High school student Yuuichi Katagiri cherishes his close circle of friends, composed of four classmates: Yutori Kokorogi, Shiho Sawaragi, Makoto Shibe, and Tenji Mikasa. However, when the funds for the upcoming school trip are stolen, the incident causes Shiho and Makoto—who had been tasked with collecting the money—to distance themselves from the rest of their class.
Soon after, Yuuichi and his friends are deceived into meeting up and knocked unconscious by unknown assailants. After waking, the group find themselves confined in a white room with controversial figure Manabu-kun, who reveals that one of the five has gathered them together to clear their personal debt of twenty million yen. To pay off the amount, they must participate in a variety of psychological games that will test the true nature of their friendship and humanity.
Distressed and isolated from the outside world, Yuuichi and his friends need to cooperate to complete the games. But as their concealed feelings and problematic pasts begin to surface, their seemingly unbreakable bond may soon shatter into irreparable pieces.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Comentários
Mapachecool999
The first time I saw Tomodachi Game was while I was watching the following anime of the spring season, I found it by chance and for some reason it immediately caught my attention and that was without even reading the synopsis, nor seeing the KV that it had in that moment where only the "friends" together were noticed. No, that was not what caught my attention, the title was. "Tomodachi game" or the friendship games, for some reason the title caught my attention and immediately became the anime I was most looking forward to this season for which I hadn't read the manga. And whenthe first chapter arrived I was not disappointed at all.
Story - 10/10
The story is about a group of 5 friends who one day are kidnapped and taken to participate in something called "Tomodachi game" this because one of their friends had a debt of 20 million yen, therefore to pay it they have to Participate in different games where your debt will be reduced or in some cases increased, what happens is that in these games two factors are tested "money and friendship" What is more important to you? Money? 'Friendship? Would you be willing to lose millions of yen just to save your friends? Do you trust that they would do the same? That's what the Tomodachi Games prove. Each of the games taking place this season proves that and each one changes some factor but leads to the same question. And it is and incredible ride to watch.
Art 7/10
The art is the worst part of the anime and if it is quite mediocre to say the least compared to the manga, although the character design is very faithful to the manga, the animation is bad. I think this is due to the small budget that the animation studio has since it is a studio with little renown that took its first big manga to adapt without having a big budget. The reason I give it a 7 is because they did the best they could and stayed true to the manga with the small budget.
But maybe I'm somewhat biased.
Sound 9/10
The opening is a banger without a doubt, Nana Mizuki did an incredible job with the song and left me listening to it for quite some time. The ending is also a great song Saji did very well and it was a perfect song to listen to after each cliffhanger.
There weren´t many big shots in the cast but the voice acting quality is unexpectedly excellent, Especially the Yuuichi one, that was an insane VA
performance.
Character 9/10
The characters are a fundamental part of the story and the truth is that they are all quite interesting.
Yuuchi our protagonist is without a doubt one of the best protagonists of recent years at the level of protagonists like ayanokouji from Classroom of Elite. He is a totally unexpected character that you never know what he is thinking and manages to solve the problems he faces without you knowing how. The interesting thing here is that in the whole group of 5 friends you can't trust any of them, they just all have something that makes you doubt them.
Enjoyment 10/10
I really enjoyed it, it is the anime that I enjoyed the most this season and the first one that I will dedicate time to write a review for, each chapter left me wanting to know more and I never took my eyes off the screen while I was watching it. Every day I waited for the time the chapter came out just to be able to see it, at that level I enjoyed it. And me being a huge fan of High Stakes Games even more.
To finish, I really recommend this anime for people who like to think about how to win or solve puzzles or find some way to find the loopholes in a game. Or people who love High Stakes Games. Or if you like smart protagonists like Ayanokouji from Clasroom of Elite or Senku from Dr. stone. Or even if you're not a big fan at least try to watch the first 6 episodes, not the first 3, the first 3 may turn off a lot of people because of the direction it looks like it's going to go but I'm serious, try to watch it, you might like it.
dragonclaws
*spoilers* Being a complete, soul-crushing waste of time isn’t exactly a new and exciting development as far as bad anime is concerned, but what’s so infuriating about this show in particular is how it serves as perhaps the single most unholy combination of pointlessness and tediousness that has ever existed in television. The whole show is a giant torture chamber where your brain is numbed into submission, tasked with juggling endless exposition dumps, convoluted rule sets, and seemingly random plot twists, only to be told, in fact, everything you just mulled over was irrelevant, because God Yuichi is here to retroactively change the implications of everyscene which just flickered before your dry, reddish eyes. And who is God Yuichi, you ask? Well, strap in motherfuckers, because every meaningless conflict in this string of meaningless conflicts can all be traced directly back to the characters, who, I think it goes without saying, are all magnificently well-written.
Instead of taking the time to explain the Tomodachi Game in detail, I should probably just explain the fact that “tomodachi” is the Japanese word for “squid,” so the English title of “Friends Game” is actually quite deceptive. I know Japanese is kind of a confusing language to wrap your head around sometimes, but I think knowing the real title is “Squid Game” should get everyone on the same page. Anyway, the show begins with all the characters apparently suffering acute brain damage. God Yuichi and his friends, Tsundere Shiho, Glasses Tenji, Bleached Hair Shibe, and Yanderedere Kokorogi, are kidnapped and told they were all enlisted to play the game against their will when one of them secretly went behind everyone else’s back and applied to play because they were in serious debt. The idea is everyone takes on an equal share of the debt and plays through each round with the goal of working together to carry the load and incrementally decrease everyone’s debt at the same time, therefore supporting each other and ensuring everyone leaves with the group’s collective debt having been cleared (squids are known for being good friends fyi, very symbolic, very deep, yes, yes). However, if their bonds aren’t as deep or meaningful as they once thought, then betrayal and competition could lead to infighting that turns the Squid Game into a fierce contest wherein each player tries to saddle the others with their own debt to make sure they alone leave unscathed. The actual details of each game bounce between being utterly vague and misleading, to wildly meticulous and way too detailed for anyone to reasonably keep track of, but to even reach the games, the characters have to first consent to play. After all, whether they forgive them or not, they now know there’s a traitor among them, and they have to come to terms with that…and they do. Immediately. And the games begin.
By being so naive as to instantly forgive the traitor’s betrayal and undertake the games despite the doubts anyone with two brain cells would be rubbing together right about now, the group has essentially just confirmed there is no point in playing the game. They could just leave and take on the debt willingly to help their friend in need. Hell, the traitor could’ve just come out right then, apologized, and sincerely asked for financial support without having to go through this stressful and potentially dangerous game. Maybe if the kidnapper criminal showrunners are nice enough, they won’t even harvest the group’s organs or traffic them into sex slavery through some Laotian black market! But the anime needs to happen, so their intelligence briefly hangs itself and they decide to go forth. The characters are established as capable of being morons whenever the story demands it, and combined with the awfully constructed premises from which the games operate, the show is just hard to take seriously in general. Explaining the context for further lapses of intelligence would take forever, but I assure you they exist. By the way, this review was written as a team effort between two people. One of them is fluent in Japanese, and the other is not. In other news, both of them thought all the gameshow rule sets were either completely fucking retarded or totally impenetrable and way—WAY overly verbose. What’s worse is the characterization is effectively nonexistent, and you very quickly get the feeling that when I gave you that little factoid about squids being friendly creatures, I might’ve actually been full of shit. The introduction of each character is literally an on-screen text box that disappears after barely one second has time to pass, and while the thoughtlessness of this presentation speaks for itself, reading the text and actually trying to see these characters as people, let alone as friends, is completely disastrous.
