Me: Can we get No Game No Life Season 2?
Mom: We have No Game No Life Season 2 at home.
Liar Liar was a frustrating watch for me.I really wanted to love it, and I will still give the Light Novels a shot, but the anime just never really got going for me. On one hand, it does have an interesting Kakegurui-eque school setting where disputes are settled through games in which cheating is allowed, hot waifus and a somewhat intriguing story. But, it ultimately falls flat due to poor animation and pacing.
In a series where strategy games are important, it’s kind of important that the audience knows what the hell the rules are of the game and how they work. Liar Liar got this right sometimes, but other times I was totally lost and had no idea what was happening on screen. I mean some of the battles I basically just had to turn my brain off and go with the flow because of how they rushed into a game or the constant reverse uno style twists. It’s not impossible to adapt complex games into anime. Kakegurui does it, Tomodachi game does it, No Game No Life of course did it, but it requires taking your time. I felt this show was so rushed at certain points and it really suffered as a result.
That said, when the pacing was good, it was really good. The final multi school event was well done and easy to follow along with and if they had kept that pacing throughout, I think the show would have been much better received.
The fact that the MC gets ahead through cheating is something that made the series a little unique for me. Usually in these types of game anime, the MC is a genius and can outsmart everyone like the aforementioned shows. It’s not often you get an anime where cheating is not just allowed, but encouraged. Yea, Kakegurui has that, but Yumeko doesn’t exactly like doing that.Her natural talent gets her through gambling. Whereas the MC here is a literal fraud and only gets things done because of the help he has. It’s dirty and underhanded, but pretty fun to watch. Seeing how creative they got with the cheating was pretty cool, the explanations were a bit lacking, but it was a novel concept for me.
As I said in the opening, the other big draw here for me was the waifus and while the key visual art looks good, that’s probably the best you’ll ever see characters in here looking. The animation is stiff and uninspired most of the time and they nerfed the designs of the girls big time if you compare it to the light novel art. Which is a shame since Shirayuki’s design on light novel volume 1 is a big part of why I got into this series. Furthering my point on the animation, it is really bad. At times it looks more like a powerpoint slide than an anime. The show obviously mainly relies on strategy and non-physical combat, but there’s a few action scenes here and there, particularly in the last few eps that genuinely made me laugh with how bad they are.
I can usually excuse bad art if it’s made up for with a very well paced and developed story, but it’s hard to do that with Liar Liar. Yea, the premise is interesting and there’s some cool moments, but it’s more often than not, a painfully mediocre viewing experience. I say this as someone who really wanted to like the show and owns the LN too. It’s not the worst thing in the world, just not going to knock your socks off either.
Liar Liar gets 6 stars out of 10.
