Liar Game Season 1 (Japanese TV Series)

Liar Game

OK! First post for Septembaaaahhhhh! God, how long has it been since I last posted? Anyway, as the title indicates, this post is about a Japanese TV Series, LIAR GAME, which I just finished watching all of the episodes an hour ago.

Yesterday, September 6, 2012, I was surfing the web and looking for a site where I can watch the movie X-Game, a Japanese horror film. I am a fan of Asian works especially when it comes to their horror films, damn they got my votes! But instead of finding the link or sites where I can watch the said Japanese film, what i saw was a link to a tv series entitled Liar Game. When I saw the title, I thought it's a horror TV series so I got excited to watch it BUT patiently researched about it first to verify. Well, I got disappointed for knowing that it is not a horror TV series but again, as I read the plot from WIKIPEDIA, I got excited.  HAHA! I found out that it was also an adaptation from a very successful manga.

Here is the plot from wiki:

Nao Kanzaki (Toda Erika)

"Nao Kanzaki (Toda Erika), is a college student who is known for her honesty and naivete. One day, she receives a black postcard indicating that she has been selected to participate in the "Liar Game Tournament". Along with the postcard is a box with 100 million yen (about $1,000,000). The goal of the first round of the game is to trick the other player out of their hundred million yen. At the end, the winner would get to keep the hundred million earned, and the loser owes the LGT (Liar Game Tournament office) 100 million yen, which "will be collected by any means and at all costs". Initially, she was frightened by this disturbing game, but was soon relieved when she discovered that her opponent was her second year junior high school teacher, Mr. Fujisawa. Because of her honest personality, Nao was easily tricked into giving Mr. Fujisawa her 100 million yen. She was devastated and reached out to police for help. The police could not help her and suggested that she ask help from Shinichi Akiyama (Matsuda Shota), a genius swindler who was recently released from jail for single-handedly bankrupting one of the biggest scamming companies in Japan. After learning the story from Nao, Akiyama decided to help her to win this Liar Game."

I also read that it also did well on its rating while it was airing in Japan from April 17-June 23, 2007.

What I thought about the show/characters:

Shinichi Akiyama (Matsuda Shota)

Honestly speaking, in my opinion, I think that this show contains the most irritating and most frustrating actors  that I have ever watched. And for that, I want to praise these actors because they did a good job for irritating me knowing that it is their intention. The antagonists are all so good that I want to smash the screen of my laptop, and I also like Erika Toda's acting. She actually did well, acting as an innocent, pure, and honestly stupid girl. As well as Shota Matsuda, he is this really cool detective like awesome like cool guy just like Shinichi Kudo from Detective Conan (is it only co-incidence that they have the same first name?). This is actually one of the reasons why I got hooked up in this show, it reminds me of Detective Conan. And also what caught my attention is the very beautiful LGT secretariat (Michiko Kichise), who is also the daughter of the main person behind the Liar Game. She's so cute, beautiful and actually resembles my mom. 

Liar Game Manga

I love the show for it's very logical theme, for it's comical environment, for it's irritating scenes, for everything. This show made me realize that not all people in the world can be trusted, of course, I know that, but I knew also that even if you give them a second, third, fourth, or so many chances, they will just do the same but don't just lose hope yet. Just what  Nao did, she kept on trusting these people around them in spite of everything they did to her. I also got inspired by her quotation:

"If we don't deceive or hurt each other, I'm sure everyone will be happy".

So obviously, the themes in the series are all about about greediness, schemes, honesty, lies, and what else can I think of?

If I get stuck on a game like this or in an incident like Nao's, I sure want a person Akiyama beside me all of the time. It's a sure win for both of us :)

I look forward on watching the 2nd season of this show and also the adaptation film!

PS: The copyrights for the images used still go to their respective owners. I only searched them all over the net. And can someone give me a link for the movie X-Game with english subs, please? :)

Posted in: 2007,asian,Japanese,tv show