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.