'm bad at Math LOL But watching weekly is really exciting and makes me look forward to something every week. Akiyama still found a way to exploit a loophole in this game to his advantage and we know he's a master when it comes to bluffs. Even Nearco was taken aback by Akiyama's move. It was really strange to see how the previous downsizing game for the country of Night dudes went down more or less the same as that of Akiyama and his team. Yokoya inserted himself into the game like Akiyama but he directly approached the guys with money in his bag LOL He definitely is a rich asshole with a brilliant mind to manipulate others to serve him. I wouldn't be surprised even if he's the one who runs Liar Game.

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the country of night do know how much is in their ATM (day side), which is $0. They withdrew all of it for the plan. Akiyama claims their team hid the money rather than deposit into their ATM (night side). But the country of night cannot check the balances of the country of day's ATM (on their side), since they need the day side cards, so they cannot verify whether the money was actually hidden or deposited like they planned. As the dealer said, it was a blind spot that Akiyama exploited.

It can be a confusing game if you lose the plot. I'll try to summarize, starting from episode 15, which was the start of day 2. Most of each team's profit won't come from the amount they smuggle over, but money leftover in the ATM that the opponent failed to smuggle. Ep15: Akiyama experimented with cards and found out that you can not only withdraw from your account, but deposit money in. Which opens up an alternative way to win big, of withdrawing all your team's money from the ATM, and getting an opponent to deposit all that money into their ATM. This means that the opponent's team gets $0 distributed at the end, while your team gets a huge windfall at the end from the ATM. Akiyama tries to scope out for an opponent who would betray their team and deposit this money, but it turns out that Yokoya had the idea the day before and already tricked 3 of the most mentally weak members of Akiyama's team to deposit all their money to their ATM in the country of night territory. Ep16: This is very bad for Akiyama, but they can still come back if they get a traitor from Yokoya's team to deposit it back. Akiyama uses a little trickery to accomplish this: he says to them that their team was already aware of Yokoya's plan and only pretended to fall for it (lie), and hid the money instead of depositing it, which would put the other team in a very bad position. Akiyama recruited the bandana guy and the Jesus-looking guy like this, so things are looking up, but the plan hasn't been executed yet and Yokoya is starting to catch on that something might not be right...

Sure. The official win condition is whichever team has more in the external account at the end of 50 rounds, though the players mostly care about how much money they made or lost from the game. It's possible to win the game but gain more debt, as well as lose the game but profit. So why are they purposely aiming to lose? Winning is actually worse than losing, because if you lose, you're out of the liar game but get to keep the money (many in round 2, the minority rule, achieved this, like those on Akiyama's alliance and the #15 sunglasses guy). Whereas if you win, you're forced to advance to the next round and can only escape if you give up half of your profits. The first option seems better to aim for in the country of day, but they're currently ahead in the external accounts, so they need to give up some losses in the smuggling room to get the country of night ahead in the score. But ultimately, they have to win the ATM game otherwise they're screwed financially, but it will more than make up for any of these smaller losses.

I think realistically speaking it shouldn't have been so easy for Akiyama to convince those guys with his bluff. There is a major problem with his story. If it's true, then he doesn't need to say anything, his team is winning, in fact by telling he just exposes himself to an unnecessary risk. Akiyama doesn't really provide a convincing explanation as to why he would reveal all of that to those guys. Because he wants to save them? Even if they buy the story that Nao is the boss and savior (which no one in their right mind would simply trust, especially not in the liar game), why would Nao want to save them specifically, while leaving everyone else in their team to suffer under Yokoya's rule? And there's also the fact to consider that this is the fourth liar game for them and they lost at least one. At this point they should be extremely wary about possible deceptions.

