Title: Liar Game Broadcast dates: 4/14/07 - 6/23/07 Number of episodes: 11 Genre: psychological thriller Cast: Toda Erika, Matsuda Shota Plot: Kanzaki Nao (Toda) is idiotically honest. She unwittingly finds herself entrapped in the Liar Game, where the goal is to deceive your opponents out of their money. If she does not win, she will end up deeply in debt. She turns to Akiyama (Matsuda), a swindler recently released from prison. Together, they fight through each level of the game. What is good: Matsuda Shota is awesome. What is bad: The final episode is two and a half hours long. Letter rating: A

I absolutely loved this show, up until the final episode. Toda's acting as the naive Kanzaki was adorable. She really made you believe that the world would be a better place if everyone was honest with each other. Meanwhile, Matsuda was able to bring forth both the cynical and caring sides of Akiyama. The two of them got me hooked way faster than the plotline, which isn't awful but can get a little tedious at times.

The annoying part was that the final episode was so long. They recapped the entire series and added little snippets of what some of the off-screen characters were doing at the time. The additions made the long episode bearable but I don't think we really needed an entire recap of each level of the game. I wanted to fast forward through most of it but I was afraid I would miss an important piece of information.

In the end, that final episode didn't ruin the whole series for me. Not only did I enjoy it immensely, I am anxiously waiting to watch the second season. I hope it doesn't let me down.