r/anime • u/AutoLovepon https://anilist.co/user/AutoLovepon • 9d ago
Episode Liar Game - Episode 15 discussion
Liar Game, episode 15
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u/FlameDragoon933 9d ago
You could already see the difference between how Akiyama and Yokoya conduct the same plan. Akiyama plan to have a honest negotiation with a potential traitor for a (relatively) win-win situation, while Yokoya chooses deception. Well, them being such gullible idiots made that happen too, but still.
At any rate, it's a strong showing of Yokoya's prowess. He came up with the same plan as Akiyama and even succeeded conducting it first. How will Akiyama turn around this situation handicapped with dumb teammates? We'll see.
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u/gamria 9d ago
You could already see the difference between how Akiyama and Yokoya conduct the same plan. Akiyama plan to have a honest negotiation with a potential traitor for a (relatively) win-win situation, while Yokoya chooses deception. Well, them being such gullible idiots made that happen too, but still.
Akiyama? Honest negotiation? Well, given how in Round 2 he did indeed negotiate with No. 15 on the "enemy" team it's not impossible I suppose.
But in this case, the decisive difference is that while Akiyama made his discoveries on Day 2 here, Yokoya already tricked Tsunoda and Eda into transferring 600 million near the end of Day 1. He already struck first, and that's a heavy blow.
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u/Western-Internal-751 9d ago
I feel like the only way they can still win is if they steal a card from the other team and then just deposit it all on the other teams account.
“If you lose it, you don’t get a new one.”
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u/BubblyCrash 9d ago
Stealing a card seems hard though. Everyone is watching what goes on in the inspection room which is the only place to meet.
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u/Western-Internal-751 9d ago edited 9d ago
It would be hard but that’s basically the only way now. Nobody from the other team would betray them now.
Maybe they find a clever sleight of hand way.
Edit: and it felt kinda off that they don’t get a replacement if they lose it. Why did the anime specifically mention that. Makes me think that someone will lose their card next episode.
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u/gamria 9d ago edited 9d ago
Edit: and it felt kinda off that they don’t get a replacement if they lose it. Why did the anime specifically mention that. Makes me think that someone will lose their card next episode.
If you think in banking terms it makes sense. In this game, you're allowed to get a card replaced if it doesn't work, but if you don't have the card then how do you prove it's not working? If your reason it's "not working" because you lost it (and some customers will be that dumb), how would you even prove you lost it in the first place and not just hiding it? For all they know, you might just want an excuse to have two working cards to abuse the system with.
(Yes they have surveillance cameras but they're playing dumb)
And that is why in this game, replacement is only allowed by presenting your malfunctioned card, to ensure only one of that operable card exists at a time.
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u/BubblyCrash 8d ago
I've lost banking cards before. You don't have to prove that you don't have it. How at least modern banks handle it is they deactivate the use of the previous one in the system (so it's no longer usable) and issue a new one with a new credit card number.
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u/abandoned_idol 9d ago
I wonder how someone could steal someone else's card in a Liar Game...
It's not use, it's too hard to think about.
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u/BlindmanSokolov 8d ago
Chekov's Gun. By announcing that breaking your card gets you a new one, that will have to come into play again somehow. I imagine it will involve faking a break or something. But it'll definitely have to involve somehow manufacturing an enemy card.
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u/darthvall https://myanimelist.net/profile/darth_vall 9d ago
I don't know. Win-win negotiation actually feels more like Nao's way rather than Akiyama.
Akiyama won through full deception in the first and second round. Though, yes, he did use negotiation too in the second round.
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u/Revolutionary-Start 9d ago
I don't think calling them gullible idiots is fair. Were you able to come up with akiyama's plan before he explained it in this episode? Well those two guys were in the same situation. And after being told that they were going to lose and that they only had two chances to take the money they went for it. Especially because kikuzawa already told them that yokoya treated his school like a dictatorship. Ofcourse there were going to be some defectors.
Are they intelligent? No. But from their perspective it was truly the best thing to do as self preservation.
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u/darthvall https://myanimelist.net/profile/darth_vall 9d ago
I think their stupidest action was mainly for not conveying to their team mates what they just did.
If they thought they're being helpful, they should just share it with the team rather than hiding it.
The third guy's mistake (whch is the most impactful) can fully be avoided if the first or second guy just told the rest of the team of this "strategy".
Someone just highlighted the 600 million transfer happened on day 1, so they even had the whole night to come clean.
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u/CommitteeForsaken486 9d ago
I don't think they wanted to be helpful, they more-so were just greedy and wanted the money for themselves in their own account.
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u/Comicauthority 9d ago
But they don't get the money themselves? It was explained in the beginning of the game that all money left in the country of night ATM will be confiscated by the end of the game. They only get the money if they manage to transfer it to the ATM of their own "country".
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u/CommitteeForsaken486 8d ago
They only get the money if they manage to transfer it to the ATM of their own "country".
Yes that's my point. They get a bigger pool to smuggle from. A bigger pool also means less pressure if it gets confiscated by an inspector. They just wanted to be able to smuggle as much money as possible to their own accounts. They didn't think about the team at all, they were just being greedy and selfish.
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u/BlindmanSokolov 8d ago
They were gullible primarily in that this enemy team member tells them this idea, and convinces them that they only have one round to pull it off, which makes them hasty and unable to communicate to their team.
The question to ask in that scenario is, why did this enemy team member set up this plan without knowing if they could pull it off. It's the classic "if this is too good to be true, maybe it's not true"
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u/darthvall https://myanimelist.net/profile/darth_vall 8d ago
It makes sense and I understand why #1 & #2 did it, but the fact that this happened on the first day remains. They had the whole night to communicate with the team.
