Liar Game
Liar Game is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Shinobu Kaitani. The manga was serialized from 2005 to 2015 in the manga magazine Weekly Young Jump, published by Shueisha.
It was adapted into a TV series, which started airing on April 14, 2007 on Fuji TV, achieving an 11.4 viewership rating in Japan's Kantō region. A sequel, ', ran from 2009 to 2010. It was also adapted into two live action films: ' in 2010, and in 2012.
Plot summary
A scrupulously honest college student named Nao Kanzaki receives a package containing 100 million yen and a note that she is now a contestant in the Liar Game Tournament. In this fictional tournament, contestants are encouraged to cheat and lie to obtain other contestants' money, with the losers forced to bear a debt proportional to their losses. When Nao's first opponent, a trusted former teacher, steals her money, she seeks assistance from a con man named Shinichi Akiyama. Though they manage to defeat him, Nao and Akiyama decide to buy out his debt and advance through different rounds of the Liar Game Tournament against merciless contestants, while at the same time attempting to free their opponents from debt and defeat the Liar Game organization from within.Characters
Protagonists
;Nao Kanzaki;Shinichi Akiyama
Antagonists
;Kazuo Fujisawa;Yuji Fukunaga
;Norihiko Yokoya
;Takashi Harimoto
Liar Game Tournament (LGT) Office
The purpose of the LGT Office is revealed in the last chapter. At the head of the office are those who wished to recreate the conditions in a radical political work whose last volume was confiscated in order to surmise its contents. The other members with patterned masks had participated in an initial attempt to conduct a simulation of the radical work, i.e. a first Liar Game Tournament. They agreed to return to help in the second attempt at holding a Liar Game Tournament. This second tournament is what is described in the manga."Handlers" manage individual contestants and provide information on upcoming rounds, and "hosts" carry out the actual rounds of the Liar Game and observe the contestants.
The identities of some of the LGT Office members are revealed:
;Mitsuo Tanimura
;Leronira
;Nearco
;Solario
;Forli
;Kurifuji
;Alsab
;Silien
;Rabelais
;Altair
Games
Half a Million Dollars Game:Two opponents possess half a million dollars and must try and steal money of the other before a set deadline.
How to win Half a Million Dollars Game:
Fool your opponent into thinking the deadline is sooner than it is. Have colleagues pretend to be game officials and pick up your opponents cash for “checking” at the fake deadline. Your colleagues then pass the money to you before the real deadline.
Minority Game:
A game for 22 individual players.
A Yes-No question is asked. Players vote their answer of either yes or no. The answer with fewest votes wins. Those players continue to the next round where the game repeats until a tie between two players, or one player winner remains.
How to win the Minority Game; Answer 1:
Form a team of 8 players; 4 vote yes and 4 vote no. Thus irrespective of the outcome, 4 are guaranteed to give the correct answer and continue to the next round. In the following round, 2 of the 4 vote yes, and 2 vote no. Thus irrespective of the outcome, 2 are guaranteed to give the correct answer and continue to the next round. In the following round, 1 of the 2 vote yes, and 1 vote no. Thus irrespective of the outcome, 1 is guaranteed to give the correct answer. This could result in either an overall win or a tie with a non team-member. This strategy will enable you to know one of your team will win, but you will not know who it will be.
How to win the Minority Game; Answer 2:
This strategy will enable a specific person to win. Let's call that person, X.
X approaches 7 other players to form a team of 8 and convinces them to play as per strategy 1.
X also approaches 7 other players to form a second team of 8 and convinces them to also play as per strategy 1.
X also approaches the remaining 7 players to form a third team of 8 and convinces them to also play as per strategy 1.
No team knows of any other team apart from player X.
In each round, X tells each team s/he will cast a vote for yes.
Due to X effectively playing the part of 3 players but only casting 1 vote, X will always be voting on the minority side and will ultimately win the game.
Restructuring Game:
Players must cast three votes for other players. After 10 rounds of voting, the player with the fewest votes is eliminated. Votes can be bribed and bought.
How to win the Restructuring Game:
The Card Bet :
Two playing cards placed in a bag. One is the Joker. The other is a double backed card with no face. A person must reach into the bag, retrieve a card and place on the table face down. Then the card is flipped. If it is the face card one person wins, if it is the double backed card, the other person wins. You let your opponent to choose light or dark for their card choice. You let your opponent remove and flip the card each and every time. You point out that if the face up card is placed directly on the table before it is flipped then the result is already known and therefore is invalid and does not count for either person. First person to 7 wins.
