English Dub Season Review: Liar, Liar Season One

Overview:

Hiroto Shinohara transfers to Academy Island in order to find somebody. He immediately becomes the highest-ranked student on the island, and he has to do whatever he can to protect his lie.

Our Take:

Every conflict is settled with games on Academy Island. Hiroto Shinohara learns this the hard way when he accidentally gets into a confrontation with the island’s top student: “The Empress” Sarasa Saionji. He somehow manages to win, which puts him in a difficult spot. Director Ichinose proposes that the best decision is to make him a fake seven-star, meaning that he’ll go from being one of the lowest-ranked students to the highest-ranked. However, he’ll only seem like a seven-star to everyone else. In reality, he’ll still be a one-star. It’s imperative that he keeps up this facade or else he won’t be able to find the person he’s looking for.

Shinohara soon confesses his lie to Saionji after she accidentally tells him hers. The two then form an alliance in order to keep each others’ secrets safe. Shinohara gets help from others as well, such as Ami Kagaya and his maid: Shirayuki Himeji. They help him cheat in his games in order to defeat higher-ranked opponents.

I like the show’s premise. It reminds of other anime like Classroom of the Elite, No Game No Life and a little bit of Baka and Test. The games themselves start out interesting and entertaining. As the show goes on, they start to get more complicated and the explanations seem to take forever. The second half of the season focuses more on the explanations than the games themselves. That causes me to lose interest in the ASTRAL competition, which is supposed to be the crucial point in the season.

The two main characters are fine, but they’re not the most exciting. Himeji is the most entertaining character in my opinion. I like her deadpan delivery, and she has some nice touching scenes with Shinohara. There are some side characters that intrigue me, but they don’t get enough screen time. Kagaya and Haru Urasaka are perfect examples. The latter is only seen in two scenes throughout the whole season. There are a number of characters who get a lot more focus than they should, whether it’s because they’re annoying or boring. The main antagonist is mainly irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. It feels like he comes out of nowhere, and he never feels like a real threat.

I like the visuals in Liar, Liar. Geek Toys is the studio behind this show, and they can be hit or miss. I think this is one of their better-looking series. The show’s music is mostly forgettable, and the voice acting is serviceable. It gets the job done, but no roles really stand out.

Liar, Liar starts out pretty strong, but it hurts itself with the long explanations of its games later on. There are a few episodes in which it feels like nothing happens, which is not what you want from a show about solving conflicts with games. It could also improve by strengthening its characters a little bit. Some of them have potential, but they’re not quite there yet. Maybe a second season is what this show needs to reach its full potential.