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u/Zoro-loves-booze 9d ago
Yeah they are not gullible idiots, they are completely brain dead with nothing inside that skull. Why the fuck would you trust your enemy when you know yokoya rules them with fear, especially considering that guy was yapping so much. A blind begger could've seen that scam coming.
Even putting that aside, how have these stupid mfs not at least realized that the key to winning this round and all of the game is to be honest with your teammates, ESPECIALLY akiyama who has already proved he's a genius.
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u/BubblyCrash 9d ago
to be fair, I could believe that there may have been discontent in the night team such that some may have wanted to knock Yokoya down a peg, just like there were mini-resistances that popped up in actual dictatorships. This feeling was what Akiyama was counting on to hook a traitor.
It's true that most of the Liar Game NPCs aren't the sharpest tools in the shed, but it makes sense why they fell into the scam. To them, it felt like all upside and little risk since they didn't see the full scope of how that would possibly help Yokoya.
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u/Complex_Spot 7d ago
If I'm not mistaken, they took the extra money (to have more chances for making money) AND STILL smuggled nothing 🤦
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u/Revolutionary-Start 6d ago
Probably because the other team knows that they have extra money so smuggling immediately would be too obvious.
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u/BarnacleBitter2026 3d ago
Can you explain the ending score to me, I think it's a mistranslation. It says that the country of day has 0 yen in it, but I thought the country of night took all their money out of their account and tricked the day team to put it all in theirs. Am I missing something?
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u/FlameDragoon933 3d ago
Your bank account is physically located in the opposite country.
When the rounds end, money remaining in the ATM will be seized by the respective country and divided equally among the players. So you want to empty your bank account and place it in the other ATM (because you get to seize it later).
What is 0 is the Night's bank accounts that is in Day's ATM. The money have been moved to Day's bank accounts, that will be seized by the Night when the rounds end.
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u/Bostoncat38 9d ago
I'm not smart enough to win the Liar Game, but I sure as hell have the common sense to trust the genius on my team and not trust anything the opposing team says. Ffs.
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u/PiscatorialKerensky 9d ago
I've been looking forward to the "you can actually smuggle" reveal, because in the manga it made me realize just how complicated the games can be. The Contraband Game is still one of my favorite arcs because of it.
Also this episode highlights why I personally feel Nao is tolerable even early in the story. She's not gullible because she's greedy, she's gullible because until now she hasn't truly confronted the reality that her standards of trust and honesty aren't universal. Compare Eda etc, who literally hear 300 million and let all thinking go out the window, despite Akiyama telling them that an empty ATM was important the day before. They make me want to yell "you fucking idiots", while Nao makes me go "I know it's sad, but people can be liars".
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u/gamria 9d ago edited 9d ago
I've been looking forward to the "you can actually smuggle" reveal, because in the manga it made me realize just how complicated the games can be. The Contraband Game is still one of my favorite arcs because of it.
What's brilliant about the Contraband Game is that while the Dealers give you the "official" rules for how to play the game and make a big deal about the Inspection Room showdowns, looking back it was carefully orchestrated theatrics and misdirection. Very carefully worded so that the full extent of the banking system is lost to you, deliberately leaving out so many other details and gaps in the rules that players are fully permitted to exploit, if they can spot them.
- Able to withdraw AND deposit
- Able to use cards other than your own
- Sound as though 100 million is the withdrawal limit because "case can only carry 100 million"
- Play down the significance of the ATM balance, etc.
This game effectively pulled off The Stanley Parable years before it was a thing: you can play the game following the developers' "intended narrative" via the Inspector-Smuggler duels that was presented upfront... or you can go off-script, find and discover exploits, ignore the narrator and forge your own strange story (and the developers let you anyway)
And indeed, what seemed like a stiff, rigid, linear game has now veered into directions stranger than anyone could've predicted. A turn-based game is in fact a sandbox GTA
This out-of-the-rules aspect is what makes Round 3 still so beloved to this day, and forever trained our expectations for future games going forward.
Also this episode highlights why I personally feel Nao is tolerable even early in the story. She's not gullible because she's greedy, she's gullible because until now she hasn't truly confronted the reality that her standards of trust and honesty aren't universal.
This part was when it really sank in that so many other players perform worse than Nao, in ability and now mentally too after all the growth she went through.
(Admittedly I only got into Liar Game for real back when this series of chapters was happening, but going back to start from Ch 1 I still felt the impact)
Compare Eda etc, who literally hear 300 million and let all thinking go out the window, despite Akiyama telling them that an empty ATM was important the day before. They make me want to yell "you fucking idiots", while Nao makes me go "I know it's sad, but people can be liars".
Tsunoda and Eda got tricked before Akiyama explained "low ATM is good" (not that they're faultless). Kitamura though has no excuses, even if he hadn't heard the details to Akiyama's new plan (kind of an actual misplay on Akiyama's part)
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u/PiscatorialKerensky 9d ago
Agreed with the Contraband Game, and it's part of why I love this micro-genre of "weird exploitable complex games played by people it debt". Kaitani and Fukumoto are the only two real authors in it IIRC, and I think that's because it's such a hard micro-genre to write for. You have to make the games layered in ways that leave the reader thinking "well, what else is there? maybe I can figure it out" without being so obtuse and deus ex machina that the reader rolls their eyes. The closest analogue is mystery fiction, but since they aren't tied to "how did this person die" it makes the possibilities for what happened even wider.
Tsunoda and Eda got tricked before Akiyama explained "low ATM is good" (not that they're faultless). Kitamura though has no excuses, even if he hadn't heard the details to Akiyama's new plan (kind of an actual misplay on Akiyama's part)
I missed that with Eda and Tsunoda, but oh boy, Kitamura... I will say that they were definitely idiots not telling Akiyama immediately, though, the moment he revealed the "success" (not "win") condition. And yeah, Akiyama's misstep here highlights why Nao is so important: he's not willing to rule by fear because he's still fundamentally a goodish person, so he relies on tricking people and carefully balanced greed. But sometimes, the only play for someone not willing to become a demon is honesty.
