Liar Game is a manga series written and illustrated by Shinobu Kaitani. It was serialized in Weekly Young Jump by Shueisha from February 2005 to January 2015, with a total of 19 volumes. A short story named Liar Game: Roots of A, published as the title piece of Shinobu Kaitani's anthology, was released in July 2008.

Following the success of Liar Game and its influence in the survival genre, a TV series with the same name was released in 2007 by Fuji TV. The first season ran for 11 episodes with a 3 hour long finale, and gained the second highest viewer satisfaction rating in an Oricon survey. Liar Game: Season 2 kept the same cast and began airing in 2009, with a total of 9 episodes.

In 2010, the full-length film Liar Game: The Final Stage was released as a continuation of the highly successful TV series. Its sequel Liar Game: Reborn, was released in 2012 which features a variant of musical chairs in a surprising new twist.

The story of Liar Game was said to heavily influent the 2021 popular South Korean TV show Squid Game, which was released on Netflix.

The main protagonist of the series Kanzaki Nao returned home after delivering a 100 yen coin that she found on the street to the police. She was often called “foolishly honest”.

When Nao arrived at her apartment, she received a strange package. Inside the package was a huge amount of cash and a note. That note was sent from the Liar Game Tournament, or LGT Office for short, explaining that she was entered into the Liar Game Tournament.

Nao hurriedly counted the money, which amounted to 100 million yen. Once Nao opened the package, she couldn’t withdraw her participation anymore. The game already started.

She began reading the rules of the Liar Game Tournament attached to the package. The note explained in details that in Round 1 of the game, Nao must try and steal her opponent’s money. Since both players gave their consent, anything they would do to each other in order to acquire the opponent’s money shall not be considered crime. Of course, that included lying.

At the end of the round, the player with the largest sum of money became the winner. The LGT officer would come and collect the money originally gave to players. Whomever ended up with the surplus shall kept that amount as winning prize. On the opposite, whomever lost their money shall be in debt. Nao realized that there was a huge chance someone as naive as her could end up losing and be in a debt of 100 million yen.

Nao was scared and tried to consult someone for advice. First, she thought of her friends but she didn’t have anyone close enough to have a serious conversation with. Then, Nao thought of her family. However, Nao was an only child, her mother passed away when she was young and her father was in a care home, fighting against terminal cancer.

Without anyone to turn to, Nao decided to visit a law firm for consultation. With a hefting fee of 15.000 yen/hour, the lawyer explained to Nao that she couldn’t take any legal action as she hasn’t taken any damage yet. The best thing for her to do would be to hold on to that money.

Nao returned home and received another note from the LGT Office, telling her that her opponent for Round 1 has been decided. It was Nao’s former high school homeroom teacher, Mr. Fujisawa Kazuo. Her teacher was always kind and supported Nao when her father became ill. That was why she felt relieved knowing he would be her opponent.

The next day, Nao went to meet Fujisawa in person and asked for his help. Little did she know, Fujisawa had other plans.

He made up a story about how LGT Office would send people to steal money from both players and cheated them into debt. Then, Fujisawa asked a frighten Nao where she kept her money. Nao immediately told him that she kept it at her apartment and led him to it.

Fujisawa said he would take Nao’s money and deposited both their amount into separate deposit boxes for safekeeping. Nao fell right into his trap and willingly gave Fujisawa all of her 100 million yen.

The next morning, Nao received a note from LFT Office, saying that she has lost 100 million yen to Fujisawa.

She hastily called him but Fujisawa convinced Nao that LGT Office sent her that note only to turn them against each other. Nao felt sorry for doubting Fujisawa so she decided to visit him.

When Nao came to Fujisawa’s house, she noticed that he was on a call with someone. As Nao accidently overheard the call, Fujisawa blatantly admitted that he lied and stole all Nao’s money.

Nao fell into the depth of despair and when she returned home to find another note from LGT Office telling her that she was fooled by Fujisawa, Nao broke down crying.

In an effort to try and get back her money, Nao called the lawyer she met before. She asked the lawyer where she could meet a scam artist. The lawyer said that the only way would be to meet an ex-con and luckily for her, there was a really famous one that would be out of prison in two days. His name was Akiyama Shinichi.

Nao found some articles about Akiyama and learned that he was convicted to 3 years in prison for swindling a major MLM company into bankruptcy.

2 days later, Akiyama was released from prison. As he skillfully avoided the reporters and exited by a back road, he bumped into Nao, who has been lost while looking for the prison entrance. After glancing, Nao realized that the man she just bumped into was Akiyama and immediately asked for his help to gain her money back.

Will Akiyama agree to help Nao? Will she succeed in getting out of this twisted game alive?