to those who know, liar game is originally a manga which turned into a 2 series jdrama and a movie starring 戸田恵梨香 (toda erika) and 松田翔太 (matsuda shota).

to give a short introduction, liar game is about this stupidly honest girl called kanzaki nao (toda erika) who was dragged into a cruel game called the liar game, in which players try to scam each other of their money worths hundreds of millions yen (or millions of usd), which was loaned to them by a mysterious organization. if you win, you can keep the prize money which you won over. if you lose, you just had to pay back the debt of hundreds of millions of yen. but being the stupidly honest girl she was, she got scammed really quickly and had no choice but to beg for the help of a genius swindler, akiyama shinichi, just a few minutes after he was released from prison. and from then on they were dragged deeper and deeper into the game.

this story basically takes you through the different types of games and shows how various people play each other in a battle of wits and psychological warfare. what is interesting is how you see people turning the odds and rise from the bottom to victory using their intelligence. of course as all stories goes, there is a certain level of exaggeration involved.

as of all adaptations, naturally the drama and the manga would have different storylines which split from somewhere in the middle, as well as slightly different changes here and there. for example i kind of like how they changed the masked supervisors of the games to 吉瀬美智子 (kichise machiko) & co. machiko is quite a good actress, in my opinion, adding to the fact that i feel she is quite pretty. her coolness as well as the feel she gave suits the supervisor of the game very well.

a little disappointment would be that the level of yokoya was kind of brought down. in the manga he was very high in level in terms of intelligence and his manipulation of people, but somehow in the drama, although this feeling was also given, it was somewhat reduced very much and part of his characteristics were given to the drama only character katsuragi ryo.

overall, i really enjoyed the drama very much. the music was well done, and each of the actors and actresses put in much effort in the show. i especially love it when erika went 'ehhhhhh?!!' and 'uso!'
totally sexy and kawaii. her reaction at different parts of the show, be it during season 1 or 2, makes her even more lovable. i don't know how others would act but i feel that she really brought out the character of kanzaki nao.

as for the genius swindler, he is as smart as in the manga, but the drama reduced the weaknesses he had. in the manga we can see that he did get scared and panicked at times, but in the drama such emotions were absent. well, that was up to the scriptwriter to decide. as an actor he did particularly good too.

battle of wits. psychological warfare. manipulation of humans. the cruelty and sincerity of people. the drama portrayed all of them quite well. in short, if you are wondering what is the next drama you should see, you should try liar game if you haven't done so. though there are differences from the original, it is still a very good production which i did not regret watching.

i wanted to talk about nana-chan today, since i had not talked about her recently. almost talked about a little incident related to that too, but i thought nobody would be interested to know about my life, so i will not talk about that. as for nana-chan, hmm i will make a post on it after her single is released. well the date is drawing near... haha. did not expect her to come out with a single so soon after the release of ultimate diamond though.

ok let's start.

story introduction: the team of 2 people will get back anything you have lost with a near 100% accuracy.

the story starts with that concept and goes on to help people get back what they had lost. at first when i came across this manga, i thought, 'what a lame idea. must not be anything nice.' in fact, when i introduced this piece of work to my friends, they had the same reaction as me.

well, that time i had nothing better to do and decided to download the anime. the anime, to my disappointment, had a mismatch in visual and audio in many critical places (i don't think it is the producer's fault), as well as a bad storyline towards the ending (this one is). well but the front part was really nice and that prompted me to get the whole set of manga.

lucky for me, this piece of seemingly bad concept of a story is actually a very wonderful piece of work. don't confuse it with naruto's fillers of doing missions to get something back. this is much better.

the things they got back, ranged from simple items to relationships, from taking back hope all the way to time. the last arc 'take back the lost time' is a really good title. one look at the title lets the reader wonder what kind of story would that be, because we all know that time, once lost, cannot be taken back.

story development: all the major characters were introduced very early into the 39 book series, and they appear frequently throughout the major arcs of the story. the story in itself is split into many small arcs or missions to get back something. in each of the arc one or more new character was introduced, and more mystery surrouding the major characters kept piling up, like why midou ban killed eris or kudou yamato, why kazuki's family was massacred, why akabane's bloodlust was so great etc. and perhaps one of the things that kept the readers from reading on (other than the fantastic storyline and the illustrations) is the fact that the answers to almost all these mysteries was actually revealed only at the 'get back the lost time' arc. it was at the last arc that all the significant characters shown at each of the 'small' arcs along the story gathered together to fight for what they treasured and what they wanted to get back. it was like the gathering of the most powerful characters throughout the story at one single place. i would like to say more, but i figured out that saying anything more will spoil the story.

