u/AdministrationOnly17

Almost exactly one year ago, the Liar Game anime was announced.

Just a few weeks before, one of my best friends had randomly texted me who my favorite character was, and this is what I said:

“umm okay it’s hard to say having a favorite character”

“but one that i will always have in my heart is kanzaki nao”

She had no idea who that was, so of course, I had to do the honors of ranting to her just how much I loved Nao as a character and Liar Game as a whole.* I sent WALLS of text, just fangirling over Nao, how much I adored her character development, the way her “feminine” traits were celebrated instead of being seen as weak. My opinions clearly have not changed much, as I said the same things about Akiyama as I think now.

Honestly, at that time, it had already been several years after I’d reread the manga, so my memory was extremely foggy.** Still, my heart remembered Kanzaki Nao.

Lo and behold, less than 10 days later, the anime was announced.

By then, I had already surrendered Liar Game as one of my very niche interests, so I thought they were all lying to me. Yet, here we are, a little more than a year later, Season 1 finished with another along the way.

Sometimes I forget how unreal this situation all is. I’m so, so grateful.

Oh, and the piece on top? From that same friend, who actually took my ramblings seriously LOL and drew this for my birthday just a month later ❤️***

(Her insta is @dearie_vee, go check her out! I’ve been telling her to wait on watching the anime for the past 6 months, now I’m SO ready to explain all the strategies to her when she starts!)

*It’s funny rereading the messages now— I’d described Liar Game as “squid game but without all the death” and that’s exactly what I said a few weeks earlier for an icebreaker, but for some reason I got nervous and added on “but no one dies, so it’s kind of boring” 😭
** I could only clearly remember Minority Rule strategy because it was so logically sound.
***Funny thing is, this actually ended up being hung up at a local art exhibit. It was so absurd to see it hanging on the wall—that this obscure little story from Japan ten years ago somehow made it some local art exhibit in the West, when it didn’t even have an anime yet. It made me feel kind of emotional and strangely proud. (It’s like “Nao, Akiyama, you made it!”)

Was scrolling on twitter when all the Japanese fans started posting about doing a gacha-type pull of 10 different types of little merch items—including acrylic stands, little buttons, keychains??

Does anyone know of a possible way to get these for international fans? 🥺 Please I am desperate 🙏🙏🙏 I’m ready to do anything AHEM totallyyyy not illegal ofc AHEM (except move to Japan because I am broke and cannot survive a lick of Japanese)

perhaps the real contraband was the Liar Game merch all along 😔 (if they release Kuma chan merch I will scream, even if it’s just a plain teddy bear with a name tag lol)

I’ll happily take any crumbs atp.

(This is Kaitani responding to a fan asking about a continuation until the last volume.)

One thing I’ve always really loved about the way Kaitani wrote Nao’s character arc is just how gradually everything comes together. You can’t really pinpoint any exact moment when Nao starts changing. Was it when she saved Miura? Was it after Akiyama’s doubt speech? Was it when she secretly planted Kuma-chan in the briefcase? Or did it start in the very first round, when she first gave back all of her winnings to her scheming teacher?

It’s the way that an argument can be made for every single one of those moments. So to make my own argument, this moment of realization is the turning point to a much stronger Nao.

So far, she has slowly found her identity, who she is, what the Liar Game really is, and what goal she is there to accomplish. However, only when the line “I need to become less reliant” or “I really am a drag on the team..” hits, that’s when Nao transforms from a mostly passive commentator to a women of action.

Don’t be fooled by the negative connotations of that line, Anime-Onlys, this is where it really begins.

I JUST watched this weeks episode, and HOLYYYYY CRAPP the music is AMAZINGGG!!

This is the first time that they’ve used the song from the first cour’s trailer, isn’t it? It did not disappoint!

The way the chordophones’ melody seamlessly transitions into wailing violins?? It felt like the bows were sliding directly over my heart strings.

Also the little lilting motifs towards the end? It strangely reminds me of a superhero theme/magic girl theme, and somehow that fits surprisingly well? Like this is them saving the day, bringing in hope right here!

They neeeeeeeeeed to release the OST once the seasons over! If there’s any theme that suits the AkiNao duo the most, it’s this one!

