Liar Liar

Is this show one big lie? Or is this review a lie? You be the judge!

Story and characters: 7

Liar Liar might not seem an interesting looking show by the looks of things, but what it is, is a silly fun goofy anime that can entertain you from start to finish. Taking place on Academy island, where matches are done through games, and being quite the event to boot. It even gets you thinking, in the grand scheme of things, of how, and who is actually lying here. But to be perfectly frank, to touch on the characters, it honestly really comes across as the most ... goofy of 'academies' which only adds to the show's good points. If they were as bland as dishwater, the show wouldn't be at the rating that it is.So te goofy shenanigans really push it far, with a wide range of interesting characters, to really showcase the in depth of that. Good stuff.

Art and sound: 7
Can't say anything wrong with it. It not only does it's job in both deparments, but it really nails it when it comes to it's colouring and presentation. Being bright when it needs to be, but also doing a good job, of making darker colours and backgrounds really stand out. Not to mention the sound of the gags, the characters reactions, all sorts.With the flow of the music, it all comes together really nicely, and deserves props for that.

Liar Liar is a very weird, but entertaining watch for sure. Give it a go!

Welcome to the world of No Game no Kakegurui, and if that sounds something similar to a resurrected Frankenstein monster, it surely is not far from the case. Like it or not Liar, Liar is stuck between these two.

Plot: Set in an academy where games decide everything and anything, what if suddenly you got the superpower to cheat. That in a nutshell is the Anime. How that happens, what leads to that is essentially the first ten minutes of the Anime. And whatever follows can also be summarised within that first ten minutes.

Characters: By now you can probably tell what the characters will be ... from merely the poster of the Anime. You'd have the Tsundere with red hair, Kuudere Albino, Dark haired Teacher, and a flock of one note eccentrics who are either looking to take down or down to take a look.

Animation: As you'd expect from an average Ecchi-Harem series, average animation quality with shiny and glossy colours is the order of the day.

Music: A generic lump of background music, along with a generic J-pop opening and ending theme, perfectly suited for the Anime.

Enjoyment: Having said all that, it's been more than a decade now since No Game no Life, and at this point you either lead a life, or you'd take this to lead your life. Whichever way you sway, there is certainly some light enjoyment to be had here, just don't let your expectations cloud you.

Liar Liar is about someone who goes to a special school where everything is settled through games and defeats the highest ranked student on his first day. But secretly he isn't as great a player as everyone thinks.
The Title of the show now comes into play, as the protagonist and the girl he defeated are both liars. And because of the nature of their lies they have to work together to conceal them.

While this may sound interesting, make no mistake. Liar Liar is nothing special. The animation quality is OK at best, the characters, aside from maybe the protagonist himself, are little more than the ... standard tropes and side characters fit on a single index card.

But what brings Liar Liar down for me the most are the games. Because the animation quality isn't good enough to distract you, like in No game no Life or Kakegurui, you only have the game itself to bring your attention to. And they aren't good. While the games have more variety to them than I thought, the rules are barely and badly explained and the show always has some extra rules up its sleeve that it only reveals once the characters use them to give the audience a contrived gotcha moment and make the protagonist seem smarter.

For my rating, I use a few charactaristics of the show and rate them from 0 to 5. I then take the average and multiply it by two to get a MAL score. Keep in mind that this rating is subjective and only represents how I personally felt about certain aspects of the show.

Visuals: 2/5
They weren't horrible, but nothing to write home about.

Characters: 1/5
Like I said, they are barely more than one note or a trope.

Music: 2,5/5
It wasn't good or bad enough to be noticable, so right in the middle.

Story: 1/5
Sadly there wasn't anything interesting beyond the intriguing introduction.

Worldbuilding: 2/5
The setting is interesting. But as of episode 3, nothing is explained well enough to be believable. At the moment it feels like the whole world is just used to get us to the "cool games". Which isn't bad for this kind of anime, No game no Life and Kakegurui did it as well, but it also isn't enough to more points for me.

Overall Score: 1,7/5 --> 3,4/10
A better production quality could have elevated this to a 6-7/10 just because the premise is pretty fun. But because the animation quality isn't enough for me to turn my brain of, I'm forced to bring my attention to all the other aspects of the show which, well, aren't great.

Keep in mind that while my score can seem rather harsh, I just try to keep my average at about 5, so a score of 3,4 just means that it is a bit below average but I would still consider it watchable for people who think the premise is fun.