Kanzaki Nao

Manga

J-drama

K-drama

Kanzaki Nao
Name	Kanzaki Nao
Japanese	神畸 ナオ
Romaji	kanzaki nao
General Information
First Appearance	Chapter 1; Episode 1
Age	18 (13 in Roots of A)
Occupation	Student/Part-Timer
Major Relationships	Father
Abilities	Honesty, Compassion
Ability Statistics
Knowledge	1/5
Intelligence	3/5
Wits	2/5
Acting Ability	1/5
Willpower	3/5
Charm	5/5
Image Gallery

Kanzaki Nao is a participant of the Liar Game Tournament. She is the female lead and protagonist of the series and the first character seen in both the manga and drama. She is played by Toda Erika in the latter.

Appearance

Nao as portrayed by Toda Erika

In the manga, Nao is shown as having orange hair and crimson eyes on the colored pages, both of which are represented by black in the black-and-white manga. She can usually be seen with an innocent face. In the drama, Nao has black hair and brown eyes, and can usually be seen smiling.

Personality

Kanzaki Nao is honest to a T, going so far as to report a missing ¥100 or believe that her nonexistent brother is in a dire situation. This earns her the title of being foolishly honest. When it comes down to having to lie over the course of the Liar Game, she still thinks that there must be a way to tell the truth. When she is told how lying can be benificial to her by Akiyama, however, she still struggles, but can manage to pull it off with practice.

Plot

Roots of A

Nao was seen briefly in Roots of A, picking up a ¥100,000,000 coin to give to the police. She was stopped by a friend, who taunted her for being so honest all the time.

Round I

From the start, Nao was concerned about what to do with this newfound money. She tried to hand it over to the police, but they told her that it was simply not possible for them to hold such a large wealth of money, especially due to her having recieved it as a gift. She managed to get a hold of a lawyer named Tanimura Teruo, to whom she explained her plight. He told her that, since she had yet to lose anything from this, it was not possible to file a case on the matter.

After a day or so of protecting the cash, a letter arrived in the mail informing her that her opponent was none other than her old middle school teacher, Fujisawa Kazuo. She counted herself lucky at this, and sought him out straight away. After meeting up with him, she was shocked to discover that Liar Game was actually a great scam devised to steal players' money, and immediately handed it over to him for safe keeping. She was relieved, so it was a great suprise to her when she came to Fujisawa's house the next day to overhear him talking to a friend about how he had cheated his old student out of her money.

Nao was heartbroken, and went back to Teruo to explain what had happened. He suggested that she seek out the aid of one Akiyama Shinichi, an ex-convict who had recently been released from jail. She did so, to recieve nothing short of a disregarding from Akiyama. She followed him around, explaining why he needed to help her, until he eventually caved in and asked her to wait there while he put his things back in his home. She agreed. After a full day of waiting for her friend, unaware that she had been cheated, several thugs approached her and informed her that she was looking for a good time. She resisted to no avail, so Akiyama had to come in to save her. He finally agreed to do what she asked, but only if he could get half the of winnings, or ¥50,000,000

Akiyama suggested that they go talk to Kazuo and try and get the money back. It was then that Fujisawa revealed that there was no way that he'd give the money back to Nao. Nao listened in horror, and cried most of the way home. When Akiyama told her that there was a way to steal it back, however, she was overjoyed. Nao and Akiyama then started to stake out Fujisawa's house, and let him know that they were playing seriously. Nao was a bit unsure if this plan would work, so she confronted Akiyama about it. Akiyama said that he had figured out that the money was in Fujisawa's house itself, which Nao was quite suprised to hear.

A while later, Nao and Akiyama flooded Kazuo's house with smoke, causing him to believe there to be a fire. Since he would immediately go to where the money was to make sure it wasn't burning, they thought this to be a failproof method, as it was. However, Fujisawa revealed that he had the money locked up in a safe nearly impossible to crack, to which Nao burst into tears. However, Akiyama said that he would be able to get the money out with ease. Nao didn't believe him at first, and as time bore onward she grew more and more anxious. Finally, she broke down and pleaded Fujisawa to give back the money, to which he refused. She continued to beg him for it back until the time was up, and an LGT officer appeared on Fujisawa's doorstep. It turned out to be Akiyama himself, who had switched the cards to make Fujisawa think that the officers were coming an hour before they actually were.

Nao split the resulting ¥100,000,000 with Akiyama, but her conscience weighed her down, and she decided to give her share back to Fujisawa. She was quite suprised when Akiyama followed suit, though he said that it was only fair because they agreed that he would get half of the reward but since she did not gain anything, half of nothing is also nothing. In return, Nao decided she would give Akiyama the savings (¥55,000) she had made from a part-time job, which he humbly refused. She insisted, but before she could find her savings, she noticed a package on her doorstep that read "Directions to Liar Game, Round 2"...