I’m sorry if this is a bit repetitive, but honestly, I don’t care. The music genuinely deserves its flowers every time. 💐❤️

(Also, did this sub just reach over 3k?)

A little late to the trend, but I really wanted to make one anyways.

Now I need a Yokoya plush 😔

Nao totally helped him write that message. Not suspicious at all. Nope.

Needless to say, if Kanzaki Nao had to be a playing card, then she would be the queen of hearts.

(I’ve been pondering—if she were a chess piece, what would she be? I think in Akiyama’s eyes, she’d be the King because if she lost then the entire game would be over for him. She is his board’s centerpiece. However, for Nao, I think she’d think herself as the pawn. Not A pawn but THE pawn, the one that’s brave enough to go into enemy territory and transform into any piece needed for her side to win.)

Anyways, I hope you like it 😅

Title.

Personally, I think it suits him very well. There are some times when the edges of his voice wavers ever so slightly, and I think it kinda reveals his underlying psychotic nature. I really do like it! Props to the voice actor, I have yet to learn his name. I feel that I would’ve like it more if I had heard it before the Japanese one since it’s a lot closer to my og manga interpretation, but the JP one is wayyyyy too addicting (I’ve replayed his little “mieta mieta” part too many times by now >w<)

Anyways! Onto the other parts—Wow! Kikuzawa’s va really popped off this episode. I didn’t think I could dislike him more, but the eng dub really made me want to deliver 100 Fuku tornado kicks. I think it’s always a good thing whenever an actor makes me feel even more strongly about a character. The smugness is done perfectly.

Lastly, I really enjoyed Akiyama’s VA this time especially. When it suddenly flicked to that gray screen where Akiyama was directly calling out Kiku, I was like “oh shi—“ The Eng Dub’s deeper voice really makes these moments so much more menacing/intimidating! Big dub to the dub team once again :D

(sorry the post talks more than the title, I wanted to include all my thoughts so I didn’t spam posts)

It’s peak. It’s perfection.

I love the slightly effeminate inflections. I never heard this type of voice in my head while reading the manga, but my goodness does it suit him… (>!it makes really curious to hear how he sounds like when he crashes out!<)

It’s so weird because I just finished Witch Hat Atelier and didn’t think too much about Qifrey’s voice, but Yokoya’s voice alone is making me question my morals— hehe

Forgot the necklace— oops—

Small, Completely Unrelated Ramble:
>!I’m going to be entirely honest, I haven’t watched this!< >!weeks!< >!episode and I’m so, so sad. I feel like a fake fan (I’m being dramatic) but also I’m super scared to watch it because I saw a reddit post something about “bad reviews” and I’m so confused because this is where the story is supposed to “get good.” (I also haven’t been on reddit lately so this concern could be entirely unfounded) Ok sorry for that, now I will go watch the episode and decide for myself :P , bye!<

Edit:
>!Ok who am I kidding, this episode was PEAK!<

***Disclaimer 1: Major manga’s ending spoilers!!***
Disclaimer 2: I am not supporting any political ideology in this post.

I was skimming the last chapter of the manga, and after seeing the first panel above, I think I have reason to believe that Kaitani intended the original Liar Game novel to be set in late 1980s and early 1990s Communist China.

If you don’t know, this single panel is almost an identical copy to the tank man at Tiananmen Square. It’s an iconic image that represented the spiritual revolution for democracy during the one of the most oppressive as well redefining eras of the Communist Party, as there was a big shift to open the political system from the deceased, former party leader.

The rest of the page explains that this country was very corrupt, with the rich owning most of the wealth while the poor suffered. It also notes that the elites “literally reigned with fear.” This is adjacent to how Communist China was as any all the political leaders held the most wealth while the masses suffered in poverty. Any political opponents were executed or isolated, and the law was strict and severe with its punishments. Additionally, on a later page, Artier explains that the reason why Vivy’s final, third volume was never published because it never passed the censorship inspection. The filtering of media through the government is something very present in China today, and even more so back then.

