1st season ended with 26th episode on Monday

The official website for the television anime of Shinobu Kaitani‘s Liar Game manga announced on Tuesday that the anime is getting a second season. The website unveiled a commemorative illustration by character designer Kei Tsuchiya:

The 26th and final episode of the first season aired on Monday (effectively, Tuesday).

The anime premiered in Japan on TV Tokyo and its affiliates on April 6. The anime ran for six months without breaks. The second part of the anime began on July 7. Crunchyroll is streaming the anime worldwide (excluding Japan and China) and hosted the world premiere screening of the anime’s first two episodes at this year’s Sakura-Con event in Seattle on April 5. PDT. AMEDIATEKA is distributing the anime in the Russian Federation.

REMOW introduces the series’ story:

A Mysterious Invitation. One Hundred Million Yen. The Game Begins.
College student Nao Kanzaki suddenly receives a strange letter and a suitcase containing 100 million yen. She’s been chosen to participate in the LIAR GAME—a high-stakes psychological battle where lies, deception, and betrayal reign supreme. Naïve and painfully honest, Nao quickly finds herself cornered. To survive, she turns to Shinichi Akiyama, a brilliant former con artist with unmatched intellect. As they dive deeper into the twisted game, the two must outwit opponents in a world where trusting others could be fatal. In a game built on lies, can honesty prevail?

Yūzō Satō (Kaiji -Ultimate Survivor-, Akagi, Trillion Game, The Gene of AI) was the chief director of the anime at Madhouse, and Asami Kawano (assistant director for The Vampire Dies in No Time both seasons, episode director for Orb: On the Movements of the Earth) directed the anime. Tatsuhiko Urahata (Baki, Baki Hanma, Monster, Muv-Luv Alternative) wrote and oversaw the series scripts, Kei Tsuchiya (Laidbackers, Trillion Game, The Gene of AI) was the character designer, and Kisuke Koizumi (The Gene of AI, My Happy Marriage, Ghost in the Shell Arise) was the sound director.

The manga ran from 2005 to January 2015 in Shueisha‘s Weekly Young Jump magazine. Shueisha published the manga’s 19th and final compiled book volume in May 2015. Kaitani launched a new short serialization for the manga titled Liar Game: The Last Game in Shueisha‘s Grand Jump Mucha magazine on February 25.

The manga previously inspired two live-action films, two live-action television series, and two live-action online series. The manga also inspired a stage play in 2023.

Kaitani’s ONE OUTS manga inspired a television anime in 2008.

Sources: Liar Game anime’s website, Comic Natalie

It’s done; my time with one of the most frustrating, anachronistic, ill-conceived pieces of media I’ve ever experienced in its entirety is over. Earning the number four spot in ANN’s Worst of the Summer 2026 season list, this finale further reaffirms that Sparks of Tomorrow deserves this albatross. It brings me no joy to say this is likely going down as the worst anime ever produced by Kyoto Animation, and I hope this otherwise illustrious studio never sinks this low again.

This episode begins with Yosuke trying to sacrifice Kihachi (who’s drugged and in a wedding gown because Yosuke can’t be framed as a predacious gay more than a single goddamn second) to improve his Robo-Seiroku. When Inako arrives on the scene, she manages to stop Yosuke and his plan by…just kind of stopping Yosuke and his plan. She pulls on some wires and drags Kihachi out of what would have been his glass coffin before the walking plot device that is Kengo shows up and effortlessly drags them out of that situation. In this scene, it really feels like Yosuke never had a plan for what to do if anyone ever tried to stop him from doing crimes in order to revive Seiroku, and that makes him feel even weaker as a villain.

The failing of the electric nishiki creates a massive sinkhole in the middle of the city, though, and Kihachi and Inako use the electric plane invented a few episodes before to save Yosuke. Why they do this is anyone’s guess, as he literally tried to kill Kihachi twenty minutes ago, but whatever. The animation during this flight scene is pretty impressive, as is a sequence where a massive updraft essentially creates a zero-gravity sequence. The episode ends with much of the main cast having a meal together and Saki pointing out that Inako’s first brew is amazing, as Yosuke (who should be in jail) travels, and Kihachi and Inako tentatively express their romantic feelings to each other. In this finale there is not follow up on Kate and Suzu’s babyqueer romance, if Inako’s family’s business is saved from insolvency, or an indication that electrical technology is being more broadly adopted.

While I could profess endlessly about the sophomoric writing in Sparks of Tomorrow and how it misunderstands the era and innovative spirit at the heart of this work, this episode actually contains a perfect crystallization of these problems! While on their way to Inako’s home, in both the sub and the dub, Kihachi remarks that he found it odd that the lush Saki told him about the first batch of Inako’s brew being made into an offering for Inako’s late mother, as he is “not able to drink yet.” The problem with this statement, though, is that there was no legally enforced drinking age in Japan until 1922, and that this story explicitly takes place after the Russo-Japanese War and before the end of the Meiji era, so between 1905 and 1912. This is to say that Kihachi CAN drink and that Sparks of Tomorrow would so casually elevate an anachronism that I could disprove with five minutes of research demonstrates how little it cares about the culture and history at the center of its premise.

Sparks of Tomorrow routinely failed to spark any kind of joy or inspiration within me, and I am so glad to be done with this lazy, ahistorical piece of animation.

Rating:

Lucas DeRuyter finds sparks of inspiration in all parts of his life, which would explain why his portfolio features such a broad array of interests and writing formats! To read what he’s ruminating on more regularly, you can keep up with his regular contributions to ANN’s This Week in Anime column.

Sparks of Tomorrow is currently streaming on
Netflix.

Authorities issued 24,297 access-blocking corrective-action requests for copyright-infringing content from 2023 – August 2026

Webtoon piracy sites in South Korea are repeatedly returning under new addresses after being blocked, with more than 16,000 review and corrective-action requests involving replacement sites recorded since 2023.

According to data submitted by the Korea Communications Standards Commission to Democratic Party lawmaker Jung-ah Hwang on September 27, authorities issued 24,297 access-blocking corrective-action requests for copyright-infringing content from 2023 through August 2026. Of these, 16,390 (or 67.5%) involved sites that changed their addresses or created replacement sites after being blocked.

The number of requests involving replacement sites totaled 6,236 in 2023; 5,771 in 2024; 1,877 in 2025; and 2,506 through August 2026.

Despite the repeated blocking, authorities have not referred any copyright infringement cases for investigation or provided related materials to investigative agencies, according to the data.

In May, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism introduced a new blocking system targeting piracy sites and said it is designed to “significantly improve response speed” as the most effective administrative measure currently available. While Newtoki, one of the biggest webtoon and web novel piracy sites, shut down prior to the new system rollout, a site branded as Newtoki resurfaced shortly after.

Source: YNA (Hyung-bin Park)