Great psychological anime with an intriguing and addicting story. (Contains mild spoilers)
Tomodachi Game or Friends’ Game is a psychological anime with mind games about revealing each other's past and accepting them. Nowadays, many don’t know each other’s past, and that’s what the author wanted to explore, having the characters reveal their past to their friends. Though heavily over-exaggerated for ‌the story, but makes for a thrilling anime with flashbacks now and then, putting a bigger puzzle together.

The premise of Tomodachi Game is that the class has saved up two million yen for a school trip, but someone has apparently stolen them. To everyone’s surprise, later we discover that someone from the MC’s friend group has stolen them and used them to enter Tomodachi game, and here is where the plot begins. One of the first quotes we hear after they have entered is, “Always trust your friends.” The premise of the story, along with exposing each other's past, having to choose between money or friends, or accepting each other's past. The group is initially introduced as a solid group and has a good bond, but that’s put to the test through the Tomodachi game with various twists. Will they accept the others’ past, what they’ve done previously in their life before entering high school?

One of the bigger conflicts throughout the series is the inner-personality of Yuuichi. His dual personality creates an interesting dilemma. They set it up in the first episode, where he is seen carrying about his friends while having a different side that cares about money. On one hand, he’s told money is the most important thing, whilst on another side, he’s told friends are the most important thing, and it correlates to a major theme of the series, friends or money.

A common misconception surrounding Tomodachi Game is that it is a death game. It isn’t. It’s a game about testing the bonds of friendships and trusting each other through psychological mind games.

The story is well-written and makes for an intriguing ride, filled with lots of cliff-hangers, and plot twists. It goes in directions that animes typically refrain from and takes a lot of risks, resulting in a refreshing storyline and plot twists compared to other psychology animes. It might not suit some's taste as it can go over the edge, and definitely is edgier compared to most series.

The games are well-thought-out and are what makes the theme of trusting each other and revealing their pasts. Definitely over-exaggerated, but makes the themes that are present relevant. The theme wouldn’t apply to the story if the pasts’ were typical and realistic. The games are fast-paced. The story develops quickly, alongside the characters. It makes for an intriguing story, with cliffhangers, battles of wits, and a great cast.

The fast-paced games definitely make for plot holes. That at first glance might not be relatively obvious, but at a deeper look, you will realize them. To me, plot holes don’t make the story bad, nor does it make it great. Let me give you an example. Code Geass: the plot twists are filled with tons of plot holes, but that matters little as they’re well-executed. Tomodachi Game executes it in the same way, the game might have plot holes here and there because of the fast pace, but they matter very little to the enjoyment.

Characters

At a first glance, they seem generic. Shibe is a typical rich kid, Sawaragi is the typical good girl, Kokorogi is the typical shy girl, and Tenji is the typical smart guy. Not to forget Yuuichi, who’s the typical main character with money issues, but through the games, we learn that they’re not “flat”. Everybody has a story with a past. Through fast-paced games, constantly filled with action, the characters are fleshed out and made complex.

Yuuichi, probably being one of the best characters. His dual-personality caused by being told money and friends are the most important things in the world creates an interesting conflict for him. At times, he will say friends are the most important thing in the world, whilst other times, he will cut their bonds. He is contradictory, with the best moments of course being whenever he executes his schemes, which often highlight his dual-personality. He’s unpredictable, and it makes the mind games great.

Animation
The animation is sort of miss and hit. It is great, and matches its atmosphere with the battles of wits, while at other times it downright does not. The character designs are generic and I know ‌the characters are introduced as generic before later developing them, but it still misses occasionally. Often there are high stakes present, and the art style, etc does change for the better at these moments, but sometimes even for the high stakes being present, it keeps the generic animation and art style.

Some ‌episodes are well-put-together and have taken the right direction with how the animation feels compared to the mind-games, while other episodes either have generic action animation, and it affects the enjoyment for me, at least.

Sound
The opening is IMO one of the best amongst this year so far. The soundtracks/themes, while not memorable, are solid and add value to the games. It was missing a bit in the earlier phase but began using music more, later on, adding a lot of value to the tense atmosphere.

Enjoyment
I enjoyed Tomodachi Game, even for the sometimes generic animation. Overall, it was a great ride and is the beginning of a much longer story that I hope we will see, eventually. I’ll give Tomodachi Game a score of 85/100, as it was really enjoyable with a great intriguing story.