Riveting personality traits such as, “seems to like anime and stuff,” are detailed within. I mean, holy fucking seriously?!?! There’s no way this is supposed to be from God Yuichi’s perspective, right? Was this a description of his best friend, or one-third of the nation of Japan?! Not only are these depictions inane, but they’re simply unnecessary, because there are absolutely ZERO relevant personality traits you need to know about any character to actually watch the show. These people are not friends nor are they people; they’re stock character templates whose job is to stand around passively while getting used or manipulated by God Yuichi without the slightest hint of having any agency of their own, completely sapping the conflicts of any excitement or worthwhile drama, all the while only committing to expressing themselves in the most generic mannerisms that their archetypes allow. I suppose the point is to make God Yuichi look cool so the viewers can use the series as some sort of sadistic self-insert power fantasy to get off on the idea of themselves being this much of an edgelord (please, get real, no one is as godly as God Yuichi), but this has the same effect as seeing LeBron James dunking on blind, deaf, disabled, amputee toddlers. Ultimately, these conflicts are meaningless because everyone just moves right onto the next equally tedious and overblown stage of the Squid Game while effectively nothing has changed or evolved in any real or emotional terms, and this is all true even despite the biggest puff of smoke the series insists on blowing up its own ass: the plot twists. The so-called plot twists in this show are completely empty and have no real bearing on the story in the same way that the conflict has no real bearing on the plot, and some of them—many of them, in fact—are invalidated within minutes. They exist purely for characters to have an excuse to make an edgy face.
Things will be moving toward the single OBVIOUS direction, someone will randomly pop in with some utter buffoon shit which, in the mind of any reasonable fucking person on the planet, would only make themselves seem more suspicious than the person they’re accusing, but everyone will just be like, “OMG that’s so smart! I didn’t even think of it like that! So let’s all adopt that line of thinking now and go the complete opposite direction so the contrivance that is this stupid fucking game can keep being turned into a shitty anime!” It’s SO all over the place with who is and isn’t playing 4D chess! In one set-up, one character will be a smirking, Machiavellian edgelord engineering the psychology of everyone around them, and in the next, it’s someone completely different. Whoever needs to be the devil on the shoulder of whichever character can successfully become so instantly, and if the person they need to manipulate actually had their wits about them in previous scenes, their wits will very quickly be not-so-about them, and they’ll prance blindly into whatever trap they need to prance into to keep the contrivance train rolling. The resulting mess is too frustrating for words, and while the characters are all horribly written, I guess the show succeeded in making you emotionally engage with them anyway, because their braindead decision-making will—I promise—make you want to tear your Goddamn eyes out. Whether a character is saying something totally daft and unreasonable while everyone else is treating them like the prophet, or for no reason refusing to say the ONE expectable and reasonable thing any real human being would say in their situation while everyone else is acting like their behavior is a legitimate smoking gun, the level of contrivance required for conflict makes every character feel downright detached and confusing whenever you actually try putting yourself in their shoes.
But forget about our cast of miserable non-characters for just a minute and let it sink in how stupid this is purely from a plot perspective. For example, in one episode they’re playing a game where they get to anonymously expose awful things about one another, and the live audience moves each of them closer toward final condemnation by voting for who they hate as they grow to dislike each of the characters based on what’s revealed about them. At one point, they enter a gambit where one character is presented with an opportunity to nominate another character to have something horrendous revealed about them by the showrunners. In other words, it’s not just some gossip being revealed by another character, but rather a piece of damning information which the organizers of the Tomodachi Game themselves have privately investigated with whatever resources they have at their disposal, implying, “Your friends may know some dirty shit about you, but we know EVERYTHING about you, including your deepest, darkest, most well-kept secrets.” Immediately after this gambit is resolved, someone gives a fake piece of information about the person who was JUST EXPOSED in the gambit, that person insists the information is false, and Manabu, the hideous CG Front Man, says, “lol how do we know that’s fake information? Prove it, retard.” AS IF HE DIDN’T JUST IMPLY THE PREVIOUS GAMBIT WOULD’VE ALREADY REVEALED HIS DARKEST SECRET! Every reveal is completely dependent on wherever God Yuichi is in whatever master plan he happens to be engaged in at any given moment, and if that means even the almightily showrunners themselves have to look surprised or incompetent, then so be it. Every character is made to be fooled, every rule is made to be broken, and everything is made to bend to God Yuichi’s sadistic, malicious will. There can only be one true edgelord to rule them all.
Then there’s the themes, which are not only pathetic, but also, perhaps unintentionally, weird and off-putting. Occasionally, one of the showrunners pretentiously applies a generic observation of human behavior onto some event which is only broadly relevant. Anyone who’s gone outdoors for three seconds of their fucking life and has interacted with humans for at least one of those seconds could conjure up similar commentary. Most of the time the characters being commented on are forced into the scenario anyway, and that leads into a more subtle issue with the show—and that’s how dishonest it is. The big, prominent theme is supposed to be choosing between friends or money, and the fact each friend was willing to go into crippling debt to help their friend who just betrayed them should be enough to prove where their loyalties lie. Yet no one ever mentions how this is a misrepresentation of the actual choice being presented, because not being in debt isn’t really the same thing as winning money. These pathetic attempts at theming are rather obvious if you ask me, but the weird and off-putting themes are less so. As discussed, real examinations of friendship don’t matter. But if that’s the case, then what drives conflict? You guessed it—classic teen melodrama. It turns out both girls like God Yuichi, and both of the other guys like one of the girls, so no one will ever trust one another or be truly in the same boat, and it has nothing to do with any wannabe-deep statements about the nature of greed or the social science of monetary corruption and, instead, everything to do with who wants to fuck who. Even when the first arc ends and our group of established “friends” gets replaced by a new shallow cast of characters to populate the following arc, the conflict STILL continues to erupt and revolve around inserting women into men’s relationships to sow the seeds of jealousy and resentment.
But why is this relevant to weird and off-putting themes? Well, for the same reason it was odd to see the aforementioned live audience vote Tsundere Shiho as being “100% unforgivable” after it was revealed she liked God Yuichi after having dated Glasses Tenji in the past. Glasses Tenji himself (who was the original traitor by the way) explains how he entered everyone into the Squid Game for the purpose of destroying the organization behind the games, and to potentially expose Tsundere Shiho for being connected to them. Why entering the games would lead to either of those things is completely lost on me, but this seems totally reasonable to Glasses Tenji. However, the real can of worms we’re cracking open here is why he suspects her. He suspects her because she “destroyed” his friendship between him and his old BFFs by seducing them and causing them to become jealous of one another…but all she did, literally, was say “hi” one time. If you don’t see where this is going, let’s just say that in this show, the hour hand, the minute hand, and the second hand are always pointed squarely on incel o’clock. Casual, throwaway lines not relevant to the plot include:
“She sold her body to adult men? For someone who isn’t a virgin, you sure seem innocent.”
“I guess this guy’s experience with women has made him really cautious around them.”
“All women are capable of putting on an act to get what they want.”
I could go on, but you get the point. The amount of subliminal and not-so-subliminal women hating in this show is truly epic, based, and redpilled. Needless to say, Tomodachi Game is a truly brilliant anime that always stays on message.
These degenerate themes and farcical friendships reach their meager peak during the end of the first arc. After God Yuichi lays out the oh-so ingenious manner in which he enacted his master plan to oust Glasses Tenji as the traitor, Glasses Tenji calls him out, saying he couldn’t have possibly been sure of his conclusion with the logic he presented, and God Yuichi concedes. “Indeed,” he says, “but the real Tomodachi Game was the friends we made along the way, old buddy. I knew you were the traitor simply because we’re friends, and I knew something was off as soon as the game began.” In any well-written anime, this would’ve been a really powerful and emotional moment that could’ve convincingly and empathetically offered Glasses Tenji an off-ramp to redemption and reintegration into the friend group, but in this show, it just makes you roll your fucking eyes, because the whole problem with it in the first place is that these peoples’ “friendship” doesn’t exist. The show tells us they’re friends, but we never got to actually see them being friends. We never got to know any of them, and their—I hesitate to use the word—personalities don’t play off each other with any more chemistry than you’d expect considering the archetypes they embody. They’re just stock character templates with voice actors and actresses transforming them into cardboard cutouts that just happen to have the ability to speak.
