Shin'ichi Akiyama
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Shin'ichi Akiyama  | ||||||||
Character information
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Shin'ichi Akiyama is one of the main characters in the Liar Game manga series. He is a legendary swindler who went to prison for scamming a massive company. Upon being released, he is sought by Nao to help her escape the Liar Game.
Skills
- Psychology: Holding a master's degree in criminal psychology, Akiyama has a keen grasp of the human mind, which allows him to predict people's behavior and understand how to manipulate them. Many of his Tricks during the series make direct reference to concepts in psychology, such as cognitive dissonance and the "door-in-the-face" technique.
- Confidence tricks: Three years before the start of the series, Akiyama swindled a massive multi-level marketing company into bankruptcy by turning their own methods against them, as revenge for them plunging his mother into debt and driving her to suicide. Of course, he is able to use the same principles inside the Liar Game to trick his opponents into acting in a way that benefits him.
- Disguises: Akiyama is a master of disguise, a skill that he is implied to have used against the MLM company that he bankrupted. He uses it again a couple of times in the early chapters, but not for the remainder of the Liar Game, presumably because the format of the tournament does not favor this approach.
Modus operandi
During the Liar Game, Akiyama shows a propensity to thinking outside the box, often coming up with solutions and strategies that, while not technically against the rules, violate the normal assumptions of how each game should be played. Examples of these loopholes include physically moving the money between ATMs in Round III, and physically blocking players from taking the actions needed to win in Round IV.