I don't know exactly which part was considered a spoiler, but I changed the ending a bit. There are two things that make Akiyama's story credible: Akiyama himself proved to be someone capable of keeping up with Yokoya's plans. The figure and personality of Kanzaki Nao. The first is obvious. When Akiyama reveals that he already knew about Yokoya's plan, and does so with an extremely confident body language, he sends a very strong message. Not only that, he also exposes a blind spot in the game that apparently even Yokoya hadn't noticed. When you are confronted with a scenario you hadn't imagined, the tendency is to feel cornered. After putting on this enormous psychological pressure, Akiyama offers a way out. At that moment, the redhead was afraid of the negative consequences of failing Yokoya. Akiyama still uses Kanzaki Nao as an anchor of confidence. Everyone had already seen her personality; she makes others lower their guard because she doesn't seem like a threat. It's reasonable that someone like her would try to save other people, especially after the story Akiyama told. You can choose to ally yourself with someone who has proven to be as smart as, or smarter than, the dictator on your team, or you can do nothing and perhaps be thrown into hell. Akiyama's proposal is almost a blessing. Furthermore, There are other things I can't talk about now because they would be spoilers. I can add them after the game is finished.

Number 1 Note that when Akiyama revealed that he knew everything, Bandana wasn't impressed at all. That's because the most logical conclusion is that someone among the duped ones spilled the beans. Akiyama can't really prove that he came up with the same plan by himself and the other option is far more likely. What he proved before is that he's a master manipulator. That's the only thing that can be certain from Bandana's point of view and that's just additional reason for him to not trust him. Number 2 I find it honestly amazing. People have been giving a lot of shit to Nao for being too dumb and trusting to others, but now you are actually arguing that Bandana and the long haired guy should be just as dumb and trusting as her by believing that a girl that they just met and talked to for less than a hour is genuinely honest and goodwilled and couldn't possibly have put up an act. No seriously, the only logical thing they should think in that situation is that Nao is definitely playing the part of the airhead. Hell, you don't even need to be in the liar game to know a lot of Japanese girls do that.

Akiyama can't really prove that he came up with the same plan by himself You're looking at things separately. Akiyama saying he had already thought of that plan doesn't prove he actually did, but him pointing out a blind spot in the game at a moment when everyone thought it was decided is compelling evidence of this. None of them even believed there was a way to turn the tables, so Akiyama supposedly having created an even better plan than Yokoya might be persuasive. "If he was able to find a way to turn the tables under those circumstances, then perhaps he really did have the same plan in mind as Yokoya." The fact that this blind spot exists and is real makes it seem like Akiyama's entire strategy is genuine, including the fact that he thought of it beforehand. At the very least, it's strong enough for you to consider the possibility that it's true, which is enough for Akiyama's plan to work. Ultimately, he incorporated truthful information into the narrative he was telling, instead of simply stating that he did this or that. but now you are actually arguing that Bandana and the long haired guy should be just as dumb and trusting as her by believing that a girl that they just met and talked to for less than a hour is genuinely honest and goodwilled and couldn't possibly have put up an act. What I'm saying is exactly how Kanzaki Nao is viewed by those who have interacted with her. If she were just someone pretending to be trust, it's unlikely that everyone would let their guard down in her presence. This only happens because the image she projects is genuine. Even so, between someone who appears to be good and someone who literally said he would send you to hell, which one is more reasonable for you to ally with? Akiyama simply made his side look much better, and since Yokoya controls his team based on fear, the fear of failing him fuels that feeling of panic and makes it easier for Bandana to switch aside to survive.

but him pointing out a blind spot in the game at a moment when everyone thought it was decided is compelling evidence of this. None of them even believed there was a way to turn the tables, so Akiyama supposedly having created an even better plan than Yokoya might be persuasive. This is something that you could say for Akiyama's team members not for Bandana guy. The story he's been presented isn't about someone who is "turning tables around from a desperate situation". Akiyama didn't even tell him about that "blind spot", not directly at least. What I'm saying is exactly how Kanzaki Nao is viewed by those who have interacted with her. If she were just someone pretending to be trust, it's unlikely that everyone would let their guard down in her presence. This only happens because the image she projects is genuine. I couldn't disagree more with that statement. Someone's ability to make people trust them especially if it's in a matter of minutes isn't related to them being honest. etween someone who appears to be good and someone who literally said he would send you to hell, which one is more reasonable for you to ally with? The only thing Yokoya proved to Bandana is that he's going to reward those who serve him well. He threatened to send him to hell only if he defies him. That's more of a reason not to defy him and besides, that's no proof of anything. Anyway if someone from an opposing team told me that they want to save me for absolutely no valid reason I would absolutely not trust them.