Actually, wrong metaphor there, because cardboard cutouts wouldn’t be off-model nearly as much as these fucking people, and by “people,” I mean crimes against art, and by “art,” I mean shit, and by “shit,” I mean this fucking show. Hopefully you weren’t expecting this show to be well-produced or technically competent, because it isn’t. You’ll probably get used to the hideousness of the visuals just by virtue of how easily your eyes will glaze over, but they still occasionally devolve from unengaging to completely and totally embarrassing, perhaps just to be honest and remind you of the fact you’re watching trash. Every instance of visual flair comes from zooming in on someone's face while they give their biggest, baddest edgelord smile, then applying some digital effect. The incongruity between the staleness of the show and the ridiculously overblown edginess makes for some great laughs, honestly. Of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t give Manabu, the useless CG Front Man accompanying the characters, the resounding “fuck you” he deserves. He doesn’t just settle for being the most intrusive piece of CG my eyes have suffered through in a long time, but he also goes the extra mile with shameless animation errors, like losing his shadow during episode two (11:07) or his saber handguard being attached the wrong way during the third game. Episode three was the first time the show fully gave up and started rereading its exposition dumps because it knows half the audience forgot the rules from the previous episode, and I very quickly began contemplating the benefits and drawbacks of buying a gun and painting my walls with bubblegum. There is truly no reason to watch Tomodachi Game, something that clearly exists only to milk money from sales and capitalize on the resurgence of the death game market. Even if you can tolerate its mountain of sins, your kindness won’t stop it from burning in hell.
If you find yourself disappointed and looking for a more exciting and engaging thriller to watch, I would recommend flipping a coin to guess tomorrow’s weather. Compared to the paradox of maddening frustration and excruciating boredom that is Tomodachi Game, the anticipation of that 50/50 might be enough to literally fucking kill you.
Thank you for reading. (This review was proofread and revised by SingleH.)
mistersunday
Tomodachi Game feels like the ‘chocolate money’ of the anime medium. The problem with chocolate money is that it’s not real money and the chocolate is mediocre at best. If you’re really craving chocolate it’ll probably satisfy your urge, but it’s unlikely to make a notable impression. Tomodachi Game is reminiscent of that lackluster feeling. If you’re in the mood for an anime with a high-stakes game at its core then it’ll probably do, but you’re most likely going to forget the majority of its plot within a week of finishing it. Then we arrive at the ‘fake money’ aspect of the show, which inthis case would be substance, that should be listed on the back of the package’s ingredients as “missing”.
Tomodachi Game is not one of those shows that attempts to tackle too many issues at once and fails to develop them properly. The premise is not ambitious, which is why it’s a little baffling to me that the pacing feels rushed and the storytelling lacks any kind of meaningful depth. The plot is pretty standard and doesn’t require countless episodes to be fleshed out properly, so I’m not sure why the story remains so superficial throughout the anime’s 12-episode run. The upside is that the story gets to the point very quickly and doesn’t go off on too many tangents. Ultimately, if you’re looking for a simple anime about a high-stakes game then this might be a good bet. I would like to stress the word “might” in the previous sentence because I think part of the appeal of a high-stakes game is that the games are designed in an intellectual way. You should be able to insert yourself in these situations and feel perplexed by the mechanics or the rules. I think Tomodachi Game also lacks in this department. The games are designed in a way that doesn’t make them intriguing. The second game especially feels like a bad board game. What’s also disappointing is that the strategies that the characters use to beat these games are kind of terrible? They’re very circumstantial, relying on social skills and human nature rather than attempting to craft a systematic strategy to win. It doesn’t feel like the characters are genuinely beating these games, but rather that there is a predetermined outcome set in stone and the circumstances lead them to this result. In this sense, the anime doesn’t feel organic and it may be harder to suspend disbelief while watching it.
Tomodachi Game isn’t a bad anime per se, it’s just not a good one either. It’ll satisfy your craving for chocolate, but the chocolate itself is pretty unremarkable.
Story: 4/10
I haven’t read the source material but I feel like there are several loopholes in the story. Certain aspects of the plot don’t really get explained properly. Perhaps if you’ve read the manga it makes a bit more sense, but as a standalone work this story lacks coherence and development. The storytelling also feels very reductionist. For an anime centered around intellectual games the story is quite simplistic. Where is the nuance?
Art: 7/10
The art style is very standard, I don’t have much to criticize but the animation in certain scenes could be a bit more smooth. However, I think the art style as a whole is successful in setting the right atmosphere when needed.
Sound: 7/10
I actually really enjoyed the opening theme song, and the voice acting was good too. Everything else about the soundtrack is forgettable.
Character: 3/10
The characters were all over the place. They also felt very one-dimensional. Even when the twists in the story happened, their execution felt forced and awkward. The cast as a whole is just very uninspiring, I can’t think of a single character that will stick with me.
Enjoyment: 4/10
My enjoyment wasn’t nonexistent, but it was definitely below average. I didn’t have particularly high expectations and yet I was still disappointed.
Overall: 4/10
Mcsuper
Before I start, personally, I haven’t watched a single death game anime, or even Squid Game actually, so I will not be making any comparisons to them. This is a strictly non-Squid Game comparison review. Ok, before you start saying “Who cares”, or “Who asked?”, let’s get into the review. For a series that is supposedly about friendship, the friendship concepts were tackled a bit superficially, and it became more of a series about Katagiri Yuuichi’s wit and him being a scumbag to solve problems. I expected a bit more characterization overall, and it really does feel we’re just scratching the surface of this series. However,the plot twists and Yuuichi’s character were definitely fun to watch, and one of the more enjoyable series of this anime season, but a bit edgy for sure.
My grading criteria: Story: /25 Art: /10 Music: /10 Characters: /20 Enjoyment /15 Thematic Execution /20
*Spoilers below
STORY: 17.2/25
The story is about five friends that get into a game called the Tomodachi Game, or Friends Game, after one of the five incurred a twenty million yen debt, and to pay off that amount, the group must clear a variety of games that test their friendships, and reveal their true colours.
The first game, Kokkuri-san, is a game where the participants place a finger on a coin in the middle of a board. Then, a question is asked, and the participants place their fingers on the coin and push it towards the answer they think is correct. The questions are simple, but as expected, someone sabotages the game. This was by far the most boring and basic premise of the show, and very predictable.
The next game, Bad-Mouth Sugoroku is a game where people bad mouth each other and submit the cards privately. The revelations, such as someone participating in compensated dating, and someone doing plastic surgery, are made to pit them against each other. This game was drawn out pretty long, and felt pretty shallow. It made the group of friends seem like they weren’t very close in the first place, since something pretty trivial, like doing plastic surgery, could cause a rift between the characters. A lot of these revelations create shock value, which in my opinion, is not a very good way to advance the plot.
The third game was a simple hide and seek game, except the hider can’t move, so they can’t get any food. It felt like a battle of wits between the two teams, but in the end, it was a pretty anticlimactic conclusion, with violence just being the answer to everything. Expected a bit more from this.
There are other backstories that I won’t go into here, but even though I have said a few negative things about each game, there are still positives, in that the suspense factor is handled pretty well, even if it relies heavily on shock value. Yuuichi’s struggles are always fun to see, and his ways to get through each game are enjoyable as well.
