English Dub Review: Liar Game “Dictatorship”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

The Country of Day team corners Kikuzawa to make him reveal how he knew Yokoya before entering the game.

Our Take:

As usual, the stakes for the Contraband Game have been raised through the roof, largely thanks to Kikuzawa’s betrayal.  Understandably, he deserves a punch in the face for acting like an arrogant, controlling jerk, but Kikuzawa also has a somewhat good reason for it.  This week’s episode further expands Yokoya’s formidable presence through his obsession with control by highlighting his past as the dictator of his high school.  Kikuzawa was unfortunately one of the victims of the antagonist’s dominance, and now Yokoya is seeking to rule the game as well through his ranking maneuvers.  With Yokoya’s plan still in motion, it continues to affect the Day Team’s strategy, both physically and mentally.  To the show’s credit, it made Yokoya another antagonist I’d be more than willing to give a sucker punch to, and I mean that in a good way.

It bears repeating that Liar Game highlights the stakes of the competition through the characters’ psychological struggles, especially regarding trust and strategy.  In “Dictatorship” and “Fissures”, the series emphasizes another aspect of its psychological thriller element: control.  A person in full control over those below them can prove to be the most dangerous individual, particularly when they have everything carefully planned for every possible scenario.  But if there’s one thing I learned from watching films and shows with a similar concept, it’s that someday, people will say, “enough is enough”, and retaliate against the higher-ups.  Hopefully, this scenario would be no different from the rest, though that may prove difficult due to a certain condition attached to “winning” the round.