Finished the manga tonight and really can't stop thinking about those last few chapters
Liar Game was a really fun ride overall, and while >!the final game left a lot to be desired in my opinion!<, the last couple chapters have been really gnawing at me all day since finishing. So this is half my kinda getting my thoughts out/half inviting discussion with anyone who happens to read this post.
I'll be talking pretty freely about the ending of the manga here, so:
>!Beyond anything else- the rushed pacing is pretty apparent, especially in the last two chapters where LGT just surrenders, wipes all the debts, then does a massive info dump. In execution I do not like these chapters much at all. I feel like they kinda are abrupt and really just scream of "we got the axe." But I think in terms of thematically what Liar Game was going for and what this ending kinda presents, I can't deny that I also kind of really respect it. !<
>!The idea of the Liar Game being a grand scaled attempt at recreating the scenario from a deeply radical book to understand what scared the powers that be so much is fascinating to me. It is a punchy way to tie together the feeling of coming together against bad odds and not letting individualistic greed drown out the needs of those around you. It also is a great sorta like, wakeup call of sorts for a reader who is kinda forced to think about how little they do to stand up against outright cruelty and oppression. I genuinely feel like if the manga had the time to stretch this point out and not deliver it all in an info dump, that this could have been something really phenomenal, something that serves as an amazing rallying cry for being someone like Nao (and I could go on for days about how wonderful Nao is throughout the series, anyone who hates on her woefully misses the point). But Liar Game cannot be that.!<
>!And it's hard to not think about the in universe Liar Game novels, and how they were building up to something truly groundbreaking, something that bothered the elites in power enough to silence it. How everything but the ending is kind of set in stone. In a lot of ways our Liar Game ended a lot like the fictional series did. It's an engaging series of gambles that show off the "trash" of human society fighting over money that actually aims to show that the strength of people is their ability to come together and truly have trust in one another- but the ending meant to really drive that point home was hampered by outside factors and thus delivered in a way that falls flat, if it even reached anyone at all.!<
>!I still don't think the ending really sits the best for me, but I appreciate the sorta layers to it. And, especially in times like these, I do think that core message the ending was trying to get across is more important than ever. !<
>!I'm curious what other folks think about the ending and how it sat with them/their thoughts on the series overall. I know I still love Liar Game, but I can't help but feel like the way it ended does bring it down some points for me. But thematically it really was aiming in such a great way and some of the games like Musical Chairs remain some of the best bits of gambling fiction I've read period.!<