Liar Game
Liar Game is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Shinobu Kaitani. It was serialized in Shueisha's manga magazine Weekly Young Jump from February 2005 to January 2015. It was adapted into a Japanese television series in 2007, with a second season which ran from 2009 to 2010. It was also adapted into two live action films; Liar Game: [The Final Stage] in 2010 and Liar Game: Reborn in 2012. A South Korean television series adaptation aired in 2014. An anime television series adaptation produced by Madhouse is set to premiere in April 2026.
Plot
An uncommonly naive 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 Office
The LGT Office operates as the clandestine organization behind the Liar Game Tournament, structured to experimentally recreate scenarios from a suppressed radical political text. Its membership comprises two specialized roles: masked "handlers" who directly manage contestants and distribute game information, and observing "hosts" who supervise tournament rounds. The organization represents a second attempt at this social experiment, following an aborted initial trial. Several key members' identities eventually become known to participants through the tournament's progression.;Mitsuo Tanimura
;Leronira
;Nearco
;Solario
;Forli
;Kurifuji
;Alsab
;Silien
;Rabelais
;Altair
Media
Manga
Written and illustrated by Shinobu Kaitani, Liar Game was serialized in Shueisha's manga magazine Weekly Young Jump from February 17, 2005, to January 22, 2015. Shueisha collected its chapters in nineteen volumes, released from September 16, 2005, to April 17, 2015.A short story, titled Liar Game: Roots of A, was published as the title piece of a Shinobu Kaitani's anthology on July 18, 2008. A short-term series, titled Liar Game: The Last Game, is set to start in Shueisha's Grand Jump Mucha on February 25, 2026.
Live-action
Liar Game was adapted into a Japanese television series: Liar Game, a 2007 series broadcast on Fuji Television, followed in 2009 by a second season. In 2010, the full-length film Liar Game: The Final Stage was released as a continuation to the television series. A sequel, entitled Liar Game: Reborn, was released in 2012.A 2014 Korean drama adaptation, also titled Liar Game, aired on cable channel tvN.