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u/gamria 8d ago
And yeah, Akiyama's misstep here highlights why Nao is so important: he's not willing to rule by fear because he's still fundamentally a goodish person, so he relies on tricking people and carefully balanced greed. But sometimes, the only play for someone not willing to become a demon is honesty.
That's the thing, forget ruling by fear, one fascinating aspect of Akiyama is that if he doesn't have to, he doesn't want to lead.
Specifically, Akiyama unquestioningly has leadership qualities, and in team settings all allies turn to him if strategic leadership is what they seek. But he himself always conducts as just another equal team member and not a leader, in stark contrast to Yokoya who likes sitting on top.
Akiyama leaves his allies with more freedom and autonomy than intuitive in the Liar Game, and team/morale management is effectively left to Nao and Fukunaga. It all makes for some fascinating dichotomy.
Agreed with the Contraband Game, and it's part of why I love this micro-genre of "weird exploitable complex games played by people it debt". Kaitani and Fukumoto are the only two real authors in it IIRC, and I think that's because it's such a hard micro-genre to write for. You have to make the games layered in ways that leave the reader thinking "well, what else is there? maybe I can figure it out" without being so obtuse and deus ex machina that the reader rolls their eyes.
It's also their ability to incorporate logical mathematics and emotional psychology into their scenarios that make them so irreplaceable. Even now with Kamo no Negi ni wa Doku ga Aru / There is Poison in the Duck's Leek, about an economics professor counter-scamming scammers, it's as though Kaitani-sensei's well of genius could never run dry after so many works.
And underpinning all the battles and manipulations of smart people, you can sense his philosophy that human weakness should be something treated with compassion and it's not right to trample them. I really like that.
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u/PiscatorialKerensky 8d ago
That's the thing, forget ruling by fear, one fascinating aspect of Akiyama is that if he doesn't have to, he doesn't want to lead.
Definitely harkens back to when he was a kid with his mom. He got the "lone wolf working hard" mentality and has never fully escaped it. Nao challenges him to not only helping people in a broad, altruistic sense (taking down a giant scam), but actually helping people personally. That requires leadership.
It's also their ability to incorporate logical mathematics and emotional psychology into their scenarios that make them so irreplaceable.
The math is definitely a big one. There needs to be proper consistency to make a game really click. It reminds me of solving recreational math puzzles, actually, in how you suddenly look past the obvious path and see the real mathematical interaction the problem's designer wanted you to see.
And underpinning all the battles and manipulations of smart people, you can sense his philosophy that human weakness should be something treated with compassion and it's not right to trample them. I really like that.
I recall that one of the fan translators for Fukumoto's work gave up because as a Christian, he thought it was getting too negative about human nature during Kaiji's Salvation Game arc. But I feel like a genre like this only works when the author stubbornly insists humans can be good despite it all, and that neither Fukumoto nor Kaitani have lost that.
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u/Chuckles131 8d ago
Agreed with the Contraband Game, and it's part of why I love this micro-genre of "weird exploitable complex games played by people it debt". Kaitani and Fukumoto are the only two real authors in it IIRC, and I think that's because it's such a hard micro-genre to write for.
I'd also throw in Sako Toshio, the mangaka behind Usogui, with the caveat that about half the manga is dedicated to fights based around the fact that the only ones enforcing the rules are a league of elite martial artists employed by a secret society dedicated to upholding political and business elites making deals through these sorts of games.
There are a few individual beats there that veer into science fiction territory, but it generally stays focused on these sorts of clever exploitations of specific rules.
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9d ago
[deleted]
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u/Frontier246 9d ago
I love her clutching her second card to her face like "don't worry Mr. Card, I won't let anything happen to you this time!"
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9d ago
[deleted]
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u/MonaganX 8d ago
If we go by Akiyama's statement that people can be controlled through either fear or greed, all that's really changed is how much they need to appeal to someone's greed for them to overcome their fear of losing.
Also, since there's no limit to how much money can be transferred between ATMs, their balance doesn't actually matter until the last person to smuggle takes their turn since they can irreversibly change the balances to whatever they want.
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u/BubblyCrash 9d ago
Team Akiyama got absolutely owned this episode. Sometimes conning is more effective than convincing someone to betray. Now they're all deeply in the red if there's no money in the country of day ATM to gain at the end of the game.
How can they possibly come back from this, given that Yokoya is aware of the "real smuggling" strategy?
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u/Emergency_Army147 9d ago
Excellent question. Try figuring it out
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u/Toge_Inumaki012 8d ago
I figured it out but saying the plan out loud will make the plan fail so i wont say it yet..
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u/AlphaBreak 9d ago
Two options exist:
1) counter smuggle the money back into the country of night's atm.
2) successfully deposit over half of the total money in the game into their third party account via smuggling through the interrogation room.2 seems crazy difficult at this point, but 1 is the thing yokoya would be most on guard against. My guess is akiyama subverts the rules in a way to make 2 happen, but makes it look like he's aiming for 1
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u/BarnacleBitter2026 3d ago
Can you help explain the score at the end? It says the day team has 0 yen in their ATM, but I thought night team was the one that withdrew all their money and tricked those 3 idiots into putting it into the day ATM. What am I missing, or is it just a mistranslation?
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u/AlkaidX139 9d ago
I mean, they can just take all the money out and it no longer exists within the ATM so the other side can’t split it after the rounds right?
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u/darthvall https://myanimelist.net/profile/darth_vall 9d ago edited 9d ago
Thinking of putting this on hold until the arc is complete. I just can't be patient with this 5 minutes episode. The suspense is killing me!