ART: 6.2/10
The animation is fine, but a bit lacking. The expressions could have been handled even better to evoke that sense of “evil” from Yuuichi, and all the other emotions from the other characters.
MUSIC: 8.9/10
Huge fan of both the opening and ending from this series. Nana Mizuki and Saji do a great job, and I never skipped them. The two themes were definitely a highlight of the show.
CHARACTERS: 11.5/20
The characters were introduced very poorly, and the developments for most of them seem to just be scratching the surface of their characterization and backstories, but I have to say Yuuichi carries the cast, and I’m sure you agree. He has the most distinct personality overall, as he creates most of the shock value. He is a scumbag, but he’s not completely heartless, as we saw in the third game. He does some crazy things, and he’s fun to watch, but it gets a bit repetitive.
The other characters each have their distinct personalities, but they just aren’t the most intriguing to watch. Tenji is arguably the more interesting one out of the remaining four friends, but as I said, we’d need Season 2 to see more of their backstories and developments.
ENJOYMENT: 12.3/15
I did enjoy this series despite its flaws, it’s what I call “popcorn entertainment”, just watching chaos unfold every episode.
THEMATIC EXECUTION: 10/20
This show really struggles at executing the theme of friendship well. If they are such good friends, they shouldn’t be fighting this easily. They know they are being tested in a game, and rifts in friendships is what the management want, so why play into their hands?
The romance theme is just there to be another chaos creator. Of course everyone likes someone in the friend group, it just makes everyone lose their minds, and that is pretty realistic for sure.
The world building, pretty atrocious. Rules need to be explained better, and there can't be that many convolutions that feel shallow.
OVERALL: 66.1/100
A decent show which had good plot twists and a good main character in Yuuichi, but falls short on some story elements that I think could have been paced better to create a better plot. If you are a fan of mind games and plot twists, this is a solid one to watch, and if there is a continuation in the future, I’ll definitely watch it.
PixelB
Yamaguchi, Mikoto, the writer for Tomodachi Game's manga, desperately needs to pick up a book on psychology and how relationships work. Look, I like high stakes gambling anime and manga. Usugoi and Kaiji are great. Yes, they're kind of dumb, but you know, that's just what I enjoy. Yet, I still hate this show. I usually can suspend my belief, even if the gambles are kind of stupid like Kakegurui. Tomodachi Game is just a super cringe show. It's super unrealistic, and unnecessarily edgy. Mikoto Yamaguchi, the writer of the story, has absolutely no idea how human psychology works. I'm not even going to get intothe drama or characters. The mystery is honestly alright, and the drama--while forced--works.
It's just the "backseat gamers." What I really mean, are obviously the cringe observers, Tsukino and Maria, that watch over the game itself. First of all, it breaks all immersion. Did you really need to include these people talking about this group of friends? Really? Oh no, the audience is really so stupid that they can’t make surface level interpretations of the show, so instead, we can see the uneducated opinion of these observers--we all know it’s Yamaguchi projecting. It really breaks any tension at all in the game itself, considering that the anime jarringly pans the attention to these observers that throw out the most edgy and WRONG things about relationships, friendship, and romance, it made me drop the show.
Tsukino makes two statements about friendship in the earlier episodes. The first one being this: “"While there is unconditional love, there's no such thing as unconditional friendship." Who the hell said that? Like who? Nobody. No psychological professional would make that statement. Perhaps Tsukino should read Aristotle’s Nichominean ethics, where Aristotle speaks about friendship. He claimed that friendship can be divided into three types: ones of pleasure, ones of utility, and ones of goodness.While the other two types can be easily broken, Aristotle claims that the ones of goodness are “everlasting.” Perhaps Aristotle’s literature is a bit too old. How about something more contemporary like Robert Selman’s work, where he divides friendship amongst peers into multiple categories, the last one being Autonomous Interdependence. Friendships of this stage can certainly be unconditional. I only speak of a few theories, but I really don’t think any psychologist would utter what Tsukino just did. There’s no basis.
Tsukino also states that “Ultimately, whether or not he can forgive...her...will depend on how aware he is of his own impurity." I like how Tsukino talks with such confidence and gusto, like she has the entire personality profile of Yuichi examined. Even if that were true, she just assumes that the only reason that anyone would care about whether or not a person is a virgin or not is based on their perceived purity and their shallow egos that compare themselves with others to feel self gratification. What a pedantic statement. As if that’s the only reason.
She then states that “Women are sensible creatures… No matter how much they like someone, they can fall out of love in an instant. Especially if they connect with someone else who understands them even better.” First of all, good job generalizing women into a single generic statement, and second of all, even if this were 100% true, LMAO, this is such an incel thing to say. Like haha, how the hell can I even stay serious, when the so-called expert on psychology that is Tsukino is throwing out cringe bombs like that? Also, did you see how hypocritical she sounds? She just stated that there’s unconditional love, and then throws out the same exact opposite statements about how a woman’s love is transient. While not entirely contradicting each other, it really doesn’t seem to be two statements made by the same expert.
Then Tsukino has the audacity to say stuff like “You must have noticed…as long as you’re not some gullible idiot.” Oh yeah, I’m sure Tsukino should be the one labeling other people as stupid. I could go on, but I think you get the idea as to why I think this show is cringe.
Sure, there are other problems, like despite this show being a high stakes gambling, there are really a ton of outs and relatively low stakes and punishment than it should be. The tension is diluted, and drama takes the forefront of a lot of these episodes. Honestly, the show could have gone without the damn game in the first place for how much it emphasizes drama and relationships. I’m certainly not a licensed psychologist, but I’m also not an idiot who can watch this show butcher basic psychological principles.
Flyori
Man, it's kind of incredible just how bad Tomodachi Game is. It's the epitome of self-insert garbage. A lot of people rightfully criticise generic isekai anime for their obnoxiously overpowered heroic protagonists, but I think many people don't recognise that obnoxiously overpowered sociopath protagonists are just as much of a power-fantasy audience insert. There's so much to cover when it comes to the show's faults that it's hard to know where to start. That sociopath protagonist that you follow is Katagiri Yuuichi, and a lot of the show's shit writing can be attributed to the fact that every character is just a side piece inYuuichi's world. Yuuichi is meant to come off as a genius of manipulation, cool and calculating and utterly cruel to those who deserve it. About half of his 'cool' moments and his tricks involve manipulating the people around him to his own benefit, and often to their own self-destruction. Thank god, then, that every character around Yuuichi is defined by one character trait and has no human nuance. This makes it piss easy for Yuuichi, and the audience, to predict exactly what each character will do. The amount of plot contrivances and luck necessary for Yuuichi's 'foolproof' plans to succeed is mind-blowing. It's great, then, that following each terrible plan of his, we get to see him or another character monologue about how fantastic his plan was, and how much of a cruel monster he is! Every game follows this formula: Yuuichi's in a game. He has a surface level plan that the rest of the cast believes to be his true plan, but we obviously know it's not because that's fucking stupid. Oh no! Something went wrong with his original plan! Looks like he's in danger, you can tell this because this is when the respective 'villains' of each game begin to gloat about how smart they are. Surprise! Yuuichi actually accounted for all of this the entire time and wrecks ass.
This highlights one of the most strange choices in the show, which is the inclusion of these three women who work for the Tomodachi Game, and spectate the games from a security room. They serve two purposes, to narrate what we literally just saw with our eyeballs, or to hype up Yuuichi as a cunning genius.
"Ha, there's no way that Yuuichi can get out of this one! He really isn't as scary as you said he was!"
"Oh? Just wait. You'll see just how much of a demon he truly is."
