Liar Game

Since the end of Death Note, I've been craving an intelligent series filled with suspense and excitement. I came upon a little seinen series known as Liar Game. After the first few chapters, I was hooked. A week and a half later, I'm all caught up and anticipating the next chapter.

The premise is both unique and complicated. The protagonist, Kanzaki Nao, is an honest college student that gets sent 100 million yen as an invitation to take part in the "Liar Game". As the name suggests, this game encourages dishonesty and theft. The 100 million must be paid back at the end of the game by each player. Players try to steal from each other in hopes to profit from the game while driving the others in debt. A game of wits, perserverance, and pyschological torture begins, and that's just the first round.

The characters are fantastic. The other protagonist, Akiyama, is very reminiscient of L from Death Note. Whenever the situation looks hopeless, you just know he'll have a plan that can bring the team out unscathed and even profit from it. Nao also has her moments despite her constant stream of idiotic outburts. Fukunaga, the team's hot headed transvestite, is another interesting and unpredictable character that adds some spice to the series. The current antagonist, Yokoya, is a fitting rival for the genius Akiyama and makes for perfectly suspenseful scenarios.

The games the LGT come up with are interesting and clever. While they initally seem like games based on luck, many are in fact conduits for exposing human error and using it to the player's advantage. Sometimes the games get so complicated that it's difficult to keep up with the rules. I'n not gonna lie; sometimes I had no idea what was going on. Akiyama's explanations would usually confuse me even more, but at least he looked cool doing it.

Nao's noble ambition to take on all the debt herself really keeps you coming back for more to see how it all will end. As we're only in round 4, I expect this series to go on for a while. Let's hope for an anime adaptation.