Liar Game: Roots of A
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The prequel for the Liar Game, written and illustrated by the same Kaitani Shinobu. Actually, only two chapters (the opening one and the new one-shot Liar Game: Roots Of A #2) deal with Akiyama's backstory; the others are a two-shot that deals with a fortuneteller and the rest are simple one-shot chapters. The non-Akiyama stories are not part of the main Liar Game story.
Akiyama's chapter revolve around him and a few other classmates (all of them top of the class) at Teito University trying to complete an assignment for Professor Yukiya Okabe's criminal psychology class. They need to create a detective profile for a person based on their letter that Professor Okabe found. With such limited information, this profile needs to be complete, accurate, and correct, unless the students want to be forced spending their summer attending his lectures...
The other stories deal with the fortuneteller Asuka Kiryu, while the rest involve Cool Loser Minoru Shibura whose only redeeming talent is skill with darts and his struggle with the staff at Green Mountain Starlight Park, a Dating Service Disaster episode, and even a chapter for the author's dog.
- Batman Gambit: Minoru makes a deal with the director to free a patient (Kyo Kisaragi) if he can beat everyone in the facility at darts.
- Bus Full of Innocents
- Cool Loser: Minoru
- Complete Monsters: The staff at Green Mountain Starlight Park.
- Contemplate Our Navels: Minoru
- Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: These moments are sure to make you smile:
- The patient Kyo (gifted at darts) is playing a game of darts for his freedom from the abusive Green Mountain Starlight Park treatment center. After defeating an employee (with a perfect score!) the director brought in the hopes of crushing Kyo, the director forces one last challenge: throw a dart into the apricot in Minoru's mouth (which of course would be bad for Minoru if Kyo misses). After Minoru gives a Rousing Speech that all the patients had potential and were not sub-human, Kyo throws the dart right into the apricot and wins his freedom. We later learn that the patients were released and returned back to their peaceful lives, the director (and presumably the rest of the staff) were arrested, and that Kyo won the darts World Championships with another perfect score. Truly inspiring.
- @Lovers has a young man--Hikishi--who lied about being rich (he was a common factory worker) who sacrificed a lot to keep up a rich facade to impress a high-class lady (Hakura), and they were dating for over a year. However, Hikishi was unsatisfied with such an uneven financial relationship, even though believing that he was destined to be with Haruka. He turned to @Lovers, a dating website (in a short time later it was revealed that those who married with its matches never divorced), which resulted in Hikishi trying to hook up with a highly compatible (99.9%, where 95% is 1 in 200 million) lady...Satsuki. When Hikishi finally met Satsuki in real life, he realized she was the person he was dating all along...Hakura. After a brief argument, they laugh and share a kiss at the end ("I knew we were destined to be together"). Of course, you probably expected the ending, though it does nothing to ruin the effect.
- Didn't See That Coming: Type 3 for Daisuke Hanamura. Hard to blame him...he was defeated by the fortuneteller he met earlier. How was he supposed to know that it was the legendary fortuneteller who practiced ancient divination?
- Fan Service: This overlaps with Fetish Fuel.
- Fortune Teller: Asuka Kiryu
- Like Reality Unless Noted: If we are to assume the one shot chapters take place in the Liar Game world, then this trope applies.
- Matchmaker.com: @Lovers
- Outrun the Fireball
- Subverted since Asuka adjusted the hijacker's clock 18 minutes early; no explosion at all.
- Psychologist Teacher (in name only) Professor Yukiya Okabe
- Rousing Speech: Minoru gives quite a nice one for the patients, and it leads into a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming.
- The Woobies: The patients at Green Mountain Starlight Park. Just read this page...
- Thirteen Is Unlucky: Kyo is patient 13. He also wins several games of darts with 13 throws, and subverts this trope since he and Minoru inspire the other patients.
- Time Bomb