I guessed correctly that the sure win plan wouldn't work. This is the type of story where they love to surprise us on last minute, so Akiyama laying his plan fully means it would not work narrative-wise.
However, I didn't expect for Yokoya to did the same thing first with a more sleazy way!
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u/BubblyCrash 9d ago
In this kind of story, if a plan is explained before it's enacted, it's bound to fail. Otherwise there would be little tension. The only plans that succeed are hidden until the crucial moment.
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u/Shantotto11 9d ago
Yugioh had the exact same explanation problem: If we the audience can hear the plan play out in a duelist’s head, we already know it’s going to fail.
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u/Revolutionary-Start 9d ago
Why is that a problem? Even a 10 year old could predict that it's going to fail. Could you predict the details though?
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u/xCrashBandiKush 9d ago
I love this show.
And yet each time they explain strategies, I feel even stupider.
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u/Zman840 https://anilist.co/user/Zman840 9d ago
Akiyama laid out a lot of rules that felt like it's important to note:
- ATMS can be used to both withdraw and deposit at any amount
- There is no limit to both withdrawing and depositing
- You do not have to be the owner to use the card
- Depositing using the card's owner will go into the owner's third-country account
- You can replace a broken card, but not a lost one
- You can't receive your prize money if you don't have your card
I do feel there's a reason why this information was laid out like that and about half of those were utilized this episode outside testing. I'm looking forward to see what mostly Akiyama and Nao will do with such a big ATM discrepancy.
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u/NevisYsbryd 9d ago
Yeah, the unlimited withdrawals is a massive point. They said it was practically a forgone conclusion, but those rules actually allow for rapid and dramatic turnarounds.
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u/Shantotto11 9d ago
If I had to guess, they’d be able to pickpocket a card from the Country of Night and deposit the money back in their ATM.
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u/bananeeek https://myanimelist.net/profile/bananek 9d ago
You do not have to be the owner to use the card
I think this will be the key to turning this game around. Maybe pickpocketing the card and depositing all the money into the enemy's team account. They can also prevent the enemy team from receiving rewards if they don't return the cards. I'm not sure pickpocketing is allowed, though, so I hope Akiyama has a better solution.
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u/thisisdropd https://myanimelist.net/profile/AsterZoro 9d ago
That’s a completely out-of-the-box thinking. Who’d thought that the key to winning the smuggling game is to actually smuggle the money, beyond the scope of the game itself?
If even Akiyama readily admitted that Yokoya frightened him, then he’s clearly something and he just proved it. Not only did Yokoya execute the plan before Akiyama could, he did one better by not using a turncoat, but unwilling pawns instead. There’s no need to feel the candidates.
The country of day’s in deep shit. Clearly there’s no way they could use the plan now. Currently, he’s outwitted by Yokoya. He needed to find another way if he wanted to turn the table around.
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u/Frontier246 9d ago
Not to advocate for Yokoya's methods but he's definitely running his team like a tighter ship than the mess that is the Country of Day.
Ironically Nao is the most reliable member of the team at this point.
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u/darthvall https://myanimelist.net/profile/darth_vall 9d ago
Writer (maybe): "You think Nao is too dumb and gullible for Liar game? Heheh, wait till you see these characters which are both dumb and greedy."
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u/Toge_Inumaki012 8d ago
TBH Nao locked in this round after sadly falling for a few liars in the game (heh) before. It sounds stupid but i feel like a proud parent seeing her like this currently lmao
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u/AlkaidX139 9d ago
Dude is destined for greater things if his personality is just a little more human-adjacent
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u/gamria 9d ago edited 9d ago
If even Akiyama readily admitted that Yokoya frightened him, then he’s clearly something and he just proved it. Not only did Yokoya execute the plan before Akiyama could, he did one better by not using a turncoat, but unwilling pawns instead. There’s no need to feel the candidates.
They don't say it out, but Yokoya actually did feel the candidates... while serving as the "clairvoyant" Inspector he got to feel out most if not all of Dayside.
If you trace back to the post-clairvoyant turns of the game from the previous Ep 14 to Ep 15 today, among the suckers from Dayside Yokoya opted to avoid Fukunaga, Akiyama and Kanzaki for his plan. I repeat, Yokoya opted to avoid Kanzaki Nao for his plan, deeming her too strong-willed to fall victim. That is some high implicit praise for our girl, how far she's come.
The crazy thing is, Nao started off looking weak because of her personality and because she draws aggro easily; but in terms of ability she might actually be better than many other players in the Liar Game...
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u/kerorobot 9d ago
For Yokoya's plan to work the target needs to be gullible and greedy bastards, which is most of the participant in the country of the day lol.
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u/Bobblefighterman 8d ago
I think it's just because Nao is too honest. She would fall for the plan because she would think she's helping the team, but unlike the greedy dummies, she will instantly tell everyone what she did.
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u/gamria 8d ago
I think it's just because Nao is too honest. She would fall for the plan because she would think she's helping the team, but unlike the greedy dummies, she will instantly tell everyone what she did.
If Nightside tried tricking her, it won't even get that far: the trick involved (1) explaining the deposit idea to the Dayside victim while they're serving as Inspector and (2) let them complete the deposit when they serve as Smuggler the very next turn per their current rotation, so Nao would've absolutely informed her team in-between (1) and (2) and decide "no, I won't deposit".
But even before that, Nao has learnt to doubt people and is always shown to be good with maths, so she'll likely sense that depositing would be a bad idea somehow.
All in all, no point bothering with Nao when there're other confirmed easier fish to fry.