That's approximately how all their conversations go. The show and its whole cast are just there to jack off Yuuichi. This is such a strange choice because it destroys any mysticism or intrigue about the nature of the Tomodachi Game's management. Did they forget that this organisation kidnaps people and enforces massive amounts of debt upon them? You would think that if the whole plot of the show is that Yuuichi is making his way to destroy the Tomodachi Game, you would try to make the people who run it, the villains, more mysterious. Instead, not only do they get more screen-time than three of the primary cast members, they also aren't at all intimidating. They are just as much push-overs as the rest of the cast is in Yuuichi's presence.
The rest of the cast is, of course, one-dimensional and beyond boring. The main group of friends, our protagonists, are all equally hate-able. Tenji is so pathetically deranged and creepy that it's incredible the show thinks that "just because Yuuichi likes them now, the audience should too!" and tries to redeem him. Shibe is presented as a lovable idiot, but he's just an asshole, being rude to Shiho when he finds out she's had plastic surgery and to Kokorogi when he learns she's participated in enjo kousai (going out on dates with older men for money). Kokorogi and Shiho are just their traumas, having so little agency it's hard to even call them characters. About half-way through the show, another group of friends who were put into the Tomodachi Game appear as the 'villains' of that game. These five are the pinnacle of background characters, yet we're meant to be astounded at Yuuichi's ability to determine their friendship dynamics and personalities when the character's are walking tropes. As an example, you can tell which member of the group is the smart one because he wears glasses, and when he figures out the answer to a question that was posed by another member of his team, he says, and I shit you not, "I've solved all the mysteries." I refuse to believe a human being wrote this dialogue. Once again, they're complete pushovers for villains. Yuuichi's plan only works because a new member that gets added to his group, who is actually one of the spectating women in disguise, is a woman, and thus one of the dumbasses from the other group completely loses all ability for rational thought and almost throws the game for his team. This is the "easily manipulated by women" trope character, and it's just as stupid to watch as I made it sound. Side note: in the first place, this game is inherently boring to watch because the only reason the 'villains' of the game are so powerful is not because of their cognitive abilities and strategising, but because they literally just have more members than Yuuichi's group.
There's a couple more points about the flaws of the writing that I couldn't find a good way to link into the rest of the review so here they are. First is that the logistics of the game shouldn't be thought about, like at all, or you'll realise just how breakable these games are. They act like the Tomodachi Game is exempt from the law and that trying to out it would never work and would just put them in more debt, but they do realise that the game is stupid illegal... right? Only the person who signed the rest of the group up to the game consented to being literally kidnapped. The other main flaw is the same one that affects something like Kakegurui, which is that the way the players are punished or rewarded is through the amount of debt they have remaining. Don't get me wrong, the debt they go into aren't trivial numbers to real humans, but at some point they become meaningless because it's in an anime, and it loses all impact when their 5 million yen debt gets increased to 10 million yen. These random numbers don't mean anything.
Lastly the animation, or lack of, is one of the most jarring parts of the production. Not a single frame looks particularly good. The style is stilted and 95% of shots are still frames with the camera panning in a direction. Every internal monologue has no flavour as you see these still pictures talking. Sometimes they don't even animate the lip flaps. This gets especially bad when an intense scene is happening. In the final game we see, Yuuichi gets bloodied and brutalised. Even though fingernails are flying and blood is running from stab wounds, none of it's animated. We just see still frames of vague shots of blood that have colour filters over it. If a character makes an insane, exaggerated reaction face when they are talking about their plans, the animation lets those down sorely. Compared to the wonderfully expressive faces of Tomodachi Game's contemporaries, the expressions here are stilted and boring, and it borders on being cringe-inducing to watch.
Tomodachi Game was deeply entertaining to me, because I have an unhealthy obsession with "survival/betrayal/death game" stories. If you don't, then you should probably stay away from this anime if you enjoy keeping your brain cells.
sliceofpi
I was expecting some amazing mind chess, but a got a sad attempt at that. Yeah, I've watched a lot of psychological anime and I can tell you this one does not compete. Story - 3 The story is a basic high stakes game premise, and is basically like squid game except for it is a group of friends and not a ton of random people. The story has two big problems though. First, the pacing. The first game is over very quickly, while the second game goes on for like 6 episodes. Think about that, that is the length of a movie for just one game,one that is the least interesting out of all of them too. And it isn't like there are stages to the game or something dramatic changes everything about the rules halfway through, no, it's them going across the board of the game incredibly slowly. The second issue is that while the games are mediocre in terms of how interesting they are, the "mind games" that the characters play to outwit each other are really not that well thought out. They are laughable compared to the mind games in anime like Death Note. Even Kakegurui, whose characters too often relied on cheating to win the games, had better mind games than this anime. They are either stupid and easy to think of, or the methods are so far fetched that the player was relying on an insane amount of luck for it to work.
Sound - 5
The opening is eh, I don't like the ending. The general soundtrack isn't special but is not annoying either.
Art - 7
The art is fine. Some scenes are pretty nicely detailed. It isn't my favorite art style for the characters themselves, but there isn't really any problems.
Characters - 2
The characters are the worst part of this anime. None of them really have a personality, they are all just on a different level of ability to read and trick others well. But you don't really know anything about them. This makes the games so much less fun to watch, because you aren't rooting for anyone. You don't care who wins or who loses, who is suddenly the villain and who was lying the whole time. Even though shows with high-stakes game can grab attention pretty quickly, it won't be sustained if the characters are flat.
Enjoyment - 4
The hide and seek game seemed like it could be kind of fun, but overall this anime was not that fun.
Overall - 4
I wouldn't recommend this. If you really need something game related, Kakegurui is a better bet, but for mind games, Death Note 100%.
Uji_Gintoki_Bowl
Tomodachi Game is a psychological thriller anime reminiscent of Squid Game in its set up and presentation. Even the premise of trying to expose/break the game by snooping around the backing organization is shared between the two. What's bizarre is that Tomodachi Game was made first. Crazy, right? Based on the early 2022 release date, I was sure that Tomodachi Game was riding the coattails of Squid Game's success in the previous year, but I was actually mistaken! Tomodachi Game's manga was first released almost a decade before, in 2013. Anyways, that doesn't really have anything to do with the quality of it. Though possibly innovativefor its time as a manga, Tomodachi Game was no more than just good as an anime. Though the thriller element and high level mind games certainly reigned supreme in the show, I couldn't help but be bothered by the convenience of certain events. Obviously, coincidences need to occur for a plot to progress, but there's a fine line between what's believable and what isn't. Unfortunately, Tomodachi Game put forth great concepts and gimmicks at the expense of crossing that line. Of course, there's more to watch for in any anime than the reasonability of its progression (in fact, we don't care about it a lot of the time), so I still recommend Tomodachi Game for anyone seeking a thrilling mystery to indulge in for just a few hours.
marisawithones
The core premise of Tomodachi Game is not awful: five friends find themselves playing a high-stakes game in order to pay off the debt of someone in the group. For a high stakes game anime the premise is pretty basic but could make for some interesting character backstories and theorization about their true intentions. The execution of this premise, however, leaves much to be desired. The editing in the show is filled with over-dramatic cuts and edits to emphasize each character's devious face, conniving personality etc. rather than just letting their actions speak for themselves. This in particular is a major pitfall of the show. Namely,the show spoon-feeds emotions and information to the audience to the point some scenes become redundant. For instance, the show contains administration figures that provide commentary on the game and the players and ultimately serve a dual role by making them a stand in for the audience. In certain contexts that can be a helpful story-telling tool to provide more clarity on situations that are a bit vague or confusing. However, there are instances where they will spend several minutes discussing a unambiguous event that we just witnessed or an event that has already been given sufficient exposition. In cases such as these it just comes off as either 1) padding out the material or 2) the author does not trust the audience to make their own inferences and therefore must spell it out for them.