Nao was shocked; she had no idea that there even WAS a round 2. Akiyama advised her to ignore it, since there was so way they could force it on her, legally speaking. She tried to do so, but it stuck with her to the point where her lawyer, Tanimura Teruo, came over to advise her. He said that she should merely go up to them and tell them with conviction that she no longer wished to participate. She did so, only to realize that Teruo was, in fact, an undercover LGT Officer, and was just trying to get her into the game. It worked; she was given a nametag and hustled to the main hall.

Round II

Nao was suprised to find that there were 20 other people there, all with nametags like hers. She was No. 19, and planned to quietly listen to Leronira's explaination of the rules. However, she never expected to see Akiyama dash through the doors in the nick of time. She was overjoyed to see a friendly face, but had to calm her nerves in order not to miss anything the man at the front was saying. After Leronira's explaination, the practice round started. The question was "Are you a woman?", and since there were only 6 females there including her, she was sure that they would be the minority, and thus win the practice round, so she voted "yes". However, that was the thought of most of the male players, as well, who lied and voted "yes" to avoid being the majority. Nao was shocked to see "Yes" as the majority, and even more shocked when Akiyama told her what had happened.

Nao went to her hotel room, not knowing what to do. She tried to come up with a plan, but the best she could think of would be to form a minority with the other players, which she couldn't figure out how to do. She went down to the main hall, and was suprised to see the rest of the players there, as well. She went over to Akiyama, who told her that she should talk to the players to see what type of people they were. She decided to do so.

She ignored the thought of interviewing No. 15, since he seemed too scary to her. No. 12 merely walked away, while Satou Tetsuzou went on for a while about his life. Miura Takayoshi said that he only moved on to the second round because he thought it might be as easy as the first. He was trying to figure out what might happen if you were to lose, which lead to his odd comment that Nao would fetch a high price on the slave market, much to her disdain. Matsubara Fumio told of how he quickly invested his winnings from the first round, not knowing that there was a second until too late.

After listening to Nao talk about what she had discovered, he took her back to her room and explained his plan to her. He also told her about the mysterious Mr. X, who had stolen the 100 million yen from Michiko Tadaka, and how they should be certain not to include him in their 8-person group. Upon hearing that Mr. X was definitely a young male, Nao listed off a few people, considering whether or not they might be Mr. X, and finally came to the conclusion that they only needed to invite all the women (Miyahara Hitomi, Makihara Yuki, Nishihara Reina, Tamura Makiko and Hosoe Jyun), and Matsubara Fumio, since he would not be thought to be young. Nao managed to persuade them all to join, with a signed contract as insurance.

The first vote went off with relative ease. Nao voted Yes, along with Akiyama, Miyahara, and Matsubara. This put her in the minority, much to her excitement. In the break before the second vote, she spoke with Miyahara about how they should split their votes. Miyahara wanted to split the votes by gender, which Nao saw no problem with. However, Akiyama said that they should have one man and woman on each side in case something went wrong, though his real reasoning was to make sure that Matsubara and Miyahara didn't suspect them of conspiring to take the money for themselves. Nao voted No along with Matsubara, putting them in the Majority. They were eliminated, and Nao was concerned to see No. 15 in the minority, as well.

During the third vote, Nao called Akiyama to see what was happening. Akiyama told her that they had decided that he should vote Yes, while Miyhara voted No, to ensure that the final round would end successfully. She was thrilled when she heard that Miura Takayoshi and No. 15 both voted Yes, meaning that they would win for sure. Or so she assumed, for she did not expect what happened next. Miyahara revealed herself to be a male transvestite named Fukunaga Yuji, and since he had not signed his real name on the contract, he was not legally bound to share the money with the rest of the group. What's more, he was, in fact, Mr. X.

However, Nao was thrilled to hear that Akiyama had a trump card, voting No along with Fukunaga, thus bringing it to a tie, and therefore, re-vote. She was left in the dark until after the vote, when she heard that Akiyama managed to win by teaming up with No. 15 himself. Akiyama moved on to the next round, sharing his money with Nao and the rest of his allies.

Nao was prepared to drop out of the game, but was convinced otherwise by the lawyer who had previously betrayed her, Tanimura Teruo. She then entered the Revival Round in order to save those still trapped in the game's clutches.

Revival Round

Upon arriving at the Revival Round's building and being briefed on the rules, she was surprised to see that everyone there was already set on voting out Fukunaga for his earlier betrayal. However, Fukunaga had other things in mind, and during the icebreaker he set up revealed that Nao actually had more than enough money to drop out. This changed their minds, instead choosing to alternate votes in order to make it so Nao had the least votes.