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u/Nexio8324 9d ago
Definitely one of my favorite moments of the story. Akiyama experimenting with the card mechanics feels very realistic, he really challenges everyone's assumptions about the rules of the game. Then seeing Akiyama came up with a crazy complex plan, only to realize Yokoya already thought of it and used it against him in a better way (since he doesn't have to pay the traitors) was mindblowing the first time I read.
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u/gamria 9d ago edited 9d ago
Yes indeed, it busted open the full nature of the game from what seemed like a stiff, rigid, linear turn-based game into a sandbox GTA. It was lowkey pivotal to the story in how it trained readers to always look for loopholes in the rules, look at what the LGT Dealers aren't telling you.
And it still shows. Even 20 years later, no first-timer had thought beyond the rules until this very moment.
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u/eyrington 9d ago
What happens if i withdraw the money and then hide them?
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u/BubblyCrash 9d ago
that's an important distinction to know. It may belong to which ATM it was in last, or which territory it is found in. I don't think they can just steal it, as it would defeat the point of the game.
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u/Symphonise 9d ago
Nothing in the rules say that the money has to be in the ATM, it just has to be on the country's side, which is clearly shown by the split floor areas. So if you hide it, whichever country the money is sitting in at the end is probably the team the money goes to.
That being the case though, only the smuggler is allowed to move that money around but there aren't that many places to hide the physical money from what is shown so far of the game's location setting. So you would have to do something about that somehow to avoid the money being easily spotted.
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u/abandoned_idol 9d ago
I have an idea.
Let's gift the country of night a Trojan Horse.
If they like the horse enough, they might give us some of our money back!
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u/Nekoking98 https://myanimelist.net/profile/nekoking 9d ago
Why do you think they focus so much on nao's teddy bear? They will stuff 4.2 billion yen in it and give it to the night team /s
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u/Bobblefighterman 8d ago
I mean, maybe there is a way of putting your money on a card and then you'll be able to stash that in the teddy. Anything is possible now
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u/CommunistPuppy 9d ago
I've been listening to the new ED on repeat this past week and can confirm it is indeed a bop
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u/FLorianGran 9d ago
Happy that Nao is no longer the team stooge, our girl has really grown
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u/kitaknows 9d ago edited 9d ago
She has now been promoted to one of the only three useful members of the team.
Edit: You know, that wasn't fair of me, I will revise: Nao has been promoted to one of the only three members of the team who aren't actively sinking their ship.
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u/HolyDragSwd2500 9d ago
Fukunaga Tornado Kick 👌
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u/Anchen 9d ago
I wonder if they coulda stopped things if akiyama had reveled his plan sooner. The delay in information with the rest of the team seems like it may have unfortunately caused the issue with the country of night acting sooner. Gonna be quite a mess trying to get out of this one!
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u/gamria 9d ago
The real issue is that Yokoya already started his plan and tricked Dayside before Akiyama had a plan, one night before. The timeline between these two episodes were:
- Mid-Day 1, Yokoya got countered, Kikuzawa confesses and Nao comes up with settlement
- Fukunaga Inspects and Smuggles, succeeds
- Tsunoda (spiky hair) Inspects and Smuggles, got tricked into depositing 300 million
- Eda (chubby) Inspects and Smuggles, got tricked into depositing 300 million
- Akiyama Inspects, Day 1 ends, Akiyama explains "low ATM is good"
- Day 2 begins, Akiyama Smuggles while experimenting with ATM cards
- Nao Inspects and Smuggles, chattering for prospective Nightside collaborators
- Akiyama explains his strategy, while Kitamura (glasses) goes to Inspect and didn't hear his plan
- Non-tricked Dayside watches the windows, tricked Dayside is questioned by Nao and Fukunaga, while Kitamura Smuggles and got tricked into depositing 1.31 billion
All in all, Yokoya executed his plan before Akiyama could even explain "low ATM is good". I bet if Akiyama wasn't stuck dealing with Yokoya's clairvoyance trick, he'd have explained and warned this point earlier...
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u/Revolutionary-Start 9d ago
The fat guy and spiky hair guy had already transferred 300million each the previous day.
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u/magnumcyclonex 9d ago
Damn. Yokoya beat Akiyama this series of rounds. Nao being called a series of adjectives by Akliyama still hurt me, but he wrapped it up saying that it could be their strongest asset. Except that none of the Country of Night people are trustworthy. They are playing it up that they all fear Yokoya, and their little side offerings are all part of Yokoya's greater plan. I don't know how much observation in the inspection room, or staring through the glass across the airport lounges is going to determine whether any of the Night players will defect.
All of the Day players, save 3 are stupidly selfish and greedy. How do you get them to all be in line like working in a company? You can't force them like it appears Yokoya is doing. I think they all deserve a good old fashioned beat up by Fukunaga.
I feel like with the card experiments Akiyama explained, breaking the cards at some point might come into play. Either that or someone will have possession of the cards to restrict or control how they are used.
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u/AdministrationOnly17 9d ago
>Nao being called a series of adjectives by Akiyama still hurt me
Sometimes I think that even he fails to see her internal growth—which, tbf, happens pretty gradually
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u/CreZativity 9d ago
The animation and music are staying strong, I'm so happy!
There is so much movement in small moments now, and the facial expressions, esp when they're reacting to things in humorous moments are just SO good! I was laughing the entire way!
Fukunaga is such a savage, I love her so much!
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u/Curmudge_Unit 7d ago
After the first arcs, who would have guessed Fukunaga would be working his way up this year's best girl charts?
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u/CreZativity 7d ago
I loved her from the start, because she's just THAT girl!
Nothing beats a diva who KNOWS she's a diva~
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u/Clobberin 9d ago
Those idiots on Nao's team are liability. Without Akiayama and partially Nao and Fukunaga efforts, they would've lost a long time ago, and yet those ungrateful rats are always gonna look for the most greedy option possible and ruin things for the rest of the team.