In another lazy attempt at adapting the manga to an anime format, the show will at times splatter text on-screen that provides details on the game rules or background information on newly introduced characters. In a manga format this type of long-text is fine since the reader can review the information at their own pace. However, in this anime adaptation this text will flash for about one second before transitioning to the next scene, leaving the viewer little to no time to review that information unless they go out of their way to pause the episode. Rather than trying to come up with a creative way to breakdown large swathes of text (ie character exposition, anime-only scenes) the show is lazy and just seems to copy and paste whole manga panels without regard as to whether this works in an anime format. It’s not even like these long batches of text are always needed. For instance, in some of the games Manabu will verbally discuss the rules that were previously quickly flashed on screen. This makes you wonder, if you’re just going to have one of the characters verbally review the rules anyways, what’s the point of adding the large swathes of text? This is one of the many bizarre manga to anime adaptation choices that were made for this show.
*Spoilers ahead*
*tw: sexual assault*
If there are any positives, it was that I was never really bored when watching Tomodachi Game. There’s some intrigue there in terms of the character backstories and their intentions and the origination of the game. In addition, while certainly not intended by the creators of the show, the edgy editing and cuts made for an unintentionally hilarious watch. If it was just these issues then I would recommend the show if you’re in the mood for an ironic watch. However, it is not just bad editing and storytelling that makes this show abysmal but also its mishandling of sexual assault. It is revealed in the show that Kokorogi, due to frequent bullying and subsequently needing to pay people to be friends with her, would date older men in exchange for money. This eventually leads to her having to pose for suggestive photos and almost being sexually assaulted. These types of storylines need to be handled delicately to avoid coming off as exploitative. Unsurprisingly, the show does not handle her character well. Leading up to her attempted assault the camera leers at Kokorogi’s body despite this being a horrific scene. A similar situation happens in the last episode of the series in which a group of guys cut open Kokorogi’s shirt to have her breasts nearly exposed. Her breasts remain exposed for most of this scene with little purpose other than to showcase how devious the villains in the scene are. I will give the show some credit that it doesn’t seem to use this scene for titilation, however, it seems to rely on violating Kokorogi for the sake of shock value. With this in mind, Tomodachi Game is no longer just a ridiculous high stakes gaming anime but one that attempts and fails to responsibly handle sensitive topics.
Entertaining for mostly the wrong reasons, Tomodachi Game leaves little room for any sort of recommendation.
bulkyhog
This is one of the most stacked seasons (imo) ever. It’s genuinely the first time where I can point out SEVERAL shows I can easily rate 9+: Kaguya S3, Koumei, Spy X Fam and Summertime Rendering. Tomodachi Game had the opportunity to be up there, but it fell short in so many ways. After watching the first episode, I thought it’d be some edgy cringe shit so I did a quick scout of the manga to see if it was worth continuing. Lo and behold I end up catching up to the latest chapter overnight. That’s how good the source material is. But the anime? Yikes. Quitefrankly, it’s sad and a disgrace to the two mangaka behind Tomodachi Game (Manga). Everything you could possibly give points for/find good in the anime, is purely from how strong the source material is. If you want a better experience of the greatness that is Tomodachi Game, go read the manga.
So what went wrong with the anime? The main faults are two-fold.
Firstly, the animation sucks. The outlines aren’t very crisp/clean, movement is VERY stiff and janky, and faces are inconsistent as fuck (especially when they do shots where the characters aren’t the primary focus/dead-center). This kills a lot of the hype scenes from the manga since the art just doesn’t do it justice. Speaking of hype scenes, the 3D effects they add (falling feathers, shadowy tendrils, etc.) for Yuuichi’s dark moments just seem so edgy and cringe. Unlike other anime where the blending between 2D and 3D is more homogenous, these scenes in Tomodachi have a stark contrast which just makes the crappy animation stand out even more.
The second detractor is the pacing/storyboarding. God it’s awful. From skipping a lot of content which can make it easier for the viewer to follow (in an already dialogue/reading heavy series mind you) to horribly sequenced episodes for the sake of creating a “tense cliffhanger,” Tomodachi’s direction is subpar at best.
When I first heard about Tomodachi and saw the trailer, I was expecting a trainwreck shitty series because it would just be outright bad. Instead, I’m even more disappointed than I imagined because it’s a trainwreck shitty series DESPITE having so much potential and an amazing source material to boot. Pain peko.
ToumaDragons
A show that completely deviated from what was supposed to be a psychological drama, and turned into.....I don't know what. If there is anything that I like about this show, it is the fact that it doesn't even try to take itself seriously. The character introduction was enough to show that. Each character had a wall of text right next to them, with some vague descriptions about their hobbies and personalities. The author has already made it clear that he doesn't care about these guys. What matters is the premise of the show right? The thing is, this show has no premise. The show clearly isnot about how money can ruin friendships, and all it takes to know that is to watch the first few episodes. We have a psychopath of a main character, who apparently has killed people in the past. We have a girl who's been bullied to the point of trauma and needed money to stop her bullies. We have a guy who's actually taking part in these games for the second time in order to avenge his father, and holds a grudge against one of the girls in the group. Most of the main characters do not act or behave like normal people, and their friendship is questionable at best. The trauma girl tells Yukichi that he's the one she considers close to him ( not the other three). Tenji claims that he holds a grudge against the other girl for ruining his friendship with his old friends. What premise would you expect when these guys are not even close friends, or have their own reasons for acting the way they do? Not to mention how the games themselves are constructed specifically to make our main characters argue and fight with each other. Literally one of the games consists of writing nasty stuff about your friends. They're not even trying to be subtle about it. It was done in Kaiji, but in a much better way because the end result was what made Kaiji's "friends" betray him, not the actual rock-paper-scissors game.
I've been cackling during the first 6 episodes due to the random unexpected twists, as well as the incredibly weird dialogue. Shibe literally tells one of the girls something like " you sure seem innocent for a virgin", right after it was revealed that she used to date men for money. And we're still meant to believe that these guys are close friends? What even was the point of that statement by the way.. is it implying that a virgin is innocent while someone who's not considered a virgin is..Nah must be just me. They certainly didn't think too much about it. Well no, because after a few more episodes we've got another quote along these lines " Women are capable of putting on an act to get what they want". And it's funny because later on our male main character starts shouting and screaming, acting as if he lost the game while he actually predicted it and was just...putting on an act to get what he wanted. Not only the author seems to have something against women, he goes on to contradict his statement by giving what he considers "exclusive female traits" to male characters. But he has no other choice, because acting to get what you want is not a gender exclusive trait in the first place. The most annyoing character in the series for me ( aside from angry basketball guy ), is one of the women who does the social commentary. She literally says the most general shit that you've probably heard more times than you can count before watching this show, and always begins with "Humans are prone to...". You get the idea, she's not a human, she's an observer of human nature.
I kinda wanted to give it a 4* rating, due to how it made me laugh during the most inappropriate moments that I was supposed to take seriously, however once the forest hide and seek begins, it stops being funny and it gets extremely boring, not worthy of anyone's time. I kinda feel bad shitting on this show due to the unbelievably pathetic writing, but the incel comments make me lose all of that guilt.
RebelPanda
A remarkable display of incompetence in animation and writing—Tomodachi Game is a pathetic example of everything wrong with psychological anime today. The first sign that something is horribly wrong is the introduction of the main characters. Each one has a freeze-frame to display their name at the start. When you think the writing couldn't get any lazier, they add a synopsis of their personality, weaknesses, and relationships. I wouldn't be watching the show if I wanted to read a wiki page. The main cast is a group of five archetypal high school friends; three angsty guys and two girls defined by trauma. The girls are utilized for(often deplorable) fan service and to motivate the men. Kicking off the anime is a theft—their class savings for a field trip have disappeared! Soon after, the five friends are suddenly kidnapped! Upon waking up in a strange place, a creepy robot mascot introduces himself as Manban and enthusiastically tells them they're in the "Tomodachi Game." He elaborates they will have to play a series of kids' games to pay off a costly debt given to them by a traitor in their group. It should take 5 seconds to realize these games are engineered to tear friendships apart. But it takes hours for them to realize this because the dialogue is primarily spent on dumping a metric ton of exposition: Explaining each game's rules, getting taunted by the obnoxious mascot, and monologuing their strategies. The script consists only of a tedious back and forth between unbearable characters.