character design: the usual, first few books don't really look too good due to the lack of experience and help in drawing. but trust me, as the story progresses on, the character design is really good. i admit that hevn is really sexy, and kirara is really attractive. well akabane was cool right from the start, and i really like the cover page of one of the later books where der kaiser was the 'cover man'. haha. one thing obvious was that ayamine rando (the illustrator) loves to draw sexy females who always got exposed. lols. but of course, there is no porn. i must admit though, they are really well drawn. haix, if only i can draw like him.

characters: there are a ton of characters in this story. they are all varied, with no hints that one character's design (whether in appearance or personality) was copied from another. among them, chibi ginji was one of the most popular. but my personal favorite for male characters is akabane and kirara for females. but i want to add in 2 more, toufuuin saizou and der kaiser, both guys are what i called a real hero, and i think the author protrayed the concept of a hero in a very different manner compared to the other stories which i read. a hero is not just someone who died protecting the things or people important to them. they are people who sacrificed themselves protecting those things or people they loved, even when the very ones they wanted to protect misunderstood them, turned against them and tried to kill them. well kyoshirou in samurai deeper kyo is another one though. hahax. (abit of preaching: the Lord Jesus Christ in christianity also did the same thing. in case you don't know, i am a christian.)

fights: well one big part of this shounen manga is the fight. what is a shounen manga without a fight, right? if there were no fights it might as well be a seinen, shoujou or even josei category manga. and what are the 2 most important factors in fights? the rationale and the style. rationales for fight aren't those lame reasons given in some of the manga (well i won't say names but you should have a rough idea of a few). like samurai deeper kyo, the reasons to fight were all quite compelling, and the all time favorite rationale to fight was that both sides had to protect something so important to them that they would rather die than to lose. of course, this concept was not so heavily used in getbackers compared to samurai deeper kyo. that manga, thoroughly used that concept to the fullest, employing it to nearly every fight. that's why, it is so famous and enjoyable, and perhaps a little emotionally charged, until now. ok back to track, fights in getbackers are fantastic. the second factor. style. each of the characters uses a different style, well that alone anybody can do. i think it is also the way rando presented the fights in the visual form, and all the 'coolness' factors being added into the pictures, that made the style so great. pictures here and there to display the 'coolness' of the individuals, such as the big picture where kirara displayed her spear, or the way shimon or others acted during battles. of course, one big credit is that rando is a very talented artist. fights are very hard to draw out, yet he could do it excellently. illustrations are pretty well drawn and clear. rationales are compelling, and conclusions to the fights are satisfying. my favorite conclusion was the battle between paul wan and shimon. the concluding line that paul said was original, memorable, and most of all, fit the result of the battle perfectly, i would say. want to know what he said? go read on your own. oh yea, before i forget, one big flaw i discovered was that, midou ban's trick for nearly the most part of the story is nearly the same. his fights were much less varied compared to akabane, kazuki or even himiko.

overall, this manga ranks one of the top few, or perhaps the top 3 in my list. first being sdk, number 2 perhaps being flame of recca or this, i don't know. but this is definitely a good read. well if you want to read, do find some good translations online, if you are reading online. i heard from my friend when he went online was that the online translations he found were not up to his expectations. buy the book, if you can. if you can't read japanese, do read in chinese, since it is the language closest to japanese. if you can't read both language, i do hope you find a good translation.

well, if you have the time, read it and i hope you enjoy this story as much as i do.

before you read this, let me warn you there are spoilers.

i have been wanting to do this for a very long time now, but kept putting off. because of exams, i told myself. well now that i only have one paper left, and that doesn't really matter, i think (what am i thinking?!), i shall do a review of this manga.

of all the manga i have read, this is the best manga i have read so far. i admit, flame of recca, getbackers, fullmetal alchemist... etc, they have wonderful stories. but i think, sdk has the best story. i have never read a manga that is so emotionally charged and that which climaxed for so long. just when you thought the climax is over, another even more exciting fight or story came up. it continues on and on like that, without letting the reader get bored.

stories like flame of recca and getbackers especially, they have their little climax here and there. and of course, i really like their stories (especially getbackers 'get back the lost time' arc), just that, none of them are as continuous and emotionally charged as sdk.