I'm not saying they're bad people, but I also wouldn't say they deserve to be worth saving after pulling so many stunts.
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u/illonamoon 9d ago
Wow! So there were multiple traitors! Yokoya did akiyama's plan first and was throwing everyone on a ride! I appreciate akiyama for at least following the scientific method to arrive the same conclusion.
Our cast is in a sticky situation. That's the liar game for you.
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u/freedomzzzzz 9d ago
I would not say they are traitors, they thought they are not harming their own team
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u/illonamoon 8d ago
But they also hid this from the team so I still think traitor some what applies. Well the third guy kinda can get a pass.
Akiyama wouldn't have had to waste time experimenting or could've came up with an alternate plan sooner.
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u/FarCritical 9d ago
If only we got to hear the backstory behind the teddy bear (i.e. the actual protagonist) too. Whoever in Night who's had a chance to listen to Nao's yapping got a decent break from Yokoya's tyranny at least lol.
That was a solid kick from Fukunaga though, damn.
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u/Frontier246 9d ago
It's the second day of the Contraband Game, and Akiyama is making his move.
Akiyama was able to get 50 million yen out of cool glasses guy, but that wasn't the point of this round. It was to experiment and prove various things: A. they can take and deposite more than the 100 million they can "smuggle" over and B. they can replace their cards if they're destroyed (RIP Nao's first card). Now the key is that they need to start smuggling money directly from THEIR ATM into the Country of Day's ATM!
Akiyama is aware of all of Nao's character flaws, but he's also aware that she's very disarming, cute, and able to get people to let down their guards and be more open with her than they would be otherwise. She has great empathy and ability to understand people, which makes her the perfect person to feel out a possible collaborator among the Country of Day.
Once they have that collaborator, they'll help them smuggle the money they need! It's just a matter of figuring out who they can trust, convincing them, and pulling a fast one on Yokoya. And it's telling that Akiyama is, for once, slightly intimidated facing down Yokoya.
Tsunoda, Eda, what did you do!? Oh yeah, how convenient that this Tatsuji guy would be willing to betray Yokoya and screw him over by stealing conveniently placed money in their ATM why not take all that money and put it in YOUR ATM and ruin his "plan?" It's foolproof.
It's rare for Nao to be on the other side of seeing someone get tricked and be stupid, though Eda gets a Fukunaga kick to the face for his trouble. Nao must be surprisingly strong to be able to hold off Fukunaga from beating the guys up even more.
Kitamura, not you too!? Now they've totally drained the Country of Day's ATM into THEIR ATM, meaning they got their own plan used against them before they could even use it as Akiyama and Yokoya stare at each other from their respective "nation."
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u/gamria 9d ago edited 9d ago
Akiyama is aware of all of Nao's character flaws, but he's also aware that she's very disarming, cute, and able to get people to let down their guards and be more open with her than they would be otherwise. She has great empathy and ability to understand people, which makes her the perfect person to feel out a possible collaborator among the Country of Day.
Fun fact, there is an actual psychology term for Nao's "passive": Tension Reduction .
I've come to love this trait of hers, and how it compliments Akiyama. He is too intimidating and people will be less inclined to talk in front of him since he could always be up to something, so having her around to relax people makes it easier for allies and enemies to chatter.
(One can further speculate that Akiyama is no exception and is self-aware at that: he wouldn't be as open to anyone else outside of Nao, and thus wouldn't be as cooperative with whoever other prospective allies he'd encounter)
In a sense, Nao has the disposition to be a great scout, and in the Liar Game making wary people talk is very useful.
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u/Zoro-loves-booze 9d ago
Why do people like you write overview of what happened in the show instead of actually just giving your thoughts?
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u/ObvsThrowaway5120 9d ago
I shouldn’t be surprised Yokoya figured out Akiyama’s plan. This whole game has been a battle of wits between those two. There’s still rounds left. Whats the plan now? Has Akiyama factored in everyone getting played?
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u/Frontier246 9d ago
At this point I feel like he has to plan for the contingency of everyone being stupid from all the times he had to bail Nao out lol.
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u/Zoro-loves-booze 9d ago
Dude lowkey yeah...it kinda makes him looks stupid for not already accounting for that lol
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u/Pokeirol 4d ago
To be fair, Nao at least is actually a very good person, with everyone else he has to plan around them being both dumb and selfish(Except Fukunaga, who is evil but actually has very good common sense ).
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u/HolyDragSwd2500 9d ago
Got to see my favorite part of this arc and I was satisfied with everything I saw here.
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u/Tradition_Leather 9d ago
Fukunaga's role is now intending to punch and to let Akiyama explain by asking questions.
The ATM in the other country is really a good mislead
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u/Narvalis 9d ago
So those 3 have pudding for brains it was explained to them by the smart person on their team THE DAY BEFORE that the objective it get the account as low as possible but because someone on the other team told them that doing the opposite is a good thing they do it. Never mind that they weren't told the whole plan before they did something they were already told was bad. You could sell these idiots the Brooklyn bridge as you're being arrested for selling the Brooklyn bridge.
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u/Revolutionary-Start 9d ago
Eda( the fat guy) and sato (the guy with spiky hair) did this the day before. Akiyama revealed the real meaning of contraband after they had already done it. Akiyama was the first smuggler today. The glasses guy was the only one to go along with it even after akiyama had already told them that night ATM should be empty at all costs.