Though the show would like you to believe the protagonist, Yuuichi, is a cold and calculated genius with a method to his madness, he often comes off as an unhinged idiot pretending to be smarter than he is. Plot contrivances and loopholes are the only reason he gets away with his half-baked strategies. Yuuichi is engineered for the viewer to live vicariously through him; his sociopathic behavior has minimal repercussions. It simplifies complex social dilemmas and hardly invites any moral discussion. At the drop of a hat, he flip-flops between earnest and psychopathic—why these kids were friends is the real mystery. Tomodachi Game is only a "mystery" in the sense that the author works backward in many parts to explain the absurd plot twists, not through craft or tension. After trying to dazzle us with an unexpected twist, Yuuichi rewinds his intellectual strategy to explain everything. One of Tomodachi Game's favorite gimmicks is starting from the end of the episode; they bait you with the result and then tediously detail the play-by-play. Unless you're invested in seeing a pretentious kid outsmart a pack of stereotypical teenagers, you'd be better off doing something more enjoyable, like watching paint dry or eating a bowl of nails.
Occasionally the show pauses to crosscut between the game itself and a group of unknown women in a security room. The women watch the game while obnoxiously narrating what we can see with our own two eyes. Manban runs the game himself, so the security room serves no functional purpose. They only exist to spoon-feed plot twists and explain character dynamics like we're brainless zombies who consume every shitty anime without caring about quality. Speaking of quality, the visuals look like an amateur studio's first anime made on a shoestring budget. Due to rushed artwork, the freakish facial expressions during intense scenes look like a cheap imitation of Kakegurui and Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji. Meanwhile, Manban looks like the artists took him out of a Playstation 2 game because of his ridiculous CGI model.
The soundtrack is almost as remarkable as the art, not for making the story better, but because it creates as much tension as elevator music. It's incredible how generic and repetitive it is. I'm in awe of how little effort went into sound editing because every scene must fight through the awful music to reach the audience. The profoundly confusing music choices make the mishmashed tone even more confused. I couldn't blame the composer if they were purposefully sabotaging the intellectually bankrupt story.
All bark and no bite summarizes Manban, who simultaneously manages to be a threatening and toothless antagonist. Repeatedly, he reminds the students about the unfathomable amount of money at stake because it is such a lame consequence. How will the debt be granted to them upon completing the game? How will they be forced to repay the debt? Any explanations they do give are vague at best. There's little reason to care without solid consequences established right off the bat, aside from PG-13 violence. Manban's anti-violence rule prevents blood or gore for most of the runtime, which would serve a psychological thriller like this quite well. Except, the mechanics of each game don't create stakes. Instead, they focus more on petty drama in the group and the monetary repercussions of losing. If psychological warfare is what you're looking for, you're shit out of luck because these mind games wouldn't even outsmart a kid. Though Death Note may have inspired it with all of the mind games, it lands closer to its inbred cousin Platinum End. The thrill comes from wondering what will happen next, even though technically—for most of the anime's runtime—absolutely nothing is happening.
Concepts are presented, but it's unclear how they affect the story. There's no explanation for what should be explained, like how the game is being live-streamed and why viewers' reactions affect the game results. The issue with a writer throwing random shit at the wall to see what sticks is obvious: nearly every anime needs internal logic–a sense of the anime's rules and a feeling of sturdy foundation. Without internal logic, everything is just pointless.
Later into the show, an entirely new crew of even less interesting high school students enters the limelight. Yet again, name tags and personality descriptions introduce them: a shining example of the laziest character writing that anime offers. Why should we care about these people? Who knows! Why are new characters getting added when the original ones are as flat as pancakes? By the time the last game finishes, it's hard to care.
Initially, it appears as if Tomodachi Game is just another pretentious psychological anime about a lone genius trapped in a world of morons where everyone misunderstands him. Then, it rapidly spirals into a pit of idiotic narrative turns, astoundingly lazy character development, and stuffed with so many plot contrivances it's almost funny. The result is a confused, awkward, tedious state in limbo. Is Tomodachi Game good? No, it certainly is not. It wanted to be a thriller, but it unintentionally became a comedy, but it wasn't funny even enough to be worth watching ironically.
Luarth
Tomodachi game, really reminds a lot of r6 with story based games. To be honest, when I started watching it, I didn't have high expectations, but I was soon surprised by the characters' extremely captivating personality. The mystery that surrounds each of them makes you want to know more and more who the culprit is, the direction helps a lot in this aspect with great clear ranges that make you always come back next week to watch a new ep Really an anime with a very different proposal from the vast majority of current anime. I just wanted to thank everyone at the studio for making allYuuichi's poker faces better and better, they really were all divine
The op and ed were wonderful also giving a very mysterious air to all the characters making you not know who is the traitor among them.
The unfolding of the story is very satisfying because we don't have any kind of winding and everything is very dynamic
The games played are all interesting in their own way, even a silly game like rock paper scissors is extremely interesting to watch thanks to the direction that made every ep extremely captivating
Katagiri Yuuichi has a crazy and insane personality is the type of protagonist who is very endearing and makes you like him a lot for not getting caught up in dumb and idiotic questions
His cold, psychopathic, analytical manner is totally captivating to my eyes.
Although the other characters are also very interesting, it's kind of sad to see that none of them have the slightest chance against the protagonist, this makes it all too easy, like it or not, because we always know he's going to win in the end, but even so, the story does. so that these small script convenience problems don't get in the way of the script so much because even so, the characters manage to hurt him making his victories come at a high price
In another very creative and different work, it was a lot of fun to follow this far
c---5
I went in expecting something that would ride the Squid Game hype, but Tomodachi Game definitely takes a different turn, being far less about violence and more about psychology and strategy and the result is one of the most intensely compelling scripts I've seen in an anime. As you'd expect, the series is about a group of people playing children's games for decidedly morbid reasons, it's been done plenty of times, your Saw movies, your Squid Games, etc, but where Tomodachi Game really succeeds is how far it goes into the thought process of making each choice. I'm admittedly the kind of guy who talksthrough my though process when playing board games and if you're that kind of person you'll love watching the main character. The show is basically a crash course on Game Theory and Prisoner's dilemmas, and best of all it plays fair. This is the kind of show where if you rewind and watch again after a particular detail is revealed, they totally set it up beforehand and the planning and payoff is just so much fun and so satisfying to watch unfold.
The show's pacing is a bit of a blessing and a curse. On one hand, taking each of the game scenarios somewhat slowly gives you that juicy decision-making and strategizing that I crave so much and watching the protagonist DESTROY his enemies with FACTS and LOGIC is the appeal of the show, yet each game is so compelling I found myself wanting more of them. I imagine the effort it takes to plot out even a single game's worth of story must have been exhausting, but it does sometimes hurt that there are only three different games across the different episodes because I just love each one so much. The second game might drag a bit too much for some people's taste, the "analysis paralysis" phenomenon board gamers watching the show are probably familiar with certainly takes hold, but every strategy they agonized over was deeply compelling to me.. Really though the best shows leave you wanting more, and I want more of everything Tomodachi Game has to offer. More of the games, more of the logic, more of the mysteries, it's all just so good!