This quick betrayal distraught Nao, and she was about to cry when Fukunaga came to her with a plan of his own. He admitted that he had isolated her on purpose, but that did not matter now, as they were both in danger of having few enough votes to be put into debt. As such, he suggested that they both vote for each other in order to cause a tie at 50 votes, this would automatically make them win the game. However, this plan was just a lie by Fukunaga in order to make Nao give him her first five votes from the first voting round and trick everyone else into making Nao the loser and himself the winner.

After a little while it was obvious that Nao was going to lose if things continued to go that way and Fukunaga tricked her again by suggesting a game in which she could get all of his votes or lose a great amount of the money she was given at the start of the game.

After losing this minigame, Akiyama arrived and helped her cheat in a game for the first time by tricking Fukunaga back with his little card game.

After winning her first votes, she procceded to trick every player into selling her 10 of their own votes with the money she had left earning herself 80 votes without anyone noticing by telling them a lie about something she was told by a LGT Officer. Due to the conditions of the M ticket that she made for it she had enough time to turn the game around by selling votes to the other players when they noticed that they were about to lose. In the end she ended up obtaining the money from all of the players and the ability to completely control the votes for the rest of the game.

At the end of the round she decided to make the only person that was kind to her during the game lose (Miura Takayoshi in the manga / Etou Kouichi in the drama), but it was revealed that her reason for this was that she wanted to use the price money to allow him to pay his debt and free him from the tournament.

After this she revealed to everyone else her view of the liar game as a game not about "deceiving and lying" but a game about "cooperation" and went into the Third Round.

Round V

After losing in the third revival round and finally being eliminated from the tournament, Nao is at her apartment worrying about Fukunaga. Suddenly, Tanimura appears at her door, and she welcomes him in with joy. They talk about Fukunaga for a bit, and as Tanimura leaves, Kanzaki suddenly exclaims that she would take part in the next game, reasoning that the next game is just a normal round, and that even if she loses she could just compete in the next revival round. Tanimura replies that she has no right, since she was eliminated from a revival game, but Kanzaki rebuts that she could play as a representative. Tanimura manages to get Matsuwa Fuuma, a player who was represented by a member of Harimoto's group, to agree to letting Kanzaki play as his representative. With this, Kanzaki is drawn back into the Liar Game Tournament.

A few days later, the invitation to Round V is sent to Nao's address. She is led to a former high-class hotel by an LGT attendant, which would act as the site of the fifth round. She enters a sees many players, some she recognized and some she didn't, crowding around the room. She immediately noticed Kashiki Yuuya, who was the musician that allowed Harimoto to represent him in the tournament. Nao is then called by Akiyama, who yells at her for returning to the tournament. As she explains that it is fine as there will be a revival round, Yokoya enters, smiling, saying that he is happy that both Akiyama and Nao survived. Nao asks Yokoya how Fukunaga lost the third revival round, to which Yokoya answers that he lost due to being weak. Nao, unhappy with this answer, asks the other players who were in group B of the third revival round about why Fukunaga suffered a crushing defeat. Nao notices that the players were oddly scared of Yokoya. Shima Takahiro tells Nao that it is not a good idea to antagonize Yokoya, as he knows all about the Liar Game's tricks. Nao, who is not in the know what happened in the previous game, believes this to be a bluff to trick the other players. Yokoya says that he can prove it, and states that this round will be the final round of the tournament, which meant that there will not be a revival round for Nao to fall back on. Nao claims that Yokoya is lying, but when Artier walks in and confirms Yokoya's claim, Nao is extremely shocked.

Nao listens to the rules of the game, and afterwards wonders how Yokoya was correct, but ultimately concludes that it was just a coincidence. Nao plays the Collective Ghostleg Lottery, but ends up being the last person to take a spot. She ends up with number 5.

While listening to the rules of the Human Auction, Nao picks up that the rules are in such a way that three participants will already be eliminated by the end of the auction. Afraid of anyone going to debt, she tries to think of a plan to save everyone, but ultimately ends up asking Akiyama for advice. Akiyama does not respond, and Nao seems quite concerned. However, after Kashiki's time is up and finishes with no bids, Nao thinks up of a plan to save everyone. Nao tells Akiyama of her plan, which is to convince participants with over 200 million yen in winnings to drop out. Since she knows that there are such participants, such as Takashima Katsushi and Sakuma Kanichi who were being represented by the Harimoto Group, her plan would be possible, but she had to find a third person who fit the bill. Nao goes around asking the other players of their current debts and earnings, but to no avail. She is suddenly approached by Kaneko Mizuki, who claims that she has a total of 250 million yen in winnings. Kaneko says that she has heard about Nao from Fukunaga, who she teamed up with in Group B's third revival round. Nao listens to Kaneko recount her story of Group B's third revival round, and upon hearing that Fukunaga had sacrificed himself to save Kaneko, Nao breaks down in tears and screams Fukunaga's name.