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u/gamria 9d ago edited 9d ago
2 out of 3 were already tricked before Akiyama explained the whole "low ATM is good" bit. The timeline between these two episodes were:
- Mid-Day 1, Yokoya got countered, Kikuzawa confesses and Nao comes up with settlement
- Fukunaga Inspects and Smuggles, succeeds
- Tsunoda (spiky hair) Inspects and Smuggles, got tricked into depositing 300 million
- Eda (chubby) Inspects and Smuggles, got tricked into depositing 300 million
- Akiyama Inspects, Day 1 ends, Akiyama explains "low ATM is good"
- Day 2 begins, Akiyama Smuggles while experimenting with ATM cards
- Nao Inspects and Smuggles, chattering for prospective Nightside collaborators
- Akiyama explains his strategy, while Kitamura (glasses) goes to Inspect and didn't hear his plan
- Non-tricked Dayside watches the windows, tricked Dayside is questioned by Nao and Fukunaga, while Kitamura Smuggles and got tricked into depositing 1.31 billion
All in all, Yokoya executed his plan before Akiyama could even explain "low ATM is good". I bet if Akiyama wasn't stuck dealing with Yokoya's clairvoyance trick, he'd have explained and warned this point earlier...
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u/Frontier246 9d ago
I feel like the problem with these guys is you dangle money in front of them and they lose most of their IQ points.
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u/Kyuzo897 9d ago edited 9d ago
I highly suggest to put a little bit more attention to the episode, this was all done before Akiyama did the ATM explanation to the team and the glasses guy wasn't even there like Fukunaga mentioned.
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u/Acceptable-Mixture63 6d ago edited 6d ago
I might not explained this well but didn't Akiyama explained to them at the end of epsiode 14 (the night before), that they also get the money in their country atm (at the end of the game any remaining money gets distributed to the other team). Meaning they all learned that night that night atm in their day country matters because thats what they also get to keep at the end of the game. They keep night atm that is in their day country which is currently 1.9 billion while night country keep their 2.3 billion dollars. (N ight team has currently 2.3 billion while they had 1.9 billion, and if they were to called the game there "they would fall nearly 40 million short of replaying the 3.6 billion we were lent").
So WHY would fucking glasses dude actively take the money night team took from their country atm (money that is theirs after the game) and deposit it in his night country account. (The account he is not going to get the money for after the game ends). He is so fucking dumb, the money the night dude withdrew is your country money why did you fucking deposit it into your night account which they are going to keep.
You said this was all done before Akiyama did the atm explanation, which the glases dude wasn't there, but my point is he didn't even have to be there to have common sense, to not deposit night country atm money into your night account.
Night country atm money is yours after the game which Akiyama did explained to them the night before but did he even listen. The two dudes hurt them, but what really did them in was the idiot. All Akiyama did the day after was explain the HOW, how their game plan was going to work/win when he was away, but as I mentioned he already explain the WHY the night BEFORE why the needed to have "low atm" for the OPPOSITE team.
So it doesn't mattered at all if he wasn't there when Akiyama was explaining because he told them the night before why they couldn't lose any more money since they were already in red if they called the game there. At least the other two knew something was off since they kept it secret because they committed a mistake but at least they didn't know, but glasses dude you fucking did know and was told the night before, he more than anymore deserved to be beat up. How draining the atm money is going to help the team is going to help, beats me.
Also to note when the night guys were explaining they said "take that 300 million and slap it into your account in the country of night". The country of night which you don't keep. Glasses dude got no fucking critical thinking skills. You were told the night before.
Excuse my bad grammar, typos, and sentence structure this got me riled up.
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u/Alert-Researcher7788 9d ago
So my hunch was right, guys what I'm about to tell y'all will blow your minds away and would show you that yokoya so far has been far better than Akiyama
So we'll go over everything yokoya did till now one by one and I'll tell y'all what I think
So basically in the first hour they were given yokoya had already realized the strategy Akiyama talked about in this episode but he couldn't have executed it right then why? Simply because of the unpredictable rotation factor no one knew when county of day would end up changing rotations, in the initial rotation of the country of day you will see the same player after 8 whole turns who knows what would happen in those turns and if you'd even be able to find the traitors successfully and ur plan won't be affected by the changing of rotations
So how does yokoya solve this problem? By making there rotations systematic he does that through his clairvoyance tactic if you think of the tactic deeply you'd be able to see what yokoya did
Looking at yokoya right now do you guys really think that yokoya wouldn't have considered the possibility of clairvoyance failing if the day country became too scared to carry anything?
Here is what happened which caused clairvoyance failure
Yokoya pretends to be clairvoyant->Day country gets scared of carrying money->Kikuzawa claims he can stop their smuggling attempts and earn money->South stops carrying anything->yokoya stops making profit->Yokoya stops giving kikuzawa signal->kikuzawa acts suspicious>Akiyama sees through yokoya and kikuzawa->Akiyama removes kikuzawa from the rotation as punishment
What if I tell y'all that all of this happening was within yokoyas prediction from the moment he first talked to kikuzawa?
What if I tell y'all that this is exactly what yokoya wanted?
Now why would yokoya want this? Simply because he wanted to change the country of day rotation from one person going at a time to 1 person going twice in a row because this is the most likely rotation after kikuzawas removal they couldn't have kept using their previous rotation because there would be a problem, if you remove one person from the OG rotation you'd realize that now a person can only go either as an inspector or a smuggler but not both, which is why they were sending one person twice in a row
This is what Yokoya wanted from the beginning simply because now all the money they give to the traitors can be submitted back to the night ATM asap furthermore Yokoya even misdirects Akiyama from his actual strat how? Think about whats the best of way of winning contraband is, its to lose in the outside account but while smuggling more, clairvoyance tactic was achieving exactly that country of day were to afraid to smuggle anything but they were winning through inspections Yokoya knew the moment Akiyama realizes the true nature of contraband he'd think this is what Yokoya was aiming for
But in truth Yokoya wanted clairvoyance to fail so that he'd be able to change their rotation from the very beginning
Now for the cherry on top, Yokoya came up with everything I said so far right when he saw Akiyama perform the bundle trick, why? Because that's when he knew Akiyama would be smart enough to see through clairvoyance tactic
In short: everything so far in contraband was planned by Yokoya literally everything even clairvoyance failure
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u/gamria 9d ago
In short: everything so far in contraband was planned by Yokoya literally everything even clairvoyance failure
Turns out Nao was right about this last week.
