Score: A

One of my more highly anticipated series finally airs! It’s kind of nice to get a really solid psychological drama like this. Just mental battles with a lot on the line. The two main leads were set up pretty well in this episode along with their opponent. And now that the game is on we can see how things are going to play out. Kind of nice that a really solid studio like Madhouse is on the case too. There’s no worrying about the show stumbling visually.

Too good for this world!

I’m really happy that they nailed the casting. It can be tough going from manga to anime and actually getting voices beyond the ones you always had in your head. Saya Hitomi was a perfect pick for Nao. She hasn’t done that many major roles, but she just fits the character nicely. You get the absurd goodness and straight forward honesty of Nao. It’s something that is a source of pride for her, even though it does put her into a very tough spot in this episode. If you are the only honest person in the room…things can get rather difficult. Put her faith wrongly in the hands of her teacher and was left in a terrible spot.

In general though I can’t blame Nao. You get a random package and of course you’ll at least see what is going on. The strange letter would make you just keep opening it up to see what the heck is up with this. It’s such a crazy thing to have dropped on you as well. Being put into this difficult situation and having to make tough choices. Just having that much money psychically there is stressful. And such a long game period means you are left stressed, not wanting to leave it unattended. It’s even worse for Nao since she had few people to turn to. Her dad’s fighting cancer and…losing. Telling him could stress him out and worsen his condition. In an even worse case he might die worrying about his daughter.

This cruel world!

Her opponent made for a really bad match for her too. Nao of course is going to trust the teacher that helped her during a tough point in her life. Teachers are human and obviously some of them are terrible people. But there are good people in there and it’s not a shock that she’d want to believe. All the more so with his warnings sounding plausible. But on some level it is on her. She could have taken his advice and said that she’d deposit it into her own bank or find some other means of storing it. Putting it with Fujisawa left everything in his hands. Even if he was a good guy, the temptation would be insane. Do I completely blame her though? Not really. Stress, fear, and isolation can make people stumble. I’m not so arrogant to think that I’d handle this perfectly.

No matter her mistakes, she didn’t deserve to be put in that hellish position. So I really did feel for Nao when she was breaking down. As things stood her future was one of hopelessness. The voice acting, animation, and music just hammered it all home.

Smile while you can!

Regardless…I do want to see this guy utterly destroyed! What a scumbag. A former student approaches him out of a position of trust and he absolutely betrays it. Even if he was worried that she was actually more deceptive than she looks, soon as she was readying to pass him the money that would obviously not be the case. It’s not even just about filling his own pocket book. He’s actively putting someone who’s dad is dying of cancer into a debt so massive that her future would be bleak.

The hero we need

Which all leads back to Akiyama. Nao isn’t the type to be able to solve this herself. She needed help and he was the one glimmer of hope she could find. Plus he’s got fantastic main character looks to him so it’s probably going to be ok! Someone skilled enough to bring down a corrupt business organization? Yes, please. He’s the exact kind of con-artist she needs. One that targets the corrupt and not good people. Since otherwise bringing him in would be disastrous…

I do think he really wanted to have firm footing before making a move here. It makes sense considering he just got out of jail! See both parties, get assurances that this is a game and that he’s not committing any crimes. It probably was part of the point to confront the teacher so he isn’t just sitting comfortably. If he thought Nao was still in the dark he’d be pretty relaxed. One could say that hitting him while his guard is down works, but there were probably other reasons to approach him anyways.

Let the games begin

Liar Game is looking good! That was a really solid start. The main characters are established now and the game is on. They have about 3 weeks to get Nao’s money back and make this scumbag pay for his actions. He had the option to take nothing and lose nothing, but he gave that up. He chose to rip off one of his own former students, even while knowing her position. He’s opened himself up to lose it all and frankly I wouldn’t care if he did. No question I’ll be following along to see how this adaptation plays out.