[Spoiler free review]
I count myself as one of the fortunate few that started Liar Game when the manga was still on its beginnings and were able to follow it chapter by chapter. This manga, I thought back then, was amazing. I still think so, but some observations have to made when reviewing this manga. You have to review Liar Game in two ways: prior to chapters 140-170, and after chapters 140-70. The reason to that will be explained when I start reviewing after the chapters 140-170.
Liar Game is a controversial manga, in the sense that the same things that some people will praise will also
...
be bashed by others.
The story is amazing. Right at the first few chapters you can tell the plot is unique. There are tons of twists and unexpected turns in the development of the games in which the characters participate. As you read through the story you realize how hard it is to write the mental workings of this manga, and how each character participates in the game, while still leaving space for said twists.
The artwork is interesting because each character is drawn completely different from another, but not so outlandish that they would look like they belong in fantasy anime. But some people complain at that, since in certain panels characters might look weird when shouting, for example. So for artwork I gave it a 9, the only reason I did not give it a 10 because certain panels do have artwork mistakes, like disproportionate bodies.
Characters are amazing in this manga. Some people complain at Nao because they are too used to shounen manga, in which they project themselves in the main character expecting that character to be the badass of the story, which Nao indeed is, but not as is typically done in shounen mangas. However character development do fall short sometimes, because although the manga has a relatively large cast most of those characters are supporting, and not supporting as Casca was in Berserk, for example, but supporting as in subservient to emphasize the development of a handful of the main cast. In lesser words, a lot of characters are made simplistic, dimwitted, so that the main characters can shine in their amazing intelligence. And whenever the main characters need those extras to not be idiots, they magically become not-idiots, so as to allow the advancement of the story.
Despite that, these handful of main characters are amazing, and really captivating, so I feel like it is okay to excuse the secondary characters being used like step stones for the story.
Everything I said so far has been mostly positive... but most of it applies to pre-140-170 chapters. What happens after chapters 140-170? Well...
When the story approaches its later arcs you can start feeling that certain plot points and key moments are being rushed to the extreme. Certain character reactions to certain occurrences are inconsistent, but more seriously, plotholes start popping quite frequently. And when I said plotholes I do not mean something silly like "I did not like what happened" or "My ship did not take off", I mean actual blatant plotholes, as in some things contradicting things that happened before in the manga. Also the intermission moments, the moments between games were very poorly used in the later chapters, As someone who followed this manga since its beginning I can very clearly see that the author decided to finish the series as soon as possible. Now why is that, I personally do not know. Maybe the editor axed the series? Maybe the announcement of a live-action discouraged the author to continue the manga? Maybe the author just grew bored and decided to move on to another work? Whatever is the reason, it is very clear that the amount of effort put in the later chapters is not even close to the effort put in the earlier games.
This is very easy to see as you approach the ending of the story, by chapter 170, and you realize that in 30 chapters the author must: develop a qualifying game, develop the last main game, conclude character arcs, reveal all the secrets that had been piling up since the beginning and wrap up the story. All that in 30 chapters.
After the series was concluded, two new chapters were released, in which the author revealed some more pieces of "information" which are completely pulled out of nowhere. It is such a cheap attempt at improving a rushed ending that some new plotholes come up again, and it is painful to read because it feels more like fanfiction than actual part of the story. What is even weirder is that these last 2 chapters that were added were added not at the last positions, but one substituted chapter 201, which now became 202, and another became chapter 203. It feels super weird that the author tried to stick one chapter between what was the previous ending, and the second to last episode, and try to make it seamless as if it were always planned to be that way, except it did not look seamless at all. To put it short it feels like the author wrote a crappy ending, then because a lot of people complained he decided to fix it a little, but ended up making it even worse.
[moderate spoiler ahead, only read if you have finished the manga]
As for what actually happens at the ending itself, it is a very cliche ending, taking the approach of "global secret government behind the scenes" which is so common in conspiratory theories on the internet. But that is not necessarily bad, because what is more glaring here is the lack of narrative to stabilish that ending. Maybe with a good narrative that ending could have been good, maybe not... but still, compared to what we got, a better narrative would certainly make a difference. And, as I said before, a lot of characters are left in the void. Where did they go after the story? Did the story change their loves somehow? What will they do? None of that is touched upon. And the last page looks like a premise to a sequel, which is even weirder because why would you make a last page suggesting a sequel, if the whole ending arc was rushed and thrown in the trash can? The point of a suggestive ending is to instigate the reader to anxiously wait for a sequel, but in the case of Liar Game, the ending does not make me excited for a sequel, it makes me cringe at thinking the author might have considered that a sequel would make up for the terrible ending of the manga. It is either that, or the last page was an attempt at being edgy.
In conclusion, Liar Game is well worth the read, but I would say it is a manga the reader needs to face like Berserk, in the sense that no matter the ending (or the unfortunate lack of it, like Berserk) the story is still worth reading. I would still recommend Liar Game to anyone, even if the reader decides to stop halfway before the later arcs come, because the journey until that point is very much worth it.
Dec 5, 2021
[Spoiler free review]
I count myself as one of the fortunate few that started Liar Game when the manga was still on its beginnings and were able to follow it chapter by chapter. This manga, I thought back then, was amazing. I still think so, but some observations have to made when reviewing this manga. You have to review Liar Game in two ways: prior to chapters 140-170, and after chapters 140-70. The reason to that will be explained when I start reviewing after the chapters 140-170. Liar Game is a controversial manga, in the sense that the same things that some people will praise will also ... 
Apr 7, 2017
Eiga Koe no Katachi Special Book
(Manga)
add
There were no reviews for this work so I decided to step up and do it. It is spoiler-free so don't worry.
It is a very short chapter. It is entirely related to the original work so it should be read after the original manga. But it is more of a side story exploring more of characters that wasn't in the spotlight on the original work. With that said, as a side story I wasn't expecting much but Yoshitoki Ooima managed to again do the same thing for which I praised her so much on the original series. The author seems to be capable of leading us ... |