After hearing Kaneko's story, Nao is more determined to win the finals in order to save Fukunaga. During Shima's bid, Nao attempts to convince Takashima to drop out of the tournament, but he angrily asks Nao to talk to him later as they are in the middle of a game. Nao observes as it is time for Yokoya's bid, and sees that every player is quite tense. She watches in shock as the bidding war for Yokoya rages on until Ootsuka becomes the winner. Nao is then asked by Artier to come up to the stage as it is her turn to be bid upon.

Nao introduces herself, but stops as she believes it is pointless. However, one minute in, Yokoya suddenly bids on Nao for 10 million yen. Nao is extremely shocked by this bid and wonders why Yokoya bid on her. Akiyama outbids Yokoya, which relieves Nao. Things stay calm for a while, but when there is one minute remainding, Yokoya outbids Akiyama and the two fight each other for Nao. However, in the end Nao stands on the stage helplessly as Yokoya wins the bid, due to have more money than Akiyama. Yokoya tells Nao that it is an honour to be able to fight together in the finals, but Nao says that she does not feel the same way. Yokoya reveals that he feels overjoyed when he sees Nao suffer, much to her dismay. Yokoya states that he is excited to see Nao and Akiyama fight against each other, but Nao firmly believes that they will not attack each other, to which Yokoya responds, saying that he will attack Akiyama which is the same as her attacking him. Nao feels helpless, and begins to think of a plan.

Suddenly, Yokoya bids on Wada Tatsuji, which Nao did not foresee. Nao believes that she still has a chance and calls for everyone's attention. She explains to everyone that if they wanted to get onto Akiyama's team, betting on Wada would be in their best interest as to win Akiyama, it is vital to have the bidding power of 2 or 3 people. She manages to change people's minds, but Yokoya steps in and rebuts, saying that no one will be willing to give away all of their 300 million just to fight alongside Akiyama in the main game. He continues, saying that he will not hesitate and will bid on Akiyama with all that he has. Yokoya manages to change the atmosphere once more, ruining Nao's plan. Nao senses this, and attempts to convince everyone again, but no one bids on Wada, which secures Nao's team of four.

Nao is asked by an LGT attendant to move to the waiting room as her team of four has been completed. As the team converses, Yokoya reveals that he had already accurately predicted Nao's plan of asking people with over 200 million yen in winnings to drop out, and even deduces that both Takashima and Sakuma did not agree to follow Nao's plan. When Ootsuka calls Kaneko foolish for sticking with Fukunaga for the entirety of the third revival round, Nao jumps to her defense stating that she is not foolish, but is a very good person as she never betrayed Fukunaga. As Nao continues to listen to both Yokoya and Ootsuka telling her how naive her plan is, Nao tries to leave the waiting room and to again try to execute her plan. As it is impossible to leave, Nao watches as Akiyama does not do a thing. Ootsuka tells Nao not to get on Yokoya's bad side (similar to Shima's warning) as he knows everything about the Liar Game Tournament, but Nao is still in debelief. Yokoya responds by offering to explain how he gained such knowledge. Nao decides that it is a good idea to listen to him, just in case. Yokoya proceeds to explain about how he chanced upon The Novel, as well as its striking similarities to the Liar Game Tournament.

After listening to Yokoya's explanation, Nao is given The Novel by Yokoya, who does not hesitate since she is unable to read it anyways. Nao continues to listen to Yokoya as he explains the blunder that she has made. Alongside the explanation, Nao watches the Human Auction continue, where players are bidding on each other at the very last second. Nao realises that the reason they are doing this is because she had explained that to be able to win Akiyama, they must first have the bidding power of 2 or 3 people. Nao believes that she has dug her own grave, but as Sakuma's turn arrives, Nao to her team that no one will bid on him. When Ootsuka says that since Sakuma has over 200 million yen in winnings, he will be an ideal team member and people will certainly bid on him, Nao rebuts, saying that no one knows about this fact. When the bid is over, it is revealed that Sakuma had been bought by Kaneko. Nao is shocked, but Yokoya explains that Nao is the one who told her about Sakuma and Takashima having over 200 million yen in winnings, once again ruining her own plan. Yokoya also explains the reason why Kaneko wants Sakuma on her team is to have the highest chance of winning Akiyama, and that her reason for wanting Akiyama is to exact her revenge on Yokoya for causing Fukunaga to lose in the previous round.