The following contains spoilers for Episode 1 & 2 of Tomodachi Game, “Huh? Yuichi-kun Suspects His Friends?" and "You Have a Lot to Say to Me, Don't You?,” now streaming on Crunchyroll.
Tomodachi Game is a newly anticipated anime adaptation of Mikoto Yamaguchi and Yuuki Satou's original manga. Published in 2013, Tomodachi Game is a psychological thriller, much like Yamaguchi's manga, Dead Tube, which was released a year following Tomodachi Game manga.
Tomodachi Game's adaptation premiered on April 6, 2022, and has thus far released its first two suspenseful episodes. The series is relatively fast-paced and instantly throws the viewers into a stream of mind games. Tomodachi Game opens with an introduction of the main character.
Episode 1: "Huh? Yuichi-kun Suspects His Friends?"
Tomodachi Game follows the story of Katagiri Yuichi, a second-year high-school student whose family is distinctly recognized as financially unstable. Despite this, he is depicted as a relatively bright and easygoing young man who is especially loyal to his small group of friends. This is why Yuichi takes a delivery job to save up ¥70,000 to join them on next month's school trip. The series officially introduces Yuichi's group of friends early on: Makoto Shibe, the class president whose family is quite wealthy; Shiho Sawaragi, the vice class president, who is known to be dependable and meticulous; Tenji Mikasa, who is exceptionally intelligent; and Yutori Kokorogi, a sweet girl who has been the victim of bullying in the past.
Following this introduction, Sawaragi and Shibe announce to the class that the money (a sum of 2 million yen) has gone missing and promptly apologize, seeing as they are the ones who have been responsible for collecting the funds for the school trip. Both friends claim they don't know how it disappeared or who stole it, but they take the blame, anyway, seeing as it was their responsibility to keep it safe. They plead to the class for the thief to come forward, but no one ever does. A couple of days pass before Yuichi receives a letter apparently from Sawaragi, instructing him to meet her at the school gate that night at 11:00 pm. Concerned, Yuichi rushes to meet her, but instead of finding her alone, he discovers his whole friend group at the meetup site after they also received a letter. After it is revealed that she, in fact, did not send him the letter, the group is tasered and kidnapped. When they wake up, they find themselves in a white room.
Suddenly, a figure makes an appearance, which the series introduces as Manabu-kun, a character from a dark anime where his role is to steal from children. Manabu explains to Yuichi and his friends that someone from the group accumulated a debt of 20 million yen and that the only way to deal with this debt is to play a series of games together. The group is reluctant until Manabu informs them that if they don't participate in this game, each group member will have a debt of 20 million yen to repay. This is when it is revealed to the group that one of their friends betrayed them by stealing the 2 million yen from the school trip fund for the game's entry fee, and has also accumulated this debt. However, the culprit remains a mystery, and it is up to Yuichi to determine which one of his friends is the traitor.
The first game is called Kokkuri-san. The participants must place a finger on the large coin in the middle of the 'board' and push the coin towards the answer they think is correct. If everyone gets the answer right, they move on. However, if only one person opposes, the board will select the minority. Whoever successfully clears the game erases their debt. The first three participants play their turns. Although they ask particularly easy questions, it seems that someone is sabotaging the rest by choosing the minority answer because it ends up being incorrect.
However, when Yuichi's turn arrives, he makes several shocking discoveries. Firstly, the questions on the cards do not exist. Rather, the participants must come up with their own questions to ask the other participants. Secondly, a note at the bottom of the card informs the participant that if the coin moves to 'yes,' then the game is cleared. But if it moves to 'no,' the participant’s debt (in this case, Yuichi) will be cut in half. This implies that Yuichi's friends all lied for their own selfish gain, much to Yuichi's dismay. His final realization is that his friends planned to push their debt onto Kokorogi, whose turn places last. In an attempt to help her, Yuichi breaks a rule by shouting out of turn, leaving the viewers in suspense as the first episode ends.
Episode 2: "You Have a Lot to Say to Me, Don't You?"
The second episode picks up right where the first left off. Following the previous episode's events, Yuichi's behavior accumulates him double his debt, but he accepts this for the sake of his friend.
The next game is called 'Bad-Mouth Sugoroku' and centers on bad-mouthing each other. Participants are required to bad-mouth someone on a card (or leave it blank) and submit it privately. The group initially agrees to keep the cards blank to preserve their loyalty to one another, and it is briefly successful. However, this is disregarded when people begin submitting written cards, revealing secrets to the group. These revelations create conflict between the friends as their loyalty is further challenged. Episode 2 ends on a cliffhanger.
The anime predominantly centers on challenging the loyalty of a close group of friends while simultaneously engaging the audience through lies and mysteries. As the show progresses, it uncovers the friend group's secrets and history to pit them against one another. Yuichi makes it quite clear that he would do anything for his friends. However, if there is anything to take away from the first two episodes of this anime, it's that everyone is a suspect.
Tomodachi Game Episodes 1 and 2 are available to stream on Crunchyroll.