Lastly, this is mostly speculation on my part, but the outline of Vivy depicted in the second panel below looks Asian to me, which means that it significantly narrows down the authoritarian countries to the ones in Asia at the period. (Though I understand mangas draw based on stylistic decisions.)

This might’ve been very obvious to someone else on their first read, but I guess I never gave it much thought before.

OK so here is where I go on a little tangent on political theory. Liar Game’s message is clear: act as individuals with greed and selfishness and the system will profit off of you. The enemy is not the other players, but the game-makers themselves. This falls entirely in line with anticapitalist critique, which says that the system is inherently exploitative and alienating. Like a capitalist society, in Liar Game there will always be one winner and many, many losers. Coincidentally, the very core of Communism is anticapitalist.

(Now before I dive in deeper, I want to say that I’ve haven’t read Marx’s Communist Manifesto, and everything I’ve learned is from history class or things I picked up on.)

Communism begins its theory that class war happens when the property owners (burgeoise) exploit the working class to the point that it leads to a bloody revolution. Similarly, the “property” in Liar Game is the game money, the property owners are the dealers and game-makers, and the players are the working class. The “bloody” revolution is one started by Nao, and ends with the conclusion of the four kingdoms game (the last one). The second step of Communist takeover is overthrowing the previous regime, with a temporary new one taking all of the resources. Lastly, the third step asks for the temporary leader to give up all power and redistribute everything back into society so communities can live equally. The funny thing is, in real life, no country has ever been able to reach the third step because often, the new leader who led the bloody revolution keeps all the power to themselves. Not even the referenced“Communist” China is able to because it veers closer to socialism and is only Communist in name (like many countries). But Liar Game is able to.

Starting from the very first round, I’d argue that the combination of Nao and Akiyama traces the three steps perfectly. They play the game, takes all the resources temporarily (second step) which effectively takes away the power that the dealers have over the players, and redistributes it back to the players equally (third step). Nao’s overall philosophy of banding together and uniting as one to fight against the system is reminiscent of the bloody revolution’s philosophy, while Akiyama is the brains behind the operation.

Now, am I saying that Kaitani is trying to promote Communism? Definitely not. While it’s undeniably anticapitalist, nowhere in the manga does it try to expand Nao’s philosophy to the level of a nation. Perhaps the reason why the steps are so applicable in Liar Game is because it is in a controlled setting with the top players being an unshakeable moral center teamed with arguably the most competent and intelligent player in the entire tournament. Unfortunately, never in real life has these partners appeared, and so the Communist Utopia has never been achieved. In the end, Liar Game is fiction and the characters are mere archetypes of real people.

Tying back to the original Liar Game novel, perhaps the reason why the third volume got banned was because it DID have the same ending as Nao and Akiyama’s. To the readers, it would’ve raised hopes that it is possible to fight the system and become equal, as well as being given a model of the type of personalities needed in order for it to succeed. It is no wonder that the officials thought it would cause another revolt.

Also, on a completely different note, one thing that I couldn’t figure out is how Nao’s father managed to get the 5 billion. Do yall think the original director, Miyugi, sent it all to him before fleeing the country? It strikes me strange that he’d give so much money to her father, it shows that he had a lot of trust in this single person who was just a player (perhaps like father like daughter, he deemed him an angel like Nao). Also, I would think that once the “dark forces” tracked down and killed Miyugi, they’d realize that the 5 billion was missing and they’d try to track it down. After all, that’s a LOT of money especially back in the day (and that would be 18 years before the Liar Game manga in 2005). There was a lot of things that Miyugi could’ve done with it that the forces wouldn’t had agreed with, given his past. A theory I have is that Nao’s father was never a player, that he was the original director. Though inconvenient, he definitely could’ve changed his name from “Tad Miyugi” to “Kanzaki ___.” The only problem with this is that he left for a foreign country for decades before the current liar game; however, there is absolutely no hints that Nao grew up as a foreigner.

Sorry for rambling, but I’m curious to hear y’all’s thoughts!

Yeah so I kind of lost the plot halfway through drawing…😭 (I really questioned my life while making this)

Anyways, yall are welcomed to use the template and put something funny on there!

Little doodle inspired by r/anime’s discussion post

(hands I got off pinterest)