The visuals are fine, though probably the true week link. It doesn't look bad and there's a lot of fun stylization whenever the characters get really intense, but aside from the surprisingly good CGI integration of the mascot character nothing really stuck out as truly great visually, and occasionally the characters looked a bit off model, this really is a script driven work. I watched the dub and the cast did really well and all fit their characters.
I really hope there's a season 2, but even if there is I don't think I can restrain myself, I think I need to hunt down the manga ASAP.
Sir_Wrath
Who is this anime for? If you want to use 100% of your brain while having a great time, then this anime is for you. If you want to sit back and watch aesthetic fight scenes this anime is not for you. Why are the haters wrong? Many people are shitting on this anime, but it is absolute fire! The majority of the poor reviews said that for a friendship anime Tomodachi Game didn't let the audience invest in the friend group before the game started. Their mistake was assuming this was a friendship anime first and foremost, it's actually an omega big brain animemeant to challenge the intelligent. Its curt start is actually a genius move that puts us in the same position as the Admin, and the audience who votes and observes the game. Secondly, this came before Squid Game and it is better. The animation is good when it needs to be, the character designs are not anything unique or special but nothing ever looks so bad or weird that it keeps you from concentrating.
Why is it Good?
Since you come into the game blind, you get to try to play sherlock holmes and figure out who the traitor is, but there are so many plot twists that you find yourself in the palm of the author's hands(Because it is written very well). By the end of the second game, you feel like you have a strong grasp on the situation and you feel like you are experiencing the story through the main character. And when you finally identify the traitor, you are questioning if the only person who you thought was your comrade was actually a demon and if the traitor is the only person you can actually trust.
The Characters:
One of the Female characters really pisses me off, I cannot stand her, but that doesn't make the anime bad it just means that she is well written. The cast besides the Rich guy are all complex characters with some good writing behind them. The Rich guy is not very well explored but he just seems like a pussy. But a certain character starving to death in a cave for half the anime was funny as hell!
Is it perfect?
No, this anime has its faults, but it is a solid 8 or 9/10. Anyone who is giving it anything less than a 7/10 is angry and trying to grief the rating system.
0004-1
I do not want to write a review on this as i have basically no opinion about this. This show was good at the start and once the twists happened i just got taken out of it. Too much happened than it all just fell flat at one time. The characters arent enjoyable enough to keep me entertained and the CGI creepy fuck looks genuinely terrible. i should probably rate this lower but the first 6 or so episodes were pretty solid and held up the show. 4.5/10 wouldn't really recommend this but if you want to watch it, watch it but dont expect too much.
Zawsze24
Upon completing the series, I have a really strong urge to read the manga. This anime gets me excited every time there is a new ep, its been a while since an anime have done it. Other series are just okay, not that bad but its plain and somehow boring. Tomodachi game is one of those crazy anime that gets you fired up thinking what is about to happen. It has unique and realistic plot about friendship and money whereas it gives you an idea on how to be strong as well on some dangerous situations. Will I recommend it? Definitely. Anime is good butthe manga is way better. That might explain why some people are disappointed on the anime. Nevertheless try it out and I am telling you that the first ep is not what you think it is because it will be revealed soon enough. The author has enough brain power to compete against death note plot.. The first conflict will end right away but the upcoming events are the real deal.
AnimeEnjoyer420
Recommendation: Absolutely terrible. Mildly entertaining if you like to laugh at really bad anime, but you're really better off skipping it. Tomodachi Game is a stupid person's idea of clever writing. You are very clearly supposed to be impressed by the intricate mysteries and Yuichi's 12 dimensional chess cosmic brain plans, but it's so incompetently executed that it simply comes off as laughable instead. Mysteries are either insultingly obvious (if you somehow haven't figured out who the traitor in the group is immediately, they helpfully tell you straight up who it is through narration in the 3rd episode) or are technically solvable but require leapsin logic that no one would ever make unless they already knew the details of the plan. One example, which I'll keep vague to not spoil, is how the group's nametags become significant at one point, their presence or absence marking whether someone is allied with Yuichi, the protagonist. It is in fact possible to notice that some characters are missing their nametags in earlier scenes, but no reasonable person would ever connect that to what it ultimately means. This extends to Yuichi as well, whose plans are so ridiculous and all-encompassing that they make Lelouch look like an amateur. Everything is always exactly according to his plan all along, even when it looks like he's in a bad spot.
Not so helpfully, we have the Tomodachi Game management to serve as perpetually impressed audience surrogates to make sure everyone knows what an edgy badass supergenius this kid is. Every episode has at least 2-3 instances of one of them shouting that he's a genius or a devil or a monster or some combination of the three when he unveils whatever his wacky rube goldberg machine plan to outsmart everyone all along was. In between all of this, we also get treated to some of the worst armchair sociology for brainlets that you'll ever hear from Tomodachi Game management. The whole series feels like it was written to impress a 13 year old that calls himself a nihilist because he watched a bunch of youtube videos. It gets deeply cringeworthy at points, as they try desperately to impress upon the viewer that Yuichi is a terrifying dark sociopath genius. There are constant hints of him having twisted, edgy secrets like being a murderer, but none of that ever gets revealed.
Which brings me to the next major problem with this show, the completely idiotic pacing. If you're hoping for answers to literally any of the deeper questions or mysteries that are introduced here (who exactly is running the Tomodachi Game and why, what happened in Yuichi's past, what Shiho's connection to the Tomodachi Game is, etc.), you aren't going to get any of that, because the series literally ends in the middle of one of the games, with no resolution to anything. It's almost like this was supposed to be a 24 episode series and they just didn't make episodes 13-24, because it makes zero sense to end it the way they did otherwise. Most of the second half of the series doesn't even involve the majority of the main cast, as it's tied up in a long and punishingly boring digression into a game of hide and seek that Yuichi and Tenji play alone against a different friend group that's never been seen before. Aside from flashbacks, the other 3 are barely seen again in the series except in flashbacks until Yutori is involved in the last episode of the season.
I could go on about the hundreds of other problems this series has, like the tasteless way it exploits its female characters' sexuality or how it brazenly cuts corners with terrible CGI for scenes and characters that would be hand drawn in most anime. That's really just piling on though, something I don't mind doing too much because this show's stupidity frequently made me angry or frustrated, but it's not really necessary to say more at this point. This show is godawful dreck and I will be happy to never think about it again except to consider it as part of my shortlist when someone asks me what the worst anime I've ever watched is.
oreki-lover
Story: 8.4/10 The plot is something different from the high stakes anime that I have seen and is one of the best originals that I have seen . It starts at very low descending kind of story of some friends in school and Money is collected for the field trip of their grade . Someone steals that money and applies for this TOMODACHI GAME . But as it reaches it's halfway the terror of the main character KATAGIRI YUICHI starts the main plot of the story of the game they will be playing in the upcoming episodes. "I am not spoiling it just incase ."
Art: 8.6/10
The theme of this story is very wickedly terrifying and due to it's shady nature the art really makes me to Thank the animator . It's art has that fellow kind of texture that is needed to be in a suspense and almost reminds me of death note at some moments though it's story and art in a league of it's own .
Characters: 8.2/10
It's my favourite part about this whole anime that makes me wonder how even the authors are able to think that kind of cruelty and resonance effect in these lifeless 2D people . Author has genuinely put his mind to build the characters and is worth seeing.
Sound : 7.9/10
The OP is perfectly in synchronisation with the kind of anime it is. The background music really gets you into the mood of it's atmosphere f the truths and lies that are engraved into this masterpiece . The background sounds are almost perfect with story it gives me creeps .ED could have been a little better.
Overall: 8.3/10
This is another piece of art that wakes my eagers of the story that will be introduced in the next seasons . The sound , art , characters and story are in better line up than i thought .
Eagerly waiting for the upcoming season .
You will enjoy this . :)