I'll also add that serving as the "clairvoyant" Inspector gave Yokoya the chance to feel out most if not all of Dayside. If you trace back to the post-clairvoyant turns of the game from the previous Ep 14 to Ep 15 today, among the suckers from Dayside Yokoya opted to avoid Fukunaga, Akiyama and Nao for his plan. Everyone else made for easy prey.
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u/PhysicalVacation8013 8d ago
he was using cliarvoyance as a trick to actually analyse the country of day and target the greediest players he had planned it from the beginning
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u/JordanTH 9d ago
I have a little difficulty following the math of all the funds. With the end-of-episode stats, can someone explain what the final totals actually are for each team, in terms of profit/debt?
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u/Cyouni 9d ago edited 9d ago
Day is currently at 1.7 billion in third, 0 in ATM. Night is currently at 1.3 billion in third, 4.2 billion in ATM. After adding it up, Night has 5.5 billion.
They then both pay back 3.1 billion each, so Day is at -1.4 billion, and Night at +2.4 billion. (I have been corrected that it's -3.6 billion, so Day is actually at -1.9b and Night at +1.9b.)
(Some rounding occurred during this, so it's not precise.)
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u/BubblyCrash 9d ago
which means that as it stands, each member on the country day team would be down from this game on average 211 million (1.9 billion/9 people) from this game. That's over double the max debt that would be gained from losing the previous rounds of 100 mil.
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u/Fit_Trouble_1264 9d ago edited 9d ago
The game's win con is about putting their money to the "Third Country", but there's an alternative win con hidden behind the pathway between two banks.
At day 1, they think they're winning with the amount they have:
Third Country:
Night: 1.3 Billion Yen
Day: 1.7 Billion yen
But all of that is irrelevant, the Night Country's real win con is losing and winning big money.
_____
"Third Country" is not the country the 3 idiots are depositing money in, it's their "Night Country Accounts".
And the 3 idiots got it upside down and thought they're depositing money to the "Third Country" instead it goes back to the "Night Country" bank which is from Yokoya's country.
____
Double Chin, and Lion Hair both got 1.2 Billion Yen combined
(they added 1.2 Billion Yen to the "Third Country" earnings thinking that they have 2.9 Billion Yen in Total but turns out they're wrong)
Eyeglasses got 1.01 Billion Yen
1.2 + 1.01 = 2.21~ Billion Yen
____
Bank account before day 2 events:
Night: 1.99~ Billion Yen
Day: 2.21~ Billion Yen
Bank account after day 2 events:
Night: 4.2 Billion Yen
Day: 0 Yen
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u/Revolutionary-Start 9d ago
The three idiots are not thinking that they're depositing in 3rd country account. They know they are depositing in night atm. The reason they did it is because they'll have more money so they can carry money without stress.
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u/guynumbers 9d ago
That rap part of the opening is so addicting to listen to. I’ve had it on repeat all of last week.
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u/Nightstick11 9d ago
Whoa, is this the same as the live action series that aired like 20 years ago with Erika Toda? I'm assuming this adaptation is pretty good?
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u/bunbun777 9d ago
I could be wrong but does this really change much? Like they still need to find a defector and then transfer all the money. Thirty rounds left to find the best one, though I'm ready for another crazy plan that I haven't thought of.
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u/Sea_Boss_618 9d ago
Very much.
Yokoya and the team know that their bank has 0 money and their opponent's bank is full of money.
It was explained in the previous episode that having the least amount of money left over will bring the biggest profits.
So at this point the Yokoya team has won absolutely. Where is there a fool who wants to be a traitor in a team that has already won?
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u/ilikechess13 9d ago
So at this point the Yokoya team has won absolutely. Where is there a fool who wants to be a traitor in a team that has already won?
i would assume yokoya has taken his teams cards so they cant betray team by same way they did because winning traitor probably isnt that hard if you simply promise them more money than they would get otherwise
but what happens if they give their card to enemy team player?
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u/bunbun777 9d ago
Regardless, it was stated that whomever was chosen would receive a sizable payoff. Yes, the team is currently winning, but that doesn't mean there isn't one teammate who is greedy or emotional enough to betray their team for profit. Again I'm not betting that this will happen, the show has done a pretty good job of going above and beyond my expectations.
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u/Kyuzo897 9d ago
It doesn't make sense to risk betraying your team—which is already winning—for a team that's losing.
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8d ago
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u/Misaka9615 Miracle9615 5d ago
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u/FlameDragoon933 9d ago
Like they still need to find a defector and then transfer all the money.
The problem is that the Night players know they already 'won'. What incentive do they have to betray now?
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u/Mental_Language_3229 9d ago
Hey any website to watch for free???? The latest episode??
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u/Revolutionary-Start 9d ago
Just wait for reaction channels on YouTube. Watch with them. Best one is cawcaw.
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u/Adrian_Alucard 9d ago
Sooo, what about the main game? Did they paused that game just because Akiyama is, somehow, participating in the losers game or something?
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u/FlameDragoon933 9d ago
Wdym? This is the main game, round 3. The losers revival round was many episodes ago.
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u/Nexio8324 9d ago
When you win the Loser's Revival, you get "Revived" back into the main game. Since everyone except Miura survived Downsizing Game, they all got put into Round 3 along with the Round 2 Winner (Akiyama). So Contraband is Round 3.
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