I don't see why it wouldn't be believable to someone who is 200M in debt, has a ruthless dictator controlling their every move, and the man in front of you clearly being more intelligent and charismatic than you. You have to put yourself in the character's shoes in a realistic way. We as anime watchers are not under any pressure and like to think of ourselves as smarter than the characters, but put us in the same situation and a majority of us would be more than likely to be an Akagi rather than an Akiyama.

I don't see why it wouldn't be believable to someone who is 200M in debt, has a ruthless dictator controlling their every move, and the man in front of you clearly being more intelligent and charismatic than you. I see those as reasons not to trust Akiyama. If I'm in debt I definitely don't want to risk going even further into debt. If I'm controlled by a ruthless dictator I'd need to be damn sure I can defy him without repercussions. If someone in front of me is clearly more intelligent and charismatic than me I definitely need to be wary of him especially if he's in the opposing team.

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Akiyama doesn't really provide a convincing explanation as to why he would reveal all of that to those guys. Because he wants to save them? Even if they buy the story that Nao is the boss and savior (which no one in their right mind would simply trust, especially not in the liar game), why would Nao want to save them specifically, while leaving everyone else in their team to suffer under Yokoya's rule? Your question boils down to if Bandana ever asked "if Dayside is winning, why tell me?", would Akiyama have a response yes? I'll provide the more mathematics-based answer. If Akiyama needs to, he does have a more maths-based answer on hand to give him, and it's basically the same explanation he gave to his team post-Bandana conversation. I'll only refer to the ballpark figure for ease of reading: At present, Akiyama's bluff to Bandana is that with the 1.91 Billion that was in the Night ATM locked down, given this game state and if Nightside continues to call "Doubt 100 Million" on empty cases and lose 50 Million for the remaining 20+ turns and nothing else changes, the end result is that (i) Dayside's total amount between the 3rd Country Account and their ATM will come to ~3.8 Billion and (ii) Nightside's total will be ~3.4 Billion By this definition, because Dayside has enough to pay back the 3.6 Billion they were lent for this game, it's Dayside's victory with a ~200 Million profit, and vice versa for Nightside. However, this wouldn't be good enough for Dayside. That's because, as Akiyama pointed out to his team, such a ~3.8 Billion victory would come about from (i) their 3rd Country Account is higher than Nightside and therefore they won the Contraband Game, this victory will force them into Round 4 of the Liar Game, and (ii) a ~200 Million profit isn't enough to pay back Dayside's debt from Round 2 of 700 Million (7 players x 100 Million) Therefore, Akiyama does have the rationale available to convince Bandana that Dayside needs to win harder by getting to the optimal state: (i) lower Dayside 3rd Country Account so that Dayside loses the game and can drop out of the Liar Game; (ii) higher ATM so Dayside has enough to pay back all their debt and won't be chased for it after dropping out Hence Akiyama can tell Bandana, plus Beard and Baldy, that "because we want to win harder, we need your help" , by helping us Genuinely Smuggle the 2.3 Billion from the Night ATM to Day. You already screwed up and Yokoya will kill you for it, but help us and we'll have enough to save you too. Thus, aside from the emotional appeal of the Nao-Yokoya difference, Akiyama has a logical appeal available too if Bandana asked "why reveal to me?" Of course, fear of failure and Yokoya's wrath took hold first.

For all Bandana-guy knows, there's nothing the Country of Night can do if what Akiyama says is true. He should know well from direct experience that Yokoya can always bribe people from the opposing team to make them do what he wants. I think what also makes this realistic to pull off is that he is targeting specific members of the Night players, and completely avoiding Yokoya. It might make sense to avoid Yokoya, but not to pick random people among the remaining 9.

Harder to bribe someone when they're already completely winning and seem to be coordinating as a team. Not really. You can always win more money. He didn't pick random people though. He picked the person that tricked one of the 3 traitors. Okay, we are talking about people that supposedly Nao decided to save. For what kind of reason Nao would want to save specifically those who tricked her team members?

