Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
sutaagaaru
I’ve just finished watching this series, and I decided to take a quick look at the reviews to see if there was a general enjoyment of the show. I was actually quite surprised to find that there are a multitude of reviews expressing their EXTREME dislike for this anime.
Of course, opinions are just that: opinions. And I don’t think there is a series, anime or otherwise, that is liked by absolutely everybody. But a lot of the criticisms of this particular one, I just can’t understand.
First of all, I’ll share my views on Tomodachi Game. As an avid enjoyer of thriller-type drama anime, I was quite pleased with its plot. I am a huge Classroom Of The Elite fan, and this was recommended to me because of that. I had no expectations to enjoy this more than CoTE because I truly believe that anime…
Read at the sourceDark_Yagami
A fun series of social strategy games, that’s unnecessarily cringe for the edgelord protagonist and unreliable character motivations of everyone around him.
The character motivations of everyone who is not the protagonist, are whatever is required to juke the audience and move the plot along. Sometimes that includes 180 degree turns of character personalities. This betrays the sense that these are real people and friends of the protagonist, which ultimately undermines the tension of their precarious situations, because who cares about characters that don’t seem human, right? Lots of time spent on characters marveling at what a genius the protagonist is and how much that turns them on sexually.
The animation is sub-par.
That being said, the games themselves are creative (when they aren’…
Read at the sourcesliceofpi
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 is…
Read at the sourceRebelPanda
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, th…
Read at the sourceAeroGunz
This anime treats You like an idiot.
To be honest, it has no choice, the plot is written in a way that there is no way You can deduce things on Your own so it retroactively changes the scenes You already saw. It does it in a half assed way at that. Most twists are basic that they only work because of plot armor and the fact that all the characters are kind of... idiots. Well... maybe not idiots, but they are so basic and flat that You really can't treat them seriously.
The psychology that is on display in the show is lackluster at best. It's basic and misunderstood. I don't expect the writers to be psychologists or therapists, but at least read a book by Strelau, Aronson or Ekman. It would make the show much, much better and less brain-dead.
The worst offender in treating the viewer as…
Read at the sourceUji_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 innovative for 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 supre…
Read at the sourceToumaDragons
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 is not 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…
Read at the sourceAnimeEnjoyer420
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 leaps in 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, i…
Read at the sourcemarisawithones
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 f…
Read at the sourceFlyori
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 in Yuuichi'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'…
Read at the sourceZawsze24
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 but the 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 bra…
Read at the sourcebulkyhog
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.
Quite frankly, 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 o…
Read at the sourceLuarth
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 all Yuuichi'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…
Read at the sourcemistersunday
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 in this 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 f…
Read at the sourceoreki-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 in case ."
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…
Read at the sourceMapachecool999
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 when the 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 on…
Read at the sourceMarinate1016
Tomodachi game is exactly what we need more of in this medium. Cold, calculating and ruthless protagonists who have no regard for anyone besides their own goals and interests.
Initially billed as “squid game:the anime”, this doesn’t do Tomodachi game any justice at all. It’s miles clear of Squid Game in terms of writing and stakes in my opinion. While the show takes a couple episodes to get going, once it does it’s some of the most fun I’ve had watching anime in a long time. I absolutely abhor generic anime protagonists who just want to save the day, do the right thing, make everyone happy, etc. What I most enjoy are MC’s who are methodical and out to please no one but themselves, that’s exactly what Yuichi is and he quickly became a top 5 MC all time for me.
In addition to a badass MC…
Read at the sourceMcsuper
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 cr…
Read at the sourcePixelB
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 into the 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 observer…
Read at the sourcedragonclaws
*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 every scene which just flickered before your dry, reddish eyes. And who is God Yuichi, you ask? Well, strap in motherfuckers, because every…
Read at the source