The Best Anime For Death Note Fans Is Finally Here

Warning: Contains spoilers for Liar Game episode #1.20 years after its release, Death Note remains one of the most interesting and all-around iconic anime a person can watch, and for good reason. Not only does it stand out from other Shonen Jump anime as a psychological thriller instead of an action story or something more down-to-earth, but the clever ways it handles every conflict result in some of the most intense drama a person could ask for, all of which is further enhanced by the anime’s incredible visuals and overall direction.

With a focus on mind games and the crazy personality needed to play them, Death Note is an anime unlike any other, and it remains a series that often tops people’s lists for one of the best anime of all time, if not the best. There’s never been an anime quite like it, but 20 years later, Crunchyroll has finally put out the closest thing it has to a successor, and sure enough, it’s already poised to be an amazing show.

Liar Game Is The Death Note Follow-Up We've Been Waiting For

If there’s any anime that Death Note fans should be watching right now, it’s Madhouse’s Liar Game on Crunchyroll. Nao Kanzaki, a girl who’s stupidly honest to a fault, finds herself forced to play the Liar Game, a mysterious game where people try to swindle each other out of obscene amounts of cash and leave their opponents in crippling debt, and when Nao can’t handle things as early as the first stage, she recruits legendary conman Shinichi Akiyama to help her win and, eventually, take down the entire game.

Right off the bat, there’s immediate overlap between Liar Game and Death Note in that they’re both anime thrillers centered around playing mind games, and as shown in the series premiere, Liar Game also has a penchant for making the cast behave in over-the-top ways to add a bit of levity to the story whenever needed. The fact that there are no supernatural elements arguably makes things even better, as it means that all the mind games and general insanity come entirely from the characters, themselves, forcing the story to be even more creative in how it handles things.

What makes the comparisons between Liar Game and Death Note even more obvious is how they’re both made by the same studio, Madhouse, with chief director Yuzo Sato even having worked on Death Note as a storyboard artist. Granted, Liar Game doesn’t appear to have the same visual polish Death Note boasted, but it still does a great job of carrying the stellar writing, and if it keeps to this level of quality, Liar Game will be more than a worthy successor to Death Note’s legacy.

Liar Game Is Already One Of The Most Exciting Anime Of 2026

There’s only one episode of Liar Game out, but it’s safe to say that it’s already one of the most exciting anime of 2026. Not only does it have all the excitement anime from Madhouse tend to generate, especially with it coming off the heels of Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End season 2, but just like how Death Note became a hit for being so different from other anime, Liar Game’s uniqueness also makes it stand out for anyone looking for something different in the best of ways.

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Liar Game was already a hit when it only had a manga and some live-action adaptations to its name, and now that it’s finally getting what appears to be a great anime adaptation, it’s poised to be bigger than ever and become one of the biggest anime of 2026, by far. Much of that is largely hypothetical, of course, but with how good Liar Game’s premiere was, there’s no doubt that it will be the exact show fans of Death Note have been waiting years to see.

Liar Game releases new episodes Tuesdays on Crunchyroll.