How to win the Card Bet:
This game gives the illusion of a 50/50 chance for both players. However, the double backed card will win 66% of the time. Therefore, the trick is to force your opponent to choose the face cards as their winning card to put the odds in your favor.
Offer your opponent to choose between the light or dark card. If they say light, tell them they have chosen the face up cards. If they choose dark, tell them they have chosen the dark, shifty Joker to represent them and you will have the light blue backed cards. Thus irrespective of their decision you force them to choose the Joker.
If your opponents card is drawn, half the time it will be face up and will automatically be deemed voided. If your card is drawn, it will always be flipped and yield a win for you. Your card will never be voided. Ultimately you almost certainly must win.
The Smuggler's Game:
A game for two teams. Each nation has 5 million deposited in a bank account in the opposing nation. A player must go into the opposing nation and withdraw nothing or 1 million or any amount in between. The money is placed in a suitcase. When returning to their own nation with the suitcase, they are stopped at the border by customs. The opposing nation must choose to allow the player pass without checking the contents of the case, or stop them on suspicion of smuggling money. If they stop the player they must also announce the amount of money they suspect they are smuggling.
How to win the Smuggler’s Game: Bribe border guards of the opposing nation to act as mules on your behalf.
17 Poker:
A deck of 17 cards. Four Aces, four Jacks, four Queens, four Kings, and a Joker.
The deck is shuffled and four cards are dealt to players. Winning hands are one-of-kind, two-of-a-kind, three-of-a-kind, and four-of-a-kind. Joker is a wild card.
How to win 17 Poker:
Each hand must start with a newly opened deck. Thus the deck will begin ordered by suit. Rifle shuffle the deck twice. This will mathematically order the deck by picture. An opponent can cut the deck wherever they wish. The starting card will change, but the order remains the same. If your opponent has cleverly figured a way to get the Joker, then the following cards will always be four-of-card.
Problem with the winning strategy of 17 Poker:
It requires the dealer perfectly rifle shuffle the deck twice. Your opponent must figure out how to get the Joker, then get the Joker and no further cards, and that no other subsequent opponent get any cards before you. That is to say, you must get the very next four cards after the Joker is received by your opponent.
Reality of 17 Poker: Whomever gets the Joker by whatever means has the highest probability of winning any given hand; unless sleight of hand is involved. The winning strategy as presented in Liar Game is unlikely to work.
Last Man Standing Version I:
Each player has a gun. This gun is initially loaded with one bullet. Each player takes a turn in a given round. At their turn, a player may opt to shoot, load, or avoid.
If a player chooses to “Shoot”, they may shoot an opponent of their choice. If the gun successfully fires, they may continue to shoot until the first empty chamber.
If a player chooses to “Load”, they can add another bullet to the chamber of their gun for use in a subsequent turn. Thereby increasing the number of bullets in the chamber and increasing the likelihood of a successful shot when they subsequently choose to shoot.
If a player chooses to “Avoid”, they do not get to Shoot, nor Load. However, if any opponent chooses to shoot them during the round, they avoid a successful shot and may select any other opponent who is shot instead.
Each player has 5 lives. Thus they must be shot 5 times before they die and are eliminated from the game. The person who fired the killing shot is awarded their gun. Thus that play then has an additional gun to play with per turn.
How to win Last Man Standing:
You could benefit by suspecting who wants to kill whom, and have excellent mental math skills to calculate chance throughout the game. Your chances are not significantly increased unless you are able to gain a second gun.
Last Man Standing Version II:
Players have 15 lives.
Avoiding is not option.
In each round, all players shoot or load at the same time.
The Well Game:
Three players stand in a circle holding hands. Players facing outward from the circle.
On the count of three, each player pulls the hand of a neighboring player.
If two people happen to both pull the hands of the third player, the third player is toppled off-balance and loses.
Media
Manga
Liar Game started serialization in the 2005 issue #12 of Shueisha's Weekly Young Jump published on February 17, 2005. The series finished in the 2015 issue #8 of Weekly Young Jump published on January 22, 2015. The first tankōbon volume was published on September 16, 2005. As of April 2015, the series has been compiled into nineteen tankōbon volumes.A short story "Roots of A" has been published as the title piece of a Shinobu Kaitani's anthology released in July 2008.
Live-action
Liar Game was adapted into a Japanese television series: Liar Game, a 2007 Fuji series broadcast, followed in 2009 by '. In 2010, the full-length film ' was released as a continuation of the TV series. A sequel, entitled , was released in 2012.A 2014 Korean drama adaptation also titled Liar Game aired on cable channel tvN.