18-year-old Nao Kanzaki is the kind of girl who goes to the police and returns a coin she found on the street. Honest to a fault, she is accustomed to hearing she’s dumb, but she does not care much. Instead, her priority is honoring the teachings of her father, a cancer patient now living his last days. But one day, Nao receives a letter and a suitcase containing 100 million yen (a cursory Google search reveals that 100 million yen will get you a good apartment in a cosmopolitan area of Tokyo). The ominous LGT Company has decided that she is now part of the “Liar Game.” She will be matched with a rival who has received the same amount. Both will be told who the other is. From that point on, they’ll have thirty days to try to steal the money from each other by whatever means they choose. Any such actions are part of the game and will not have legal effects. When the time is over, an LGT agent will collect the cash. If you somehow got more than 100,000 yen, you keep the excess in cash. If you have less, you’re in debt. Nao visits the worst lawyer ever, who tells her not to go to the police and to play along instead. To the girl’s relief, her first opponent is her homeroom teacher from middle school. She feels she can talk things out with him. And, when that goes as well as you’d expect, con artist Shinichi Akiyama becomes her last hope…

We live in a society, dear reader. Sometimes, anime creators reflect on that fact and produce such works as [C] – The Money of Soul and Possibility Control, Eden of the East, or the Persona series. Such stories are about the lies we tell each other, who people are when they fear no consequences, and how nasty the fight for control and survival can be. Liar Game has a cool central concept: What if you became a player character in the world you know, suddenly able to manipulate events with a fortune that will disappear soon? The show also has relatable characters who can explore its themes from opposite points of view. The actual execution, though, feels a bit undercooked. LGT is an unknown company without the mystical undertones or the conspiratorial flair other works of this kind give their stand-ins for “The System.” It does not operate on a secret island or a mystical realm, nor does it control our world behind the scenes. Knowing what she knows, would rule-following Noa really receive 100 million yen from them and then be easily convinced to keep the police out of it? It’s hard to believe. As the story progresses, more and more of these pretty unlikely events and reactions start piling up. I might give this another episode to see the first match play out, but if I still can’t quite believe what I’m seeing, I may stop there. Too bad, though. I like the protagonists and, if it ups its game, this could easily become a gripping show. I guess we’ll see.

Liar Game can be streamed at Crunchyroll.