Another week, another manga, I suppose. This week, I will talk about a very interesting and fun manga to read, Liar Game. I believe it has not been animated, although it was turned into a live-action drama show in both Japan and Korea.
The story revolves around Kanzaki Nao, a college-aged girl who gets sucked into a strange game. She receives a mysterious package one day, with a letter and 100 million yen (approximately $878,000 US dollars), the letter informs her that she is now playing "The Liar Game", and by simply reading the massage included, she has tacitly agreed to play (that's not legal, but whatever, gotta get the plot going). The letter informs her that another person has also received 100 million yen, and the two will be competing to see how much money they can accumulate out of the full 200 million. In one month's time, the organization will come back and ask for their 100 million yen they initially sent each player back; any excess they have may be kept at no penalty; but if they are short, they must repay the organization, and they make it clear they will do "whatever is necessary" to retrieve their funds. Kanzaki sees the name of her opponent, and it's her old high school teacher. She goes to him for his help, but he tricks her and takes all her money. Thrown into massive despair, Kanzaki becomes desperate, and recruits the aid of a mastermind criminal - Shinichi Akiyama - who was convicted in a fraud scheme who is being released. Together, they try to work out a plan to defeat her teacher and save Kanzaki - while at the same time, trying to figure out what is going on with this organization and the "Liar Game".
This manga reminds me a great deal of the original concept of Yu-Gi-Oh. In the original concept, Yugi (and his alter-ego/other personality unlocked by the Millennium Pyramid, Yami), were not just players of the Yu-Gi-Oh card game, but rather general game masters; Yami could best almost anyone in any kind of contest, even those made up on the fly, by using a combination of psychology, logic, and general game theory knowledge. Yugi, while not nearly as skilled as Yami, was sort of the catalyst for all of it, and his personality of being compassionate and caring countered Yami's sometimes harsh and cold ways of dealing with opponents (for instance, having no qualms about causing severe psychological trauma in at least three cases, including destroying brains with magical powers).
In the same vein, Kanzaki is the naive, optimistic, selfless one who genuinely wants to help others and, as she says repeatedly, "save everyone from the Liar Game". She does not care about profit or winning. Shinichi, on the other hand, is much like Yami - a true game master, who can calculate his way out of desperate and difficult situations, and does not go out of his way to save others. Together, the two progress through the Liar Game while both growing as individuals, and dealing with the challenges that come their way.
The most interesting part of the series to me is the various games that come up and their ways of dealing with them. Lots of different strategies are employed by different people, and seeing how various players come up with their plans or deal with difficult circumstances is extremely engrossing and interesting. I think anyone who enjoys puzzles can get a kick out of some of the difficult game situations brought up in the book.
The art is quite passable, although it's nothing amazing. Characters are distinctive enough to generally tell them apart easily, although you sometimes encounter a lot of individuals in some arcs, and trying to remember them all is difficult.
My only real complaint is the ending - which kind of came out of the blue for me and had a weird idea at the core of it. It didn't really mesh with the rest of the story and there was no particularly good lead-up or foreshadowing to it.
Overall, the story is solid, the games extremely interesting, and the art passable. I quite like both Shinichi and Kanzaki, our main characters, for who they are, and they seem to compliment each other well. If you have an interest in game theory or puzzles, you could possibly be very interested in this.
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