sdk's climb to climax started very early, after kyo decided to find the aka no ou (the crimson king - aka means red, ou means king). from there the battles are all filled with a sense of purpose, not like some lame ass who came out and say, 'i want to fight you because i felt like it.' every battle has its own meaning. battles starting from saisei all the way till aka no ou himself, almost everyone has a purpose, and a strong will that says 'i will rather die than to lose, because i have something very important to protect.'

each battle gets more intense than the previous one, each one with a stronger reason not to lose. be it someone the person love, be it a dream, a tribe, the entire race... nearly everyone turned himself into the bad guy, to the extent of being hated by the very ones they wanted to protect, all in order to protect the things they treasured. yeah, you guessed it. nearly all significant characters in this story are good guys (women).

as for the reasons kamijyo akimine came up with for battles, they are really fantastic (well we don't talk about jokes like keikoku wanting to fight despite losing his left arm. i lol'd at that). why saisei fought so desperately against akira, why fubuki did the sacrificial technique to take down kyo, why kyoshirou was so determined to fight kyo, why yukimura wanted to defend sakuya so much, why aka no ou must win that battle, why ieyasu definitely must conquer the world...etc. you sometimes might think, with so many characters, with so many battles, is it even possible that a unique and yet acceptable and compelling reason to fight be created every single time? the answer is yes. kamijyo-san proved it. and he did it very well.

the story just keeps on attracting the reader and like an addiction, causes withdrawal symptom if the reader stops reading after a certain volume. yes, i think after the shinrei battle with kyo, the addiction kicks in. it may be earlier for you though.

story development: pretty well done. i will give a near perfect score for that. the only minor point is that i want to find about more about akira's past. he said before to yuya in the early parts when he proposed to her that he once loved a woman who suffered a tragic end. that part was never developed. ok back to the main point, other than a climax that never seems to peak, the flow is very well done. the suspense is always kept high and the best thing is, kamijyo-san actually fulfilled all expectations that he had created.

somewhere along the story, with all the hype and all the talk, you may begin to think, the relationship between kyo and kyoshirou better be something unexpected. the mibu secret better not be a lame secret. in fact i was fearing that. what if the mibu secret turned out to be something so lame i would just throw the last book away without reading? luckily not. it is one stunning secret that makes you think, 'well done!' expectations are all met.

character design: well dont look at the first few volumes. start from somewhere in the middle where better artists were employed. each character has a unique design, the most unique being akari! hahahax. you don't see repetitions in dressing and style of characters. honestly, you ask me to do that with a pencil, i cannot do that. the massive number of characters (yeah like bleach and naruto) and yet with no repetition makes one wonder how did the artist do it with just pencil or drawing tools. just their drawing technique could make one differentiate easily from one character to the next.

characters: well the characters are all varied too. from the all serious fubuki and hishigi, to the loyal and block head shinrei, from the sadistic oda nobunaga to the jokers bontenmaru and keikoku! lols i love keikoku. his presence is always filled with jokes. haha that reminds me of the bookworm in yuan's family, anthony. now i do know how do bookworms look like from kamijyo-san's perspective. simply amazing.

actually i saw the anime first before buying the manga. i did not really have high expectations though, after seeing the anime. well the anime sucked. but i don't know why i still went ahead and bought the manga set. something kept telling me to buy it, and so i spend another roughly 200 bucks to get that set. it must be the manga instincts within me. i totally did not regret it at all. and it tooked over my all time favorite manga (getbackers). heh, 'get back the lost time' arc is simply too good. the concept is fantastic too. well i will do a review on that one day.

anyway, the coolest person in the whole sdk story, i think is kyoshirou. and kyochiro is cool too. i won't spoil you by telling you who is kyochiro. hahax go read on your own. you know why i think kyoshirou is cool? go all the way back to the second post of this whole blog, yea the one right after the very first post, and see that picture. when i see it, i was like, oh my, kyoshirou is so damn cool! ok maybe when you see it like that it looks normal, but when that came out with the development of the story... the impact was really there.

ok i shall end this. this is a really good story, and although it is old, it is really very good. if you can, you should read it. i don't know if the english translation is good, but well i guess it won't differ too much, i hope. i was a little 'huh' when i read the translation of one of the chapters (when kyoshirou was telling yukimura his dream), the translation was very different from what i had. oh wells... better than nothing, right?