Manga Match 83 Liar x Liar

Yesterday I had a whirlwind day of going out of my comfort zone and socializing. It was mentally exhausting and I almost fell asleep on the train home, but it made me feel really great that I was able to overcome this thing that might seem like no big deal for most people. It's times like these that I really curse how bad my anxiety can get. I did a lot that day beforehand to mentally prepare, doing things like meditating, chores, and random things on my to do list, but I still had all of these useless worries. Hopefully in time I can learn to better manage these irrational anxieties.

But you're probably not here for check-ins on my mental health. You're here for manga. 

{Spoilers}

Wowowowow this was a pretty spicy one I'll have to admit. I started this one not thinking very much of it. I thought it was a cheesy title and a stupid concept. And then I ended up staying up until almost 4 AM reading it the first night. I finished all 70 ish chapters in 2 days. It was crazy. And it's honestly because lying and the consequential lies being snowballed towards disaster is just so addicting to read. It's frustrating, but also unbelievably addicting. This was lowkey like when I reviewed that True Love incest manga, except instead of actual incest it's step-siblings so it made me feel better inside for reading it. A little bit. I dunno, you can form your own opinion on step-siblings getting married and whatever, I'm not really sure how that sort of stuff works legally. 

Anyways, the story revolves around two step-siblings and their rocky relationship. Minato, our 20 year old college student, decides to take her friend Maki's old high school uniform out on the town. Tragically she runs into her step-brother Tooru who's the same age as her, and in the heat of the moment and embarrassed to be caught in a high school uniform, lies about her identity. Thus, Mina the second year high schooler is born. Tooru shockingly asks Mina out on the spot and seriously pursues her. This is definitely uncharacteristic of this guy that Minato's only known as a playboy that sleeps around and dates any girl that asks him to. And so, in her attempt to reform him, Minato plays Mina in order to demonstrate the benefits of dating one girl in a wholesome relationship. Unfortunately, along the way, she falls in love with him as herself. 

There's this whole arc of inner turmoil within Minato as she's coming to terms with her feelings for Tooru as her ex-boyfriend who she got along with so well, tries to form a rift between Minato and Tooru by calling their relationship disgusting. Obviously he only does this out of frustration and grief over how his relationship with Minato doesn't go so well, but it's a pretty painful arc. 

However, after the storm is always a rainbow. And so, Minato finally comes to terms with her love for Tooru. At the same time, she discovers that Tooru has loved Minato ever since they were children. In fact, when Minato reveals that she was Mina the whole time, he accepted the lie for what it was and loved Minato anyways. I'm not saying that this is how you should live your life by trusting liars and whatnot, but it was just a really touching scene.

Also shoutout to my girl Mika. Honestly Minato's pretty dumb. I don't know how she's gotten this far in life with how often she digs these tragic holes of lies for herself. Without Mika she surely would've crumbled a lot sooner, but Mika was always there to support her. 

My crappy synopsis was obviously super short and doesn't make a whole lot of sense unless you read the whole thing, but along the way Minato actually becomes really popular. With like 2 other guys. A sudden college debut some might say. And I think each of these separate arcs with the lies getting messier and messier and the whole thing spiraling into an unknown territory made the whole thing really interesting because you didn't have any idea where the story would go next. 

If you can handle a lot of frustration because our main girl is kind of an airhead and the tension that all of the lies and difficult situations she gets into I think this is a fantastic read. There's so much drama and so many layers to unpack. And so many fun memories that if you haven't gone to college yet, that you can look forward to in terms of finding a fun circle of people that enjoy similar interests as you. Or if you're in college or have since graduated from college, I think this is a fun manga that shows the shenanigans that we all get up to with our college friends in one way or another. There's lots of fun scenarios and characters in the manga. And I love how the mangaka chose to close out the last volume with some stories about other characters besides Minato and Tooru to give a more well-rounded feel to the series as a whole. It was good, really good.