Shinichi Akiyama

Akiyama Shinichi

Name: Akiyama shinichi First Appearance: Chapter 1, Episode 1  Occupation: Scam artist Abilities: Lying Psychological Warfare Quick Thinking

In the manga, Akiyama’s hair varies wildly across the colored pages, between blond, orange, and even black. The styling of it morphs as the artist’s, Shinobu Kaitani, art style changes. Initially, it is spiky and medium-long, blown towards one side. It gets cut shorter and becomes tidier as the series progresses, but he retains the long bangs that fall between his eyes. His eyes tend to stay a certain shade of yellow-brown. These are both represented by white in the normal pages. Long eyelashes (that shrink slightly later on) give him an owlish appearance. Akiyama is also afflicted by a case of particularly dark eye bags. Often, he is pictured wearing long-sleeved shirts and turtlenecks with tight-fitting pants. His posture falls between a relaxed upright stance and a slouch, but is never fully either

In the drama, Akiyama is acted by Matsuda Shota. His hairstyle seems to be an interpretation of the style shown in the latter chapters of the manga. Initially, it is short and falls over the face, but is later styled as being medium-long and side-parted with one side tucked behind an ear. He often wears jeans and a collared shirt, and sports a piercing in his left ear.

Personality  "One of Akiyama Shinichi’s most intriguing charms is that his character still has a lot to reveal and can be interpreted in several ways".

Akiyama graduated from Teito University with a major in Psychology. He is thus imbedded with extensive knowledge and aptitude for analyzing and assessing the human mind. The first time that Akiyama utilized those abilities in the real world was to swindle a major MLM company into bankruptcy. The action was motivated by revenge for scamming his single mother, who had committed suicide in order to ensure her son’s tuition through all of college. As a result, he spent 3 years in prison, giving him the in-game nickname "Ex-Con". The general public considers him a professional con-artist and a genius.

When he first appears, Akiyama seems to be a very sly and confident man, tricking reporters into leaving the scene so he can leave the prison without a hassle. During the Liar Game Tournament, he displays exceptional proficiency in tricking his opponents through his intellectual skills; his biggest forte is being able to predict and manipulate people’s minds, which lets him get cooperation from other players as he presents them a logical and brilliant plan and to get the best out of their opponents by predicting their train of thoughts and actions. He is not unwilling to lie or deceive others in order to achieve his desired results.

Throughout the series, his character becomes less introspective and more sociable, even showing subtle signs of Kanzaki Nao’s influence. He is self-described as Nao’s right hand man and seems to be quite protective of her (most likely initiated by her resemblance to his deceased mother). It is hypothesized that he acts that way as atonement for not being able to protect his mother from the cruelty of the world before her death.

Relationship

Though their relationship began as that of an employee-client, the two become closer and more protective of each other as the game progresses.

Due to the circumstances of their acquaintance, the two understand each other’s motivations and beliefs more than anyone else in the game, frequently becoming effective accomplices in each others’ schemes.

Akiyama’s influence on Nao is apparent, as she becomes increasingly cunning and strong-willed in her demeanor. His cynical skills have saved Nao deception countless times (who is frequently targeted for her naivete). Nao also seems to be the only person Akiyama shares his personal thoughts and feelings with. It is unclear whether he has any romantic feelings for her yet, but her importance to him is undeniably strong. 

Even Yokoya, who tried to force Nao into being the only one to fail the fourth round qualifier, expressed that it would be more painful for Akiyama to see her fail alone than it would be for himself to fail.

Unlike Nao, his objective is not to save everyone from debt, but to destroy the LGT office. As he explained to Nao, he wants to reveal and take down the people who take pleasure in the Liar
Game, forcing others to lie and cheat for money. He does support Nao in her Objective (albeit claiming that he only does so because it gets him closer to his goal) going as far as to take on a debt of 400 million yen in Round 3 so other that players could drop out of the game. When Harimoto offered an alliance with his group during Round 4, Akiyama rejected him even though the alliance would have been a great advantage.

At the end of Round 3, Yokoya pointed out that Akiyama was no different than him or the LGT. For once Akiyama was at a loss for a comeback, but Nao defended him stoutly. Afterwards, Akiyama thanked her, but his behavior betrayed his acknowledgment of Yokoya’s words. Nao, sensing Akiyama’s inner turmoil and guilt, attested otherwise, telling him that whilst Yokoya is cold and ruthless in his methods, Akiyama possesses warmth and compassion. That becomes the single biggest differentiation between the two geniuses as the game continues.

Background

Liar Game – Roots of A #1 Manga [Eng-Sub]

Liar Game – Roots of A One-shot : roots of A #2 Manga [Eng-Sub]

Akiyama studied Humanities during his first years in Teito University. During his fourth year, Akiyama took a course in Criminal Psychology under Professor Okabe Yukiya. The last assignment given them was a letter by an anonymous author, for whom the students had to profile. Of all the students, Akiyama was the only one ask the Professor about whether or not there was a right answer. When Yukiya responded in the affirmative, Akiyama sought out his teacher’s wife to ask about the person in the assignment. In doing so, he was the sole student able to compose an accurate profile assessment of the writer, as well as correctly pinpoint the identification of the writer. Okabe commends Akiyama on his ability to judge people and behaviors, as well as remembering that Criminal Psychology is not an impersonal, emotionless work. This event prompts Akiyama to switch his major from Humanities to Psychology in order to further his studies with Okabe.

(22 year old Akiyama)

Akiyama as a college student in Roots of A. In the drama, however, the story changes and shows Akiyama as being the one that gave the incorrect analysis, and Katsuragi Ryou the one that gave the correct analysis. Akiyama’s loss to Katsuragi becomes a source of internal fury and shame. This becomes a key point in the drama as it explains the connection and rivalry between of the two characters.

Liar King Ranking

There are a few sections detailing how likely each character is to become the Liar King.

Yokoya is #1

Akiyama #3,

Fukunaga #4

Nao #37

(Source: https://liarsgame.wikia.com/wiki/Liar_Game_Wiki)