Not really. You can always win more money. I mean sure but we're talking about what ifs here. He's not certain that they'll take the bribe. Also, Akiyama could reveal his story because although his team is going to win anyway, he wants to win over more money by working with one of the Night players. It's a fair reason to expose his information. Anyway we can agree to disagree, I personally don't find it unrealistic that his bluff worked against one of Yokoya's minions. Okay, we are talking about people that supposedly Nao decided to save. For what kind of reason Nao would want to save specifically those who tricked her team members? It's not about who Nao wants to save. Akiyama's bluff will work best on those 3 because they were the ones who tricked the Day players, and they're scared of what Yokoya will do if they messed things up.

Those three guys are freaking Baka. I also don't understand why the leader of the other side let the three who tricked them still go in the rotation. There is nothing to lose by not letting them go anymore. They do have a chance of something happening when he allows them to go like it has so far. Will be interesting to see how it ends cus they still can be screwed. He already told them how to screw them. Move the money dont actually deposit it.

For why Yokoya is still putting the 3 liars in the rotation, it's because now that their strategy only needs them to call "Doubt 100 million", Yokoya needs to remain "fair" and have them all bear the risks and rewards. Doubt 100 Million, Dayside has no cash - the Nightside Inspector losses 50 Million Doubt 100 Million, Dayside has cash - the Nightside Inspector keeps the cash After Nightside succeeded with the Genuine Smuggling strategy and they'll end the game with profit, in the meantime Yokoya wants all his minions to bear the interim individual results "equally". No one shall get special favour from him by sitting out.

Was that explicitly mentioned in any of the episodes? In Episode 11, where the game is explained, I think it was phrased very vaguely and wasn't explicitly stated. The subtitles even explicitly stated that these were just normal ATMs. In Episode 15, where Akiyama gives more details about the card, there's also no mention that the card is special and only linked to that person. But thanks for the clarification. At least I understand better why they act that way.

Yes it is. The story behind the game is that both teams are international traders, and they own money in the other country that they need to get back. The Country of Night players have their money in the Country of Day ATM. Their cards only work (withdraw or deposit) for their own accounts in this ATM. The Country of Day players have their money in the Country of Night ATM. The Country of Night players have no access to the accounts in this ATM, because these accounts belong to the Country of Day players.

Not pointed out per se, but in Episode 11 when Leronira took Dayside through the tutorial of the game, Nao inserting her Day card into the Night ATM only lets her see her own balance from her own Day account. That is, a card cannot interact with any accounts other than their designated one (for withdraw, deposit or check account balance), and each player only has the one account located on the opposing team's ATM but none inside their own ATM. I imagine if a Day player tried inserting their own Day card into their own Day ATM, because the Day ATM only has the 9 Night accounts the Day card would bounce right back out. So only a Night card will be accepted, to access its own account.

The fact they are normal ATMs is the implication. For the general case, while you can withdraw money from any ATM using any debit card, you can't just deposit money using any ATM, it typically has to be the same bank itself or in-network. Country of Day and Country of Night are treated as different banks, assumed to not be in-network with each other, so you can't use Day card at a Night bank for deposits and vice-versa.

Hmm, I doubt that makes much sense. So, in your opinion, what kind of card does team Day have? As I understand you, team Day has a Night bank card so they can withdraw or deposit money there. But they can't deposit into their own country? Just to be clear: Team Day is currently taking money from Country Night (to secure it in a third country). And still, I’d like to point out that these are primarily your own conclusions, right? The anime doesn’t mention that the cards are specifically assigned to a country. They simply belong to a specific person, and using the card isn’t even tied to that person.

Refer back to Ep15 and Akiyama's explanation on how they would smuggle money without passing the inspection. There is an animation that shows exactly how the money can be transferred around. From that animation, you can see that they do not use the same ATM to make deposits. More specifically, it shows the Night person carries the money to their bank (Night Bank in Day Country) for deposit; they cannot deposit inside the Day Bank in their own Night Country. This plan was also reiterated towards the end part of the same episode. But to answer your question, Team Day has a card that can access Day Country's bank, located inside Night Country's. There's substantial proof for that already. In terms of how the 3 Day Player dummies who fell for Night's plan and moved the money to their account, this was done off-camera. For the proof explanation, in Ep15, Shibayama told Tsunoda to drop by to their Night Bank ATM (in Day Country) to pick up that money while in the inspection room.