Liar Game

I FINALLY FINISHED IT.

To be fair though, it was two whole seasons and a movie, so it's fairly understandable that it took me so long. Also, I actually finished the actual drama like a week ago, but then a load of work came in that stopped me from having enough time to be able to devote a few hours to the movie.

This series was clever. So clever. It kept me guessing right the way through, never really sure of what was what, and the plot twists were always original and interesting. Not so much original in what happened, but more how they did it. Its hard to explain.

Liar Game follows Kanzaki Nao, a young woman who is ridiculously naive and trusting. Somehow, she gets sucked into the Liar Game, a tournament where the winners become filthy rich and the losers drown in impossible debts. The first game gives two players 100 million yen each, and the aim is to obtain as much of the other players money as possible within a week. At the end of the game, the Liar Game Office take back the 100 million originally given out from each player, meaning what they have gained they win, yet what they have lost, they owe. Obviously, due to her blind trust in humanity, she loses all her money within hours. She enlists the help of Akiyama Shin'ichi, an expert swindler recently released from prison, and with his knowledge, the two make their way through the Liar Game.

I said earlier it was clever. It was about 50% clever tricks and psychology. The other 50% was manic evil laughter. This show loved it's manic evil laughter as players started to win. It also loved it's 'noooooooo!' (in Japanese, obviously, so more 'iiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeee!') and falling to the floor in despair as these players lost to Akiyama and Nao.

The only thing that was disappointing was the purely platonic relationship between Nao and Akiyama. They started to hint at something more in the movie, but we were left with a conclusion that could be read either way. Still though, I loved it. It was completely different than anything I had seen before in terms of the unpredictability. Sure, it was clear that things were always going to turn out well, but it was how we got there that was the interesting part.

Nao was also in Nobuta Wo Produce as Shuji's sort of girlfriend, and very briefly in Hana Yori Dango 2 for like 2 episodes. Akiyama was also in Hana Yori Dango as one of the main characters, F4's Sojiro. Their normally traitorous ally, Fukunaga, or Mushroomhead as he was also known due to his ridiculous hair style, was in Mei-chan no Shitsuji but I did not recognise him at all. The rest of the cast were normally only around for a few episodes, but many also starred in Kimi wa Petto, Nodame Cantabile, Mei-chan no Shitsuji, Hana Kimi, Hana Yori Dango, Zettai Kareshi and obviously Gokusen. Every drama has to have a Gokusen link. Oh, and Battle Royale. Even though its not a J drama. I love Battle Royale.

Next up is Buzzer Beat. I gather it's some sort of sports related  rom-com thing. I wasn't so excited about this until I read Yamashita Tomohisa's name. YAY YAMAPI! He was the one in Nobuta Wo Produce and Kurosagi, and he is HOT. I love him ^^.

<3 x

Drama: Buzzer Beat 1 
Manga: Hana Kimi 50 / Darling wa Namamono ni Tsuki 23*
*I seem to read a few chapters of any manga before starting a new one - I've read 2 since my last post.