REVIEW: ‘Liar Liar,’ Episode 1 — “The King and the Lie”

The summer anime season is upon us and there are plenty of new series to enjoy. Liar Liar, created by Geek Toys and directed by Naoki Matsuura and Satoru Ono, is an adaptation of the light novel series of the same name written by Haruki Kuō and illustrated by konomi. Liar Liar Episode 1 introduces viewers to the main protagonist Hiroto Shinohara (Genta Nakamura) and the “Games” on Academy Island.

At Academy Island, students compete in games in order to earn stars and hopefully the title of “Seven Star.” Hiroto has transferred to Academy Island and is a bit out of his depth at first when he meets Sarasa Saionji (Wakana Kuramochi) who offers to help him. She explains the importance of the “device,” which looks like a cell phone that allows students to view the map as well as send and accept challenges to games with other players. An incident that leaves her sopping wet has her convinced that Hiroto is messing with her. She explains the concept of the games to Hiroto all while assuming he is making fun of her, which serves as a nice explanation for viewers even if the comedic tone lands with mixed results.

Hiroto ultimately ends up in a game against Sarasa that is described as a staring contest on hard mode. The objective is to make the opponent react in any way in order to win. Through sheer luck and pure anime shenanigans, another burst of water drenches Sarasa and she reacts out of sheer embarrassment giving Hiroto the win. What Hiroto doesn’t realize is that Sarasa, known as the Empress, had previously been unbeaten and challenging her was seen as taboo. It also turns out she is the granddaughter of the head of Academy Island, Masamune Saionji, and that the Saionji family actually created Academy Island. It is an interesting way to introduce the situation Hiroto finds himself in and I did find the premise a bit intriguing.

A meeting with the headmistress Natsume Ichinose (Houko Kuwashima) leaves Hiroto with the choice of using the ability of the Red Star to lie and pretend to be a Seven Star or be removed from Academy Island. He reveals that he is there in order to find someone, someone Natsume says he won’t ever see again if he doesn’t play along. Unfortunately, his motivation is briefly passed over and no more information about his goal or reason to stay on Academy Island is given. I was really hoping to be given a stronger reason to root for Hiroto to achieve his goal, something that will hopefully be explored more as the season goes on.

It turns out, however, that Hiroto isn’t the only liar in Liar Liar Episode 1. Sarasa is not exactly as she appears, and a reveal dropped at the end of the episode makes the premise of the series a bit more interesting. Having multiple characters juggling their own lies for different reasons does have the potential to build into something both dynamic and comedic, even if the first episode was more exposition than entertainment. There is certainly some potential if the series can build on the idea of constantly juggling incredibly numerous and complicated lies all while being a fish out of water.

The animation in Liar Liar Episode 1 is nothing to write home about, but it isn’t bad either. The world of Academy Island itself is quite vibrant and characters like Sarasa and Natsume stand out with distinct looks. The background characters that briefly appear are all given the same copy-and-paste look but that is fairly standard for characters not heavily involved in a scene. Hiroto himself is your standard high school anime protagonist, with disheveled hair and all. Outside of his face actually being shown in detail and the fact that he has black hair instead of brown, he doesn’t really stand out amongst the crowd of other students. Again it’s not really surprising, but it was a bit disappointing.

Liar Liar Episode 1 presents a somewhat interesting premise in a fairly standard package. Nothing stood out as exceptionally special, but there is some real potential here with the story if things continue to build. The only concern is that ‘the series might lean more into fan service than storytelling, but only time will tell.

Liar Liar Episode 1 premieres July 8 at 8:00 am PDT on Crunchyroll and new episodes will air weekly.