[yellow duck cafe] – embracing insanity.

This is one of the mangas that I am currently COMPLETELY heads over heels in love with right now, Kaitani Shinobu’s Liar Game. I found out about the existence of this manga November of last year. Actually, at first I found out about the drama that is based on the manga, also entitled as the Liar Game. The discovery of this was almost completely by chance. Toda Erika (one of the characters from Nobuta wa Produce) as well as Matsuda Shota (Nishikado Sojiro in HYD and HYD2) are two of the main characters.

Mysoju.com (Watch Liar Game Online): Here

I went onto dramawiki and after seeing that the genre was a psychological thriller (me and my obsession with psychologically and mystery based dramas and mangas, ie. Death Note, Detective Conan), needless to say popped right onto mysoju.com and began to watch it. About .75 episode in, I had discovered that this drama was manga based and with past experiences, manga>drama based on manga and thus popped over onto onemanga.com to check out the manga.

Onemanga.com (Read Liar Game Manga Online): Here

Damn the manga is good!

Here is the basic plot for both the drama and manga:

(Source: Wikipedia)

Nao Kanzaki, an honest college student, receives 100 million yen (about $1,000,000) and an invitation to participate in something called the “Liar Game Tournament”. When Nao is easily tricked by her opponent, she turns to ex-convict and genius swindler Shinichi Akiyama for help out of desperation to get the money back. Though Akiyama is reluctant, he agrees to help on the condition that they steal Fujisawa’s money as well, and that he takes half the profits as his reward.

Akiyama succeeds in taking all the money and winning the game for Nao. However, Nao and Akiyama’s success at the Liar Game is far from over and each time they think the game is over, they are forced to return again with higher stakes. Though initially unwilling participants, the pair choose to continue in the game in order to discover the true nature of the organization involved and to try to free other participants from the Liar Game.

Crazy, no?

For me, what makes this manga such an intriguing read are the ways that the various games throughout the series are laid out and how simple, yet ingenious they are. One of my all time favorites is the minority game, where your aim is to be part of the minority when asked a Yes or No question. Simple solution, but intricate at the same time.

In detail…

(Source: Wikipedia)

Each of the 22 players is given a jewel worth 100 million yen as “Game Money”. The Minority Rule game is a variation on the El Farol Bar problem: each player answers either “Yes” or “No” to a random question; those who voted on the side of the minority survive and those in the majority leave with a debt of 100 million yen apiece. The game ends when there is either one player or two players left. If one player wins, that player receives 2.1 billion (2.2 billion minus their 100 million), and if two players win each obtains 1 billion (1.1 billion minus their 100 million).

In Comparison to Death Note…

Both are categorized in the genre of “psychological thrillers”. However, I would actually recommend the manga Liar Game more than I would Death Note, in terms of plot and overall story function. Death Note began to disappoint me as quickly as it intrigued as there were just too many “holes” within in the rules of the death note as well as the increasing number of rules in the death note itself. With the Liar Game, the rules are cleanly cut out, and very straight forward and make much more sense on a logical basis. In my humble opinion, Death Note just tries too hard. The author tries to make Light way to epic, to the point where it just comes crashing back down on him. It is like, every time he encounters a crisis, sooner or later, it will just morph out of his way, usually through the means of another way to get around the rules. As well, the other characters in Death Note (apart from Light and L) are just wayy to underdeveloped. You don’t know anything about them. This is one of the other reasons why I prefer the Liar Game. All the characters in the story have a background and their own story, which makes the plot so much more intriguing.

All in all… Liar Game is a awesome read that I would recommend to all manga addicts out there.

Also, Akiyama is hot. Mentally.*__*

with love,

aiko ♥